As an avid gym go-er, I like to track progress. Some websites or phone applications allow you to manually enter information–like miles, resistance, calories burned, etc.– which is then logged and added to a calendar. A couple great apps that do this are iFitness and Loseit! for the iPhone (I know, I’m bias).

I have to admit, though, I haven’t taken full advantage of this feature. Why? Because I either forget what my stats were for that day, or I don’t want to spend time entering it at the gym (besides, it’s a little embarrassing.)

But, last week, I was inspired. Enter: the iPhone camera tip. Most exercise machines offer a “Workout Summary” at the end of your exercise. So Instead of scrambling to write the stats down, I grabbed my phone and snapped a photo. Later, at home, I manually entered the information into iFitness– voila!

Here's a quick photo I snapped after my treadmill workout.

Was it a little awkward? Yes. Did anyone notice? No. It’s perfectly acceptable.

I should note that there are, however, times when cameras at the gym are complete unacceptable and inappropriate.

In hopes of squeezing a workout into my hectic day, I went to the gym last night around 9:00PM. Although many would advise against going to the gym so late (for safety reasons), my gym s still pretty crowded during late hours.

As I was doing my strength circuit in the group exercise room, I noticed two men sitting against the wall with a camcorder–not a camera phone, not a little camera, a camcorder– filming me working out. I was shocked, disgusted, violated, and angry. I quickly got up and approached the men, stating that what they were doing was completely illegal and requested they put their camera away immediately. After some resistance, they did. But, they didn’t leave. They remained seated against the wall, pretending to stretch for another 30 minutes.

On my way out, I went to the front desk, where the representative took my name and contact information. Because she was the only employee at the gym, she couldn’t leave her spot to approach the men. Nonetheless, I’m happy to report that I spoke to the manager today, who will be reviewing security tapes in search of their identity. Their membership will be revoked.

After a quick Google search, I found (illegally obtained) YouTube videos of women working out, some with millions of hits. Is this what those men intended to do? Publish the video to the public? Or was is some childish behavior? I don’t know, but there’s no way to prevent such illegal behavior. Gyms can’t search through members’ bags, nor can they monitor everyone’s activity. It’s each member’s responsibility to look out for themselves.