Long-term monitoring of fitness activity in a commercial gym

Abstract

Noise and vibration from activity in fitness facilities is a common source of complaints in residential, commercial, and mixed use buildings. Most studies have focused on developing and measuring mitigation of the vibration from the activity. However, there is limited information on the characteristics of fitness activity and its effect on acceptability. It is assumed that the complaints will increase with the frequency of occurrence of the events, but there is little information on the temporal distribution of typical fitness activity. There is therefore a need for long term measurements of a large number of fitness facilities, comparable to noise data that have been collected around sources such as roadways and airports. Here, we begin to address this need and report results of long-term vibration monitoring of a commercial fitness facility.

Insights into noise and vibration stemming from the gym’s heavy lifting

“…Noise and vibration (N/V) induced by the behaviors in a fitness center is a major problem leading to complaints in commercial, mixed-use, and residential buildings [1]. More importantly, exposure to a high level of noise can be harmful to people's hearing [2].…”