Sep 20, 2007 1
Spinning Rage
A new epidemic is sweeping American Gyms. Gym rage is being blamed for a variety of “donnybrooks” lately. One in NYC was after a spinning class when the assailant accused the victim of grunting too loudly.
Stuart Sugarman, 48, says that he spent two weeks in the hospital with a damaged spinal cord after Christopher Carter, 44, became so enraged by Sugarman’s “whooping” that he threw him from his exercise bike.
“[Carter] didn’t like the volume at which my client was cheering and getting amped up,” Sugarman’s lawyer Samuel Davis told ABCNEWS.com. “After making some rude expletive-laced comments that my client desist from cheering … he got off his bike and into a linebacker’s position. Then he charged across the room, lifting my client off his bike and smashing his head and neck against a Sheetrock wall.”
Now, was that the assailants (Carter’s) first spin class? The whole point is that the instructor gets the spinners to yell and screen and clap and what not. This is not the best environment to be in if you are already on the verge of violence. A spinning class can easily set someone off if not in the right frame of mind.