The recent promotion with New York Sports Clubs and McDonald's seems to have worked: over the last few weeks, there has been a noticeable increase in the number of people at the gym who have no idea what they are doing.

I'm not talking about being an expert on using every last barbell and cardio machine. I'm talking about basic protocol. One person insisted on yapping on her cell phone throughout a half-hour cardio workout. Another person removed a weight I was using for the second leg of a superset before asking if he could work in. (My answer was "no" because I was doing consecutive sets, in a more-stern-than-usual tone of voice.) And what's with the people who take up a cardio machine to read books in 5-point font?

The great thing about my gym is that it has no attitude. The person doing chest presses with 150 pounds has no more right to the bench than someone using just the long pole with no weight at all. That's fine. However, New York Sports Clubs puts all its effort into upselling new members to personal training sessions instead of educating them just a little about gym protocol. The result, after its comical joint promotion with McDonald's, is a worse experience for all of its members.

A friend and I are discussing starting a new gym only for people who know what they are doing. It would probably lose money, but we would just subsidize it with other, profitable businesses.