Exercise is important for your overall health and well-being, but there is no doubt that it is sometimes hard to fit it into your daily routine.

What would you do if you found that getting up early in the morning to run on your treadmill was the only thing that worked for you, but then your upstairs neighbor said that the noise it caused was waking her up?

That is the situation the young woman in this story is in, and she doesn’t know how to handle it. She doesn’t want to be a bad neighbor, but she also wants to be able to exercise at a time that works for her.

Personally, I think there has to be some type of compromise that is possible, as long as the two parties communicate nicely about it. Read through the full story below and see what you think.

WIBTA for Continuing to Use Our Treadmill in the Mornings after our Neighbor said it Bothered her?

Our family rents a home in a suburb, and a single woman rents an apartment above our garage from the same landlord.

That is pretty early to be engaged in such a loud activity.

2-3x a week I run on the treadmill around 6a for 30-45 mins. I have been doing this for the entirety of the two years this other tenant has lived above the garage.

She never said a word about it until this past week when she asked if I would start running at a later hour.

It is definitely hard to find time to exercise when you have a busy life.

She was polite about it and I can totally see her point because I am sure it is objectively annoying.

Still, we have small kids who also get up early, and the only time I have during the week to run is if I can beat them before they’re out of bed.

Everyone makes some type of noise that neighbors won’t like.

This is in why we bought the treadmill in the first place; because otherwise it was nearly impossible to find time to exercise without it.

Frankly I thought we had sort of an unspoken understanding because she has a dog that barks nonstop and often disruptively throughout the day while she’s at work and we are working from home.

This is a difficult situation, to be sure. She doesn’t want to annoy her neighbor, but she also wants to exercise.

I think there’s a good chance a lot of families would have complained to the landlord about it, so my spouse and I sort of figured she appreciated how accepting we are of that and perhaps as a consequence never said anything about our exercise.

Now I feel guilty about wanting to continue doing something I know is bothersome to her, but also I am not sure what society expects of me here.

She can’t be expected to be silent. But hopefully she can find a way to keep it down.

I think that to some degree, if you choose to rent an apartment above the garage of a family home, you may have to accept that there could be noise coming from the rest of the home that you cannot control.

But also it’s going to be hard for me to enjoy running at all now knowing she’s on the other side of the wall feeling miserable.

This is actually a difficult situation.

There is nothing in our lease about quiet hours and it is common where we live for people to use their garages for fitness; there are other people in the neighborhood who also have treadmills too.

AITA?

It is good that she is trying to find a compromise here. I wonder if she could talk to the neighbor about which days of the week would be better. Or maybe putting a carpet down under the treadmill. There has to be some way to make this work.

If you enjoyed this post, check out this post about a delivery driver whose complaint about driveways left neighbors in a rift.

Read on to see what the people in the comments recommend in this case.

This isn’t always possible, but if it is an option, it is a good one.

Never assume you know what is going on. Communication is key.

This commenter points out that the neighbor may not know her dog is barking.

6 AM is pretty early to be running.

There was no unspoken understanding.

It is actually nice to read a story where two neighbors have a conflict, but they approach it with maturity and respect. They aren’t trying to ‘one-up’ each other, but instead are just discussing their issues.

Running on a treadmill at 6 AM is too early, especially when you have a neighbor right upstairs. Hopefully, they can find a way to work this out without causing too much inconvenience.