Competition at the gym

I've always noticed whenever I go to the gym, the level of competition people have with each other. I'll be running on the treadmill and notice the girl beside me glances to see how fast I'm running and how many calories I'm burning. Guilty; I find myself doing it too. I have no idea if it 's just curiosity, or if a little bit of competition comes into play as well. I notice it is equally as obvious in women and men. With younger men, they'll park themselves beside me, then immediately go as fast as they can, have the strongest resistance, etc. In those cases, I think younger men feel the need to impress others around them. It's all about showing off their manliness: which I find quite humorous.

What I don't understand, is why we do it? The fact that someone is at the gym means they are conscious about their health, and trying to stay fit; end of story. It doesn't matter how hard they're working out because we're all at different levels of strength and endurance. Just because I can run faster than someone else, or someone can run faster than me, doesn't make me feel better or worse about myself. Still, I find curiosity gets the best of me. 

Men are obvious about their competition with others. I have friends that go to the gym with me, come find me, and tell me how much they just bench pressed. Here's the thing; I don't actually care. And most other girls won't either. The only people who care are your friends, who are then just going to try to lift heavier weight then you just did. 

With me, it's gotten to the point where I get a bit self-conscious about other people watching me work out. I wonder if they're judging the pace I'm at, or criticizing my form. But in reality, I don't judge other people based on how they work out, so they probably don't judge me either.

If people learned to mind their own businesses, it would make my workouts much more enjoyable. :)