He probably felt comfortable correcting your form because you seemed genuine and eager to learn…but often, I guess the reason why it’s not done very often is because many don’t seem interested and some who have very bad form could already have been doing it for a while and couldn’t handle criticism (many consider themselves experts already).
It’s easier to coach someone with little to no experience, than someone who’s “researched” and “gained a whole 20-30 pounds”. That’s me speaking from personal experience - I wish I’d listened to the bigger guys sooner! lol
[quote]ari_gold wrote:
I’ve been training for 4 months and two months ago when I was trying to teach myself how to squat I had two guys come up and teach me how to do it I’ve gone from just being able to squat the bar to doing a set of 10 for 85kgs.
I also had a different person teach me how to do walking ludges the right way as i was falling inwards on the the step forward.
So there are some nice people out there but I’ve also had the bad where a guy took my bench in between a BB bench set because i was only doing 40kgs and said the ladies gym was up stairs. (im a guy and find it funny now but at the time i was shattered lol)[/quote]
wow, I bet it as someone from the squar rack thread…wonder if they posted about it.
Today had a similar experience. Was doing singles and missed my last one (hit the rack bars on the way up). Some guy came outta no where and asked if I wanted to try it again, I said yep and got it with his help. He then asked me if I wanted his extra pair of knee straps. Awesome
Yeah, same thing happened to me. This national level powelifter (yes, he’s ranked in the 138 master’s class. I’ll ask what federation and what not if you guys wanna know). Anyways, he’s over 50 but his last competition squat was around 600 which is impressive for his age/weight.
He let me work in with him on bench for a couple weeks now showing me all the different types of bands and boards.
Today he gave me his number and offered to let me work in with him on max effort squats every saturday and teach me good technique. Definitely looking forward to it.
This reminds me of my old gym when I was deadlifting one time and this 280 pound monster asked to work in. I told him he could probably lift alot more then me and he said he didn’t mind switching the plates on and off every time. So he gave me pointers through out the deadlift session and at the end he gave me his number and said he was interested in being my training partner.
For a month we trained together although he was far more advanced and he gave me tips from diet, to form, to how to get a proper mind muscle connection in muscles I couldn’t seem to work properly.
He ended up messing up his shoulders and it kept him out of the gym for a while and then I moved away but I don’t think I would be where I am today without his help.
I still find it hard to believe that this advanced guy would take me under his wing and show me everything he knew even though at times it interfered with his training and time.
Many people are good guys who like helping others, and many also find that teaching other people the basics help them refine and improve their own technique to. Most gyms are so full of tools that its a breath of fresh air to meet someone with a modicum of humility and pleasantness about them regardless of their size and level of ability.
When I first began exercising at the age of 19/20 (in about 2001) my target was to run the marathon. I ended up getting sidetracked by weightifting as a friend invited me over to train with his dad and a few of their friends. This guy was 45 at the time and I personally witnessed him bench press 540LB numerous occasions using only a belt.
He was also graded 5th Dan in Karate at the Japanese Karate association headquarters in Japan during the 80’s by master Nakayama, and had been training virtually daily ever since (and still is) I weighed about 150 at the time and was made to feel just as welcome as the other guys (they only train in a small group of about 4, maximum 5) who had each been training for years, which made me feel even more privileged. I never once was made to feel like I wasn’t welcome, or was less entitle to be there because I was less experienced, weaker and less capable than the others.
I’ve mentioned this a few times before on this site; and I’ll mention it again now, there was a great article by John callum in his ‘keys to progress’ series called ‘Public relations’ in which he mentioned how many big guys act like complete idiots giving bodybuilding a bad name. Every muscled up guy is an advert for bodybuilding and should behave in a manner which promotes it and doesn’t make its participants look any worse than already do.
A god example was some one on here wrote something along the lines of " I go to the gym with my boyz and when I see some one doing the same exercise as me…I get a bar… put more weight on it than him… then stare at him whilst doing my reps and grunting until he goes off to do something else…"
Whoever wrote that represents the biggest cock rocket in every gym anywhere in the world. People like Dave Tate and every gym equipment manufacturer in the world would probably like to thank him personally, because its idiots like this who make people decide they want to start a home gym.
I’ve mentioned this a few times before on this site; and I’ll mention it again now, there was a great article by John callum in his ‘keys to progress’ series called ‘Public relations’ in which he mentioned how many big guys act like complete idiots giving bodybuilding a bad name. Every muscled up guy is an advert for bodybuilding and should behave in a manner which promotes it and doesn’t make its participants look any worse than already do.
[quote]buddaboy wrote:
People like Dave Tate and every gym equipment manufacturer in the world would probably like to thank him personally, because its idiots like this who make people decide they want to start a home gym. [/quote]
Haha true.
I used to find at the public gym that the early day crowd were really decent people, but it was often later on in the day where many were ignorant/arrogant. One of my training partners who’s pretty well developed (solid 240-250lbs) tried to start a conversation with two guys who seemed serious about lifting, only to be ignored and responded with this:
“I go to the gym to lift, not to socialise!”
Completely ridiculous considering they could have learned a lot from him. They’ve read a few articles/books and suddenly they’re hardcore.
On a positive note, I remember when I first started deadlifting, I watched this guy do it (which is rare for my gym) and I joked to him afterwards about him not being a novice…to cut a long story short, he started to show me how it’s done…and didn’t laugh when I lifted with a whole 1 and a half plates on each side lol
[quote]uklifts wrote:
I just wanted to share this experience with you, for what its worth. I was coming up to do squats the other day, so I go over to wait at the squat rack. There’s a guy on there looks twice my weight. He’s got 200Kg ready to go for his next set. He asks me what im waiting for, I nod to the squat rack, and say im just waiting until hes done.
He says to me, work in if you like… I laugh and let on 100KG is my limit, 4 and a half plates a side would snap me. Anyway we get talking, he starts to ask all about my weight, how long lifting, then whats my stance, demonstrate how I squat.
Now this is the best bit: He uses up his rest time to really take the time to find my best stance width. He brings a bench over and gets me to box squat, because apparently im bnreaking at the knee and not the hips. He gets me driving up properly. He finally does his work set, and then we take the weight right down, and he coaches me on technique as i start to work up the weight on my own squats.
I’ve never met him before that day, and yet he took the time to show a fairly scrawny looking guy like me to squat properly, not just make a comment like “thats not right” and walk off. Hopefully he realised I was listening properly and desperately trying to remember every little nugget. But those 10-15 mins probably have been the most productive i’ve had in a long time. I just thought i’d share that, as perhaps we’ll all be on one side or other of a similar moment ourselves one day. [/quote]
In addition to all that was already said, give yourself credit for being willing to listen, learn and change. Less common than you think.
Whoever wrote that represents the biggest cock rocket in every gym anywhere in the world. People like Dave Tate and every gym equipment manufacturer in the world would probably like to thank him personally, because its idiots like this who make people decide they want to start a home gym. [/quote]
Personally, although I detest the attitudes of guys like this in the gym, they serve a useful purpose for a lot of hardworking guys in the gym - when I see guys like that, it motivates me because I don’t want them to be ambassadors for lifting.
I want serious lifters to be regarded as the good guys in the gym, and the only way to do that is to go out to your gym, be better than these douchebags, and forge yourself into the guy who can be not only a successful lifter, but a helpful member of the gym and a nice guy too.
It annoys me that guys like that end up making people want to go and train at home, when one of the best things about a really good gym is often the camaraderie between all levels of lifters.