Thought i’d post this here instead of a new thread.
I work 13hours/week in a gym in a leisure center. Theres a fitness gym and then a 40m walk to get to the free weights room. I drift back and forth between the 2 to keep an eye on things.
So i walk into it today and notice theres 2 guys at the squat rack. One is about 5foot 2 and the other about 5foot 10. Neither is huge but the little fella is in pretty good shape.
The bar on the squat rack has 180kg (about 400lbs) on it. The little guy gets under the bar - i automatically assume its for comedy value as i’ve seen him in the gym a lot and max i’ve seen him struggle with is 100kg on the squat.
Its not for comedy purposes at all - he unracks the bar and does 2-3 assisted reps of 3 - 4 inches at most.
A huge Lithuanian guy says to me the 2 guys have been at this for a few sets working up to this weight. He says they’re going to wreck their knees/backs and i agree.
Lifter 2 gets under the bar and does the same thing. I noticed when he was in the fitness gym he had minimal ROM on the leg press as well.
I approach and the following conversation takes place
ME- You should increase your ROM - its better for development, you should reduce the weight as its too heavy and you’re not getting enough range - you could get injured.
Other guy - Its impossible to go down further with that weight - no-one could do it.
ME - Well you could do it if you were strong enough but if you can’t then reduce the weight.
The Lithuanian guy agrees and we both show them what a full squat is (ATG).
Other guy - No-one can go down that far with a weight on their backs and besides we’re doing half squats.
Me - Well your doing a quarter squat to be honest, you could at least try to go parallel with them.
More generic back and forth banter between all of us occurs and then the craziest thing i’ve seen in a while happens.
Other guy - No-one can go down like that with this weigh and i’ll prove it!
Me - Err ok…
So he gets under the bar and shows me his quarter squat muttering “i can do this…” THEN TRIES TO DO A PARALLEL SQUAT TO PROVE HE CAN’T DO A PARALLEL SQUAT!
So he gets down there mutters something like “i told you so” and proceeds to fall on his knees with the weight still on his back. The little fella tries to help but can’t really, I’m telling him to drop it on the pins but in the end i have to take the bar off his back and set in on the pins for him.
He gets up and triumphantly lets us know he was right???
I’m not saying i’m awesome in the gym or super strong or anything else but growing up i would have killed (some burgers) to have someone look out for me and not let me make the mistakes i did.
People just don’t want to know and in his case (and that of a couple of terrible deadlifters) they’re on their own with what they do from now on.
Rant over.