Don't Follow the Gym Fads

Off Topic
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Have you guys ever noticed these fads in the gym? Somebody does something silly and it immediately catches on and all the morons start copying it.
They look at you like cattle when you deadlift or woodchop, but this fad catches on?

Early last year, I noticed someone doing cable cross overs on his knees. A few weeks later, I was a giant amongst dwarfs. Everybody was on their knees. Db curls, but on your knees. Bb curls, but on your knees. Lateral raises, on their knees. Calf raises on the… No probably not that one but I’m sure at least a couple of them tried.

Later we had the girlie curly period. It started out when someone made up this clever extension on the Arnold press. I called it the Arnold press+. He had added a swift twist of the wrist with fully extended arms. Pretty soon we had the db curl+, wrist twist with the underarm fully upright and then came the 1 arm triceps extension+.

In it’s purest form, it simply was the “+”. You concentrated and stared into the mirror, a 3kg dumbbell in each hand and rotate your palms forward and backward a couple of times. This was considered a great warm up exercise. A single set would prepare the body and mind for a thorough session of biceps curling and triceps extensions.

We’ve been without a fad a couple of months now, so I’m sure I new one is just around the corner. I’m willing to put a small amount of money on this exercise I witnessed today.

Imagine someone doing lateral raises with way to much weight. No no, way way way to much weight. We’re not talking about nodding heads here, we’re talking elbows not leaving the sides, not going upwards one bit. So he has these db’s in each hand, he rotates them externally, in a horizontal plane. Just when you think he’ll throw his elbows out of whack, the elbows move a bit outward, but not upward and he nods at himself in the mirror.

Not sure how to call this one though. Any suggestions?
Also, I’d like to be mentally prepared for any variations on this exercise. Can we come up with something?

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The fad around my gym is a horrible break-out of the Imaginary Lat Syndrome.

I’m talking 5’6" 135b guys walking around with their spaghetti elbows a good 7" off to their sides, and the most horrible thing is 6 out of 10 guys are doing it.

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this is why im being very selective in my looking for a new gym, there are 15 near where i live, and only 1 has a free weights section larger than a rats ass

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[quote]caveman101 wrote:
this is why im being very selective in my looking for a new gym, there are 15 near where i live, and only 1 has a free weights section larger than a rats ass[/quote]

You’d be surprised how much you can pack inside a rat’s ass…maybe see if they have a free workout option to let you get a feel for things…

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[quote]the elbows move a bit outward, but not upward and he nods at himself in the mirror.
[/quote]

haha

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The current fad in my gym was started a couple of months ago and continues to this date. There is one douche bag in my gym that put a 45 pounder on each side of an easy curl bar and does 1/8 of a rep preacher curls with them. Of coarse he has started something and now everybody feels that if they do not use a significant amount of weight which has to be more than they can handle, then they are not a man. Although this keeps all the people that wish to make no progress away from the squat rack and bench press equipment so I am happy.

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[quote]DanErickson wrote:
The current fad in my gym was started a couple of months ago and continues to this date. There is one douche bag in my gym that put a 45 pounder on each side of an easy curl bar and does 1/8 of a rep preacher curls with them. Of coarse he has started something and now everybody feels that if they do not use a significant amount of weight which has to be more than they can handle, then they are not a man. Although this keeps all the people that wish to make no progress away from the squat rack and bench press equipment so I am happy.[/quote]

I love fads like this too, it keeps all the douche bags on the machines and cable exercises and frees up the benches, dip station and squat rack. I say fuck 'em and let them have their ghey fads and lack of progress.

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[quote]DanErickson wrote:
The current fad in my gym was started a couple of months ago and continues to this date. There is one douche bag in my gym that put a 45 pounder on each side of an easy curl bar and does 1/8 of a rep preacher curls with them. Of coarse he has started something and now everybody feels that if they do not use a significant amount of weight which has to be more than they can handle, then they are not a man. Although this keeps all the people that wish to make no progress away from the squat rack and bench press equipment so I am happy.[/quote]

Ah, the good fads. God bless 'em they usually last for months too!

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[quote]Contrl wrote:
The fad around my gym is a horrible break-out of the Imaginary Lat Syndrome.

I’m talking 5’6" 135b guys walking around with their spaghetti elbows a good 7" off to their sides, and the most horrible thing is 6 out of 10 guys are doing it.[/quote]

Sorry, but ILS is not a fad, it’s a continuing state. A fad has to be temporarily.

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[quote]mazevedo wrote:
DanErickson wrote:
The current fad in my gym was started a couple of months ago and continues to this date. There is one douche bag in my gym that put a 45 pounder on each side of an easy curl bar and does 1/8 of a rep preacher curls with them. Of coarse he has started something and now everybody feels that if they do not use a significant amount of weight which has to be more than they can handle, then they are not a man. Although this keeps all the people that wish to make no progress away from the squat rack and bench press equipment so I am happy.

I love fads like this too, it keeps all the douche bags on the machines and cable exercises and frees up the benches, dip station and squat rack. I say fuck 'em and let them have their ghey fads and lack of progress.

[/quote]

That’s the gospel

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[quote]Contrl wrote:
The fad around my gym is a horrible break-out of the Imaginary Lat Syndrome.

I’m talking 5’6" 135b guys walking around with their spaghetti elbows a good 7" off to their sides, and the most horrible thing is 6 out of 10 guys are doing it.[/quote]

Um…I hate to break this to you, but you can never, ever judge a lifter by their size. I know a world class, drug free bench press specialist that competes at 132 and benches over 350 pounds. He prefers to BE much stronger than he looks.

Many is the time I have seen what appeared to be either a small, or out of shape person visiting my gym that turned out to be the real thing and not some puffed up bodybuilder.

Yeah, I know about the ILS thing, I see it expressed(metaphorically speaking) all over these forums.

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i think the most longstnading fad in a gym is the anti-leg fad.

i workout in a college gym, its pretty good, but how can i be the only one working legs out fo like 40 or so people in the gym weekin and week out? or do i happen to workout on everyone elses chest and bi day or do just i come in just as everyone is finishing up there squats. THAT is the BIGGEST fad in training.

and a new small fad that is rising is putting a incline bench on the deadlift/squat platforms and doing incline curls, i have no idea why but people just like doing curls on these platforms…

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[quote]All2ez wrote:

and a new small fad that is rising is putting a incline bench on the deadlift/squat platforms and doing incline curls, i have no idea why but people just like doing curls on these platforms…[/quote]

So they can get a better view of their hawt bulging biceps in the mirror, and then sneak a peak of their hawt abz after the set when nobody is looking.

If these morons would just use the damn equipment for its intended use, they would have hawter biceps than they achieve from doing retarded curls all day. I don’t get why people spend years doing worthless shit in the gyms without giving it some thought.

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[quote]Wreckless wrote:
Contrl wrote:
The fad around my gym is a horrible break-out of the Imaginary Lat Syndrome.

I’m talking 5’6" 135b guys walking around with their spaghetti elbows a good 7" off to their sides, and the most horrible thing is 6 out of 10 guys are doing it.

Sorry, but ILS is not a fad, it’s a continuing state. A fad has to be temporarily.

[/quote]

It didn’t previously exist in my gym, and is relatively new. Continuity is dubious, therefore it is a fad.

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[quote]Contrl wrote:
The fad around my gym is a horrible break-out of the Imaginary Lat Syndrome.

I’m talking 5’6" 135b guys walking around with their spaghetti elbows a good 7" off to their sides, and the most horrible thing is 6 out of 10 guys are doing it.[/quote]

ILS is not a fad. It’s a serious disease that has plagued mankind since learning to walk upright. It used to be commonly referred to as “Napoleon Complex” – indicating a perceived inferiority that causes one to overcompensate in other aspects of their life.

Studies have shown the severity of ILS to be proportionate to number of total training hours spent curling (pilates, etc) vs. number of total training hours spent squatting (or deadlifting, etc). As such, it is curable.

Symptoms of ILS include wearing of a weightbelt during workout especially when not squatting (deadlifting, etc.); cutting and pasting FLEX mag workouts to gym locker; over use of nautilus machines; chronic posing (not to be confused with Chronic Posing Disorder); and lastly, curling in the squat rack.

Introducing an ILS sufferer to the clean & jerk and/or the snatch (and a heavy dose of humility) is the fastest way to cure them of their affliction. Please help cure this plight on humanity.

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Start a new fad: hard work. If everyone sees you making progress, they’ll start doing the things you’re doing. We’ve got a whole cadre of people doing deads, a2g squats, and chins at our local Planet Fitness, and more and more people are joining it every week.

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Excessive yelling and staredowns.