Many of the Kuwait Bodybuilding Team workout at my gym, iirc a few of them are IFBB pro.
Saw one of the guys on the incline leg-press the other day, starting drop-sets from fully loaded (I didn’t count how many plates, something like 10 per side). It made my leg workout seem fairly lame in comparison 
Young kid in gym, short, comes in, no uniform or “take a look at me” outfit, no iPhone…
Takes the silly pad off the bar in the squat rack. Squats FULL, slight pause at bottom, solid, SOLID form. Adds weights every set. All sets looked about the same. Took his time getting into position, did his set, racked the weight. Don’t think he said a word to anyone, no one came to socialize. Did his sets and moved on.
Next to him was the camping clan. about 4 kids. pad on bar, wraps on knees, all dressed similar, 1/4 to half squats. LOTS of noise. All put more effort into texting than training.
Maybe even better was this very athletic girl who did full dead stop chins, no kipping, ankles crossed in back but frozen throughout the set. Did about 8 to 10 perfect reps… Not far from her was the sloppy pulldown dude…
hmm new arnold strongman champion squatting 380kg for a double… will give any one motivation
Someone at my gym last year. Thought that was pretty cool.
Respectful persons doing appropriate exercises well, focussed and determined - it shouldn’t stand out of the norm but some days it does!
All the impressive stuff I ever saw was in my high school gym. I witnessed a buddy of mine rep 315 20 times his sr year. He also did a 315 power clean in which he had no form he just hulked it all the way to his chest(6’2) and caught it. Seen him bench 525 at a PL meet.
Another guy a went to school with was build like Mark Henry and seen him squat 830 bench 515 and deadlift around 600 all his jr year.
At our old gym in Montana, this MASSIVE Bulgarian dude just showed up out of nowhere one day. The guy was a tank. When we walked in he was benching four plates, just repping that shit out like it was nothing, full range of motion, no spotters. It was obviously just his warm-up, because then he started benching five plates. Again, ZERO visible effort and perfect form. It took my husband and I a good five minutes to get our jaws off the floor and actually go talk to the guy. That wasn’t the kind of gym where a lot of serious lifters worked out, which just made him stand out even more.
Never saw him again after that. We found out later that he was the strongman for the Ringling Bros circus and that he made a living just benching trucks during the show. Totally random but easily the most impressive thing I’ve ever seen in any gym I’ve been to.
[quote]ChongLordUno wrote:
Someone at my gym last year. Thought that was pretty cool.
[/quote]
Man those looked like a piece of cake! Mad grip strength too.
I literally have never seen anything ‘impressive’ at my gym. Not a thing. I’ve seen a big dude, once. He didn’t go anything impressive though. sigh
Wish I was at a gym where inspiring stuff happens… I train at a small gym in my student village, and the when the most impressive lifts (by a good margin too) are my own 298 squat and 360 dead lift, you know there isn’t enough badassery going on.
Only thing impressive I have seen was a girl in the squat rack doing actual good depth squats! That’s better than 99% of the males there.
At my old gym in Rego Park, Queens: saw a fairly unstable and physically unsettling Bucharian gentleman walk into the gym wielding a large knife, stalk around looking for someone, and eventually, surrender to about 10 uniformed officers who rushed the place. It actually took one of the gym members to call the cops as the two owners (both Bucharian as well) decline to saying that it wouldn’t be right because the individual scaring the crap out of everyone was a “member of the Bucharian community”.
Impressive alright,… impressively stupid.
S
[quote]ryanbCXG wrote:
Fuck my gyms sucks. I have seen nothing impressive Srlsy [/quote]
Well ryan I lift at home by myself so I don’t get to see a damn thing haha.Your one up on me.
I see the odd person from time to time bencing 275 or so…or the odd 4 plate deadlift…other than that nothing really.
In order of impressiveness from least to greatest.
Seeing people put forth reasonable effort with decent form in the gym and have some structure to their workout.
Seeing people squat with good form whether its a small guy doing 95 lbs for 8 reps or a petite girl with great legs doing a little than a plate a side.
A lineman from my university went to the gym*(university gym) with his power lifting girlfriend while he was squatting and deadlifting 5-6 plates and she was deadlifting 3 plates and saw me do my back routine of T-bar rows and the like. Talked to him a bit later and told me the usual 1g per pound of bodyweight and if I was interested in power lifting that there’s this gym near by that’s pretty good but warned me that the women there are basically men. Later told me he got suspended 1 semester for lifting heavy weight on the platform and one of the unknowledgeable workers got scared and called the police which is why rack with the platform was removed (which also had bumper plates and the like). Guy wasn’t fat(like Matt Kroc in his power lifting days) and quite built for being as I pegged him to be around 5’9 as I’m 5’11 1/2.
Nothing impressive ever happens at my gym either, except last week one guy actually put his dumbbells away after using them! My jaw nearly hit the floor. That’s as impressive as it gets round here 
Same here, I’ve seen impressive physiques but never really impressive lifting. TBH, I haven’t even seen anyone here bench 315lbs without their spotter doing 50% of the work. Even 225 benching isn’t that common.
[quote]WhiteFlash wrote:
Lived in Portland, OR for awhile. Everything about that town fucking sucks, but at the gym I went to literally everyone I ever saw squat went atg with impeccable form. Literally every single person. The fact that an entire gym’s worth of squatters actually squatted right is more impressive than any single feat of strength I’ve ever seen.[/quote]
That IS. Impressive. The amount of people I’ve seen doing proper squats are about 10 or less
[quote]lumbahjack wrote:
Same here, I’ve seen impressive physiques but never really impressive lifting. TBH, I haven’t even seen anyone here bench 315lbs without their spotter doing 50% of the work. Even 225 benching isn’t that common.[/quote]
I would change gyms if that were the case at mine.
Yes, enviroment matters…a lot when your goal is passing most people up.
[quote]The Mighty Stu wrote:
At my old gym in Rego Park, Queens: saw a fairly unstable and physically unsettling Bucharian gentleman walk into the gym wielding a large knife, stalk around looking for someone, and eventually, surrender to about 10 uniformed officers who rushed the place. It actually took one of the gym members to call the cops as the two owners (both Bucharian as well) decline to saying that it wouldn’t be right because the individual scaring the crap out of everyone was a “member of the Bucharian community”.
Impressive alright,… impressively stupid.
S[/quote]
There is a guy in my gym who brings ice axes for his workout. He fastens them to the cable crossover rack, then proceeds to mainly just hang from them, doing the occasional pullup. Have to say I was a bit worried the first time I saw him get them from his bag.
[quote]ChongLordUno wrote:
Someone at my gym last year. Thought that was pretty cool.
[/quote]
Pretty badass. But why does he have to lean back so much? That hurts my lower back just looking at it…
[quote]Professor X wrote:
[quote]lumbahjack wrote:
Same here, I’ve seen impressive physiques but never really impressive lifting. TBH, I haven’t even seen anyone here bench 315lbs without their spotter doing 50% of the work. Even 225 benching isn’t that common.[/quote]
I would change gyms if that were the case at mine.
Yes, enviroment matters…a lot when your goal is passing most people up.[/quote]
I’d love to change my gym for that matter, but the only other options for me are a snap fitness or planet fitness…and that is not a step in the right direction! The one hardcore gym around me closed down, the guy just didn’t show one day…apparently he fled out of state and left the stuff inside to a few members, one of which opened his own gym but only does group sessions for sports really.