Anyone else remember reading Chad Waterbury’s article “The Next Big Three?” Remember the line when he wrote something like, “Find a squat rack and kick out the body-for-lifer who, for some reason, is in there doing kickbacks.” I remember laughing pretty hard when I read that, but that was when I was still at a small gym, where I hardly ever saw the squat rack used for anything. Well, I almost busted out laughing the other day in my new gym, when I saw a guy ACTUALLY DOING KICKBACKS IN THE SQUAT RACK! (That’s almost as stupid as Smith Machine curls!) Actually, I can’t believe all the squat rack curlers in this large commercial gym I just joined, especially since there are special curling racks. Now I understand all of you who complain about curlers in the squat racks.
As often as this subject comes up on the forum is as often as I see some dumbass doing something dumbass-ish in my gym. The problem is that we only have two squat racks and no deadlifting platforms, so when you get even two or three guys that actually go balls out and dead it sucks. The other day I did cardio for 45 min. watching a guy deadlift, with terrible form, about 185, taking about 5-10 min. in between sets. Since I am doing meltdown I needed that rack for the squats and deads, so I didn’t want to ask him to work in.
I guess being well read and intelligent, and going to the gym actually knowing what you are doing can get really annoying sometimes. I loathe t-mag for that! If it wasn’t for this awesome site and the awesome people participating on the forum, I would still be blissfully happy curling in the squat rack. But no, now I actually know proper training methods and I have to live a life pestered by body-for-lifers doing kickbacks in the power rack. Damn!
Of late, it’s been more of a, glancing towards the cables and exclaiming, “…what the f*#k is that guy/gal doing?” - be it some wierd, other worldly version of cable crossovers, bicep curls, or somethin’ with them cables. Man, the gym has been filled to the brim with wierd shit lately.