My bad gym etiquette or How I will spend my summer vacation

Off Topic
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So there I was, warming up for my shoulder routine on Saturday afternoon. I was using one of the cable stacks and nearing the end of my warm up sets, doing this overhead cross-over flye exercise I’ve been doing that seems to really hit all three heads pretty effectively. And then it happened. “Excuse me sir, would you mind not banging the weights,” said the 105 pound, 2% bf, scrawny-faced in-house fitness trainer. Startled, I turned around and asked her to repeat herself. “I said would you mind not banging the weights? It disturbs the other patrons and the what you?re doing damages the cables and the owners won’t fix them.” “You’ve got to be kidding me,” I retorted “that’s the first time I’ve heard that one.” “You must have bad gym-etiquette,” she replied. I laughed and turned away. I thought to myself “what would Dave Tate say?”

You see, upon releasing the weights at the end of each set, I had to let one side go or risk pulling my shoulders out of joint. One side would come down, but the noise was significantly less than the noise created by the cardio machines, the guys dropping the dumbbells on the other side of the gym, the blond-tipped girlyboy grunting away doing 55 pound curls in the squat rack or even the annoying garbage music blaring out of the sound system. I felt I was being picked on. I’d already been criticized for deadlifting, Oly lifts and just about every other part of my routine. When I asked the manager one time why they didn’t have a cage or even a decent power rack, he asked me why I needed one. “Are you trying to get big?”

So, that was the last straw. No doubt about it anymore. Craig decided right then and there to enter the dark side- Olympic Weightlifting. You see, there is a place that promotes deadlifting, grunting, sweating, weight dropping and even that horrible menace chalk. The promised land. Seven platforms, several cages, power racks, no mirrors, no music and all the coaching you could ever want for way less than the cost of any public gym and it’s all here in Calgary. So, for all of you who can no longer stand the people, the trainers, the music, the atmosphere, the yellow equipment, the fact that there IS equipment when all you really need is some floor space, a rack and a barbell, there is an answer and tonight I will experience it. At the age of 31, I am about to enter a world of mutant teenagers who power snatch 300 pounds. I’ll soon see if an old dog can be taught new tricks. Curling in the squat rack? Curl away, I don’t care anymore.

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Possible reply: “Hey, honey, it’s either this, or me bitch slapping you repeatedly from three different angles one hand at a time.”

But congratulations on the decision.

NOW Note: No women were actually harmed in this post. While some may find the hint of physical violence against a women misogynist oppression, it is intended purely for humor’s sake, and in no way does this post, nor the poster, condone unnecessary physical violence against women. Unless they deserve it.

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Oh…You’re about to breathe free air.

I just have to say…A 300lb power snatch. That is impressive. I work out with Chad Vaughn (US 77kg national champ) and he doesn’t even power snatch 300lb.

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Sorry Craig, I’m going to have to go with the trainer. That’s really an excuse we give to people because:

WE HATE THAT FUCKING NOISE!!!

I have to listen to that stupid freaking smack sound 40 hours a week. Do you have even the remotest idea how annoying that is? It’s way beyond people who clink their dumbbells together.

Plus I have actually seen those plates break when smacked together and that just sucks since you have to take the whole machine apart to install a new one. Afterall they’re conveniently numbered and God forbid that they’re out of sequence.

STU

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Yeah, currently I train at a shitty, trendy Gold’s Gym in the suburbs of Buffalo. But, last night I learned that theres a possibility of a hardcore gym opening up soon in the area (sometime this spring). I almost orgasmed.

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“old dog at 31”.

Uh huh. Well this old dog at 37 began learning Oly-lifts the last year.

Rest assured: you ain’t ever too old until they nail your casket close.

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This trainer was working with a fat client she has been working with for months and months and has her doing only upper body 5 times a week with weights so light she talks through every single rep. Any woman that wears more makeup to the fucking gym than she does anywhere else is a certified idiot.

Stu, I realize you work as a trainer and so have to put up with a lot of shit in a gym, but you really had to be there to understand the hilarity of the situation and the type of gym this place is. I wasn’t dropping the weights, just guiding them down and they made a clink sound. It’s not a library, although the quality of people would perhaps be better in a library and the librarians would likely be better trained at strength training than the fucking idiot trainers at this particular gym. I think cables are for wankers anyway, but I was just warming up.

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OlympicLifter, my dreams will soon be answered. I can already feel my blood pressure drop.

Patricia, I know I’m not too old, I was only kidding. I’ve been doing the lifts for a while now, I just want some coaching to see what my potential is. All that strong man stuff, Oly lifting, power lifting, renegade, it makes my blood flow. If I want to get good, it ain’t gonna happen at Gold’s.

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CGB-I feel your pain, I used to work out at a Gold’s where I was told that my deadlifting “was a disturbance to other patrons”. Sure enough, I look around, and all the thirty-somethings were glaring at me for having dared to exhale during a deadlift, then making noise when the plates came into contact with the floor. Congrats on finding a decent training facility, I have to work out at school in order to be left alone.

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I have been real lucky with not having to deal with this crap. Although I always tried to find times when the gym was dead.

One place I worked out at was at 3:00 am. The only people there were hardcore, and didn’t give a damn how anybody worked out. Half the time I had the whole gym to myself. When these other guys were not working out, they were running around bullshitting and doing things like throwing girls into the locker room. I only talked to them a few times, but I was there to work out, not to screw around, so I mostly kept to myself.

There were a few times people came over to give “advice”, but they always left pissed off. There was one time when I was supersetting two exercises and a person decided to spot me, but without asking, and got in my way. In trying to get around him I ended up kicking the squat rack with my knee and moved it a few feet. Kind of ruined the rest of my workout.

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CGB, I don’t understand why you can’t put the weights down w/o just dropping them. Walk toward one stack until the weight is all the way down, then walk toward the other. How would this be harmful to your shoulders?

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I can answer that one-short arms. I’m only 5’6, so even when I walk toward one end of the machine, there’s a couple of inches in between the weights. No choice but ot drop them.

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Then how do you pick up the weights?

I grab one and then walk over and grab the other. And do just the opposite when I’m finished the set.

And I’m only 5’2"!

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In good ol’ Springfield, IL the wonderful FitClub (motto: fitness and wellness for life!) has monopolized all but a few clubs in the city. There’s a Gold’s, though it’s pretty crappy, and there’s something like Monster Gym but it has poor equipment and it’s across town.

Everyone who “works out” at the gym does the usual curl in the power rack, stand in front of the DB rack to do your 20lb curls (had to deal with that one again this morning), etc.

I found that if I lift at 5:00 AM I can avoid all the bussiness people who stop in before they go to work, or later in the day when they get off. Amazingly, all the hardcore lifters doing the 500lb squat and the 300lb bench press for reps, the oly lifts, powerlifters, etc. come in the morning to avoid all the dickheads later in the day. Anyone who feels their gym is a piece of shit (i’m guessing at least 50%) try lifting at the crack of dawn. It takes some getting used to, but soooo worth it.

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Oh… and if you can’t stand other people clanking weights around in a GYM of all places, I would suggest buying some of those plastic/rubber dumbbells and working out at home.

Yeah I’m sure CGB could have avoided clanking the stack of weights, it’s a god damn GYM, get used to it because it’s not a big deal. Hell, hearing that noise reminds me where I am and that I’m there to work, not complain.

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I say if we have to listen to that soft 80’s music that puts you to sleep, then we should be able to slam the weight to wake us up. screw the I am a kenis. maj.

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The gym where I work out is pretty cool. We don’t have a lot of heavy lifters (I’m the only female, but I’m working with a couple of others, who will be there soon). I’m fortunate that the head trainer does powerlifting, so he doesn’t mind if the weights occasionally drop or clang. I’ve been trying to teach my ladies how to drop DB on heavy presses (if necessary)…women have such a mental block about dropping weights, and would rather hurt themselves than drop a DB.

The only thing I’ve been asked not to do any more was hip belt squats while standing on a couple of flat benches.

On occasion I head out to one of the Gold’s gyms in the area. It’s a wild place. There are signs posted all over the place against dropping weights, using chalk, etc. etc. but everyone ignores it, and no one says anything.

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—Paul— - I can’t completely agree about banging the weights around. Personally, I love to make noise, but I would also like to go to the gym naked, but I consider others first.

I just don’t get the guys who try to be badasses by slamming weights together. It’s an attention-getter for some. I just find it funny, because it’s so much easier to slam another 45 on the side than to do it quietly. I fail to see how lazy = badass.

Again, I don’t mind noise; I just mind people slamming weights to send some sort of message. I guess I just picture some guy slamming the third 45 on one side of the leg press, and that makes me laugh.

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yeah that is like the dude in the back ground of pumping Iorn, curling the 15 pound dumbells, I think he just wanted his 15 minutes of fame… I hate that movie everytime I watch it it makes me feel tiny…lol

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Speaking of “Pumpin Iron”, does anyone know how to get ahold of that movie? I heard that Arnold owns the rights and won’t redistribute it.

B.