Professor ....

Off Topic
1

needs to have a 24 hour hot line.

I was at the gym today and there was this kid…probably 16 or so walking around with his arms puffed out to his side…you know…that old “invisible lat syndrome”. Anyways, he was pumping away at the leg extensions.

I walked over to him and asked if he was doing legs that day and then if he was planning on squatting. I said that since the gym only has two power racks, if he wanted, he could work in with me when he got to squats. He said cool and when he came over to work in, he started with 225 on the bar and went down maybe 4 inches. I told him he should try going deeper, to which he responded “Im a bodybuilder, not one of those strongman guys”.

I told him that he should watch any one of Ronnie or Jay’s videos and see how deep they squat. He responded to this with “I dont need to go deep because I dont want to get too big”.

It gets better, he walked off after two sets becasue he had to “train” his friend. I got a kick out of him showing his friend how to do everything the complete wrong way…including 4 inch squats, clean and curls (which, btw, he decided to brag about how much he could do to my friend…completely uninvited), dumbell fly-presses, etc.

I was getting ready to leave them gym and this guy comes up to me and asks me what kind of protein I use…I tell him where I get my whey from and he says “Yeah…I dont really take much right now, but Im going to start taking a lot of stuff so I can lean out in March.”

This kid is 5’10", 145 lbs.

I asked why he would ever want to lean out, and he said that hes doing a show in April.

I told him he should reconsider and maybe wait 3 or 4 more years because, simply put, hes not big at all.

He responded to this with “Well, Iv been training for almost 8 months now, so I think Im big enough.”

Wheres the prof. when you need him?

2

why do you care what anyone else is doing in the gym?

go. lift. leave.

3

How could you not burst out laughing after all this?

5

[quote]Drive wrote:
why do you care what anyone else is doing in the gym?

go. lift. leave.[/quote]

As I read it, the kid came up to him.

6

This is a classic example of what happens when you socialize with the weight room plebians. The sooner you realize that people are small and weak for a reason, the sooner you’ll attain weightroom contentment.

7

Nope, I read it wrong. Sorry.

8

[quote]Drive wrote:
go. lift. leave.[/quote]

Truth.

9

He comes and brags to my friends and I about how strong he is.

I decided to see how much of him was talk, and I was surprised at how much shit he talked and how little of it he could back up.

10

Hold on wait you walked up to him in the middle of his set, and spoke to him…

Please dont ever do that to someone its inconsiderate. Then you asked the guy to work with you, and told him he is doing everything wrong and laughed at him.

And he’s the douchebag?

lead by example.

11

[quote]Drive wrote:
why do you care what anyone else is doing in the gym?

go. lift. leave.[/quote]

He was done doing leg extensions when I talked to him. He also told me I was squatting too deep. I guess I forgot to mention that part.

I normally keep my headphones in and my head down.

Today, I had extra time to kill because I was waiting on my brother to finish football conditioning.

It was a douche thing of me to do, but it was funny.

12

eh mabey jumped the gun a bit on last post. Still next time you see the guy in there mabey you should take some time after your workout and explain some stuff to him. Or direct him to this website.

While yeah mabey his situation is funny, dont you feel sorry for the guy. He probably honestly doesnt know any better.

I mean if he is in there consistantly working out that at least shows heart.

13

Iv tried to explain things to him…like why he should work back as well as chest and biceps, instead of working chest 3 times a week and throwing in some leg extensions for a “leg day”.

Or why he shouldnt arch his back on the rare occasion that he does rack pulls.

I wont see him in there again until maybe summer, Im going back to school and my basement gym tomorrow afternoon.

He tried to tell me how to build a bigger back the other day. Completely unsolicited.

However, I did give him my truprotein discount code, so hopefully, hell talk mommy and daddy into spending lots of money there and Ill get some free stuff.

14

eh well you can lead a horse to water but can’t make him drink. Hopefully once he see’s he isn’t gaining anything he’ll realize the err of his ways. Or he’ll wind up here or somewhere else posting rants for the smaller guys.

Of course you can always just hang him on the power rack by his shirt and leave him there to think about his mistakes.

15

Yeah.

That damned wifebeater he wears around would finally serve a purpose other than letting him show off his 147 lb “physique”.

16

[quote]StevenF wrote:
How could you not burst out laughing after all this?[/quote]

I wouldn’t have wasted my time even noticing some kid like that. If I was going to laugh at that, I would be laughing at the other 80 guys doing the same thing.

I sure as hell wouldn’t have asked him to work in with me. Guys like that just take up space. The only time my attention rests on them is when they are sitting on a piece of equipment I would like to use as they move some weight they know isn’t even challenging to them.

17

I still don’t understand why anyone cares what others do in the gym. If he’s doing it wrong, so what? If he asks for your advice then give it. Your story is funny, but the actual meaning of it was that you approached him- so anything he did after that was not worthy of being put down as I doubt he would have done any of it to you (bragging) if you hadn’t talked to him first.

Part of being a T-Nation member is having the inside track on the “real” way to get shit down in the gym. It’s ok, fun even, to laugh at the ones in the gym who don’t have the same advantage we have. But it is not your responsibility to completely reform everyone you come across. If you feel it is, become a personal trainer.

18

[quote]SwampThing wrote:
eh well you can lead a horse to water but can’t make him drink.[/quote]

I think you mean “you can lead a person to knowledge but you can’t make him think”.

:wink:

19

He came to my friend and I bragging before I ever offered advice.

21

[quote]fightingtiger wrote:
He came to my friend and I bragging before I ever offered advice.[/quote]

All the more reason to ignore him.

[quote]eengrms76 wrote:
I still don’t understand why anyone cares what others do in the gym. [/quote]

I’ll admit that if there are enough of these guys training around you, it can be distracting. It may also be time to change gyms. Your environment can affect your workout no matter how loud you turn up your MP3 player.

This is why I would rather train later at night than deal with gym rush hour. However, there is no reason to engage these people unless they ask for help or you know them well enough to know that your time isn’t being wasted.

For all of the little guys complaining that they don’t get respect in the gym, there are way too many who just don’t deserve it.

22

Obviously you’re not big enough in that kid’s eyes where he feels like he should be following in your footsteps.

Yes, you could do “ass-to-grass” squats and be “hardcore” to the bone, but that doesn’t mean anything if people don’t think you look like you lift, especially when you try to give them advice. People don’t care that you belong to T-Nation, they only see your body, not your hardcore message board mentality. If you look like you lift, guys a lot smaller than you won’t brag to you or give you advice in most cases.

But if you are a big guy, I guess that kid has a pretty inflated ego and shame on me.