[quote]malonetd wrote:
The most annoying thing for me is when I ask for a spot(I work out alone), and no matter how much you stress it and tell someone not to touch the bar unless i say so, as soon as i slow down, they grab the bar!
Damn that pisses me off!! What the fuck did I just tell you!! Don’t touch the bar!
Anyway, now there is only a select few people in our gym that I will ask for a spot. If one of them is not there, I ususally end up limiting myself and only doing a single with less than I should be able to.[/quote]
Woah, do we go to the same gym? How many workouts of mine have been ruined because of this shit…
The other day I go to my new gym and behold, a guy is sitting outside talking to himself. I say hello because I thought he was talking to me, and he just stares.
I proceed to do my curls in the squat rack, no wait, I mean my squats in the curl rack, ahh fuck it, I start lifting. The guy from outside walks in the gym and walks up to the mirror. He then makes some weird wooooshing sounds while he throws his elbow back, rotating his hips. The sound effects were incredible and I’m thinking he must be some kind of ninja.
I laugh out loud but avoid eye contact at all costs.
Then he starts talking to the guy beside him. Appears to be a normal, friendly conversation until I hear the guy that was outside ask what the other guy had for breakfast.
I’m thinkin there’s no way the other guy is going to continue talking to this guy who fuckin asked what he had for breakfast, but NO. I guess he was more in the talking mood than training mood so the conversation continues.
When I hear the words “hey man, you know, you look like the son of God. You know, Jesus? Yea man, you look like him”, I know this is no longer funny and something is dead wrong.
There was no way to avoid these guys so the guy from outside goes on to say “hey man, you ever been shot? I got shot once and it was God that shot me. I’m glad it wasn’t Satan. But you know, when God wants to shoot you, he’ll shoot you. Hey man, do you have a gun?”
[quote]Jason05 wrote:
Has anyone else seen people deadlifting with a smith machine? I didn’t think it was possible until I saw it two weeks ago. I thought they must be doing something else but I watched them go through 2 sets and sure enough they were deadlifting, well going through the motions anyway. Is there anyexplanation for this?[/quote]
squats in the smith machine are more common at my gym. I live in a richass neighbourhood, so I get the pleasure of seeing a bunch of pubescent 130lb 15 year old “badasses” walking around in wife-beaters or sleeveless shirts flexing their non-existent “cut” muscles covered in their fake tans. Oh yeah, then they bench 90lbs and curl for 45 mins.
As someone said earlier, I dominate the squat rack. Doing the Art of Waterbury right now and I am loving it, I can get to the gym and hog the squat rack all to myself. My best response yet, starting my 3rd week, day 1, 10x3 day. Just finished the 2nd set of push presses, some guy asks me how many sets I have left, “oh, looks like about 18 or so.” The look I got was priceless.
[quote]RichM wrote:
Here’s a good one. I work out at 5:00 am with a group of 3 others. Monday morning we were doing legs. One of my buddies is squatting 365 and was grunting a little on his last 3-4 reps. Not 5 minutes later, the girl at the front desk comes over and tells us to keep it down because we are disturbing a couple of the others in the gym. At 5 am, there are maybe 6 others in the gym besides us and these 6 others are serious lifters too.
I guess I hate people who don’t have a clue as to what goes on in a gym but work in one.
[/quote]
In my old gym this lady used to yell at anyone who deadlifted too loud!!! Fortunately, the owner/managers actually backed us up and told her to deal with it.
[quote]slimjim wrote:
i don’t know if this is true of other gyms. is monday’s not the worst day for your chest workout to fall on? i have noticed that when the week starts off the gym is super packed with everyone taking up the benches, and by thrusday there’re half the people that started off the week lifting. [/quote]
Monday and Friday = Chest and Bis - Everyother day is optional for those morons.
I am very lucky to have access to a University gym with a newly-renovated weight room. Outside of the varsity teams, only a few faculty and staff ever venture in here. No cell phones, no aerobics, no curling in the squat rack! Here is the list of rules posted where I train. This website also has a plethora of information on what to do. All instructions are useless if people do not read and follow. Perhaps we are a nation of functional illiterates…perish the thought! If you can’t read all the rules, skip to number 14 and make that your commandment.
Training Smart Checklist
The varsity weight room is not a health club. Access to S&C services and programs is a varsity student-athlete privilege; and the same proactive attitude, effort and execution which are expected on the field are expected off of it as well.
It is understood that academics come first, and that scheduling conflicts arise. It is each student-athlete’s responsibility to notify the S&C staff in advance in order to schedule a make-up workout (or be excused in the event of illness).
Distinguish between the discomfort of exertion and the pain of injury. Every athlete can expect to be hurt or otherwise limited at some point, and there are alternatives for every exercise. Injuries or other problems mean that we adapt, improvise or modify–not skip–exercises or workouts (unless so indicated by the Sports Medicine staff).
We are interested in training effect, not strength demonstration. We have borrowed many of their concepts and methods, but are not training to be powerlifters or weightlifters.
Dress appropriately. Apparel which hinders progress or safety (e.g., spikes, cleats, unlaced or open-toe footwear) is not an option.
Think safety! Respect power racks and platforms as work stations, not loitering/jaywalking areas.
Use each warm-up set as a technique/range of motion drill, not an opportunity to get sloppy or ‘go through the motions’.
Do your workout in the prescribed manner and sequence. When and how each rep and set is executed is as important as what we are doing.
Use between-set recovery time wisely. Take 5-6 minutes to stretch between sets of PRIMARY (multi-joint) exercises. Alternate sets of Secondary (2-joint) exercises. Superset or circuit tertiary (1-joint) exercises.
Training accessories (belts, straps, wraps) are provided to aid your progress on heavy structural exercises. When not using them holds you back, it is no longer a matter of personal preference.
Use prudent technical variations (e.g., pull vs. clean; low- vs. high-bar squat) as needed to maximize your effort. Once again, they are no longer optional when not doing so hinders your progress.
Plan each workout in advance and keep accurate records on your worksheets.
Regardless of how well our program is planned, it is only as good as your ability to recover from and adapt to it. Maximize your gains–and conserve energy and time–with aggressive, efficient effort. Don’t dilute your work quality and cut into your recoverability/adaptability by sacrificing days off in order to ‘do some extra work’.
Nutrition and sleep are your two most important means of recovery and restoration. You will not achieve optimal training effects if you do not eat the right foods at the right times; or do not maintain a stable sleep-wakefulness rhythm. Optimal fitness is simply a specialized state of health, and no training program can offset a poor lifestyle. Think like a person of action. Act like a person of thought.
Do you have any whislers in your gym? I do! Some guy finishes a set and whisels his stupid happy song for minutes on end. If you have the energy to do that without passing out you’re not training very hard. Fuckers!
Theres a deuschbag at my gym whose in college who wears underarmour two sizes too small so he can check himself out at the mirror. Not even the occassional look in the mirror, full out staring at himself.
It makes me want to throw a 5 lb weight at the mirror and say “look what you did, asshole.”
[quote]j23t wrote:
Jason05 wrote:
Has anyone else seen people deadlifting with a smith machine? I didn’t think it was possible until I saw it two weeks ago. I thought they must be doing something else but I watched them go through 2 sets and sure enough they were deadlifting, well going through the motions anyway. Is there anyexplanation for this?
I have seen that, its unbelievable.
[/quote]
How’s about squatting with the t-bar rower?
The only time I ever said anything to anyone in the gym about form was when this skinny 19 year old boy almost extruded his anus doing a round back “deadlift”. It hurt me just to watch it.
[quote]malonetd wrote:
Another mildly amusing thing I get is when people offer me their belts or gloves when I’m deadlifting. I politely refuse, and it’s always followed with a remark of how I’m gonna end up hurting myself.[/quote]
I have also experienced this. Along with numerous warnings that deadlifting, in general, will hurt my back.
[quote]chinadoll wrote:
Kungfudude’s idea is the bomb! Are chinadolls allowed at this gym too?
Hey, you guys can come to my island Oahu…the north shore…ten minutes around the corner from my house…instead of a “dirt on the floor” gym, could be “sand on the floor”…beachfront outdoor gym…tons of free weights…like the old BB legends describe in Venice Beach California. Then we could all go surfing afterward to cool off and for cardio. Only serious, hard core trainers allowed, and only good BB music (metallica, rage against the machine, etc) allowed. We could sleep on the beach under the stars, wake up, train hard again, make mango-protein post-workout smoothines (my favorite…I have a tree, I’ll donate mangoes to you guys), bbq fresh fish on the grill, surf, run on the beach. No such thing as tanning beds, you will already be tan naturally. Our own T-Mag, T-bodybuilding paradise… [/quote]
Damn you killing me! I would love to do just that. hmm…
My school offers a certification course in personal training. During one of my early sunday lifting sessions they were doing their ‘final exam’ were they had to take a client through a certain set of exersises.
Anyways, one of the girls was having her client squat and I saw her got failed on spot. I couldnt figure it out as she got the client to squat nice and deep with a good curve in the back etc. Afterwards I asked one of them what happened and I was told that she let the client go past parallel which results in an AUTOMATIC FAILURE. This is the most absurd thing I have ever heard.
What the hell are these people thinking? No wonder PT’s are stupid if you teach someone to squat properly you get the boot.
One morning while squating I saw a 90 yr. old man (if he was a day) walking around the track in a speedo. He kind of looked like Blue in old school. If you have seen Big Daddy the phrase ‘old balls’ would have immediately come to mind…poor guy had to be escorted out.
I also frequently see a women who thinks she is a bird. She is about 50 or so, fairly attractive, always ‘done up’. (full makeup, hair, outfit etc.) She takes about 2 lbs. weights and does what she perceives to be lateral raises. She looks like she is trying to take off. Hard not to laugh, especially when you’ve taken a Spike.
Biggest Pet Peeve…people who wear perfume to the gym.
A recent plague of “Smith Machine Workouts” seem to have swept over my gym. I haven’t seem a Smith DL yet, though my mouth waters at the thought. My personal new year favorite is “Smith Machine One Arm Row”, especially the douche that took my squat box to hold himself while doing it. Apparently this lift appeared in recent M&F, because he had an edition open in front of him while doing it.
[quote]Jason05 wrote:
Has anyone else seen people deadlifting with a smith machine? I didn’t think it was possible until I saw it two weeks ago. I thought they must be doing something else but I watched them go through 2 sets and sure enough they were deadlifting, well going through the motions anyway. Is there anyexplanation for this?[/quote]