Yesterday I became what might be viewed as one of the “Silly Gym People”. I usually work out with a small group of people (mostly in two-person teams). Yesterday we were all at the gym at about the same time, and all continuing (third week) with a Vince Gironda type routine (8x8). We were doing a set of his Swing Laterals. Looking up at 4 of us lined up in front of the mirror doing this exercise, we all resembled a bunch of bulky hula dancers swinging the db’s from side to side. It was a difficult exercise for 8 sets of 8, and the laughing didn’t help.
We were getting some odd looks
Some of the training stuff that goes on at my gym these days drives me nuts. It seems like every trainer is trying to see how much “functional/balancing” Crap they can use to train new trainees. It takes so much room too they use the benches to jump up and down using a medicine ball and other toys. Don’t get me wrong, if you are a seasoned and/or experienced athlete and want to do squats on the hemi-swiss ball, or swiss ball wall squats, or incorporate the new koosh ball feet thingies into your whatever…no problem. But when someone that looks like they need a major overhaul. Shouldn’t we start with real weight training and some real cardio?
Rebecca, you got me there; I don’t even know what a “Swing Lateral” is, so if I ever see any two-person teams hula dancing in front of the dumbbell rack, I’ll keep my yap shut!
Also, lest we become too proud in all our advanced T-knowledge, I’ll be the first to admit that I am a former (and hopefully recovered) gym dork! My first serious training excursion was a Cybergenics kit (remember those?) in 1994. Before that, I had spent several clueless years doing endless days of full body workouts on those pneumatic resistance machines (remember THOSE?) and a diet of pizza and beer, and I couldn’t understand why all those big guys in the free weight area had to grunt like that (better stay away from them). Later I graduated to free weights, but succeesed mostly in beating my brains out with too much weight too soon and crap form like that we are discussing here (the surest way to NEVER get stronger). Thank God I, and so many others, have seen the light. I guess what makes it funny is that so many people don’t EVER get it!
[quote]apayne wrote:
Damn Redsol, that weight HURT! Whaddaya want, she’s gotta nice ass I can’t help it! Especially since she works out in a thong, c’mon guys.[/quote]
Sorry apayne, I didn’t know that was you. As for the thong, i’ve got to floss with something. 
La’
Redsol1
funny. I actually do upright rows and ask for a spot. I do them with the spotter on the flat bench. So for those of you looking and blaming the “spotter” for the “lifter’s” form, perhaps you are too quick to blame. It is he on the bench that is the spotter.
[quote]jp_dubya wrote:
funny. I actually do upright rows and ask for a spot. I do them with the spotter on the flat bench. So for those of you looking and blaming the “spotter” for the “lifter’s” form, perhaps you are too quick to blame. It is he on the bench that is the spotter.[/quote]
Classic.
Freakin’ classic.
Okay I just saw this today , and I need to know if this guy was actually doing something useful (i believe no, but I have been wrong before).
This fellow, relatively large, but not huge, walks over to the cable machine, and proceeds to do tricep extensions with 30lbs, only hanging on to the bar with his thumbs. he knocks out 3 sets like that and then I didn’t see him again. (the reason I saw him do all three sets was that I was on the eliptical machine, cause I can’t lift due to injury)
-Dave
hmm try thumbwrestle the guy…he may just own ya. lol.
I was asked the other day if I just started squats (I was in the power rack with 225).
answered the guys ‘yes, but it’s not squats- it’s good mornings’
never got so much gay looks in my life. i wonder what was going on in their heads…“he’s doing squats all wrong.”
I want to echo Charles Staley’s remarks about cleaning up before a workout. I just began working out, and decided I owed something for all of the slights of hand I made before I found T-Mag. I did this, but asked some of the lazy pricks who leave their shit laying around if they were done. In other words, make it conspicuous!! When I did, all I have to do is look at an unracked weight or dumbell, and the offender will rack it. Good times. And cheers to CS for bringing this up. I suggest for all do do this. You can still laugh at dumbasses, which is an American pasttime, but also try to make less of them.
My boyfriend and I used to belong to Gold’s Gym until they closed and sold their memberships (and equipment) to the local YMCA. Now we are working out with a different mix, the generalists. The reason that I am posting this is because I saw someone posted something about some nicknames of people in his gym and I do that too. There is this one guy that we call (not to his face) Chester, the child molester (because he is always trying to hit on young girls and he looks like a cradle robber). There is another guy there that we call Tai-Kwon Do dude because he is always doing the splits and shit. This guy looks like a monkey and he tries to hit on every lady out there. One day he introduced me to his “girlfriend” when he was trying to train her. The sad thing is that he was totally mean to her when training her, so in the following days I saw that they were both there and completely ignoring eachother, like they were pissed off at one another. I don’t think Tai-Kwon-Do dude has a girlfriend anymore, but he’s still on the prowl. There is another guy that we call the Water Boy because he always carries a milk jug of water around with him in the gym. This guy acts like he has had such a hard workout, when he really isn’t doing much at all. He pants and makes all of these loud sounds like he is so strong. When he lifts the weight its funny to look at because he pretty much does the bounce the weight thing. Oh well, I try not to pay attention to these kinds of things when working out, but sometimes its just hard to miss.
Today this guy takes off his shirt and starts pounding out curls in front of the mirror.
There was a guy at my gym that worked out while his girlfriend did. He would “show off” on deadlift day for her. His idea of a DL was to drop to the floor at light speed, smash the plates off the floor, then bounce it up to the start position and call that a rep. He sounded like a grocery cart being pushed down the stairs.
there are plenty of people who deadlifts the same way…i can’t say that doing it that way is wrong. fitness training and strength or power training are different philos
[quote]chubs108 wrote:
there are plenty of people who deadlifts the same way…i can’t say that doing it that way is wrong. fitness training and strength or power training are different philos[/quote]
If you are bouncing weights off the floor instead of controlling it I sure as hell can say that its wrong…Its just like the guy who bounces the weight off his chest while bench pressing it…you’re letting momentum do the work and your muscles don’t get anything out of it whether you’re “fitness” training or strength training…silly gym people…lol.
I’m so happy I work out in the mid morning early afternoon time not a lot of people there to get in my way or take a piece of equipment I want to use.
When I worked out at a Gold’s awhile ago there was a guy I called “Golden Arches” because when he benched, everyday, he would arch his back so far off the bench that he looked like an amatuer wrestler doing a bridge. When I had a girlfriend 
we would workout at the same gym but not together, she knew how to train right, and guys would constantly try to come on to her, I used to either make fun of them real loud and hope they would start something, or when I would do a deadlift I would bang the weight real hard after a set, and then go over to her and kiss her.
yep, big typo… I was in such a rant rage that the word “squat” was where “curl” was supposed to be. I’m so used to squat going with power rack that it must’ve just jumped out of my fingers when typing it.