Same hair but significantly smaller and younger
Shame
When people are talking about deadlifting in the squat rack do you mean one of those open racks with safety spotters but not adjustable j-hooks, or the full cage racks? Most gyms I go to have at least one of each. The open rack is my go to for deadlifts and always has been. There usually is not a better place to deadlift unless you take a bar from a bench press and stand in front of the bench press for your deadlifts. Yes the advantage of that is your not using a squat rack but at most gyms there are more people bench pressing than doing squats so if your going to occupy something for deadlifts (that isn’t designed for deadlifts) the rack makes more sense. Plus I always rack the weight to add 45s, at least up to 3 per side.
This is the style I am talking about. I do squats/DL/bent over rows/overhead press using this equipment. Occasionally curls if no one else is using them, but I stand back further so technically I’m curling outside the rack and only using the rack to rest my bar between sets, does that still count?
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It also makes sense to use this for deads because the weight is usually right there. It’s convenient.
Somewhat related: No matter where you go, there’s always an equivalent. The equivalent to curls in the squat rack - on a track, is someone walking or jogging in lane 1. People can get pretty pissed about it, but I rarely see them ask the person nicely to get out of lane 1 (ie teach them the proper etiquette). Instead they stew over it.
I personally don’t mind people doing that in lane 1, I just use the other lanes or just go around them, I rarely need that level of precision. I always approach people who just stand on the track and block it though… I don’t flip out, I just go up to them and ask them to move & tell them why etc. It’s usually like frat/sorority kids who are completely oblivious. I’ve never encountered anyone refuse to move. They often look at me like i’m some kind of weirdo or speaking an alien language, but then they move off the track. I guess if they refused then i’d probably get angry. So if you approached someone who is doing curls in the rack with some “puny weight” & you needed to get some squats in, and they told you to “fu*k off”, that’d probably be annoying & hilarious. If they were curling like 225 lb though, i’d just watch. lol.
Magnus Samuelsson loved cheat curls. Apparently he hit 305+? I forget. Would be funny if he was doing them in the rack & someone asked him to get out.
I guess what @dt79 said makes the most sense to me:
No matter how egregious the gym (or track or whatever) etiquette, stewing over it without confronting someone (politely) seems to be way worse to me. lmao.
Also, I just learned how to highlight text & click the quote button. wow.
pc!
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Yup. You get it.
The point is: What’s the big deal?
If there’s a dude curling in the rack, most likely the gym is empty or he thinks no one is going to be using the rack any time soon. Just go ask if you can work in. How many sets can he possibly be doing? Go stretch and do a few warm up sets while he’s finishing his 3 sets of 10. That’s it. No drama, getting offended, nothing.
I’ve shared the rack with someone who wanted to do rows while I was squatting before. The guy asked me how many sets I had left. I said I just started and asked if he wanted to share. He said, “It’s ok” as he wanted to do rows. I noticed he couldn’t find a free barbell anywhere since the gym was too crowded so I told him, “fuck it let’s just share the rack” even though he was reluctant as I was using quite a bit of weight and he was just going to work up to 135lbs. We removed and loaded plates together in between sets. I got him to spot me during my last set.
We are human beings. Human beings are complex individuals, not one dimensional internet memes with the word “GYM DOUCHE” on them because of a single action at a single point in time.
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I dunno man, this seems like a lot to wrap my head around. Can’t I just label people and hate them like the good old days?
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I don’t get the crying about it on the internet thing either, although my absolute favourite, favourite thing is when there’s a thread where some guy’s talking shit about some guy in the gym and he ends it with something like “I just stared him out until he left.”
I fucking love that. Like, if some guy was really intensely eyeballing me in the gym I would just assume he wanted to have sex with me, not building hatred to be vented on internet forums.
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A story to prove dt79’s point:
I love me some high incline Smith, but this old guy had been on it for literally half an hour doing the same exercise. Instead of getting all vaginal and waiting until I got home to rant about it on the internet, I asked the dude if I could work in. Turns out he’s this super nice old dude who’s fucked up his back so he can only really use the smith. He even apologised for using it for so long and says anytime I want it just to ask and he can take a break while I do, because he knows it’s inconvenient for the other gym users for him to be on it so long.
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Nobody does curls out of the Monolift.
one more while I’m on a roll:
I would say my gym is fairly representative of most commercial gyms, and I’d put the number of users who actually squat to be less than 5%. It wouldn’t surprise me if most of the users don’t actually realise it’s even a “squat” rack and just think it’s where the barbell lives.
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Lies
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Yeah I don’t seriously don’t buy it when someone says this unless what he really means is he glared at the guy behind his back. Where I’m from, if you start a staring match, it means you are intending to take things to the next level if the other guy doesn’t back down. These guys don’t even dare to ask a stranger if they can work in with them lol.
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LMFAO, exactly. Won’t actually initiate a conversation/confrontation but ruthless enough to execute a staring contest… 
The truth about the staring contest is: it was a < 1 second mean/annoyed glance that was embellished on the interwebs into a winning stare down.
imposterone! ← I just came up with that.
On a related note to stare downs: when I was in H.S., some really psycho former gang dude (like 6’3 225 or so, solid as hell) I luckily played basketball with (and was cool with) would stare people down at McDonalds, posted up on the wall. Sometimes when my dad would come to pick me up, my dad would stare at him, like he wanted a confrontation. This dude knew it was my dad and came up to me one day and was like “Man what’s up with your dad? Does he want to get fucked up or what?” This guy was pretty evil so I basically was like dude chill he’s just a bit nuts. IIRC he replied something like “you need to tell your dad to stop looking at me” LMFAO. Anyway a few months later some dude beat up his brother so he picked some random white kid near the school and crowbar’d him into the ER then went to prison. As far as stare downs go, like @dt79 mentioned, this dude was ready for war when you stared at him. Give him a bad look and he’d make you back down like a bitch or if you squared up he’d T off on you. If he knew about this curling in the squat rack stuff, I’m sure he’d do it just to get stares and then punk people. Closest thing to Mike Tyson i’ve ever seen IRL, I imagine. That’s also another reason I don’t “stare down” with random people. I’d rather just avoid confrontation. LOL.
Edit: Also, to make that story more festive, his alias was “Holiday”. I mention it in the context of stare downs because i’ve never in my life, ever met someone as volatile as this guy.
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“Eat that, U Tube.”
Revealed as an internet know it all! I should get out of the chat rooms and get in the gym!
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The only time it’s douchy IMO is if someone else wants to squat or do an exercise that utilizes the rack and the curling person insists on finishing all his sets.
NOTE: You actually have to come to the person and say you want to use the rack, not just stare them down and hope they can read minds.
As for deadlifting, most gyms don’t have dedicated platforms so people do it in front of the racks. Never seen someone do it INSIDE. In that case, unless you go to some rinky dink gym with only one olympic-sized barbell, you can most likely grab another one from somewhere (incline barbell bench tends to become a victim of this if there’s no barbell stand) and use it for squats inside the rack while someone else deadlifts in front of the rack.