Yesterday I got to the gym and headed straight for the power racks to start my workout. Unfortunately, all four power racks were in use, one by a guy performing heavy shrugs, and the other three by GUYS DOING SQUATS.
Other times, the lifting platforms are occupied by guys performing cleans or power cleans with the bumper plates.
OK, so I’m lucky enough to have found a gym that actually has a few people who have a clue. Furthermore, the trainers that work there all have relevant degrees, have played college and/or professional football, have NSCA-CSCS certification, are certified Olympic Lifting coaches, and so on. They train real professional athletes as well as the soccer moms.
The point of this thread is to be the antithesis of the “curls in the squat rack” thread.
What have you seen at the gym that has impressed and inspired you?
What has humbled you and caused you to reevaluate your goals and progress?
Today, someone asked me how long I would be using the dipping belt. I told him I had two more sets, and he responded by asking me if I would give it to him when I finished. He told me he would be in the back doing squats.
I told him I would definitely give him the belt when I was through.
It was ironic considering nearly everyone was doing either cable curls or cable crossovers today at my gym.
A young dude(18) that lifts at my buddys house benches around 455, which is more than I can squat. Another guy I lift with just pulled 650. What keeps me humble is that even just loading the bar for them feels good. It’s like being a small part of something great. I would also like to match them at some of these lifts.
I knew my fiance’s brother-in-law used to lift, and apparently he was pretty jacked (according to her family), but I figured he trained like almost anyone else you’d find in a commercial gym. So I never really mentioned anything. Two days ago I find out he squatted 675 back in the day. WOW!!
So far I haven’t seen anyone do any respectable lifts at my gym, and out of 3 other guys I’ve seen doing squats, only one had good form (the others were half squats), but even he was squatting sub-200, and he’s been working out a few years. But at least he’s doing it, and correctly at that.
At the gym I used to go to, a guy had me spot for him during his speed/dynamic bench workout a few times.
The thing is, he was doing sets of at least 10 with 315 as if there was no weight on the bar. And these were perfect reps, because he is a competitive power lifter.
For me, as someone who benches around 250, seeing a guy use 3 plates a side as if it were an unloaded bar puts a lot in perspective.
Where I go now, I see one guy doing perfect squats with 4 plates per side, definitely a ways in my future.
Ass-to-grass squats always seemed a nice idea, but I was never interested in challenging myself with them. About a year ago I saw a skinny guy in the gym doing them–first time I’d EVER seen anyone do rock-bottom squats. Haven’t seen him since, but it made me decide I had to start rock-bottom squats myself. His top weight then was less than what I warm up with now, but I don’t know if I would ever have taken the plunge if I hadn’t seen someone doing them and making them look easy.
Now I see only two people doing them: me and my training partner.
One of the stronger women in my gym is a world class powerlifter (USAPL). Watched her doing GM’s with 225 like it was nothing. She has recently gotten out of powerlifting as she said it wasn’t any fun anymore. She’s started doing stongwoman contests instead. So now she’s training for those. Pretty cool to watch.
[quote]Crispyknight wrote:
I saw a woman squat 460 in the gym the other day. Maybe five foot four, 150 or so pounds. Ass to grass. I felt so very, very inadequate. [/quote]
There’s this wiry-strong old dude at my gym who does a lot of pull-up variants and grip work. He is about 65 or 70. He does this trick on the pull up bar where he starts pulling up,then raises his legs up over his head and flips his body over, pauses and then reverses out- all done slowly and under control. I think I 've seen him crack off like 4 or 5 of those in row.
it was friday night about 9 , like three of us in the whole gym and i’d just finished a bunch of work on the oly platform and was resting up a bit. i heard four or five guys come in all rowdy and talkin’ smack across the gym. just way too frickn loud you know ? i half expected to see a bunch of capheads in polo shirts gettin’ a pump before goin’ out drinking. anyway before i get up and turn around i hear " hey buddy you done here? " i say it’s all yours and next thing i know this dude about 5’8" 200 jumps up and lands on his hands and cranks out 12 freestanding handstand pushups going so low he was turning his cheek to the floor. didn’t even wind him by the way. of course i walked over to the fountain as if i could do 12 of those with one frickn hand but inside i was saying to myself “holy frickn shit!”
There is this chick at the gym almost everytime I am there. She’s probably some fitness competitor or something by the looks of it. Anyways she works out pretty tough. NOt the way I like to train but nontheless seeing her spend 45 minutes on the leg press machine with never more than 60 seconds rest was impressive
So a few years back I was working pretty hard at the seated shoulder press and was making pretty good gains with the lift. Feeling cocky, I challenged my old man to a pressing contest, knowing he was pretty good at the lift back in his prime. He told me to give him a couple months since he hadn’t worked out in years. So I originally challenged him in May, and at the end of June the company he worked for was having their company picnic, which I attended with him. He was giving me the tour of the place and showed me the gym they had.
While we were in there, he was telling me the workout he follows and showing me the equipment So I said let’s do the challenge right now! I warmed up a bit and managed to push 305 overhead (this was seated), at which point he sits down , grabs the bar and pushes out 10 easy reps (cold) at 330. I was eternally humbled by a man in his late 50’s that had only been lifting for 6 or 7 weeks after a 10-15 year lay off.
2 groups of younger guys (17-20year olds) were doing heavy dead lifts for sets of 3–with good form. next workout they were supersetting heavy bench and chins.
my girlfriend (5’8" 125lbs), just sumo’d 225 for 3 reps. yep, that got some looks from the guys who were squatting the same weight on the smith machine;)
ive been back to training for about 4 months and just pulled 505, nice and strong (my best ever is 550 and im going to blow that away!!). i dont really train for bench much but managed to put up 335–solid–the other day. very cool for me.
the guy i just started training with power cleans 395. holy fricken shit! now thats inspiring (watching him is probably what pumped me to pull that 500 dead).
ive made some basic programs for a bunch of my friends that have never trained before–and i look around the gym and see people deadlifting and doing chins-- wierd, but very cool and inspiring.
one of my buddeies(never trained or played sports before) just got a new max dead lift of 225 and was so excited he has been talking about it for a days (he still cant figure out why the hell my girlfriend can lift more than him;).
i watched a fellow gym buddy strict curl 225 on the straight bar at a body weight of 200. NICE!
training-life is rrreal good right now.
[quote]sensless wrote:
So a few years back I was working pretty hard at the seated shoulder press and was making pretty good gains with the lift. Feeling cocky, I challenged my old man to a pressing contest, knowing he was pretty good at the lift back in his prime. He told me to give him a couple months since he hadn’t worked out in years. So I originally challenged him in May, and at the end of June the company he worked for was having their company picnic, which I attended with him. He was giving me the tour of the place and showed me the gym they had.
While we were in there, he was telling me the workout he follows and showing me the equipment So I said let’s do the challenge right now! I warmed up a bit and managed to push 305 overhead (this was seated), at which point he sits down , grabs the bar and pushes out 10 easy reps (cold) at 330. I was eternally humbled by a man in his late 50’s that had only been lifting for 6 or 7 weeks after a 10-15 year lay off.
Regards,
Sensless[/quote]
Holy shit. Your dad could be a competitive strength athlete at his age.
A local guy named Dennis. His left leg was amputated years earlier b/c part of it was blown off in a minefield. It was removed just above the knee.
It was amazing to watch him do squats an deadlifts.
He would do Pistol style squats while holding a d.b.
And the deadlifts were done w/ d.b.'s also an he’d brace himslef on somethiong w/ his free hand.
He’s also the only guy I’ve ever seen in person do one armed chins.
A guy at my school gym who is of unknown age or origin (he keeps to himself) comes in just about every day and makes everyone look foolish. He is about 170ish and was doing goodmornings with more weight than i could believe. they werent full ROM but he had like 600 pounds on his back and just bend at the waist. then proceeded to use TWO hundred pound plates for Negatives on weighted pullups.
Ive also seen him doing overhead squats with more than my max DL, DB military press 100 pound dumbells, and a host of other impressive feats.
also, chalk is prohibited at my gym but they make an exception for him. No one argues with that.