Absolutely observed. In turn, when they finally decide to go and do something, they end up not actually pushing hard enough to make progress. They interpret the first sign of exertion as an indication that something is WRONG, and then they back off until they don’t feel that sensation any more. They essentially never actually get any work sets in when they lift, and then wonder why they make no progress.
In turn, they start assuming everyone who DOES make progress must be on steroids.
I guess I should be more grateful for the way all of this was introduced to me. My dad still has and uses one of the old school home gyms with the seated bench, leg extension, and pec dec on the opposite side. I can remember him waking me up at 5 or 6 am when I was in 4th and 5th grade to work out with him. He taught me his simple routine (basically a workout that came with the machine via a poster) and had me do 3 x 15 on everything. I didn’t do it year round but I had phases of it with him and I learned about the burning and lactic acid at a young age.
Our high school had weights and they encouraged us to come in the summer for football after our 8th grade year. We had to be in 10th grade to take the class. The teacher/coach wasn’t very helpful. I had to learn by doing or from upper classmen. Luckily I didn’t get hurt.
I finally got hooked training with my brother and his friend between my junior and senior year. They (or at least my brother) were using some PED’s and I was using creatine. They taught me a six day bodybuilding split and we hit it hard on every exercise. Most of the rep schemes were 10, 8, 6, 4, 2 to failure trying to move more weight each workout.
I never read anything about training until around the time I joined this site in 2006 or 2007. I didn’t know such things existed. The foundation of my training was taught to me firsthand in the trenches. Thank God for that because even as an experienced lifter it’s easy to get distracted by the newest article with the latest claims of greatness. The younger generation is probably overwhelmed with information and then more information that conflicts with that other information.
I often see the opposite in the gym.
Young dudes are so keyed up, they Only lift too heavy. Every set is 4 BS reps, with 2 ugly grinds. They try So hard, they don’t get any work sets in.
Internet videos, a bizaro 5 x 5 approach, and pre workout drinks have given them a skewed view of how much to exert themselves.
Every workout is like …“what if you just had 1 chance? Spaghetti, Spaghetti, Spaghetti!”
I don’t get this reference. I hate it when that happens.
Some wrapper.
Dave Chappelle
It’s ok, mate. It took me at least a year to figure out Blaha wasn’t internet for ‘bleh’ and ‘haha’.
I thought this was your reference…
I often bust-out the “spaghetti, spaghetti…”
For what it’s worth, Flats, I got it right away.
As much as this is going too much over the line, these guys tend to at least have SOME results to show for it. But yeah; hard to find the line between testing and training.
I see an interesting trend in my commercial gym. All the beginners (usually college-aged or early twenties) seem to be all about power-lifting AND bodybuilding.
So, they come in and do the big three barbell lifts where
And then they move on to their ‘accessory work’ of curls and triceps and lat pulldowns and DB chest work, etc. Here they use the lightest weight possible. I’m talking about 10 lb DB curls, 30 lb lat pulldowns, 25 lb db bench. Nothing wrong with light weight if that’s your capacity, but doing 25 lb DB Bench after trying to grind out 150 lb bench presses is just odd to me.
I’ve heard a few of them ‘whispering’ behind my back that I must be on steroids. The first time I overheard this, I was proud. Now I’m just saddened.
Ahh man, I Kind of follow something like that.
Assistance work following one of the big three movements, for whichever day it’s rotated in.
Albeit, not to the way you described.
Quit putting me on blast lol
But the question is are these the types that have spent most of the time sitting on their asses or are they former jocks? I have seen what your talking about and in those cases they are former jocks. Now that been my experience and of course yours might have been different.
I think the moon phases and strength are related…
Full moon= stronger training (easier perceived training)
New moon= hard training (weights are perceived heavier)
This makes sense. When the moon is closer to the earth, it has a stronger gravitational pull, so the weights you lift will feel lighter.
It’s basic science really.
When you have kids, the best you can link to is always something like this:
Either way, Damn Kids are all on their Damn phones to much!
I often use powerful Crystals to counter these effects.
That is no lie 
That is indeed true but sadly it is also true for most adults as well !!!
Yeah, I’m guilty. I track my workouts on my phone as well as running Spotify. If I get a text then I have no problem responding during my timed rest.
I also track my workouts on paper…and on here (that part is for others).