Things Overheard at the Gym

Off Topic
181

[quote]jbodzin wrote:
I lift with my head phones on, so I deon’t hear much but I see everything.

The latest exercise added to the list of strange techniques held by the trainers at my gym.

I know what your thinking “Peppy would you say they have a plethora of strange exercises?”

“Yes Guapo, they have a plethora of strange exercisies”

In this case Swiss Ball Lateral Raises!

Oh boy, this is fun to watch.

The trainer has the slightly plump but delicious co-ed kneel on the swiss ball and flap her arms up and down, while the ball threatens to shoot out from between her legs. Meanwhile he is not spotting her so she could fall backwards or fowards at any time. The sad thing is this guy is actually a semi-Pro V-ball player, and I swear to god he would never do this himself.

So I looked this one up and found it at a site called, now get this,

DESKJOCKEYFITNESS.COM

Here is the link to the site

http://www.deskjockeyfitness.com/FeaturedExercises/0502SwissBallLateralRaise.html

Seriously you have to read this description of the exercise.

Apparently if you get to strong of shoulders you will have impingent issues! And if you don’t do it on a swiss ball your form will be bad.[/quote]

I first had the pleasure of discovering these 2 years ago when I was dumbell benching and some ass was doing them with 50 lb. dumbells right next to me. Obviously, it was more weight than he had any business lateral raising, and was throwing it up at his sides while wobbling on the ball. Can you say “break your concentration”?

I got up and left the area until he was done, because I really didn’t want to go to prison for killing the idiot after he lost it and I got a 50 lb. dumbell (or two) planted in my gut.

182

before this thread dies i will have added several stories it would appear. so two nights ago i was going to use the seated calf raise. i notice there are a couple of older(45-50?) women with their stuff on and around it. i decide to use the calf press to warm up until they were done with the machine.

i finish my 4x12 and walk over to them, to discover they are not even using the god damn machine for calves. they are using the seat to do DIPS!!! and they have their water bottles and magazines all over the equipment. i politely ask if i can use the machine for my calves as it’s next and i am trying not to lose my pump.

they respond with “we only have a couple of sets left EACH. so now i’m getting pissed, i decide to wait one foot away and just stare at them hoping i would scare them away(i am pretty damn ugly, and noboy wants to look at that too long). after about 5 minutes of them doing some 2-3” deep dips in between chatting they finally decide to be done with it.

i’ve never actually considered going to the managment for anything other than ipods and phones and shit i find left behind(not so much the shit though), but i seriously had to hold myself back from either causing a big scene or telling the fucktard mangment to get these old hags to move. next time i’m gonna flip the fuck out.

it’s funny, since this post has gone up i seem to be running into these types of bullshit situations more and more.

183

You just have to love the stupid things people do in general. But it is like gym is a stupid person expose and they are all performing at their best.

184

[quote]Petedacook wrote:
You just have to love the stupid things people do in general. But it is like gym is a stupid person expose and they are all performing at their best. [/quote]

Haha! Well said. You’d think they would have to rehearse to look this convincingly retarded

185

Reprinted from another website I posted it on, on 03-31-06:

Let me preface this by saying that my gym is managed by a young female, and about 90% of the staff is the same. The ones working when I am there (early afternoon) are too timid to be counted on to enforce gym policy, so I took matters into my own hands.

Last week I was waiting to to dumbell bench and this woman who looked in her early 50’s was standing next to the bench, holding 5 lb. dumbells, doing some sort of twist-at-the-waist crap. Summoning all of my inner maturity, I thought, “Fine, she’s using the weights in the free weight area, my name isn’t on them, and far be it from me to judge someone’s way of exercising, no matter how asinine it is.”

Figuring she’d be done soon, I did a warm-up set on the pec dec. And another. And Another. NOW she was doing push-ups on the floor, feet touching the bottom of the bench I wanted to use, head about 6 inches from the dumbell rack, and all her sh*t (water bottle, towel, mp3 player) on another bench. Yes: Push-ups. On the floor. Of the FREE WEIGHT AREA. If my gym were a 600 sq ft. hole-in-the-wall, I might understand, but since there is a large matted area for calisthetics, plus an entire aerobics room that wasn’t being used at the time, my blood was set to boiling.

At the first opportunity, I went and grabbed the 95’s and instead of taking the direct route, had to walk around the incline bench to get to the bench I needed because the clueless @#$%^& was still standing there doing I-don’t-know-what (it was kind of hard to see through the red haze that was clouding my vision). As most of you know, when walking with this kind of extra poundage, every step counts, and I was plenty mad that I had to waste all that energy on walking the weights over there instead of on my set.

Normally I’m fairly quiet with my breathing and barely let the weights touch, if at all, at the top of my reps on dumbell bench. Not today. “RAAARGH!!” CLANG! “RAAARGH!!” CLANG!, etc.

She moved.

186

Uh, why not just ask her if she could move so you could use the equipment?

187

“DUDE I SHIT MY PANTS”

188

The other day I was working out at my gym and it hadn’t opened yet for the day so I was enjoying some really loud music while doing my leg workout. The phone rings at the gym so I answer it and it was a kid who wanted to check out the gym and said he was thinking of getting a membership. Being the nice guy that I am, I told him I’d open up so that he and his buddy could see the gym and workout.

When they finally came down, they couldn’t stop raving about how the gym was hardcore like their gym back home. One of the guys looked like he could’ve played college football at a small school and his buddy looked like he didn’t work out.

While I’m resting between sets, I hear somebody screaming “Come on man, one more rep. Oh yeah, that’s it. Let’s go man! Oh yeah, feel the weight. Oh yeah, oh yeah, oh yeah.” This took place during every set (of chest) that these two kids were doing. After I thought these kids couldn’t get any more rediculous, I witnessed one of the gayest things I’ve ever seen in the gym.

They had moved to the pec dec and the small kid was preforming his set.

After several, “oh yeah, come on” from the big kid, he actually walked over to the small kid, put his index finger betweed the small kids pecs and started saying "Come on, squeeze it in my finger, come on, harder.

Oh yeah, feel the pump, come on squeeze my finger." I thought I was going to faint. Thankfully, these two douchebags never joined the gym and I haven’t seen them since.

189

“Seriously, dude, the biceps are the most important muscle group in the body. That’s why you want to work them last.”

Two wrongs almost make a right, I guess…

190

not what i heard today at the gym but what i saw… two high school kids come in and start doing synchronized lifting… enough said

191

My girlfriend and I got a chuckle the other day in the fact that people must look at us strange in the gym and wonder what we’re doing. Not that we lift the heaviest weights but follow several routines from here.

Have done both CT’s and CW’s as well as the summer prep from the PN site. I guess between the hang cleans, over head squats, renegade rows and ass to grass squating people have taken notice.

While out shopping a lady I’ve never noticed at the gym looked at us and said, “oh your the two that work out. Are you training for something special or is that just your thing.”

192

Okay, this is my first post but I’ve been reading this thread for the past 20min or so and had to give my personal example.

I’m a college athlete who goes to school in Colorado, but trains at home during the summers at a private college with a bunch of yuppies – but only because it’s free and I have an occasional buddy to train with.

Anyway, I’m at the end of an intense leg workout 2 x 30 @ 225 back squats. The squat racks are set up in front of mirrors where, during my second set, two senior football players are watching me go to parallel and back continuously. This shit’s hard enough without them staring at me, but I think fuck it, more motivation.

I finish and notice myself in the mirror realizing my face is extremely pale and odds are I’m gonna end up puking. As soon as I turn around one of the guys says, “Looks like you went pretty far down there,” and the other says, “Ya, you could get hurt doing all those reps.”

My response, “Ya, a couple new techniques: parallel and effort. Now excuse me, I have to throw up.”

193

[quote]ascshotput wrote:
Anyway, I’m at the end of an intense leg workout 2 x 30 @ 225 back squats. [/quote]

Im not a fan of going off topic, but you do sets of 30 ?
What hell kinda of program are you following?

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Two 5"9, 145 pound guys walk into the gym and i overhear this.

Guy A-- So what are we doing today ?

Guy B – I dont know, i really feel like doing chest.

Guy A – yeah, didnt we bench yesterday ?

Guy B – yeah, but i really wanna do it again today.

I always knew these people were out there, i had just hoped they hadnt infiltrated my gym.

195

[quote]Will S wrote:
ascshotput wrote:
Anyway, I’m at the end of an intense leg workout 2 x 30 @ 225 back squats.

Im not a fan of going off topic, but you do sets of 30 ?
What hell kinda of program are you following?[/quote]

I was following a high volume summer prep. workout. I lost 35lbs of fat within three months (can attribute a lot to Berardi’s PN!!), and I believe GH release was pretty high for me personally. Still, my form in the lifts had to become profoundly better and my tolerance for the volume seemed to increase after the second week of each respective cycle (3 x 4wk cycles). This 2 x 30 was at the END of a workout at 50% max and only at 2 x 30 during the last week of the last four week cycle.

Since then we’ve started our preseason track practices and our training volume is very high. The program definitely helped prepare for the stresses of a long season being an athlete needing to repeat explosive movements.

My strength levels to date have not been better and I can attribute a lot of that to the workouts I did throughout the summer.

196

[quote]ascshotput wrote:
Okay, this is my first post but I’ve been reading this thread for the past 20min or so and had to give my personal example.

I’m a college athlete who goes to school in Colorado, but trains at home during the summers at a private college with a bunch of yuppies – but only because it’s free and I have an occasional buddy to train with.

Anyway, I’m at the end of an intense leg workout 2 x 30 @ 225 back squats. The squat racks are set up in front of mirrors where, during my second set, two senior football players are watching me go to parallel and back continuously. This shit’s hard enough without them staring at me, but I think fuck it, more motivation.

I finish and notice myself in the mirror realizing my face is extremely pale and odds are I’m gonna end up puking. As soon as I turn around one of the guys says, “Looks like you went pretty far down there,” and the other says, “Ya, you could get hurt doing all those reps.”

My response, “Ya, a couple new techniques: parallel and effort. Now excuse me, I have to throw up.”[/quote]

Um yea sure…no need to make up stories to boost your ego. If you say you were going to parallel it was most likely that you were doing quarter squats or even more likely 1/8 squats.

197

[quote]charizard123 wrote:
Um yea sure…no need to make up stories to boost your ego. If you say you were going to parallel it was most likely that you were doing quarter squats or even more likely 1/8 squats. [/quote]

Why are you dogging on him?

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[quote]ThatGirl77 wrote:
charizard123 wrote:
Um yea sure…no need to make up stories to boost your ego. If you say you were going to parallel it was most likely that you were doing quarter squats or even more likely 1/8 squats.

Why are you dogging on him?[/quote]

Yeah, knock it off. He plays college ball, he’s an athlete and apparently he can handle it. I’m pretty sure I couldn’t do it, keep lifting hard.

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[quote]charizard123 wrote:

Um yea sure…no need to make up stories to boost your ego. If you say you were going to parallel it was most likely that you were doing quarter squats or even more likely 1/8 squats. [/quote]

Well, considering it was my first post, I can accept some criticism. But I must say, were you there that day? or the weeks prior consisting of 2 x 15 @ 45%, 2 x 20 @ 50%, 2 x 25 @55% and the subsequent week in my post? Please, don’t assume quarter squats and/or “1/8” squats. I bust my ass, not unlike many of the others who post here, and in no way was my post an ego boost.

I learned long ago that there are no egos in the weight room…

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[quote]jbodzin wrote:
ThatGirl77 wrote:
charizard123 wrote:
Um yea sure…no need to make up stories to boost your ego. If you say you were going to parallel it was most likely that you were doing quarter squats or even more likely 1/8 squats.

Why are you dogging on him?

Yeah, knock it off. He plays college ball, he’s an athlete and apparently he can handle it. I’m pretty sure I couldn’t do it, keep lifting hard.[/quote]

He’s doggin’ him because he’s a trolling bastard who never contributes anything useful to this site. If you look at his post history, all he does is spew shit.

Just ignore him and maybe he’ll crawl back under the rock from which he came. But I have a feeling we wouldn’t be that lucky.