Things Overheard at the Gym

Off Topic
261

[quote]Scotacus wrote:
Whaddya think?

This happened to me today at the gym.

I was doing EDT in the safety rack, as I was doing Good Mornings, and used the safety pins for, well… safety. It takes 15 minutes.

Anyway, this guy sitting on a bench is watching. Eventually he comes over and with an irritated, somewhat aggressive tone asks “Are you done with the rack??” To which I looked him in the eye and told him no, I had 3 more minutes, which was true.

So after I finish I was curious as to what he was going to do that required such urgent use of the rack. Turns out he was doing partial bench presses.

THere were 4 bench presses open, plus a smith machine and 2 or 3 squat racks. Could he not have used those? I have never done partials, but there are alternatives to the safety rack, no?[/quote]

Was the guy doing pin presses, benching off of the rack pins that are set to about 3-6 inches from lockout?

If so, there’s no way to do them on a regular bench. You need the pins. Usually you also try not to do any negative at all; you just let the weight drop back onto the pins.

I don’t think you were wrong to be using the power rack though. You both pay your gym fees, and you both happened to need to use the same piece of equipment, and you were doing something that wouldn’t have allowed for someone to work in with you.

It’s the gym’s fault for not having more than one power rack.

262

[quote]vendall wrote:
Sorry Chainsaw, I realise that sometimes it is necessary to drop db’s. I wasn’t directly targeting you and referring more to kids that constantly drop 40 pound db’s. [/quote]

Ah, fughedaboudit.

You, I, and push I think have shown by example how constructive a rational discussion can be when it doesn’t turn in to an insult contest.

[quote]A lot of the db’s at my gym have loose plates and are falling apart because of it. So I’m on the same page as yourself and push.
[/quote]

Don’t know if you read the link in my post before last, but that guy hasn’t been back since, at least not when I’m at the gym.

263

[quote]SWR-1240 wrote:
I don’t think you were wrong to be using the power rack though. You both pay your gym fees, and you both happened to need to use the same piece of equipment, and you were doing something that wouldn’t have allowed for someone to work in with you.

It’s the gym’s fault for not having more than one power rack.[/quote]

Yea, it was more the attitude than anything else. CHeers

264

[quote]UtahLama wrote:
Digital Chainsaw wrote:
OOOO, OOOOO!!! New one!

Day before yesterday a group of 5 teenage boys are lifting together, doing whatever the biggest among them does first. Anyway, the squat cage is around the corner from where I’m lifting, so I can’t see the person in it, but I can see the other 4 guys sitting around watching the one guy do what I’m assuming are squats.

I came to the conclusion that the guy in the cage was squatting due to the following instructions he received from his comrades:

Douche #1: Hey, man, don’t fart!

Douche #2: Yeah, dude, seriously! Because one time? I farted? And it totally threw me off!

I went back to my workout, and a few minutes later saw them doing DB 1-arm preacher curls while yelling, “yeah! Go heavy or go home!”

Could I make this shit up?

Was it our very own GO HEAVY FOOL??

[/quote]

HA, HAAA!!! Nope, he’s in Tally, I’m a couple hundred miles south in St. Pete. Same state is closer than I want to be, actually.

Speaking of our favorite passive-aggressive, bipolar moron, I haven’t seen him around lately. I’m starting to miss the big lug.

265

A couple of days ago I see a bunch of kids that go the highschool I used to go to. I could tell because they had the football shirts.

While I’m sitting on the bench I look over every now and again in between sets to see what they’re doing. What I saw,I’m pretty sure it’s not even an exercise but I’ll try and describe it to the best of my ability.

First they would grab the E-Z bar and load 2 10’s a side. Then they would then place the bar behind themselves and perform an awkward hack squat. Then in what I can only describe as a retarded goodmorning they would proceed to place their foreheads on a bench while still griping the bar behind them. Now the actual movement came. It looked like a supinated reverse shoulder raise with a 2 inch range of motion.

One of the kids saw me shaking my head while watching them perform their “exercise”. I then overhead him say “what’s the guy shaking his head for? I never see him do anything difficult”. I just laughed and went and did floor press.

266

[quote]fallout188 wrote:
A couple of days ago I see a bunch of kids that go the highschool I used to go to. I could tell because they had the football shirts.

While I’m sitting on the bench I look over every now and again in between sets to see what they’re doing. What I saw,I’m pretty sure it’s not even an exercise but I’ll try and describe it to the best of my ability.

First they would grab the E-Z bar and load 2 10’s a side. Then they would then place the bar behind themselves and perform an awkward hack squat. Then in what I can only describe as a retarded goodmorning they would proceed to place their foreheads on a bench while still griping the bar behind them. Now the actual movement came. It looked like a supinated reverse shoulder raise with a 2 inch range of motion.

One of the kids saw me shaking my head while watching them perform their “exercise”. I then overhead him say “what’s the guy shaking his head for? I never see him do anything difficult”. I just laughed and went and did floor press.[/quote]

Sounds like they are trying to do some sort of mis-guided Haney Shrug.

267

I have literally seen a guy perform this ‘dumbell toss’ event with 35lb dumbells. I just shook my head and sighed. Oh sure, I make noise when I deadlift and when I ocassionally have to dump the bar in the squat rack, but I don’t chuck the weights across the floor instead of picking them up when I need to put them away. Why, I’m even nice enough to put my weights away 95% of the time.

268

Ahh, a chance to resurrect this thread!

I’m in the gym this afternoon and I found what might prove to be a rich source of material for this very thread: the gym sales staff. I have no idea why I never noticed this one before.

So one of the head sales guys at my gym (LA Fitness) is showing a few people around. I walk past him and the two prospective members on my way to the water fountain. He is stopping to show them how all of the plates are coated with rubber… and the following ensued:

“See, all of our weights are covered in rubber, so there isn’t any banging around of weights here. The guys who like to bang weights? They see this and don’t even bother to join. They’re called meatheads.”

It was all I could do to stop from giggling out of control. Not that my gym is Westside or something, but people deadlift, use chalk and all of that… but I guess we have no “meatheads” who love to have weights bang together (gee, 'cause everyone likes to do that!)

269

[quote]vendall wrote:
Petedacook wrote:
Looks like this guy has no problem dropping the weight instead of trying to set up with it and he has >100.

Well, for one, just because he does it, doesn’t make it right, but I guess as ex Mr. Olympia he’s got some special status =P. Again, this is referring more to general gym folk.

Alex.

[/quote]

I apologize that I just came across this response, and wanted to say I agree. He does get some bonus points. in fact, I think he makes the gym he trains at, they have a huge banner advertising tat he trains there outside, and he said in a movie I watched he felt he owed them for being there when he was starting out so he will stay with them.

Also, since these posts, I have made my way to working out with 110’s on the flat bench and I make it a point to not drop them by reversing the way I get into position with the dumbbells, as you said earlier as I recall. The way I see it, there is no reason to be an ass and drop the DB’s when a little effort on my part can and will avoid it.

The only area for improvements in thie is that I tend to go heavy, for me, when I do DB military press with 75-80 pound DB’s and sometimes have trouble letting them down controlled. I kick them off my knee for DB military press and cant really drop them back to my knee because it would really hurt :slight_smile:

Usually, I try to swing them down in a curl type fashion and set them down, but sometimes the fatigue necessitates dropping them, and I feel a serious strain and the possibility of injury when I swing them down in this fashion. Any pointers is appreciated on how to set them down from a military press. I am only curling in good form with 52.5 dumbbells, so the 75-80 DB’s after fatigue on the military, dropping the DBs in a curl fashion is seriously straining for me.

Either way, I agree with you, now that I have put conscious effort into it :slight_smile:

And honestly, it makes me feel good to lift the DB’s no one touches, and yet set them down with the same finesse I picked them up with.

Thanks for the posts man.

271

Two new ones to add back to this thread:

First story:

There is a guy in my gym, maybe in his late 40’s who I see at the gym every now and again. You would not think anything unusual or special about him if you just saw him on the street… ohhh, but my friends, get him on a piece of cardio equipment with his headphones and look out! The guy starts singing along… and not the typical headphone-wearing kind of singing we all do occasionally, I mean he is letting it hang out. Sometimes it is a few lines and sometimes it is 10 seconds of incredibly uncomfortable moments for all within earshot.

Second story:

During my workout 3 nights ago, there was a bit of a strange smell in the gym I noticed as I went for a drink of water. Smelled a little bit like burning rubber or when some kind of machinery begins to fail. I think nothing of it and continue my workout.

A little later, I see 5 or 6 firefighters in full gear making their way through the gym, apparently checking into the source of the odd smell. They are still there as I finish up my workout and I pass by the guy with the “ASSISTANT CHIEF” on his jacket who is talking with some member from the gym.

The gym member is asking about the smell and says to the firefighter, “Well, I mean… do you think it’s one of those sports drinks or something? I see guys having those in the locker room…”

Ummm… yeah… OK.

272

I’d just finished my workout and was sipping on my PWO shake in the locker room…

Random guy with ILS: what’s that you’ve got there, that whey protein shit?
Me: Yep.
Him: why would you do that to yourself man, don’t you know that stuff makes you impotent? The trade off’s just not worth it.
Me: …

273

Yesterday at the gym,
Guy using assisted chin machine with a lot of counter weight, and using wrist wraps.

274

Guy telling his girlfriend, who by the way had perfect form, not to go deep in the squat. It’s not necessary for strength.

275

[quote]languid wrote:
I’d just finished my workout and was sipping on my PWO shake in the locker room…

Random guy with ILS: what’s that you’ve got there, that whey protein shit?
Me: Yep.
Him: why would you do that to yourself man, don’t you know that stuff makes you impotent? The trade off’s just not worth it.
Me: …
[/quote]

That was a genuine LOL for me. I half-wonder if there is not something about gyms that just cause people to say some of the most bizarre crap ya ever heard.

276

[quote]languid wrote:
I’d just finished my workout and was sipping on my PWO shake in the locker room…

Random guy with ILS: what’s that you’ve got there, that whey protein shit?
Me: Yep.
Him: why would you do that to yourself man, don’t you know that stuff makes you impotent? The trade off’s just not worth it.
Me: …
[/quote]

I had some kid tell me that creatine “shrinks your pee pee.” Direct quote.

277

Not heard but I once saw a wad of gum, a pile of chaw and a luggie in the water fountain. No, wait, that was fifty thousand times.

278

Guy in my gym lays down on the hamstring curl machine. Starts ‘kicking’ his feet one at a time really, really fast smacking his foot against his ample backside. Has what may be 10 lbs on the machine. When he finishes following conversation takes place:

Gym employee gal: Wow. Working hard.
Hamstring curl guy: Yeah. Trying to make it like I’m running.
Me: You should go outside and try something called running.

279

Not overheard at the gym, but at work. This guy who used to work with me would bother me everyday about nutrition. He was the typical “I don’t want to get too big” mo-ran that would ignore the basics and get stuck on stupid insignificant things.

Anyway I tried to honestly help him for a week or two and I was trying to explain when he should get low g.i. carbs, blah blah blah

So I mention some carbs and I ask what he likes to eat (which I find out are all refined shit carbs). Finally I offer a few and when I mention rice, he says he doesn’t eat rice and he never would.

I ask him why (allergy, doesn’t like taste?)

He says: “Asians have small penis’ and they eat rice all the time. So I don’t eat it because I don’t want my penis to get small.”

Luckily he was fired for some other random stupidity so I never have to talk to him.

280

[quote]languid wrote:
I’d just finished my workout and was sipping on my PWO shake in the locker room…

Random guy with ILS: what’s that you’ve got there, that whey protein shit?
Me: Yep.
Him: why would you do that to yourself man, don’t you know that stuff makes you impotent? The trade off’s just not worth it.
Me: …
[/quote]

Ahaha. Thats great. Ask him how bad soy is.