Weight Room Morale Issues

Bigger Stronger Leaner Powerlifting & Strength Sports
1

Hey guys. Here’s the deal. I’m currently lifting in my high school’s weight room with my football team and there are a number of issues that I have.

  1. The program that the coach has us on sucks balls. We’ve been stuck on the 3x10 rep scheme for the past 6 weeks that we’ve been in the weight room. It hasn’t changed at all. Sometimes we’ll squat and bench in the same workout. It doesn’t make any fucking sense. We rarely ever deadlift. But every time we do, it’s still the fucking 3x10. I thought football players are supposed to be strong, not have a “chiseled physique.” I don’t give two shits about how my calves look. If I can run over a guy who weighs 30 lbs more than I do without a six pack, then I’m perfectly fine with that.

  2. The equipment sucks. There’s not a GHR in sight, there aren’t any dumbbells that go over 100 lbs and there’s an abundance of lifting straps because these pussies that I lift with have no grip. And there seems to be a shortage of quality belts. By shortage, I mean none. There are some, however, but they’re the leather ones that my grandpa used to use. You know, the ones with the tapered back? Yeah, thought so. The reverse hyper collects dust. I’m the only one who uses it, let alone knows HOW to use it.

  3. I’m only a sophomore, and have had my fair share of lifting experience. Every time that I try to tell somebody to “be fast off the floor” while deadlifting, they look at me with a look that says, “fuck you.” Every time I try to help somebody with their squat form, for instance, telling them to push their knees out and flex their traps and pull their shoulder blades together, they look at me and ignore me. We have a 280 lb lineman who can barely get 185 lbs past parallel. For fuck’s sake I was squatting 185 in 8th grade.

  4. There’s no atmosphere. No matter how much Lamb of God or Hatebreed I play in there, there’s still no intensity. I like to get psyched up before a big set of whatever lift I’m training that day, and they look at me like I’m a freak. I was doing pull throughs the other day and they laughed their asses off.

CS

2

Keep doing your thang…if other kids refuse to buy in then their loss. Although it sucks that their laziness in the weight room will transfer to your team losing on the field. Maybe find at least a few kids who are semi-serious and help them out.

3

Realize everyone is an idiot==>Realize most people involved in football i.e. coaches and players are fucking idiots==>???===> profit

Quit. Join the powerlifting team and do your own thing. That’s what I’m doing and people shit there pants when there around me and accuse me of steroid use when I’m just using my brain. Deal with what you have and be happy you have a reverse hyper. There are other good hamstring exercises and IMO the reverse hyper is by far the best for the lower back and other posterior chain muscles.

Best of luck.

4

1)In this case, fit in some more work afterwards(basically when you find time that day) to cover some of the basics that werent hit. Just be smart about it.

2)I came from a small poor high school so I can relate to that. Imo, dont worry about the guy. Worry about what you are doing and make sure your form, technique, and knowledge is up to par.

3)I gotta say, this one you need to definitely get over. In almost 5yrs of weight training and 2yrs of powerlifting, Ive never had access to a reverse hyperextension or GHR; yet I constantly made strides in strength. My high school football team had 2 power racks, bench press, leg press, and weights. Thats it. But we had some strong guys in the gym. So although the machines mentioned are fantastic tools, you dont need them to gain strength.

4)Again, worry about yourself. If you are in a situation like that, thats all you can do. Yes its a team sport but if the lil shits around you dont give a rats ass then who cares what they are doing.

5)Will they allow you to have headphones? If not then you will learn to focus. You sound like you are years ahead of most so be smart and focus on what works. If your coaches dont help then find someone somewhere to learn some things from. And of course you can always read up from the forums and articles here and elitefts. Good Luck

5

[quote]Hodges einWindir wrote:
Realize everyone is an idiot==>Realize most people involved in football i.e. coaches and players are fucking idiots==>???===> profit

Quit. Join the powerlifting team and do your own thing. That’s what I’m doing and people shit there pants when there around me and accuse me of steroid use when I’m just using my brain. Deal with what you have and be happy you have a reverse hyper. There are other good hamstring exercises and IMO the reverse hyper is by far the best for the lower back and other posterior chain muscles.

Best of luck.[/quote]

Thanks. And believe me, I’ve had my fair share of steroid accusations, even at 16 years old. I pull 335x4 and BAM! “Hey, where’s your D-bol?” Shit like that every day I’m in there.

The thing about the reverse hyper is, my school is the only place within 15 minutes of my house that has one. I would give my left nut to go train at Quad’s, but I don’t have my license and it’s expensive as balls and it’s more than a half hour away. I’m happy with my reverse hyper, but it’s a piece of shit. Anyway, the place that I train at when I’m not at school is Cardinal Fitness and it doesn’t have a reverse hyper :(. Plus there’s only 1 power rack and no dumbbells over 100 lbs. I’m just in a shitty situation right now and have to wait for a while until I can get into a serious gym. Thanks anyway guys.

Luke

6

[quote]CSEagles1694 wrote:
Hey guys. Here’s the deal. I’m currently lifting in my high school’s weight room with my football team and there are a number of issues that I have.

  1. The program that the coach has us on sucks balls. We’ve been stuck on the 3x10 rep scheme for the past 6 weeks that we’ve been in the weight room. It hasn’t changed at all. Sometimes we’ll squat and bench in the same workout. It doesn’t make any fucking sense. We rarely ever deadlift. But every time we do, it’s still the fucking 3x10. I thought football players are supposed to be strong, not have a “chiseled physique.” I don’t give two shits about how my calves look. If I can run over a guy who weighs 30 lbs more than I do without a six pack, then I’m perfectly fine with that.

  2. The strength coach decides not so show up 90% of the time. He’s a special ed teacher and he doesn’t have anything else to do after school. He’s an ex powerlifter (Andy Gerhardstein, some of you may know him, maybe not, but he was the strongest man in Chicago for a couple of years). I don’t see why he can’t come to lifting after school and give the same type of effort that I give him every day that we’re in there. Notice how I said “I.” This leads me to my next point.

  3. The equipment sucks. There’s not a GHR in sight, there aren’t any dumbbells that go over 100 lbs and there’s an abundance of lifting straps because these pussies that I lift with have no grip. And there seems to be a shortage of quality belts. By shortage, I mean none. There are some, however, but they’re the leather ones that my grandpa used to use. You know, the ones with the tapered back? Yeah, thought so. The reverse hyper collects dust. I’m the only one who uses it, let alone knows HOW to use it.

  4. I’m only a sophomore, and have had my fair share of lifting experience. Every time that I try to tell somebody to “be fast off the floor” while deadlifting, they look at me with a look that says, “fuck you.” Every time I try to help somebody with their squat form, for instance, telling them to push their knees out and flex their traps and pull their shoulder blades together, they look at me and ignore me. We have a 280 lb lineman who can barely get 185 lbs past parallel. For fuck’s sake I was squatting 185 in 8th grade. Back to the coach; you would think that with a man of his stature and strength (seen him bench 500 RAW for a triple and pull 6 plates for reps), he would give more than a flying rat’s ass what his kids’ form looks like.

  5. There’s no atmosphere. No matter how much Lamb of God or Hatebreed I play in there, there’s still no intensity. I like to get psyched up before a big set of whatever lift I’m training that day, and they look at me like I’m a freak. I was doing pull throughs the other day and they laughed their asses off. This is exactly the reason why I hate half of the people associated with the football program at our school. The coaching staff sucks and that’s why we’ve never won a state title.

Anyway, that’s me just bitching about how much my high school weight room sucks.

Luke[/quote]

That’s exactly like my weightroom. And if this is causing such a problem for you, quit football. It’s clear your not going to get what you want to get done in there.

7

[quote]farmerson12 wrote:
1)In this case, fit in some more work afterwards(basically when you find time that day) to cover some of the basics that werent hit. Just be smart about it.

2)I came from a small poor high school so I can relate to that. Imo, dont worry about the guy. Worry about what you are doing and make sure your form, technique, and knowledge is up to par.

3)I gotta say, this one you need to definitely get over. In almost 5yrs of weight training and 2yrs of powerlifting, Ive never had access to a reverse hyperextension or GHR; yet I constantly made strides in strength. My high school football team had 2 power racks, bench press, leg press, and weights. Thats it. But we had some strong guys in the gym. So although the machines mentioned are fantastic tools, you dont need them to gain strength.

4)Again, worry about yourself. If you are in a situation like that, thats all you can do. Yes its a team sport but if the lil shits around you dont give a rats ass then who cares what they are doing.

5)Will they allow you to have headphones? If not then you will learn to focus. You sound like you are years ahead of most so be smart and focus on what works. If your coaches dont help then find someone somewhere to learn some things from. And of course you can always read up from the forums and articles here and elitefts. Good Luck[/quote]

What he said. I got up to a triple bodyweight squat and deadlift without a ghr or reverse hyper. you have all the tools available to get strong.

8

[quote]CSEagles1694 wrote:

[quote]Hodges einWindir wrote:
Realize everyone is an idiot==>Realize most people involved in football i.e. coaches and players are fucking idiots==>???===> profit

Quit. Join the powerlifting team and do your own thing. That’s what I’m doing and people shit there pants when there around me and accuse me of steroid use when I’m just using my brain. Deal with what you have and be happy you have a reverse hyper. There are other good hamstring exercises and IMO the reverse hyper is by far the best for the lower back and other posterior chain muscles.

Best of luck.[/quote]

Thanks. And believe me, I’ve had my fair share of steroid accusations, even at 16 years old. I pull 335x4 and BAM! “Hey, where’s your D-bol?” Shit like that every day I’m in there.

The thing about the reverse hyper is, my school is the only place within 15 minutes of my house that has one. I would give my left nut to go train at Quad’s, but I don’t have my license and it’s expensive as balls and it’s more than a half hour away. I’m happy with my reverse hyper, but it’s a piece of shit. Anyway, the place that I train at when I’m not at school is Cardinal Fitness and it doesn’t have a reverse hyper :(. Plus there’s only 1 power rack and no dumbbells over 100 lbs. I’m just in a shitty situation right now and have to wait for a while until I can get into a serious gym. Thanks anyway guys.

Luke
[/quote]

At your age and strength level you don’t need dumbells over 100 lbs. Most high school gyms don’t need them. I hardly never see the need myself to use them.

The programming issues are a pain for sure. but try your best to work around them.

9 
As for giving advice, most high school kids won't take it from a peer. It lowers them in their minds to listen to you. a big lineman who is being outsquatted by you isn't going to say, " gee whiz you're so strong, help me!". They're going to accuse you of steroid usage.

Concentrate on your form and make your own gains. Weight training is hard work. Many, even football players don’t want to work, they want to play. People say they play sports, not work them. Training is work that helps you play better, but we’re dealing with high school kids.

Hang in there, every young lifter deals with this.

10

[quote]BlackLabel wrote:

[quote]CSEagles1694 wrote:
Hey guys. Here’s the deal. I’m currently lifting in my high school’s weight room with my football team and there are a number of issues that I have.

  1. The program that the coach has us on sucks balls. We’ve been stuck on the 3x10 rep scheme for the past 6 weeks that we’ve been in the weight room. It hasn’t changed at all. Sometimes we’ll squat and bench in the same workout. It doesn’t make any fucking sense. We rarely ever deadlift. But every time we do, it’s still the fucking 3x10. I thought football players are supposed to be strong, not have a “chiseled physique.” I don’t give two shits about how my calves look. If I can run over a guy who weighs 30 lbs more than I do without a six pack, then I’m perfectly fine with that.

  2. The strength coach decides not so show up 90% of the time. He’s a special ed teacher and he doesn’t have anything else to do after school. He’s an ex powerlifter (Andy Gerhardstein, some of you may know him, maybe not, but he was the strongest man in Chicago for a couple of years). I don’t see why he can’t come to lifting after school and give the same type of effort that I give him every day that we’re in there. Notice how I said “I.” This leads me to my next point.

  3. The equipment sucks. There’s not a GHR in sight, there aren’t any dumbbells that go over 100 lbs and there’s an abundance of lifting straps because these pussies that I lift with have no grip. And there seems to be a shortage of quality belts. By shortage, I mean none. There are some, however, but they’re the leather ones that my grandpa used to use. You know, the ones with the tapered back? Yeah, thought so. The reverse hyper collects dust. I’m the only one who uses it, let alone knows HOW to use it.

  4. I’m only a sophomore, and have had my fair share of lifting experience. Every time that I try to tell somebody to “be fast off the floor” while deadlifting, they look at me with a look that says, “fuck you.” Every time I try to help somebody with their squat form, for instance, telling them to push their knees out and flex their traps and pull their shoulder blades together, they look at me and ignore me. We have a 280 lb lineman who can barely get 185 lbs past parallel. For fuck’s sake I was squatting 185 in 8th grade. Back to the coach; you would think that with a man of his stature and strength (seen him bench 500 RAW for a triple and pull 6 plates for reps), he would give more than a flying rat’s ass what his kids’ form looks like.

  5. There’s no atmosphere. No matter how much Lamb of God or Hatebreed I play in there, there’s still no intensity. I like to get psyched up before a big set of whatever lift I’m training that day, and they look at me like I’m a freak. I was doing pull throughs the other day and they laughed their asses off. This is exactly the reason why I hate half of the people associated with the football program at our school. The coaching staff sucks and that’s why we’ve never won a state title.

Anyway, that’s me just bitching about how much my high school weight room sucks.

Luke[/quote]

That’s exactly like my weightroom. And if this is causing such a problem for you, quit football. It’s clear your not going to get what you want to get done in there.[/quote]

There’s not a chance that I’m going to quit playing football, it’s been my life for the past 9 years. I’m not the best and it’s not like I’m going to get recruited by 20 different BCS schools within the next couple years, but at the same time I love PL. I plan PLing full time after I’m done playing football. It’s not that big of a problem, but I feel that it is because it shows when the season comes around. We’ve always been pretty good at football, but we’ve never made it past the second round of the playoffs for the past 8 years and we’ve never won a state championship. I’d like to get a ring before I graduate, but at the rate that lifting is going, there’s not much of a chance for that.

Luke

11

just keep what your doing yourself and blast past the rest of those suckers, make the best of it

12

Didn’t you post a few months ago about some back injury? What kind of lifts are you doing where 20 reps with a 100lb dumbell isn’t heavy enough?

13

Youre bitching because your accused of steroid usage?

Srsly?

Be proud of that.

14

If you can, just do your own lift routine. If your coach says something, then bite your lip, but he may not even bother. As for your teammates: give tips if they ask, otherwise just focus on yourself. Youll lead by example. And then ones who say steroids and give you shit are insecure.

15

Just do what you need to do to succeed.

We had a kid who trained with us that quit his football team because he disagreed with the coach. This kid was 15 and 350lbs at 6’4". I think he ran a 4.8 40 and pulled and squatted somewhere in the 6’s. What a waste, he came and trained hard plus had the genetics and just threw it all away.

If the coach isn’t in much take it into your own hands and put in the work that will make you smash people on the field.

16

[quote]sufiandy wrote:
Didn’t you post a few months ago about some back injury? What kind of lifts are you doing where 20 reps with a 100lb dumbell isn’t heavy enough?[/quote]

Kroc Rows.

17

Same story in my gym bro… Stick in the mp3 and do your thing…!

18

[quote]CSEagles1694 wrote:

[quote]sufiandy wrote:
Didn’t you post a few months ago about some back injury? What kind of lifts are you doing where 20 reps with a 100lb dumbell isn’t heavy enough?[/quote]

Kroc Rows. [/quote]
You can’t be doing them right. I’m at around 600 in the deadlift and I’d use that much. Don’t worry about Kroc rows until you’re stronger .

19

[quote]tom63 wrote:

[quote]CSEagles1694 wrote:

[quote]sufiandy wrote:
Didn’t you post a few months ago about some back injury? What kind of lifts are you doing where 20 reps with a 100lb dumbell isn’t heavy enough?[/quote]

Kroc Rows. [/quote]
You can’t be doing them right. I’m at around 600 in the deadlift and I’d use that much. Don’t worry about Kroc rows until you’re stronger .[/quote]

Agreed. Id focus more on technique with lighter weight. Especially on dumbbell rows, you want to watch your form. Ive known of a couple of guys who destroyed their back and shoulders and one messed up his neck. Do regular db rows if you insist on doing db rows. Try to work in more barbell rows.

20

[quote]CSEagles1694 wrote:

[quote]Hodges einWindir wrote:
Realize everyone is an idiot==>Realize most people involved in football i.e. coaches and players are fucking idiots==>???===> profit

Quit. Join the powerlifting team and do your own thing. That’s what I’m doing and people shit there pants when there around me and accuse me of steroid use when I’m just using my brain. Deal with what you have and be happy you have a reverse hyper. There are other good hamstring exercises and IMO the reverse hyper is by far the best for the lower back and other posterior chain muscles.

Best of luck.[/quote]

Thanks. And believe me, I’ve had my fair share of steroid accusations, even at 16 years old. I pull 335x4 and BAM! “Hey, where’s your D-bol?” Shit like that every day I’m in there.

The thing about the reverse hyper is, my school is the only place within 15 minutes of my house that has one. I would give my left nut to go train at Quad’s, but I don’t have my license and it’s expensive as balls and it’s more than a half hour away. I’m happy with my reverse hyper, but it’s a piece of shit. Anyway, the place that I train at when I’m not at school is Cardinal Fitness and it doesn’t have a reverse hyper :(. Plus there’s only 1 power rack and no dumbbells over 100 lbs. I’m just in a shitty situation right now and have to wait for a while until I can get into a serious gym. Thanks anyway guys.

Luke
[/quote]

You don’t need a hardcore gym to get strong at your age. When I was a sophomore I squatted 415@ 148-165 weight class and I lifted in a gym with one rack, 2 benches, and an ocean of cardio equipment and machines.

Don’t worry about the music.

Also, if his program sucks so bad, half ass it in there, and get your real work in on your own at cardinal…

People accused me of being on shit for a long time while I was drug free. The problem is the weak/lazy do not understand.

Use your coach’s workouts like recovery work, if you can get away with it, and just keep it light and easy. Then just try and get in 2-3 real workouts per week on your own.

Don’t let situations control you, control the situation, go through it, and get stronger.