Well, It Finally Happened....

Training Powerlifting
21

[quote]T3hPwnisher wrote:

[quote]Evolv wrote:

At that point it took every ounce out of me to just turn my shoulder and do one more set dropping the weight out of my hands from the top position :slight_smile: Last time I was ever there obviously.
[/quote]

As satisfying as this is, this kind of behavior totally validates these policies that these gyms have. They’re now able to say “Yeah, the last guy that deadlifted here was an asshole and dropped the bar from the top position, so now we don’t allow deadlifts”

I built myself a home gym so I could stop dealing with this insanity, but when I train at a public gym I try to be an ambassador for heavy lifters. I loan out my gear, smile at people, and try to be friendly, so that these gyms have a positive impression of guys who deadlift. The last thing I wanna do is be the asshole they already think I am.

I definitely understand the frustration, and I’ve been there myself (it was actually the same situation as the TC which led me to a garage gym), but sinking down to the level of these mutants just harms us all.[/quote]

x2. Good post.

22

X3… Awesome perspective.

I agree with your approach - I’m lucky enough to train at a facility that’s used to train athletes, so bumper plate drops from overhead on a platform aren’t uncommon. Still, I’m one of maybe 3 or 4 actual powerlifters there - and as such I still stick out like a sore thumb when the gear and board presses come out. I try to make sure to be friendly to everyone, and answer any questions about what I’m doing.

You’re right - they already think you’re an asshole. I’m hoping to help foster powerlifting in my area, and by being a dick, I’m not a very good ambassador. If I’m nice, maybe some other people will see how cool it is to use gear, bands, chains, boards, chalk and ammonia - and they might start powerlifting too. If nothing else, I just want a gym to work out at without getting kicked out.

23

[quote]T3hPwnisher wrote:

[quote]Evolv wrote:

At that point it took every ounce out of me to just turn my shoulder and do one more set dropping the weight out of my hands from the top position :slight_smile: Last time I was ever there obviously.
[/quote]

As satisfying as this is, this kind of behavior totally validates these policies that these gyms have. They’re now able to say “Yeah, the last guy that deadlifted here was an asshole and dropped the bar from the top position, so now we don’t allow deadlifts”

I built myself a home gym so I could stop dealing with this insanity, but when I train at a public gym I try to be an ambassador for heavy lifters. I loan out my gear, smile at people, and try to be friendly, so that these gyms have a positive impression of guys who deadlift. The last thing I wanna do is be the asshole they already think I am.

I definitely understand the frustration, and I’ve been there myself (it was actually the same situation as the TC which led me to a garage gym), but sinking down to the level of these mutants just harms us all.[/quote]

x a ton

24

[quote]DixiesFinest wrote:

[quote]T3hPwnisher wrote:

[quote]Evolv wrote:

At that point it took every ounce out of me to just turn my shoulder and do one more set dropping the weight out of my hands from the top position :slight_smile: Last time I was ever there obviously.
[/quote]

As satisfying as this is, this kind of behavior totally validates these policies that these gyms have. They’re now able to say “Yeah, the last guy that deadlifted here was an asshole and dropped the bar from the top position, so now we don’t allow deadlifts”

I built myself a home gym so I could stop dealing with this insanity, but when I train at a public gym I try to be an ambassador for heavy lifters. I loan out my gear, smile at people, and try to be friendly, so that these gyms have a positive impression of guys who deadlift. The last thing I wanna do is be the asshole they already think I am.

I definitely understand the frustration, and I’ve been there myself (it was actually the same situation as the TC which led me to a garage gym), but sinking down to the level of these mutants just harms us all.[/quote]

x a ton[/quote]

Yup.

25

See that’s the thing.

I feel I am a good ambassador of the sport. I have only been at that gym about 3 months and I already have a younger guy that started training with me. When this happened and I told him I might terminate my membership his resonse was, “Well, I’m going wherever you go.” That has a lot to do with my decision to stay there and find somewhere else to pull.

Over the years, I have written 5x5 cycles for competitive BB’s, coached them on their squat form, put together cycles to help them build upper back thickness, helped a 50 something competitive swimmer develop a program to help with this that was successful, etc.

A big part of why I am at LA is that it got to the point at the Lifetime I was training a couple time a week that my workouts would take way too long because I spent too much time talking to people, watching their sets and giving feedback, etc. AT Lifetime I recruited 3 guys to do their first meet during the time I was there.

Hell, I had women come up to me and ask me to teach them to squat or stiff-leg correctly and show them how to use the 45 hyper and do pull thrus.

I gave a fitness competitor an older mini-band I had to help her increase her volume on pull-ups because she was just starting to do them and couldn’t do a whole lot.

I always talk to people and am on the lookout for people in the gym who seem to have a clue and might be a potential competitor.

Like I said, though. I probably do set the weight down kind of hard but when you are doing sets of 8 the last thing you are going to focus on is accentuating the negative, not to mention I think it encourages injury anyway.

I just don’t get the mentality of a young man telling me shit like this. I’m completely puzzled by it.

26

[quote]apwsearch wrote:
See that’s the thing.

I feel I am a good ambassador of the sport. I have only been at that gym about 3 months and I already have a younger guy that started training with me. When this happened and I told him I might terminate my membership his resonse was, “Well, I’m going wherever you go.” That has a lot to do with my decision to stay there and find somewhere else to pull.

Over the years, I have written 5x5 cycles for competitive BB’s, coached them on their squat form, put together cycles to help them build upper back thickness, helped a 50 something competitive swimmer develop a program to help with this that was successful, etc.

A big part of why I am at LA is that it got to the point at the Lifetime I was training a couple time a week that my workouts would take way too long because I spent too much time talking to people, watching their sets and giving feedback, etc. AT Lifetime I recruited 3 guys to do their first meet during the time I was there.

Hell, I had women come up to me and ask me to teach them to squat or stiff-leg correctly and show them how to use the 45 hyper and do pull thrus.

I gave a fitness competitor an older mini-band I had to help her increase her volume on pull-ups because she was just starting to do them and couldn’t do a whole lot.

I always talk to people and am on the lookout for people in the gym who seem to have a clue and might be a potential competitor.

Like I said, though. I probably do set the weight down kind of hard but when you are doing sets of 8 the last thing you are going to focus on is accentuating the negative, not to mention I think it encourages injury anyway.

I just don’t get the mentality of a young man telling me shit like this. I’m completely puzzled by it.[/quote]

Oh, my comment wasn’t addressed to you. You handled the situation very maturely, and your idea to tiptoe past the trainer is still great because you are mocking the rules without actually being the asshole they expect you to be.

You’re dealing with cognitive dissonance. The trainer is upset at seeing someone that has achieved more than them, so they must find some way to discredit it. In his mind he probably thought “I could do that too if I didn’t care about making noise!”, and had to act out this fantasy in order to maintain sanity.

27

Once you’ve lived in normal lifting world, your own stuff, it’s hard to understand the silliness apw.

28

[quote]tom63 wrote:
Once you’ve lived in normal lifting world, your own stuff, it’s hard to understand the silliness apw.[/quote]

Last night I brought it up to my wife and she said, “Are you still talking about this? You need to give it a rest. First of all, it’s not a gym, it’s a fitness center. It’s called LA Fitness for a reason. Second, you have deadlifted in the basement for years. You are kind of loud when you pull. Not obnoxious, but you set the weight down hard at the end. Just get over it.”

I need to take her advice and move on.

29

[quote]apwsearch wrote:

[quote]tom63 wrote:
Once you’ve lived in normal lifting world, your own stuff, it’s hard to understand the silliness apw.[/quote]

Last night I brought it up to my wife and she said, “Are you still talking about this? You need to give it a rest. First of all, it’s not a gym, it’s a fitness center. It’s called LA Fitness for a reason. Second, you have deadlifted in the basement for years. You are kind of loud when you pull. Not obnoxious, but you set the weight down hard at the end. Just get over it.”

I need to take her advice and move on.[/quote]

Your wife is awesome.

30

[quote]apwsearch wrote:

[quote]tom63 wrote:
Once you’ve lived in normal lifting world, your own stuff, it’s hard to understand the silliness apw.[/quote]

Last night I brought it up to my wife and she said, “Are you still talking about this? You need to give it a rest. First of all, it’s not a gym, it’s a fitness center. It’s called LA Fitness for a reason. Second, you have deadlifted in the basement for years. You are kind of loud when you pull. Not obnoxious, but you set the weight down hard at the end. Just get over it.”

I need to take her advice and move on.[/quote]

Your wife does sound awesome btw.

A month ago I was talking to my friend about lifting back in the day. how gyms were serious then and you were lucky to find one. then people got into “fitness” and a whole new market of know nothings invaded the lifter’s territory.

I told my friend how I started with Ted Williams plastic/cement weights on my parents front porch. It was enclosed, but not heated or cooled. I was 13 btw back in 1976. I lusted for some metal weights and a squat rack. Until then I squatted by cleaning and pressing the weight, putting it behind my neck, then lifting it above my head and putting it down after the set.

My sixteen year old son said when he was nine he had a monolift to squat from, speciality bars, powerblocks, a power rack, over a ton of olympic weights./

We all started laughing. but at his mom’s he has to lift at LA fitness which he calls Lgay fitness.

He was JM pressing a few weeks ago and a guy offered to help him bench correctly. The guy was wearing straps. that he was using to hold onto the bar in the smith machine while he benched. My son explained what a JM press was and he left him alone. He told me he guesses the guy doesn’t believe in gravity or something.

This kid did a deadlift at a Nazareth barbell contest when he was nine, 135 lbs at 65 lbs. He lifted at Westside barbell when he was 11 and had Louie and Amy Weisberger show him deadlift technique. He’s been around big time lifters at the WPO at the Arnold classic that year.

Imagine his culture shock from going from dad’s place with chalk and coll stuff to smooth bars at LA Fitness. But he’s surviving. You take you lifts up by 100 lbs, 50 lbs, and 100 lbs in a year and gain 30 lbs of bodyweight and people start to notice.

You did the right thing by talking to the manager. I’d do what you do and avoid skippy. Or maybe try to convert him. though he’s probably to lame for that.

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