I witnessed something phenomenal tonight in the gym that just may change weight training forever…
This guy/kid low twenties pretty good build looks like he might have wrestled around 152-161 comes in the weight room in a t-shirt and jeans struts over to the smith machine, checks if anyone is using it, I was the only one in there and I was in the midst of my 10x3 squats. He proceeds to load 295 on it, grabbed the 2.5’s but decided against it, and just jumps under it and starts doing…I don’t know quarter to half reps. His back is so arched that mine starts to tingle I think he banged out about 5 or so every rep getting shorter and shorter. He then strips off the 35’s and does some more quasi-partials and he’s done. Then he loads the EZ curl bar with 6 25 lb plates (total) and humps the bar to about a 90 degree angle (forearm to bicep) does this a few times and moves over to some other potentially dangerous moves. He finished off the night by grabbing a 45 plate placing himself on the incline sit-up bench and well I only hope that I can describe this…he starts doing situps holding the plate off his chest on the downward motion he bounces the plate off the floor and swings it to his knees, thereby providing sufficient momentum to carry himself to the top. He must have banged out about 25 reps. Puts his shirt back on and heads out the door. I thought for a second about saying something but then I cant bench 295 so what do I know?
On a side note it drives me fucking nuts that people aren’t required to wear shirts in this YMCA. At least this dude didn’t sit around and flex and shit in front of the mirror like this other ass-wipe that struts around the Y without a shirt on gut hanging out and all. Fuckers.
Haha welcome to my gym. Its a university one so there are tons of younger guys without a clue doing ridiculous exercises though your example tops any I can think of. Did you know that a good way to strengthen your sticking points is to do an almost circular motion bring the bar down to your belly button then up to your shoulders before pressing the bar up!! Saw that one the other day and thats the excuse I got. Good thing about my gym is it requires shirts though.
I was lifting in a gym once and didn’t know that you could take your shirt off(I think it’s a shit idea). So this hairy man-titted guy starts taking my bench out of the power rack, moves it right in front of the rack and starts doing curls with 10’s while sitting on the bench. I was soo fucking shocked at how many wrong things where going on at once I simply walked away.
My high school has its gym class at the YMCA because we don’t have the facilities on sight for phys ed. A few weeks ago, I was doing some dips during one such class, and a classmate noticed me. He’s 17, 6’3" and 165 pounds, and he was struggling to bench 90 pounds on an antique Universal bench press machine. He noticed me nearby, and he asked me,
‘Dude, do you have any tips for bench pressing?’
‘Yeah,’ I said, pausing my dip set. ‘Bench with a real barbell.’ He glared at me and resumed his herculean 90 pound partial reps.
And you guys want to know something really sad? The next week, I saw a 110ish pound 15 year old girl with no previous weight training experience outbench this guy.
I sighed. Then I looked over my shoulder to see some more of my classmates doing barbell curl sets ad infinitum.
‘Screw this,’ I thought. I’m not helping them anymore. I tried showing these assholes other things they could do, like military presses and chinups. Let their puny biceps be forever isolated.
What’s the morale of the story? Don’t waste your time trying to help assholes. Save it for the genuine, ambitious few out there.
They’ll start listening when they want to learn. They just think they do now but aren’t open to learning.
Funnily enough older trainees tend to want to learn more. At the local gym the young guys (and girls) didn’t like the idea of squatting to parrallel but a lady (earily 40’s) took all of my advice about chins and has really improved her numbers.
It feels good to help people, but most don’t want help.
I didn’t see this but apparently this guy came into the gym last Thursday night, load to decline bench to over 300lbs proceeds to lift and tore his pec.
They say all you heard was a yell. At least he had the forethought to ask for a spot, which some say, has prevented his decapitation.
Fucking smith machine. God I hate that thing, squating 295 on that is like squating the bar! Hey 6’3" 160lbs? Hell I was 170lbs at the height of my anorexia and I was still fat! Take note kids, if you are fat, and you starve yourself, you will just be weak and fat, and that is worse. Man I used to be dumb.
While very focused doing inclined dumbbell presses at my local gym, my attention was interrupted by a very loud grunting and groaning and counting 10…11…12. Right beside me was a PT saying “a few more!!, You can do it!” to an overweight kid about 19 or 20. Well the kid proceeded to do more, I think he made it to 17, stood up, and immediately started throwing up! It must have lasted 15-20 seconds as the people cleared away. I checked my Nikes for spashback and was relieved to have found none. After a 30 second pause, he continued to purge the chicken and salsa into a new pattern on the floor. I could not believe the quantity. I screamed to myself please stop now!
The gym was extremely crowded. People began to laugh and clear the area for about 50 ft. The kid went rushing to the locker room as the PT went for a mop and bucket.
He was obviously pushed too far.
I couldn’t help but feel sorry for the kid as he had made the commitment to work out and probably racked up a huge expense with the personal trainer. I looked in the locker room to talk to him but he vanished. I am very sure he wont be back from the sheer embarrassment.
I gotta get a membership to a gym.I work out at home, but I never get to see the stuff you guys report happening at gyms.Maybee just a cheapo membership would be worth the entertainment value.
[quote]mindeffer01 wrote:
I gotta get a membership to a gym.I work out at home, but I never get to see the stuff you guys report happening at gyms.Maybee just a cheapo membership would be worth the entertainment value.
[/quote]
I have a gym at home myself but for my birthday I got a gym membership. I only got one month but it’s so cheap that it’s worth paying for the entertainment value. That and it’s nice to be able to use the pulldown and the place has DBs all the way to 100#, so it’s not a total waste. Better benches and a nice squat rack too, and yes, no one uses the squat rack except to curl!
[quote]mindeffer01 wrote:
I gotta get a membership to a gym.I work out at home, but I never get to see the stuff you guys report happening at gyms.Maybee just a cheapo membership would be worth the entertainment value.
[/quote]
My gym is surprisingly void of really stupid behavior. And, it’s even a chain gym. Bastards…
My gym is really rubbish :o(
Yesterday, this guy (late teens/early 20’s) comes in. Medium build, average height. He starts stretching next to the squat rack. Oh yes, I thought, now we are going to see some fun…
… guy walks into the squat rack to grab a bar…the anticipation is killing me… and then he proceeds to squat!
Okay, they were only half squats, but dammit, where are the numb-nuts, the losers, the frat-boyz???
Maybe guys here in Germany are strange? There are no funny stories, except one guy training his very overweight ‘brother’ with cable crossovers (???).
[quote]TwistedLocal wrote:
Harley did you rip on the PT for doing that to the kid?? If not you should at least talk to the guy that is not cool at all I feel bad for that kid![/quote]
No I didn’t. I was glad to see him cleaning up though… maybe thats punishment enough. Hey Twisted… any snow in Whistler. I figured there must be a big dump up high in the mountains with all the rain in Vancouver.
‘Yeah,’ I said, pausing my dip set. ‘Bench with a real barbell.’ He glared at me and resumed his herculean 90 pound partial reps.
…
[/quote]
I can see SOME humor in that situation, and I sympathize with your irratation at all the numbskulls clogging the gym, but if somebody asks me a question like that, I take the time to show him what little I know about benching properly, tell him how to periodize his lifting, and make sure he’s doing pulls to balance out his pushes and squats or deadlifts for overall CNS strength.
It’s fun and good to know more than other people, but with the entertainment comes a responsibility to pay off the debt to those who taught US how to lift by teaching others what we know. [steps off soapbox]
I saw the ‘partner-assisted quarter-range pull-up’ move Monday afternoon. Doing a pull-up without reaching full extension or getting my throat to the bar seems hard to me, and assisting the pull-ups without pushing up on your friend’s ass seems even harder, but somehow they managed to do both at the same time…
I’m no “stud” at the gym by any means, but am pretty confident in what I know in terms of reps, tempo, lifts, etc…but man, yesterday I almost lost it. I just got done doing dips and I hit my stop watch to time my rest period and all of a sudden out of the corner of my eye, about a foot away from me, I see this guy SHADOW BOXING!! Not just your basic right, left, right…I’m taking hard-core swinging at the fences!! Then he starts to kick!! Man, I had my headphones on, so I didn’t really “hear” it coming so you could probably image my expression / suprise. I went in defensive mode without thinking and damn near knocked the dude out. BTW - he’s one of those burger-balls that does chest / bi’s EVERYDAY he comes to the gym.
I finally have something to contribute to this thread. Some 50+ dude comes in the weightroom wearing a tank top and spandex and grabs the pink dumbells. He then proceeds to do a little dance routine/Tae Bo workout with the weights. This was hard enough to watch, but then he started doing pelvic thrusts with the weights! I’m dead serious, full body pelvic thrusts. Seriously disgusting.
On a less gross note, I saw people doing single arm hammer curls with such bad form that they had to hold on to the weight stack to keep from falling over.
ok, I workout at Bally’s becuase its well, paid for and not by me. (birthday present from my dad, thanks pops) Anyway, there’s one squat rack and these 2 gay guys, I assume are a couple, are doing 1/4 squats with maybe 185 on the bar. OK that story isn’t too bad, 2 gay guys woopdy doo.
Tonite, I go into the aerobics room(hard wood floor w/ mirrored walls) to jump rope a little bit. This black guy is in there with headphones on and as I start jumping rope he starts dancing. I figure, “ok he’s just practicing his dance moves.” I proceed to skip rope and he’s sorta dancing around. Then this mexican cleaning lady walks by the window outside the room. The guy stomps from halfway across the room right where she’s at, staring at her, and as she walks along the window he is following her and almost falls over a medicine ball. She looks at me like, “what the fuck is this guy doin?” I was just trying not to laugh, and I proceed to keep skipping. The guy sorta dances a little more then he just yells at the top of his lungs and starts stomping around the room and yelling. I had to leave before I bust out laughing as soon as I walked out the door I was cracking up.
And, it’s even a chain gym. Bastards…