I’m curious to find out if I’m going to a freak gym or not. It seems that at least 90% of the ‘regulars’ cant bench/dead/squat over 2 plates? Actually that % seems to be right of all gyms I’ve been to!?!?! Am I just unlucky? or is there hope in finding strong gyms out there?
2 plates on each side I assume? So 225 lbs.? That is a WEAK gym. I work out at the student rec center at Arizona State and a 225 lb. bench press is average. In fact, I’ve seen many scrawny kids rep 225. However, only about 10 or 15 guys actually squat/deadlift that I’ve seen and 90% of them suck at it. I’m not that strong, 315 bench, 365 deadlift, 405 squat, but at my gym I one of the strongest.
as long as the equipment is good and clean, don’t complain! You should motivaye your self and forget what the others are doing. If you want a typical strong gym then you going to be dealing with a lot of roid heads. laters pk
Thats the norm. Srong gym are few and far between.
dear wtf,welcome to the club.real hardcore gyms are still out there but,you,re gonna have to look hard to find them.i,ve been lifting for over 25 years and i,ve had th3e pleasure of training at some of the best.one of which was R&J health club in brooklyn (just watch where ferrigno trains in “pumping iron”),as well many other hard core gyms.so, believe me i know what you mean.but look at the bright side,even though a lot of people pretend to work out now,those of us who have what it takes to get big and strong will always look better than those folks.forget em’,just focus on you.thatsb what it’s really all about anyway.good luck.
Does it really matter what other people in your gym lift?
Probably not at a commercial gym.
I work out at a smaller, privately owned gym in the "city" part of the district that I live in. I see guys benching 6 plates all the time. Granted, they don't know sh*t about training, but the genetic freaks seem to hang out at the low-profile gyms, not 24-hour fitness or the YMCA.
Actually it does matter what others lift. You might not have noticed this, but in sports, you always get better by playing with/against people of that are better or more experienced then yourself. Some say lifting is a ‘solo’ sport, that may be true of BB, but getting I find getting stronger is different. I know I had made my best gains when I was the ‘weakest’ lifter in the group.
I think it boils down to the experiance you get at a gym. Its kind of like saying you had abetter basketball experance at a d3 school than you would have had at duke or UNC (prior to this year:)
just my .2
will
I would have to agree with PP… i work out in a “pretty” gym because it’s close to work. gyms are all what you make out of it… but i am one of the strongest there, and 99% of the time, i am the strongest. i used to work out in a pretty hard core gym to where i was of average strengh for the people in there. it got me inspired to see better built and stonger people than myself there. i miss it.
Not everyone trains with the heaviest weight every workout. In fact, right now, you’d find a lot of T-maggers struggling with 50% of their 1rm because we’re doing EDT. We’re after muscle growth and after 6 or 8 weeks, we’ll bring out the big weights for strength training.
This is a good question. I was wondering the same thing the other day. I workout at two different Gym’s, one is at an Air Force base and the other is the YMCA. I like the feeling of dominating the Gym, although sometimes it messes up my concentration when I am squatting and I feel like everyone stopped to watch me. Sometimes I will see someone come in who can bench more than me (325lbs) but cant squat worth a crap. I love to see those big guys struggle to do a half ass squat with only 315lbs on the bar. I am really competitive so I do like to see an occasional lifter come in who is around my size or a little bit bigger that can move some weight around.
I think this is just a thread where someone wants to make themselves feel better about themselves by putting others down. Who really cares what others lift? You aren’t competing against anyone when you are lifting a heavy weight all by yourself (unless you are at a powerlifting meet). No one is trying to hold the bar down while you are trying to lift it. No one really cares that you lift more than them at the gym. People are there to compete against themselves. Go to the gym, lift weights and leave other people alone.
The gym that we (Ko and I) is a 24Hour Fitness now - but at one time it use to be a Golds Gym. sigh I began weight training in a “concrete pit” that had alot of powerlifters. THAT was very nice. BUT what we’ve noticed is not so much the “2-plate” thing, but that we’re usually the ONLY ones who use the Power Racks on a regular basis. And I’m not talkin’ about using them for barbell curls. he he he.
I know what you mean. I am one of the really weird ones though, my max on bench is around 250, I think, but my squat is 350 and my deadlift is around 405. Don’t ask me why, that is just the way I am built. you guys wanta help me out a bit?
Why the hell would you give a shit what others lift in a gym that you go to? It seems like you are just putting down younger weight lifters so you can feel good about yourself. I would bet anything that you are one of those people that hang around in the gym and brag about yourself and try and tell everyone else what they are doing wrong. If you would stop and think about your goals when you first started lifting weights (and i am sure you didnt start pressing over 225 on everything) then you might actually get your workout done and not bother the shit outta the people in the gym and the people on this board with your dumbass comments.
I have owned a gym for about 4 years. Almost everybody there can bench over 225 but only a handful can hit 300.Very few can do over 400. Most guys will max out around 250- 275.As far as squats not many do them and most prefer to leg press. Nobody squats very deep and as the plates go on the depth gets higher. I can’t say on the deadlifts because hardly anybody does them. I will tell you this and it’s kind of funny. When somebody walks in and joins the gym I’ll bet money that the first thing they do will be chest or biceps. It’s kind of sad that everybody is so hung up on those 2 bodyparts but it’s true. It’s a clean gym (no roids) for the most part so that makes a big difference.
PP,
Be happy that you see people squat at ALL. I hardly ever see people squatting at my gym or deadlift. I saw one guy who was doing deadlift...very surprised.
I mostly see guys with really really huge biceps and pecs cuz they bench and biceps-curl until they drop, but their thighs are thinner than their biceps cuz they do cardio to build their leg mass.
whf - it’s normal here in England. Most of the gyms I’ve ever been to (ever the hardcore ones) are fully of dimwits, who rarely lift 100 KG in any lift. The times I have witnessed this - the form has been either spine-snapping or difficult to recognise as any kind of popular exercise. I dispair most of the time and train in my cellar - where I can at least be polite to myself.
kev
Not everyone is built to lift 3 and 4 plates on all the major lifts. I’m 5’7 at 160 and consider myself average on strength. I bench 275, deadlift 320, and squat 310. What if I am working with higher reps and using only 2 plates? I don’t consider this to be weak. Like other people have said on this thread; I barely see anyone doing squats or deadlifts in my gym. Actually I never seen anyone do deadlifts in my gym.