Favorite gym-goer antics??

[Glenndingo]

I've seen a lot the last couple months actually going to the gym, and I figured I'd share some of what I've seen;

Power Curls: Bending over at the waist and launching a dumbbell too heavy to be strict curled in order to do it in front of a mirror, and to impress buddies

Half-ups: Pulling ones bodyweight up to where the chin passes the bar, however on the descent the elbows only go to 90 degrees before another contraction is made (lol)

Billy and Jimmy Lee from Double Dragon: A pair of guys who I see, every monday, wednesday(when I went on weds), and friday. Doing every form of chest and bicep variation.

Half Squats: Two more plates!

Low Back Rows: At first this appears to be a dead lift, however it becomes apparent that the lifter is attempting to strengthen his spinal cords resistance to torque through low back rounding, and forward shoulders

The elliptical pump: "Nah, no deadlifts for me tonight, gonna go hit the elliptical and get a good pump going, then do some curls and maybe hit the pec deck." --Quoted from someone who crapped out on me

What have you seen in the gym that is just beyond silly??!

[Gowaduv]

Awesome thread. How about the paid trainer instructing his client to use the squat rack for curls? Or same trainer talking to same client for 15 minutes in front of said squat rack with bar on the rack-- implying someone might do some work but not getting around to it. Meanwhile I'm using the preacher curl station to do freaking zercher-esque squats (at the end of an arms day) while they watch me.

Are the "low back rows" actually bad form Romanian deadlifts?

For the record, I don't think there's anything wrong with -heavy- partials IF the guy has done some good form squats (by which I mean Rippetoe style). But then, I read Chaos and Pain so I'm biased

[Timmy M]

deadlifting (with bounce) with a completely bent back and no these aren't stiff legged or romanian styling just mega stupid also a bent over row that i find hard to describe sometimes something like, bent legs, rounded back and almost doing an upright row... bizarre looked dangerous, told em how to do it, they said their last trainer told them how so i left em to it. power curls and half squats are a staple at most gyms i reckon as well as smith machine squats with knees going well over the toes and the 'bench brothers' one guy benching an inordinate amount whilst his 'spotter' upright/bent-over rows it up with him. o yh and anyone using weight machines...

[Glenndingo]

@Gowaduv VERY bad form RDLs.

[Guest Carjack]

A guy asks me how to do my side press, I hand him a bar (bad idea), he bends his back into it the first rep and says "ow". He had trained himself on isolation exercises and was desperately in need of training his "core". Later on he learned the side press with a dumbbell and rectified that.

Two guys come into the gym wearing belts and those fingerless gym gloves to protect their hands. They do 135lb stiff legged, extremely round backed deadlifts from the floor, then hit the leg extension machine for the rest of the day. As you can imagine, they had skinny legs.

One douche who loves his bicep curls goes in the squat rack just when I come to the gym and start warming up. I eye him nastily from behind while he curls in the rack and I do squat to presses with an empty bar. Then he goes on to congratulate himself in the mirror, posing, smiling and looking at his abs.

A trainer teaches a fat guy to do partial squats in the smith machine.

One guy who appears to be a student of that trainer asks me why I rest the bar on my back for squats instead of my traps, because he's never seen it before. He goes on to demonstrate his squat form with 225lb, no warm up, partial squatting and bowing his knees inward like he's about to collapse to his knees anime style. I tell him to keep his knees out, but he says that's just the way "some people are built".

Guys at the gym like to talk to each other a long time sitting in the incline chairs between their seated presses and flyes.

I find bars left in the squat rack like somebody's been curling them occasionally. Leg training is not very popular.

[CapN_Tommy_Sunshine]

Of the things that I have actually seen live, these are the ones that come to mind:

1) Of course I saw curls in the squat rack guy!

2) I saw that same guy bench pressing in the smith machine! I have never seen him do a leg exercise.

3) A woman using one of the thigh squeezing machines. Normally not too much of a problem, but she was able to read her magazine while doing this.

4) Nothing but curls guy. I saw him do at least 20 sets of different curl variations (barbell, dumbell, curl machine, cable machine, back to dumbell, etc.). His arms and chest were moderately impressive, but his back and legs were non-existent.

I go in there stupid early in the morning to avoid crowds and to get my workout done before I can make up any excuses. Due to this, I am sure that I am missing out.

[Guest Carjack]

A guy came in the gym today after my workout and asked me about squats, so I showed him the correct form. Then he insisted on doing his first set of ten with 135 pounds, high bar position and didn't go more than a third of the way down.

With his massive success at depth and me stressing that you need to warm up and go deep, he bumped it up to 185 and repeated, then headed over to try the incline press and ab machines.

...and with his attention span, he's lucky he didn't get the bug to try my bent presses.

[zielperson]

I never understood the "reading magazines / books" or "texting on the phone" thing.

Of course not everyone is doing high intensity cardio, but you SHOULD be pushing yourself a bit.

So while I am trying to push myself to the almost-dying-but-not-quite-just-yet-a-bit-more-maybe zone I stare at these people, silently screaming "YOU ARE DOING IT WRONG!"

::zielperson::

[Timmy M]

@zeilperson why scream silently...

[zielperson]

Silently because I am too busy not dying.

[Robzilla1983]

This thread is full of win.

Not much new to add, but my personal favourite was this group of middle-aged guys that came in all of the time. They'd throw on the weight belts, hit the smith machine, load up the weight, and go down all of six inches. Meanwhile I used the power rack next to them, used about 100 pounds less than they did (but still at my body weight), and did a proper squat. I always felt like I was better

Personal trainers hogging machines (or kicking you off machines) really irked me; especially since the gym I went to had a room specifically for people who hire a trainer. Since I didn't hire one I technically couldn't use that room, but no one ever used it. There would always be 2 or 3 people on the go just in the general area, and nobody using the actual room. I always felt like I should just go in and use it, but then I quit the gym and workout from home now instead.

Oh, guys wearing toques. Only saw that once or twice, but it surprised me. There's no way I'd workout with a hat on (hell, now that I'm at home I don't often wear a shirt). It was surprising to see someone who went to the gym, but then did so light of a workout that they could wear a toque. Gotta love Canadian winters I guess

[lwow]

To elaborate on crazy bicep activities...siting on a rowing machine and doing bicep curls with the handle. Not only is it bad for the chain, but how can you possibly be getting a workout. If you imagine the machine to be the boat and the handle to be the oar, what they are doing is slamming the oar against the water.

Also erging (rowing machine) as hard as they can but not moving the handle which if you can imagine looks like a full body flail sliding the seat around and is also not a workout. Then these people tell you rowing is super easy. Palm. To. Face.

[ThePantologist]

Guys at the gym like to talk to each other a long time sitting in the incline chairs between their seated presses and flyes.

Amen. At my university's gym, it's really common for guys and girls to go really done up to the gym - guys: shower before the gym, hair styled, etc; girls: full makeup, hair done, etc-. So you'll have a bunch of people trolling the gym to pick people up, meaning you'll have guys do a few reps of something moderately heavy and then hitting on the girls walking around the free weights area. It's fun because people say they spend 2 hours in the gym, but really only spend 30 minutes actually working out.

I also really enjoy seeing the random exercises people invent. There were two guys that were doing something that looked like a dip combined with a rocking/flailing movement.

My absolute favorite is people dropping weights. There are guys who grab heavy dumbbells like 100lbs each, put them up for bench press and then drop them when they start violently coming down from their 1 rep that they barely got through. I know it's a lot of weight to control, but I swear it's like Donkey Kong in the gym at 5 every day.

[Junglizer]

This thread is full of win.

This thread is full of fail.

FIFY

[zielperson]

Another pet peeve is (mostly young guys, but also older ones) the chicken leg man.

You know the type - huge upper body, nice muscles, but the legs of a chicken.

::zielperson::

[Timmy M]

don't say huge upper body because that implies people training their back, i have seriously seen people with MASSIVE anterior (front) deltoids and completely flat posterior (back)

[zielperson]

Actually, that is what gets me the most.

People who KNOW how to train, who got great upper body musculature, well balanced, front and back, biceps, triceps, everything fine... and then...

CHICKEN LEGS!

::zielperson::

[Crooked]

Nothing but curls guy. I saw him do at least 20 sets of different curl variations (barbell, dumbell, curl machine, cable machine, back to dumbell, etc.). His arms and chest were moderately impressive, but his back and legs were non-existent.

My gym is FULL of this guy. Every time I have wanted to use the squat rack it has been wide open, but there's always a wall of dudes (always male) doing every variation of curl they can think of. Curls with dumbbells, curls with the curved bar, tricep curls lying on the bench, tricep curls upright, varieties of curls on a couple different weight machines. Occasionally they branch out and do upper-body machine work or leg presses, but those instances are few.

There are also some really interesting clothing choices. There's a woman who does spin class in jeans and another who does all her workouts in tight jean shorts. This morning there was a woman in a strapless top, which struck me as potentially scandalous if she moved the wrong way.

[gr4nt]

http://youcallthatfitness.blogspot.com/

[citabean]

I just shook my head...

This girl at the gym was using the barbie 3 lb weights today... she did some curls, chest press, chest fly, tricep moves and some other stuff I didn't pay attention to. THEN, she grabs the jump rope and starts telling us about how she has to learn doubleunders, because thats what they do at cross fit...

[CapN_Tommy_Sunshine]

I just shook my head...

This girl at the gym was using the barbie 3 lb weights today... she did some curls, chest press, chest fly, tricep moves and some other stuff I didn't pay attention to.

I often see a couple of women casually doing curls with the 3 lb weights while sitting on the big stability balls and chit chatting. They always look so satisfied with themselves afterwards.

[spezzy]

Amen. At my university's gym, it's really common for guys and girls to go really done up to the gym - guys: shower before the gym, hair styled, etc; girls: full makeup, hair done, etc-. So you'll have a bunch of people trolling the gym to pick people up, meaning you'll have guys do a few reps of something moderately heavy and then hitting on the girls walking around the free weights area. It's fun because people say they spend 2 hours in the gym, but really only spend 30 minutes actually working out.

I see this at the university gym I go to also.

But for the record, in this weather, I typically shower before I go to the gym also, but for two reasons:

1) My allergies are bad, and a shower first thing in the morning helps

2) Wet hair = cooler during workout.

I had a guy one day ask if I was done with the platform, and when I told him no but he could work in between, he actually told me it was ok, because he actually just really liked the mirrors.

After one of the other ones opened up, he proceeded to do his workout in sunglasses.

I did manage to get a photo for proof, cant find it this second though...

[Glenndingo]

Omg omg. Got some dirty looks from guys on the hammer strength/pec deck/tool isolation machine. Three dudes, one with his ass off the seat, and one on each of the weight loading sides lifting weights together. It was probably the coolest squad exercise I've seen!!

[prefect42]

This happened to me a couple of weeks ago and served as a reminder for why I absolutely hate going to the gym after work.

My gym has 1 power rack and 3 angled squat racks (I think that's the term, anyway). I manage to get the last open squat rack when I come in--the whole gym was really busy. The guy in the power rack is doing actual lifts, likewise for one of the guys next to me in the squat rack. On my other side however, are two jerks working out together doing some sort of circuit.

I do circuits. I like circuits. But the time for circuits is not when the gym is ridiculously busy and there are at least two guys waiting to use one of the racks. They'd stroll over to the rack, do 10 partial squats, then walk off and do pull-ups or bench presses or something else for 5 minutes, and then come back.

Finally after about 10-15 minutes of this, one of the waiting guys just went over to them at the pullup bar and told them that they needed to figure something else out because it wasn't fair to be barely utilizing the rack but still tying it up for a halfhour.

[prefect42]

I should also say that this thread brought out my constant fear that I am THAT guy who is doing it wrong. I think my form is pretty decent, but maybe I'm totally delusional! Oh god, the JUDGING! *runs away*