Overheard in the gym - Share!

[ETFnerd]

I'm pretty sure it's a device to flare the nostrils in order to maximize oxygen intake... it works kinda like the breathe right strips that NFL players like to use...

[StrengthIsBeauty]

A guy to the girl he was there with...

"No, not so much weight. Put it on 20lbs and lift it 15 times"

(I wanted to hand the poor lady the New Rules of Lifting for Women book!)

[ZenGwen]

Yesterday I was super-lazy in the morning and thus had to go to the gym after work instead of before work. This meant that the weights section (which has some regulars in the morning, but is mostly pretty empty) was absolutely packed. For the most part this is fine. I've been there at peak hours before, and while it's full almost exclusively of curlbros, they're all very friendly and nice, and super-accommodating as soon as I grab dumbbells larger than they're using, so it's okay. But, last night, there were a couple of jerks.

The squat rack was already being used, by a guy who said he'd just started. The assisted pull-up machine is right next to it, so while I was waiting I took all the weight off it and did a couple sets of pull-ups. Once the guy had finished with the rack, I took the neck pad off the bar, and did my first set at 60 kg. While I was leaning against the bar and resting for my next set, a couple of guys get to the weights section and make a bee-line for the rack. Seeing me in it, one of them raises an eyebrow, sneers slightly and asks "Are you using the rack?"

No, jerk, I'm just posing with some weights in the middle of this super-crowded gym. I look super-sexy in my baggy old dragon t-shirt, you see, and I want to show off.

I politely told him I had four sets left. He and his buddy had the same idea about the assisted pull-up machine while they were waiting, but both used it with so much weight on they must have hardly been lifting anything, and I felt rather smug.

I felt less smug and more angry when I noticed, later, that they hadn't wanted the rack for anything that you actually needed to use the rack for. They were doing that thing where you put a weight on one end of a barbell, put the other end in a corner, and lift it. They were using the corner of the rack for this, at peak hours when everyone wanted to use it, and there were other barbells available to do such things with. Not only that, but they were alternating between that and curls with tiny dumbbells, and just left the dumbbells on the floor by the rack when they were done.

I put them away. The guys were using some weights machines that face the dumbbell racks, only a couple of feet away, so they should have seen me do it. I hope they felt at least a little chagrined.

[Gainsdalf the Whey]

A guy to the girl he was there with...

"No, not so much weight. Put it on 20lbs and lift it 15 times"

(I wanted to hand the poor lady the New Rules of Lifting for Women book!)

Which starts you out at 15 rep sets doesn't it?

I surprisingly haven't heard anything bad at my new gym "Bailey's Fitness". I'm still waiting, but most people there seem to know what they're doing. Only people who do anything but squats in the rack are those that do shrugs, which i can understand using it for if it's free. There are Bros of course, but almost all of them are pretty respectful, the one who doesn't seem to be I just avoid.

[Morrigainz]

My question is what does he have in his nose? Is he treating a nosebleed?

Sent from my DROID4 using Tapatalk 2

Nose? What? Who's looking at his NOSE???

[Jcannon98188]

His nose is up there. He is not just a piece of meat! (Unfortunate choice of words.......)

[Kyzel]

Yesterday, there were 2 new guys in the Body Pump class. They looked like they visited the weight room with some frequency, but they didn't take into consideration the high-rep count and struggled a bit. They even said something about losing a bet and took a few breaks.

At the end of the class, we have a few minutes of stretching. As soon as the instructor announced that it was time to stretch, one of the guys said "flower power bullshit, let's go," and they picked up their stuff and left. It surprises me how people severely underestimate stretching.

[Blueberries]

I can't believe I forgot to share this one! A couple of weeks ago, I sort of halfway heard this guy asking one of the trainers how much the bar weighs. "It only weighs about 10-15 pounds, right?" Okay, I'm not really paying attention at this point. I was at the end of my workout, practicing hang cleans in an as-out-of-the-way-as-I-could-get place when they came walking over and started putting plates on the bar at a flat bench.

I had clearly missed a lot of the conversation (which I'm now convinced was a huge loss for me), but as they're putting 45s on each side, the guy is trying to count and figure out how much weight they've got. Two plates on each side, and he wants to know how much it is. Trainer thinks for a minute (!) and says 225. Guy wants to know how much it would be with another plate, and then he says that he wants it to be 340. At this point, I start paying attention, because a) who doesn't want to watch a train wreck and I want to make sure I have my facts straight when I'm giving the paramedics a report.

So they load three plates, count again, add what they need to get it to 340, and recruit the guy who was in between sets in the cage to help spot. You know, one spotter on each end of the bar. The guy who wants to lift it says he "just wants to know what it feels like" and "only [thinks he] will get one." There was a guy standing at the pull-up assist who had been watching this whole thing unfold also, and he caught my eye with raised eyebrows and whispered, "That's a bad idea." You think?

With a spotter on either end, guy gets under the bar and gets ready. Pull-up guy and I are watching with rapt attention at this point. I'm starting to think that if he does actually do this, we're both going to need to jump in with the other two to help get the bar off of him. He takes a deep breath and gives it everything he has, and the bar goes up about a half-inch. He puts it back down and says, "Okay, let's try again." Does it again, does not attempt to move it out of the rack. He puts the bar back down, sits up, and says, "Okay, thanks. I think I'll just keep coming back to do that until I can get it, since I don't need a spotter to just do that." *facepalm* Naturally, I'm thinking why not just actually bench a reasonable weight and work on getting stronger?

My takeway: If you have no idea how much the bar weighs with 3+ plates on it, perhaps you should not be attempting to bench 3+ plates?

[Morrigainz]

Blueberries: Wow. Just....wow. Seriously there are no words.

[bigm141414]

Hahah Blueberries that's a great story.

[Benjsec]

Blueberries: Wow. Just....wow. Seriously there are no words.

I read that and though "mmm, I do like blueberries and quite agree - but not sure how it's relevant to this thread"

Then I realised and it all made sense.

Blueberries - you'll have to let us know if you see him again and if he ever actually manages to do a rep I'm guessing not

[Jcannon98188]

Gahhh I can't even think about lifting 340 lbs. Like ever.

My highschool choir teacher was benching something like 320lbs one day when his left pectorial muscle tore off of his chest and shot into his arm (sending the 320lb bar dropping towards him). Luckily the spotter saw it coming, and was a beast, and was able to catch the bar and put it back on the bench. Still terrifies me.

[gymell]

Yesterday, there were 2 new guys in the Body Pump class. They looked like they visited the weight room with some frequency, but they didn't take into consideration the high-rep count and struggled a bit. They even said something about losing a bet and took a few breaks.

At the end of the class, we have a few minutes of stretching. As soon as the instructor announced that it was time to stretch, one of the guys said "flower power bullshit, let's go," and they picked up their stuff and left. It surprises me how people severely underestimate stretching.

I think a lot of people don't understand or appreciate how much flexibility weight lifting takes! Which I think is a huge benefit, as much as the strength gained by it. So I can only imagine how bad their form is, and what their routines are like, if they don't think stretching is important ...

[ZenGwen]

I think a lot of people don't understand or appreciate how much flexibility weight lifting takes! Which I think is a huge benefit, as much as the strength gained by it. So I can only imagine how bad their form is, and what their routines are like, if they don't think stretching is important ...

Yeah, seriously. I didn't think flexibility was that big a deal, until I started squatting properly, going all the way down, below parallel. My boyfriend tried to do the same thing, and just can't get down past about 3-4 inches above parallel, even when he's just doing body weight squats. Now I'm glad I did a couple months of Pilates when I was starting with weights, although I was pretty flexible to start with.

"Flower power bullshit". Geez. What a bad (and ignorant) attitude.

[Blueberries]

I read that and though "mmm, I do like blueberries and quite agree - but not sure how it's relevant to this thread"

Then I realised and it all made sense.

Blueberries - you'll have to let us know if you see him again and if he ever actually manages to do a rep I'm guessing not

Oh, I will definitely keep you posted. It was the most mystifying and simultaneously horrifying thing I've ever witnessed in the weight room.

[kingclumsy]

Yesterday, there were 2 new guys in the Body Pump class. They looked like they visited the weight room with some frequency, but they didn't take into consideration the high-rep count and struggled a bit. They even said something about losing a bet and took a few breaks.

At the end of the class, we have a few minutes of stretching. As soon as the instructor announced that it was time to stretch, one of the guys said "flower power bullshit, let's go," and they picked up their stuff and left. It surprises me how people severely underestimate stretching.

I hope they got every ache and pain that was coming to them

[Mad Rocker]

I hope they got every ache and pain that was coming to them

I guess it's possible that if they've never stretched properly before, they might believe that what they feel after a workout is normal and that stretching does nothing.

Also - hi! I live a few miles away from Cheltenham. Small world.

[Avalon]

Where I live, there is 1 gym. And Korean muscleheads are an ENTIRELY different experience.

One time I had a man literally FOLLOW me around the gym, doing every thing I did, every weight I used, every machine I rested on. It was getting really, really annoying: ran on the treadmill IN A ROW OF EMPTY ONES right next to mine at exactly the same speed - went and did push-ups and body weight squats by the mirrors, occasionally throwing in an extra push-up with this shit eating grin on his face - It was ridiculous. Finally I got entirely too sick of him and went to the leg press machine. Usually I don't advocate machines, but I wasn't going to lift one set of heavies without a spotter, so I loaded the thing up to its full 400lbs and pressed out a set of eight. The joke in my family is our arms will starve while our legs thrive, it's just the way we're built. I get off the machine, he immediately jumps on, and I wait. He sets himself up, doesn't even look at the weight, and pushes for all he's worth. The plate doesn't budge.

I am smug, to say the least.

[Gainsdalf the Whey]

Where I live, there is 1 gym. And Korean muscleheads are an ENTIRELY different experience.

One time I had a man literally FOLLOW me around the gym, doing every thing I did, every weight I used, every machine I rested on. It was getting really, really annoying: ran on the treadmill IN A ROW OF EMPTY ONES right next to mine at exactly the same speed - went and did push-ups and body weight squats by the mirrors, occasionally throwing in an extra push-up with this shit eating grin on his face - It was ridiculous. Finally I got entirely too sick of him and went to the leg press machine. Usually I don't advocate machines, but I wasn't going to lift one set of heavies without a spotter, so I loaded the thing up to its full 400lbs and pressed out a set of eight. The joke in my family is our arms will starve while our legs thrive, it's just the way we're built. I get off the machine, he immediately jumps on, and I wait. He sets himself up, doesn't even look at the weight, and pushes for all he's worth. The plate doesn't budge.

I am smug, to say the least.

I woulda have stood there, arms crossed, with a stern look and asked "Done now?"

[Unda]

I woulda have stood there, arms crossed, with a stern look and asked "Done now?"

Seconding that. I wouldn't have been able to resist.

[Avalon]

I woulda have stood there, arms crossed, with a stern look and asked "Done now?"

Had I been able to speak this man's language, I would have verbally ripped him a new one. As it was I think some form of cultural communication was established, namely, "STEP OFF, M*THERF*CKER!"

[azsf]

Yeah, seriously. I didn't think flexibility was that big a deal, until I started squatting properly, going all the way down, below parallel. My boyfriend tried to do the same thing, and just can't get down past about 3-4 inches above parallel, even when he's just doing body weight squats

Okay, im not saying you dont need to be flexible, or that flexibility wont help you with weight lifting, but this is flat out wrong. unless your bf couldn't sit in a chair, then it's a strength issue that's affecting his depth. a strength issue which could potentially be causing him to lose balance, maybe. in both cases, doing squats with a barbell would actually be easier than bodyweight, as it allows your centre of gravity to shift forward, and you recruit your posterior chain more effectively.

now if you said he struggled with his shoulders for low bar, or his wrists were sliding under the bar, then you'd be closer to the mark. but as is, you've mistaken flexibility for mobility. mobility is very important for weight lifting, as it's necessary for full ROM in lifts.

oh and on a side note, lets not forget to add that static-stretching pre workout can lead to a weaker performance. essentially, changing when and how your stretch reflex kicks in will make your muscle more unstable. more unstable = harder to contract = failed lift.

[Driftwood]

It looks like gym pet peeves belong in this thread as well. I guess in the end I really, really dislike normal gyms and would love to find a place with a crossfit setup but the freedom to invent and follow your own workouts.

1. Standing directly in front of the dumbbell rack to do any dumbbell exercise. Thanks for monopolizing all of those dumbbells because you couldn't possible take two steps back and be OK with being 6' from the mirror.

2. Bad form. I could probably add about 50 lbs to my dumbbell curl if I swung it like some people do.

3. Slamming/dropping weights. This doesn't apply to olympic lifts or bumper plates or those sort of movements.

4. Being extremely noisy. If you're working hard, you'll breathe hard. No one appreciates your yelling.

5. No re-racking weights. Countless times I've gone over to use the squat rack and there's 600lbs of weights on the floor or leaning on the rack. Who the f*ck squats that much but can't pick up 45lbs one plate at a time and rerack them? God forbid I catch you doing that, I'm sure my smart-ass remark would result in death by bodybuilder.

6. Talking on your phone while working out. OMG you are so freaking important that you can't leave your phone in your locker.

Yeah I can get fired up about gym nonsense. I just want adult-sized playgrounds.

[airen123]

Drift, #1 is a huge bitch for me. I often try to "school" them at my gym "patiently" waiting with my weights waiting to rerack. (rightnextothem). They usually move back with apologies.

[Gainsdalf the Whey]

4. Being extremely noisy. If you're working hard, you'll breathe hard. No one appreciates your yelling.

Making grunts on lifts definitely helps me, especially squats