Overheard in the gym - Share!

[Rob__]

Man, reading this thread makes me miss going to the gym. Since I installed one in my basement, the laugh-at-other-people factor has dropped significantly.

 

Although I did catch my brother doing some extremely shaky legs in the air bench presses the other week. I kept hoping he'd roll off the bench...

[cracked_belle]

Man, reading this thread makes me miss going to the gym. Since I installed one in my basement, the laugh-at-other-people factor has dropped significantly.

 

ditto.  I alsomost have a sensation of being "left out" on the fun, lol.

[ScrabbleGirl]

Last week at the gym. 

 

Two guys, one benching, one 'spotting'

 

Guy gets on the horizontal bench. Spreads his legs to an impressive degree (not sure we all needed to see his business peaking out, but still, that's not the worst bit), he then stretches his legs out so just his heels are touching the floor as his mate loads the weight on. At this point I'm staring in horror at his feet, when suddenly he starts lifting, he's struggling, he looks like he's pushing out with his legs and he's making this incredible noise. WHY AREN'T YOUR FEE FIRMLY ON THE FLOOR DUDE?! WHY!?

 

What. The. Hell. Guy?

[Timmy M]

2 bros (they even had backwards caps on... it was freaking snowing outside... and we're in england here) doing 'leg day' first caught my attention when there was a comment about not liking squats, so off to the 45 incline leg press they go, chattering about how hot they feel after what i presume is some pre-workout sup taking effect as well as teacher bro saying how he can't wait for 'these ones' (imitates leg extensions), aaaanyway teacher bro gives some obscure reason why it's best to do it with your legs really close together (something about getting your knees to your chest or some such nonsense) and i carry on ignoring them

then they come to the machine behind which is a hack squat machine teacher bro goes first and the padawan goes 'that looks like far too much hard work, i ain't doing that' and goes off to the leg extension... only for the gym owner (who knows him and also only us in at that time) to come out and call him out for being a wimp , eventually he does a few half reps proclaiming that he can't go deeper (i'd just started some high-rep A2G front squats at this point, making sure i hit full depth for teh lolz hoping they'd feel abashed). they don't alas and move onto the leg extension after the student predictably gives up after half a set my only wish is that i'd told teacher bro to have a go at the front squats when he said to me 'i bet they burn loads' instead of just saying they knacker me out after my benching, deadlifts and romanian deadlifts ah well, live by example 

[I-Jo]

I pretty much read this whole thing in less than 2 days time since it's cropped up.... and while yes- I totally agree there are some 150 billion% ridiculous things at the gym-  (I go to a large big box typical gym) that make me shake my head quiet a bit sometimes (heavy weight guy on the bosu ball flat side up/round side down doing a squat then stand 1-2 punch combo with little 5 lb weights????)... the amount of ridiculous judgmental narcissism in this thread is kind of nauseating.   Must have been too much judgement for me to read at one time!!

 

I wear make up all the time to gym.  I don't go full cake make up- but I go *almost* no where without mascara and eye liner.  I'm also a performing artist- and I trial run a lot of my products through my gym workouts- I have a lot to say about that- but I'm still kinda new around here so I'm mostly not going to say what I really think but yeah- it's annoying to know that people stand around and have nothing better to do than judge me for my eyeliner and lipstick.  

 

 

We have ridiculous people at the gym all the time- and it makes the gym the gym. It's a society- a culture. I don't think the gym is the gym without them no matter how right or wrong they are.

 

And god forbid people be different.  And fuck anyone making fun of people who dance on the treadmill or between sets.  Those people are awesome and all sorts of kick ass.  

 

I dance everywhere.... go ahead- mock me.  I don't care.  I dance between sets if I"m straight lifting.... I dance up the isle- I dance in the aerobics room. I used to dance on the treadmill.  I love it.  

 

That being said- my biggest beef is there is NO excuse for not re-racking your weights.  That's a huge no no on any level. 

 

 

I suppose I'm being a little testy... must be that time of my Monday.... and I haven't gone and gunked up the gym yet with my tight ass pants and all dolled up face- and Jo's a crabby bitch when she doesn't get to work out!  

[FyreFlies]

There's this "guru" in the gym (well at least everyone under 21 thinks he is) that tells these little beginner kids that they should be bouncing the bar off their chests when doing bench press. BOUNCING. Really?

 

Those same kids, they are super annoying with their boxing pads and thumping each other on the abs while one of them does situps. I always turn around and am like O_o.

 

The gym staff rooting on the girl gym staff who comes in to work out when she's doing jack ish in terms of working out compared to everyone else in the gym.

[Timmy M]

I-Jo we mock partly because a lot of what happens is what we did at the same stage as these people before we found out how to actually train effectively, partly because it's annoying and yet a lot of it is still because what we see is either laughably ridiculous or eye-rollingly stupid there's nothing malicious in these comments simple fun is all

[MariahSnow]

I love the gym because I get to people-watch. This is not simply to judge people because I'm more awesome than them and know all the things about exercise, it's also to scope out how they are using some machine or some kind of weighted exercise that I'm not familiar with because I'm still relatively new. 

 

However, there have been a few times when I've just seen genuinely weird shit...

 

Part 1 - At my college gym. I'm on the treadmill per usual (because I didn't know better!) and I hear this epic moaning. Like, moaning. Over my headphones. So I start looking around like, "where is that coming from? Who is birthing at the gym?" I finally find the source of the noise and it's a dude. He's probably about 6'4" and easily 250, maybe more. And he's wearing a muscle shirt. And he has blonde pigtails. Like, two small pony tails coming out of the back of his head. It was like a legit viking... with pigtails. And he's doing what I'd call "dive bomber pushups" but he's moaning throughout them. It's not even like moaning, it's like when you take a deep breath in and then sigh, except really aggressive. It was so weird. I almost busted my face on the treadmill.

 

Part 2 - This happened only a few weeks ago at my current 24-Hr Fitness. Some dude who, no lie, looked like Napoleon Dynamite's brother was doing squats. I don't remember if he had weights or not. But he was staring himself down in the mirror. He was only moving up or down a few inches, but he had the most intense look on his face that I've ever seen. And I'm pretty sure he did that for my entire workout because I kept looking over and he was still there. Staring. At himself. With the intensity of 10,000 suns.

 

As for what I-Jo said... I hope everyone on this thread can laugh at others and then laugh at themselves harder. We all started somewhere and probably have embarrassing stories (perhaps another thread??) And also realize that no one fits nicely into those little stereotypes. I used to know a gym-bro who was actually a really nice guy, hard worker, smart, etc. He just loved to go to the gym and do 85,000 tricep pushdowns. 

[Elder]

This thread makes me want to get a gym membership just so I can get some more entertainment in my life!  Hilarious!

[I-Jo]

I know..... I know- I chuckle tremendously at some of the things that go on- I really do.. I think my immediate reaction was due more to the fact that I read all of it at once- and when you do that- it's like this WAVE of judgement.   we have some typical meatheads at our gym- but most of them are really great people- and since I"m there literally 20+ hours a week- it's hard to not kind of adopt everyone who isn't a douchcanoe- which is LOTS of people- even the misguided onces.

 

I also take personal offense to the make up comments- mostly because I always wear it and I work train hard enough- most guys won't train with me adn they give me little nick names like "the destroyer" and shit. it's amusing- but yes- I wear my make up.  I also dance and act goofy when I'm doing my thing and no working out.  so some of it rubs me the wrong way.

 

now on to the funnys.

 

Tonight.  Two young teens- occupying the smith machine. Lay a mat- and a towel under the bar- set about chest height.  first I thought they were going to hook their legs over and do ab things...

 

no no.  I turned around- and they were doing LEG PRESSES and hip ups on the smith machine???

 

(ps.... all three 45* sled presses were open)

 

I really was confused- but I guess if it gets the job done and your don't fucking squish yourself..... whatever. people certainly do have strange notions of working out. 

[andygates]

You never know, they might have seen the Reddit thread laughing at that exercise, where it got a vigorous defense as the oldschool legpress from the days before sleds and machines.  

 

Or they were just insane  

[I-Jo]

who knows.  regardless I was amused.

 

It's one thing I miss/don't miss about traditional lifting- I have time to see these things- when I do my HIIT- there is no time for that- plus I'm usually out of the way- I can see a few people but most aisle way people rather than people on equipment or free weights what have you. 

[Gainsdalf the Whey]

I'm with I-Jo on this one. This thread has gotten very judgy at times and I've warned people about it, it will be shut down if you start being dicks. We're about acceptance of people here at NF, which encompasses a lot of people who consider each other weirdoes (part of being a nerd), but we don't judge them for it. The only reason this thread was allowed to keep going in the first place was that we (the mods) are placing good faith in everyone to see the humor in funny shit PEOPLE SAID. It's since started to become a place for laughing at the exercises others do, rather than the things they say.

Just remember, most of us here are novices or at least were once. Very few are fitness experts. Think twice about making fun of people for things they do. That person has gotten their ass into the gym, which is more than a lot of people can say, so whatever floats their boat and gets them moving, good for them. Also, whatever they are doing may actually have a purpose behind it that you don't know about and you might be able to learn from them if you'd take a second to ask. For example:

 

Part 2 - This happened only a few weeks ago at my current 24-Hr Fitness. Some dude who, no lie, looked like Napoleon Dynamite's brother was doing squats. I don't remember if he had weights or not. But he was staring himself down in the mirror. He was only moving up or down a few inches, but he had the most intense look on his face that I've ever seen. And I'm pretty sure he did that for my entire workout because I kept looking over and he was still there. Staring. At himself. With the intensity of 10,000 suns.

 

For the stare, I do this if I have a mirror. Not only do you get to yell at yourself and call yourself names to get pumped up to try to finish the set, it also establishes perfectly neutral head position for the squat, which promotes "chest up" and good form.

[newburpee10]

My first comments happened at work but he was telling me how to workout because I'm a girl and do not know these things.

1. I should stop lifting heavy because light weight with high reps do the same

2. Bacon is bad for me (what?)

3. I look fine so I should stop working out as hard (what every girl wants to hear)

4. If I do too many things I will burn myself out so I should settle down, get married and have babies instead.

 

Now at my gym (a 24 hour) there's an older gentleman who generally uses the shoulder press and ab machine then glides on the eliptical for about an hour. Some days he will steal the one and only rack and those are my favorite days. His exercises he's created will blow your mind. Some days it's the bicep/back bender, others it's the sideways shoulder press. Today was a combonation hang/snatch/high pull but yet none of those three at the same time. All of these at way too heavy of a weight to do even remotely safely. I wrestle with trying to help him so he won't hurt himself or just letting him do it wrong so he will hurt himself and not take the rack for curls anymore.

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

My first comments happened at work but he was telling me how to workout because I'm a girl and do not know these things.

1. I should stop lifting heavy because light weight with high reps do the same

2. Bacon is bad for me (what?)

3. I look fine so I should stop working out as hard (what every girl wants to hear)

4. If I do too many things I will burn myself out so I should settle down, get married and have babies instead.

 

Now at my gym (a 24 hour) there's an older gentleman who generally uses the shoulder press and ab machine then glides on the eliptical for about an hour. Some days he will steal the one and only rack and those are my favorite days. His exercises he's created will blow your mind. Some days it's the bicep/back bender, others it's the sideways shoulder press. Today was a combonation hang/snatch/high pull but yet none of those three at the same time. All of these at way too heavy of a weight to do even remotely safely. I wrestle with trying to help him so he won't hurt himself or just letting him do it wrong so he will hurt himself and not take the rack for curls anymore.

Maybe ask him about his routine to see how he developed it, that could lead to a good conversation about proper form.

[I-Jo]

man- I'd have some words to say to that guy.

 

I hate when people say you don't need to work out or do xxxx for xxx result- you look great already.

 

I guess it's supposed to be a compliment but ultimately I get the say so... and one of the say so's is- this shit didn't come for free or cheap- I put in a lot of man hours working on this body.. and I continue to develop it.

 

so essentially frag off LOL  

 

snort.... light weights my jumbo sized tight ass.  

[KitKatty]

A friend of mine had a guy come up to her while she was on the bike and tell her that she shouldn't be doing that, it's bad for her... O_o

[pwallace]

Read this thread from the beginning and i gotta say its pretty funny. Ive seen just about all of these stereotypes at my gym and its ridiculous. I got a few to add

1) yesterday as I was doing my squats and trying to get as deep as i could, there was a guy (biceps bigger than my head) "curling" 95lbs. I say "curling" because he had about 4 inches of range of motion and was bouncing his whole body as he lifted them. the kicker was though he sounded like a wookie in head the whole time. I seriously thought chewie was going to come running in and look for his mate.

2) I like to run for a warm up then lift then swim as my cool down. there is a kid at the gym maybe 2 years younger than me who lifts every day an mocks everyone at the gym who is starting out or not lifting like he does (terrible form and loud obnoxious noises). Anywho, I was about to start my last set of deadlifts that day and he comes over and asks if I was ever going to let someone else use the squat rack, which had been empty since I up till I started using it. I told him I was almost done and that then he would be welcome to it. *fast forward through obnoxious meat head "badass" talk*  I finish my set and head down to the pool. I do a few laps and he comes down and gets into the lane next to me and makes some comment about swimming being a wuss workout and ho wit didn't take any strength. He continued to take 20 minutes to do 3 laps panting the whole time and needing the lifeguard to tell him many many times to get off the dividers. The kicker was some of his friends were watching from teh sidelines and they told him not to listen to the life guard that he was just being an ass.

[MariahSnow]

I'm with I-Jo on this one. This thread has gotten very judgy at times and I've warned people about it, it will be shut down if you start being dicks. We're about acceptance of people here at NF, which encompasses a lot of people who consider each other weirdoes (part of being a nerd), but we don't judge them for it. The only reason this thread was allowed to keep going in the first place was that we (the mods) are placing good faith in everyone to see the humor in funny shit PEOPLE SAID. It's since started to become a place for laughing at the exercises others do, rather than the things they say.

Just remember, most of us here are novices or at least were once. Very few are fitness experts. Think twice about making fun of people for things they do. That person has gotten their ass into the gym, which is more than a lot of people can say, so whatever floats their boat and gets them moving, good for them. Also, whatever they are doing may actually have a purpose behind it that you don't know about and you might be able to learn from them if you'd take a second to ask. For example:

 

 

For the stare, I do this if I have a mirror. Not only do you get to yell at yourself and call yourself names to get pumped up to try to finish the set, it also establishes perfectly neutral head position for the squat, which promotes "chest up" and good form.

 

I'm just going to keep my mouth shut after this because I'm only going to dig the hole deeper, but I was not trying to judge that guy, but I guess I did and that's my bad. It crossed my mind throughout my workout when I was watching him that maybe he's been told to do that exercise by a PT. Or maybe he's practicing his squat form and only going as low as he's comfortable with. Regardless, I had a lot of respect for him because he showed up, he did something completely different than everyone else and therefore stood out enough to be noticed, and he did it with intensity. 

 

I'd hate to think that my comment or any other comments on here have turned people away or made people uncomfortable. 

[Hermione Gainser]

I'm with I-Jo on this one. This thread has gotten very judgy at times and I've warned people about it, it will be shut down if you start being dicks. We're about acceptance of people here at NF, which encompasses a lot of people who consider each other weirdoes (part of being a nerd), but we don't judge them for it. The only reason this thread was allowed to keep going in the first place was that we (the mods) are placing good faith in everyone to see the humor in funny shit PEOPLE SAID. It's since started to become a place for laughing at the exercises others do, rather than the things they say.

Just remember, most of us here are novices or at least were once. Very few are fitness experts. Think twice about making fun of people for things they do. That person has gotten their ass into the gym, which is more than a lot of people can say, so whatever floats their boat and gets them moving, good for them. Also, whatever they are doing may actually have a purpose behind it that you don't know about and you might be able to learn from them if you'd take a second to ask. For example:

 

 

For the stare, I do this if I have a mirror. Not only do you get to yell at yourself and call yourself names to get pumped up to try to finish the set, it also establishes perfectly neutral head position for the squat, which promotes "chest up" and good form.

 

I'm 100% not trying to start anything (especially with my mod friend!) but I will honestly say that I've never read anything in here as judgy simply BECAUSE we are on NF.  I guess I take for granted that though we may come in here and LOL at what people are doing or saying in our gyms it IS in the back of our minds that 1. We do/have done stupid stuff, too and 2. Hey, if works for them, ultimately who cares?  (good example: the mirror stare down).  I could be totally wrong about people's intentions here but since it is NF I just assume the best of everyone.

 

I just wanted to offer my two cents on the matter.  I think anywhere else on the internet this would be full of "We are so much better than you" but I think here that's just not the case. To me, this is like (for those of us relatively recently out of college) looking at college kids now and thinking, "Oh college kids, you so silly in your pajama pants in class."  We all did it and we can giggle about it now.

 

I agree that I wouldn't want anyone to read this and feel like they can't come here.. but I'd hope the lurkers would read a lot of other threads and the main blog and understand that we love them long time.

 

Lastly, I'll add some of the weird stuff I do even now that I'm a big ol' Rebel (I guarantee people look at me and think WTF is she doing?!):

 

The stare down (I do it and still laugh at the zumba lady who makes love to herself int he mirror--it's funny but it works for her so rock on, sistah)\

The birthing mwod (feet and butt against the wall in a squat position..looks so wrong)

A bunch of stupid stuff my doc told me to do that involves a band or looking like jane fonda

Self High Fives-- f*ck yes

I also wear ridiculous socks, carry a crazy amount of stuff (micro plates, lacrosse ball, band, notebook, etc) and fix my hair in the mirrors between sets.

 

The thing about it is... I'm sure I look RIDICULOUS to some folk.. some who know what they're doing and some who don't and that's okay, either way. *I* don't care.. just like I assume none of the people we've posted about here actually care that we think they're silly.  I mean, that is what we preach above all else, isn't it?  Do you no matter how weird people think you are.

 

Anyhow... that's all... I think a "don't be a jerk" reminder can't hurt but I just feel like we're all pretty awesome and probably aren't coming from a mean place. 

[I-Jo]

that's hysterical.  win... give this man a beer.

[Timmy M]

My first comments happened at work but he was telling me how to workout because I'm a girl and do not know these things.

1. I should stop lifting heavy because light weight with high reps do the same

2. Bacon is bad for me (what?)

3. I look fine so I should stop working out as hard (what every girl wants to hear)

4. If I do too many things I will burn myself out so I should settle down, get married and have babies instead.

 

Now at my gym (a 24 hour) there's an older gentleman who generally uses the shoulder press and ab machine then glides on the eliptical for about an hour. Some days he will steal the one and only rack and those are my favorite days. His exercises he's created will blow your mind. Some days it's the bicep/back bender, others it's the sideways shoulder press. Today was a combonation hang/snatch/high pull but yet none of those three at the same time. All of these at way too heavy of a weight to do even remotely safely. I wrestle with trying to help him so he won't hurt himself or just letting him do it wrong so he will hurt himself and not take the rack for curls anymore.

bent press?

[I-Jo]

oh look- it's the old school version of a two hand anyway. 

 

I did about 20 of those with two 20lb kettle bells... them shits are no fucking joke.   (I can only imagine what people were saying when I was doing them LMFAO)

[Timmy M]

oh look- it's the old school version of a two hand anyway. 

 

I did about 20 of those with two 20lb kettle bells... them shits are no fucking joke.   (I can only imagine what people were saying when I was doing them LMFAO)

 

i used to do do 2 hands anyhows and one handed snatches at my old leisure centre which was fun cause the area to deadlift, clean, curl, lat raise etc etc was also essentially a walkway and it did get fairly buy at times

[I-Jo]

mhmmmhmm single snatches- good shit. I have a hard time with them- only because my left arm is significantly weaker than my right- either I do the same weight and assist the last few reps with my other hand- or I have to go down a weight- which I'm not above doing- just depends on how busy it is. I don't care for tying up one weight to do half a work out. 

 

yeah- I do all my stuff in what is tantamount to either a walkway- or the end of a walk way.  I give no fuck. The main walk way is about 11 feet wide- so the size of a regular driving lane.

 

And if you can fit a fricking bus in there- guess what- you can walk around me while I'm working. 

 

The other area is a little smaller but everyone uses it for doing all sorts of things- the trainers use it- the members use it- we have our own little "lifting" circuit training slash non traditional lift areas- people widely accept them and it makes for a nice workout environment.