so there was this guy in the gym . . .

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  • questionfear
    questionfear Posts: 527 Member
    I saw a guy in the gym today that I've mentally nicknamed "Abs of Steel". He comes into the weight room (which is separate from the machines, so he purposely comes in there instead of the general fitness area). He brings in a mat from the fitness area, and sets himself up on the mat with his legs on the bench press. He then starts doing crunches, and he does them forever. Literally. This morning I finished my rows, went on to the inverse rows, went out into the fitness area, came back, did some dead hangs off the pullup bar, and he was STILL CRUNCHING. He started at 5:54, and at 6:10ish when I left he was still going.

    I have so many questions.

    -Why the bench press? It must be at the right height or something but there's three or four other benches in the area he could use.
    -Why the weight room? I guess it's for the bench, but so odd.
    -How is he not screaming in pain after 15 straight minutes of crunches?
  • MissHolidayGolightly
    MissHolidayGolightly Posts: 857 Member
    edited March 2015
    People were tooting up a storm in yoga last night. It was seriously musical, if music smelled putrid. We were doing a prayer twist and someone let one loose and the yoga instructor said, "Great twist!" Then it kept happening. We were trapped in a hot dark room. I thought I was in the yoga scene from Jack@$$.

    This lady walked in to hot yoga and exclaimed, "Oh my GOD it's hot in here!" Then she continued to moan and make sex noises throughout sivasana when you're supposed to be quiet. What a class!
  • canadianlbs
    canadianlbs Posts: 5,199 Member
    People were tooting up a storm in yoga last night. It was seriously musical, if music smelled putrid. We were doing a prayer twist and someone let one loose and the yoga instructor said, "Great twist!" Then it kept happening. We were trapped in a hot dark room. I thought I was in the yoga scene from Jack@$$.

    This lady walked in to hot yoga and exclaimed, "Oh my GOD it's hot in here!" Then she continued to moan and make sex noises throughout sivasana when you're supposed to be quiet. What a class!

    i'm not willing to admit that i giggle at fart stories, but . . . i had to do the biggest butt-clench of my own life yesterday when i was leaning over the water fountain to fill my bottle and realised just in time that some poor schmo was leg-pressing behind me with his nose about two feet from my, um.

  • MissHolidayGolightly
    MissHolidayGolightly Posts: 857 Member
    I think fart stories are always funny. Glad you saved that man!
  • MissHolidayGolightly
    MissHolidayGolightly Posts: 857 Member
    edited March 2015
    Delete double
  • MissHolidayGolightly
    MissHolidayGolightly Posts: 857 Member
    I think fart stories are always funny. Glad you spared that man!
  • chubby_checkers
    chubby_checkers Posts: 2,352 Member
    I typically work out at the facility at work. It's all decked out, free, and everyone else there does Crossfit at lunch, so I don't have to fight for a squat rack. I was unable to go after work on Wednesday, so I went to the YMCA in the morning. I'm just copying/pasting my status because it was really too good to not share.
    Crazy gym guy: Excessively grunt while using the pec machine. Last set, remove the sweatshirt. It's Business Time in a nearly see-through tank. Nips are clearly visible. Admire nips/pecs in mirror, move on to cable rows. ROAR (not grunting, not rawring, straight up ROARING). Move on to lat pulldowns, excessively grunt. Move on to tricep pulldowns, slam the weights, get yelled at by gym employee. Complete sets and ROAR at self in the mirror while posing.

    I thought I was going to die trying to hold my laughs in.
  • I thought I was going to die trying to hold my laughs in.

    I would not even have tried. :smiley:
  • canadianlbs
    canadianlbs Posts: 5,199 Member
    This morning I finished my rows, went on to the inverse rows, went out into the fitness area, came back, did some dead hangs off the pullup bar, and he was STILL CRUNCHING.

    there's an older - well, male-menopause-zone - guy like that at my rec centre too. he shows up in flip-flops and an actual shirt in some thick meltable-plastic kind of fabric that encloses his entire torso but just happens not to have any sleeves - i.e. not a 'real' muscle shirt - settles himself into the smith machine on some kind of bench, and typically spends my. entire. workout time benching in there. and i can happily hang out in a gym for three hours, what with the resting and the stretching and the experimenting, just the general kid's-indoor-playground feel that gyms have for me.

    bizarre. i've never seen him do anything else. and he has this big barrel chest with these comparatively puny little arms attached to it, and tbh i've been exposed to enough of him that i can say confidently he's kind of a dick.
  • ellieco
    ellieco Posts: 18 Member
    I got really excited today in the gym. Benched what I thought was 2.5kg more than last time and it was EASY. Then realised the bar was only 15kg :(
  • scrittrice
    scrittrice Posts: 345 Member
    Felt like a badass going to the squat rack to squat my 100 pounds and found it was occupied. Asked the young guy using it to come over to the elliptical and tap me on the shoulder when he was done, and he said, "No problem." Ten minutes later, I'm on the elliptical and he comes over and says, "Okay, ma'am, it's all yours."

    Felt a little less like a badass. Ma'am! I'm not even 50 yet!
  • ajwall3
    ajwall3 Posts: 187
    Lol ⬆that's funny! so my best friend and I decided to start lifting weights together because that way we wouldn't be as intimidated by the weight room. We've been doing it for about a month and a half and were in there doing bicep curls after our strong lift workout.so this guy comes and he asks us if we're in high school, we look at each other and kind of shrug and we're like, no. He said how old are you talking to my girlfriend and she said, I'm 37. He was like wow looked at me and said what about you? I had to bite my cheek not to bust out laughing, but I smiled and said I'm 31. He visibly jump back and was all like I'm so sorry I'm so sorry I see your wedding rings now I'm new to the area blah blah blah by the way do you know any single girls? Oh my gosh I about died!he was like I'm 27. I wanted to be like what 27-year-old approachs a highschool girl?!
  • DawnEmbers
    DawnEmbers Posts: 2,451 Member
    Yeah...

    At work I'm not sure which I don't like more, when someone calls me ma'am, or when I get called the pet names by strangers like sweetheart, sweetie, love, etc.


    So, last night there was this short, stocky guy over when I was doing my accessories. He used the weird adductor and such type machines. He looked a little confused at what I was doing, good mornings so fair enough. But then he gets out a mat and puts it in the power cage. I was using the squat rack. He proceeded to do nothing weight related in the cage at all. He used the metal structure to do random stretches, putting this foot up at times on the safety bars and such. He was still doing it when I left and even the guy using just the leg machines shook his head when he noticed my confused glance back at the man.
  • threnjen
    threnjen Posts: 687 Member
    I think I have seen that guy. I think he does eventually squat but he spends literally 20-30 minutes stretching beforehand.
  • mirrim52
    mirrim52 Posts: 763 Member
    DawnEmbers wrote: »
    Yeah...

    At work I'm not sure which I don't like more, when someone calls me ma'am, or when I get called the pet names by strangers like sweetheart, sweetie, love, etc.

    Definitely pet names are worse. Ma'am is at least good manners. Pet names are often very condescending, especially when coming from men. I'm not a child, I don't know you, don't talk down to me. I got it all the time as a waitress.
  • CHSegl
    CHSegl Posts: 89 Member
    So there was this guy in the gym last Wednesday, late 30-ish, think Mr Clean but mediterranean coloring. In real good condition, clearly no stranger to the weights. I'm in the cage doing squats, and between sets I turned around and he was in front of the mirror wall with both hand clasped in front of his right hip, slightly leaned to one side. Kind of the pose body builders take to pop out their arm muscles. Then he started slowly swaying from side to side- think of a line of ballerinas up on point with their arms overhead, trying to convey flowers blowing in the wind. While doing this, holding his Mr Universe pose, I just..... stared. Have to admit, it was weirdly fascinating. He was so tied up watching himself in the mirror I don't think he noticed. BTW he never touched a weight. By the time I got to benching, he was on a treadmill running. Go figure.
  • MissHolidayGolightly
    MissHolidayGolightly Posts: 857 Member
    I like ma'am because it's respectful and polite. I'm also used to it because of interacting with military but I recognize it was weird at first being called ma'am as a 22-year-old. Agree that pet names or infantilizing names are condescending and icky coming from strangers.
  • DawnEmbers
    DawnEmbers Posts: 2,451 Member
    The picture taking bros were there last night again, this time right when I got there. Only they were focused on deadlift for the spectacle lift. The usual one had his shirt off when I first arrived at the gym. After quick warmup and moving to the squat rack, then there were two of them without shirts, cause I guess they get in the way when doing a deadlift. They did other moves later with dumbbells and shirts. Though, I didn't see the picture taking this time but I'm sure they left all the weight on the bar because they always do that for the heavy weight lifts.
  • canadianlbs
    canadianlbs Posts: 5,199 Member
    DawnEmbers wrote: »
    I'm sure they left all the weight on the bar because they always do that for the heavy weight lifts.

    guess at least they didn't leave their shirts lying around for someone else to deal with, which they sound like the types to do in their homes. there's something really fascinating to me in people who have got no class at all and your gym sounds like a hotbed.

    i had a weird moment on my ride home tonight. it's totally trivial but so fricking petty i'm still kind of irked about it. i was coming up this long unserious slope at one point, and i overtook someone. the thing was, it's not like i screamed past him or snickered or anything; i was just in pragmatic mode. he was moving much slower than me, i'd had a block or two to catch up with him in and it just looked like he was in leisure mode, so i didn't even think anything of it.

    well, apparently this is something you should not do to men in late middle age with the ex-hippie hair. damn me if he didn't make a POINT of stepping it up and re-passing me about a block after that. and he *kitten* snarked off at me as he blew past! in this really childish, 'nyah nyah see now i'm passing you so haha, guess you shouldn't have overtaken me in the first place' kind of juvenile way. he actually said something to exactly that effect. like it proves something. or something. i'm just, the hell if i know.

    and then he deked down the first turning he came to before he lost any of the face he'd just blown himself out to regain. for crud's sake. get a LIFE.
  • threnjen
    threnjen Posts: 687 Member
    Holy crap @DawnEmbers I FINALLY saw (or noticed? I am not very attentive) the no shirt guys!!! Do they ever actually DO anything?! Or do they just stand around shirtless and admiring themselves??
    I was fascinated.
  • scrittrice
    scrittrice Posts: 345 Member
    DawnEmbers wrote: »
    I'm sure they left all the weight on the bar because they always do that for the heavy weight lifts.

    guess at least they didn't leave their shirts lying around for someone else to deal with, which they sound like the types to do in their homes. there's something really fascinating to me in people who have got no class at all and your gym sounds like a hotbed.

    i had a weird moment on my ride home tonight. it's totally trivial but so fricking petty i'm still kind of irked about it. i was coming up this long unserious slope at one point, and i overtook someone. the thing was, it's not like i screamed past him or snickered or anything; i was just in pragmatic mode. he was moving much slower than me, i'd had a block or two to catch up with him in and it just looked like he was in leisure mode, so i didn't even think anything of it.

    well, apparently this is something you should not do to men in late middle age with the ex-hippie hair. damn me if he didn't make a POINT of stepping it up and re-passing me about a block after that. and he *kitten* snarked off at me as he blew past! in this really childish, 'nyah nyah see now i'm passing you so haha, guess you shouldn't have overtaken me in the first place' kind of juvenile way. he actually said something to exactly that effect. like it proves something. or something. i'm just, the hell if i know.

    and then he deked down the first turning he came to before he lost any of the face he'd just blown himself out to regain. for crud's sake. get a LIFE.

    My husband and I ride together recreationally on the weekends a lot, and we both notice this phenomenon. He passes a dude--no problem. Then I pass the same dude, dude seems barely to notice, but then looks over and realizes I'm a woman. All of a sudden, it's on.

    I will admit that one day years ago a nun in full habit passed me (she was FAST!) and it was a touch humiliating, but mostly I'm competing with myself.
  • MissHolidayGolightly
    MissHolidayGolightly Posts: 857 Member
    @DawnEmbers they sound like the group of guys that I saw video themselves curling in the squat rack a while back. One was curling, one was taping, and one of feeling his abs in the mirror. It was revoltingly narcissistic.

    @canadianlbs I just pictured Adam Sandler from Big Daddy throwing a stick in his path while he chided you. What a double canoe ;)
  • annaskiski
    annaskiski Posts: 1,212 Member
    I hate to say this, but I don't understand the 'double canoe' expression....I've seen this a few times and am wasting too much work time trying to puzzle it out.....
  • DawnEmbers
    DawnEmbers Posts: 2,451 Member
    @threnjen I have in fact seen them lift. They like to use the safeties in the squat rack while loading up the bar to pull it up from there. A smaller guy is sometimes with them though he lifts less and doesn't take off his shirt but has a smaller body fat so his muscles show more and he's not always hanging out with them. The main one who likes his shirt off the most has to make sure his picture is taken during the really heavy lifting then they just up and leave with the 45s still on the bar. Sunday night, the two without shirts were doing deadlifts and encouraging each other. As for what they do over by the dumbbells, that I don't know. Think I saw them maybe doing skull crushers on the floor with barbells but I could be wrong on what they were attempting. They do put on a show on a regular basis at night though.
  • MissHolidayGolightly
    MissHolidayGolightly Posts: 857 Member
    Crabada was trying to type douche canoe but autocorrect made it double canoe so now it's a thing.
  • katro111
    katro111 Posts: 632 Member
    edited March 2015
    ^^^ Hahaha! Just thought I'd pop in and say I'm a little giddy that it's a thing now. <3
  • MissHolidayGolightly
    MissHolidayGolightly Posts: 857 Member
    I saw a guy doing a workout video in the gym today complete with laptop and DVDs. I thought the point of Beach Body was not having to leave your house. It was pretty hilarious.
  • TravelsWithHuckleberry
    TravelsWithHuckleberry Posts: 955 Member
    edited March 2015
    scrittrice wrote: »
    I will admit that one day years ago a nun in full habit passed me (she was FAST!) and it was a touch humiliating, but mostly I'm competing with myself.

    I love this ^^^ so much I can't even put it into words. Absolutely made my day. :)

    And because I have to say it (per the movie) -- Katro! Stop trying to make double canoe happen! It's NOT going to happen!

    stop_trying_to_make_fetch_happen_1.png.CROP.promo-mediumlarge.png

    :smiley::smiley::smiley::smiley:
  • canadianlbs
    canadianlbs Posts: 5,199 Member
    crabada wrote: »
    Stop trying to make double canoe happen! It's NOT going to happen!

    sez who?

    http://pvs.kcc.hawaii.edu/ike/kalai_waa/kane_search_voyaging_canoe.html

    back on track: i had a nice guy-in-the- story today. bike again. coming home down the hill, where there's a pedestrian crossing at the bottom before the road goes back up. so for a whole three blocks' worth, i got to see four kids distributed across the crosswalk in single file, with very distinctive poses. the guy with the camera got his shot just before i reached them, so they were breaking up by the time i got there. i said 'you guys looked like abbey road' as i went by, and i think i made their day. one of them yelled 'that's what we were aiming for!' after me.

    it was nice. looked like a school yearbook thing; little 8th-graders like that getting their beatles on.
  • chubby_checkers
    chubby_checkers Posts: 2,352 Member
    I saw a guy doing a workout video in the gym today complete with laptop and DVDs. I thought the point of Beach Body was not having to leave your house. It was pretty hilarious.
    This is awesome. Were you tempted to join in?