so there was this guy in the gym . . .
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canadianlbs wrote: »i like telling people stories, so the next notably ill-mannered/outlandish person who shows up in my gym . . . i'll be taking notes in my head, believe me.
And then you'll come here and share, right? RIGHT!?0 -
And then you'll come here and share, right? RIGHT!?
i was hoping this could turn into the whole community's strange-people thread. like logge1's offensive little personal trainer who keeps trying to cut her down so he can sell her his 'product'.
actually, there's a lot of good stories too. one of the nicest things about lifting for me is how much i'm getting to like being in the gym. considering how i used to just take a quick scared look through the doorway as i walked past.
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canadianlbs wrote: »
one of the nicest things about lifting for me is how much i'm getting to like being in the gym. considering how i used to just take a quick scared look through the doorway as i walked past.
This! I was so intimated by the free weights area that it took me a few weeks of staring and being scared before I finally got the nerve to go do it. Now I love being there! And I'm not too embarrassed to get my 2.5 plates off of the rack that some dude that's squatting 300 lbs is using.
And speaking of funny people at the gym.... there was this older couple today and the lady was doing crunches while her man fanned her with a towel. Haha. Now if only I can convince my husband to do this...
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the lady was doing crunches while her man fanned her with a towel.
awww, that's lovely.
when i was leaving yesterday, i saw a woman about my age, maybe a little younger, with someone who sure looked like he was her late-teenage son. she was setting him up right to do lat pulldowns, i think. and there wassomething so totally 'mom' about the way she stood there and let him take his own best grip on his own . . . and then she took hold of one of his wrists as i went past and moved it like half an inch the right.
totally mom. i thought it was great.
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Well, in the spirit of this turning into a thread for all of our stories, I'll share one --
So, there was this guy in the gym... who was using the double cable machine for arm work. He was doing his thing with maybe 40 lbs. -- *maybe* -- on each stack, and after every set, he would just let go of the handles and the weights would **SLAM!!!** down. After about seven sets, I was about to have a stroke -- I tend to have a low tolerance for idiots -- so I finally stopped what I was doing, walked over, and told him he was being ridiculously loud and could he please stop dropping his freaking weights?!!? (No, I did not swear at him, as much as I would have liked to.) Of course, I had to repeat myself after he took his headphones out...
But even if he had his music *blasting*, there's no way he wouldn't be able to hear the racket he was creating. Thankfully, he actually did cut that *kitten* out and finished his sets like a normal person.
If people had to pay to repair that equipment when they break it, I can pretty much promise you that we'd all be able to hear a pin drop in the weight room.
I mean, seriously, people.
So, there's my story. And a little glimpse into the perhaps less kind and supportive side of my personality. (You've been warned!
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And a little glimpse into the perhaps less kind and supportive side of my personality. (You've been warned! )
well, i like that. funny thing, back when i was an active mom i could tell anyone to do or not to do anything, but the habit kind of wore off.
i swear i'm going to find a screenprinting shop some day and get a shirt made up that says 'YOUR MOTHER DOESN'T LIFT HERE' on the front and 'PUT YOUR WEIGHTS BACK' on the back. it's starting to drive me right out of my mind.
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canadianlbs wrote: »
i swear i'm going to find a screenprinting shop some day and get a shirt made up that says 'YOUR MOTHER DOESN'T LIFT HERE' on the front and 'PUT YOUR WEIGHTS BACK' on the back. it's starting to drive me right out of my mind.
I'm hoping that my kids will start lifting at some point and they'll be wearing t-shirts saying something like: "MY MOTHER DOES LIFT HERE -- RACK YOUR OWN D@MN WEIGHTS"1 -
canadianlbs wrote: »And a little glimpse into the perhaps less kind and supportive side of my personality. (You've been warned! )
i swear i'm going to find a screenprinting shop some day and get a shirt made up that says 'YOUR MOTHER DOESN'T LIFT HERE' on the front and 'PUT YOUR WEIGHTS BACK' on the back. it's starting to drive me right out of my mind.
I will buy this shirt. I will. I will buy it.
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For you, Canadian.
+ More stories, please!
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i bet i bench more than those dinosaurs
i might be turning into one of those stories myself. some days i stop at the grocery store first, and i kind of feel like i'm getting a name as that woman who does squats and bench/ohp, then goes back to her locker for her coat and leaves the weight room looking furtive and clutching a package of fruit-juice gummi bears. and then comes back empty-handed 30 minutes later and does her deadlifts or rows.0 -
Well, considering they only have to raise and lower their tiny little t-rex arms two inches, they'd probably be able to at least out-rep us all. 1
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This was the best story to wake up to. I missed not being able to come to this group on my phone.0
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canadianlbs wrote: »i bet i bench more than those dinosaurs
i might be turning into one of those stories myself. some days i stop at the grocery store first, and i kind of feel like i'm getting a name as that woman who does squats and bench/ohp, then goes back to her locker for her coat and leaves the weight room looking furtive and clutching a package of fruit-juice gummi bears. and then comes back empty-handed 30 minutes later and does her deadlifts or rows.
It takes you 30 minutes to eat gummi bears? What are you *really* doing, Canadian?
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Ha! I really needed a laugh and this was great! I can totally picture him from your description!0
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It is a goal of mine to build a home gym in a shed but I think I'd really miss people watching.0
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It takes you 30 minutes to eat gummi bears? What are you *really* doing, Canadian?
don't underestimate me i can take on a LOT of gummi bears. i go stand under a tree or something and mail them into my face one after another, while silently practicing my lower-core-bracing and doing absentminded bodyweight squats now and then.
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Bumping because I want more stories. 0
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Okay, here is one from Monday at my gym though paraphrased as I can't remember their exact conversation. I was doing dumbbell bench press and some guy nearby had a very light weight bar.
He stood, stared at the mirror and started lifting (curling I guess is what it's called). Moment later, his pal walks over and asks if he's doing a warmup with the weights. His tone indicated he noticed the light nature of the weights. Then the guy says, "No. I don't go heavy on these because I don't want my arms to get too big."
Might have said a specific part of his arm, I don't quite remember, but even I had to turn and look at the worry over getting too big. He was lifting a weight that is too light for me to overhead press even. I missed the rest but they spend a few moments talking about that and made some basketball type gestures so I guess his reasoning is related to that.
Then I decided the 17.5 were too light and did the rest of my sets with 20's and just listened to my music. But it was pretty funny to catch just that snippet of conversation.0 -
DawnEmbers wrote: »Then I decided the 17.5 were too light and did the rest of my sets with 20's and just listened to my music. But it was pretty funny to catch just that snippet of conversation.
lol. there was a kid - i say that but he could have been in his 30's for all i know - on wednesday. he was doing one-arm overhead dumbbell presses with a sort of turkish-getup format. and wearing a tank top with a cryptic asian logo on it, which showed off that he had a cryptic asian logo tatooed all across his back too. so he's doing the presses, and it was like watching an 8-yo playing superman to himself. every rep was like an epic heroic story he was telling himself. he'd do each one with his eyes closed and a kind of silent yell to himself. and end up posed like he'd just planted the flag on iwo jima or something like that. and then he'd open his eyes, check the pose, and return to his starting point.
i enjoyed watching him for a while, until he put the dumbbells down and started making scary-cryptic martial-arts passes at himself in the mirror as well. he seemed to be in pretty good shape and i assume he actually was a serious practitioner of something or other . . . except i couldn't help guessing it was ultimate cage matches or something slightly freaky-scary like that.
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canadianlbs wrote: »it was like watching an 8-yo playing superman to himself. every rep was like an epic heroic story he was telling himself.
bahaha you make me laugh every time!
Dawn I've never even seen a guy going light on purpose, they always seem to be in competition to hurt themselves the most
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canadianlbs wrote: »it was like watching an 8-yo playing superman to himself. every rep was like an epic heroic story he was telling himself.
bahaha you make me laugh every time! the thing is, i've had an 8-yo kid and when they're not stalking around leaking attitude out of their ears and being the picasso of piss they're really adorable. this guy really did seem exactly like that, and it for a while it made me sort of mushy-affection-amused. but then when he started fighting off the invisible hordes in his own head, i got a little squicked out and quickly went back to my life. 0 -
okay, someone today in the gym had what dave barry once called 'a bodily event'. it was pretty crowded and i wasn't watching anything but myself, but by the time the smell got to me, my brain put that together with what my peripheral vision had been recording a few seconds before, and i'm pretty sure that i know who it was.
it was the guy who very suddenly for no reason decided to go do something else in some other part of the gym. just a few seconds before the announcement of the event made its way to my nose.
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the other people-watch thing of the day was kind of nice. while i was setting up for deadlifts and getting started, there was this guy in my line of vision, just sitting around on one of the benches for most of my set. he was in that zoned state you get into when you're between sets, and i was about equally zoned while i was doing my reps. so we're basically both looking right at each other's faces without seeing each other at all.
but then i hit one of those dead-perfect reps, you know what they're like? when it just feels like the bar comes up off the floor on its own and you know it's perfect before you're halfway done. so when i got to the lockout i had that big silly perfect-rep grin on my face, like you do. and suddenly mr zone-out came out of his zone and he's wearing the same grin as well. and then while i was putting it down i almost took myself off my own feet, so i blamed him for making me laugh.
it's little moments like that that i like at the gym. where someone else sees you're doing something to celebrate at, and they just unthinkingly celebrate too.2 -
watch out for those crop dusters
These two guys at the gym last night had rubber bands around their ankles and they were doing these push up variations where they put their feet on a box, bent their arms and twisted a leg to the side. Unusual but not that weird. When they finished, however, they didn't take the bands off. Picture two large men taking baby steps around a gym while also inadvertently doing T-rex arms.
There was also another guy doing hack squats the entire hour+ I was at the gym. I wonder if he can walk or raise his arms today.1 -
The bands sound pretty funny. Last night I had the situation of college boys using the smith machine doing I am not sure what, along with a few other lifts in the area with just plates. Nearby were two college girls lifting dumbbells then using the cable for some other arm work. Mid lift, one of the girls started giggling because the guys had made a "go deeper" comment. That led to chatter between the two groups and later a butt comment was made.
I just stood over a couple feet away and worked on doing the OHP with the pesky 50lb bar and shook my head on occasion. I normally listen to music but the band was bugging me on that lift so I had it off for once.2 -
oh! last night (is monday crazy-people night? must investigate) there was a guy at a 30-degree upside-down incline in the smith machine. lying on his back with his feet in the air, catching the [empty] bar and throwing it up to the top of the rails, and then catching it when it came down. i have no idea why, but i mostly kept my back turned because i was waiting beside him for my turn in the rack. i'd thought of staring but then i realised that from where i was standing he could probably see up my nose.
and also, in the very last pre-closing time minutes, while the attendants were frantically trying to get all the weights back in the right places, and the kids who had left them lying around all over the place were still hanging/arsing/horsing around being all high on their over-hot selves, i got to hear this:
kid 1 (always in there, seriously irritating and agitating but very strong): *admires self in mirror at close range.* whoa, you guys, look at that. ain't that just so damn hot? *double take. steps closer. now two inches away* WOW! LOOK AT THIS. YOU GUYS, COME LOOK AT THIS.
kids 2& 3: *ignores*
kid 1: THIS VEIN. COME AND LOOK AT THIS VEIN I GOT IN MY NECK.
kid 2: veins are gross.
kid 3: yeah, ick.
kid 1: NO SERIOUSLY. man, that's so great. IT'S LIKE AN ARNOLD VEIN. how did i even DO that, i'm so hot?
he was still nose to nose with the mirror admiring it when i left.
@missholiday, your t-rexy corps-de-ballet dudes are hilarious. i blew coffee. i would have LOVED to see that.0 -
@Dawn I think you were watching a nature documentary about the mating rituals of air and meat heads
@Canadian I've seen someone do what you describe with the smith machine sort of except he was leg pressing like a million pounds and the bar ended up bending. I don't know why he didn't just, like, use the leg press machine.
Both comments above show that young men do the weirdest things with smith machines. The ladies usually stick to quarter squats on it but guys curl, bench, explosive leg pressing, post up and discuss veins and butts, etc.
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Weirdest thing I've seen a guy do with a Smith Machine-weighed reverse crunches.
Like, he was lying on the floor and lifting the bar with his feet as he was crunching. So. Bizarre.0 -
Little old man in the weight room wearing khakis and an American flag hat. He was gettin it. Adorable.
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There was also a young man wearing cargo khakis on the cable crossover with two Mountain Dews in his cargo pockets. I almost asked him if The Dew was a good way to recharge after a workout. But I decided to post on an Internet forum instead.2
