so there was this guy in the gym . . .
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I just assume there's a lot of differently shaped things in one of those kits, right?? Lol0
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Back to our original topic...
So there was this guy in the gym today, while we were in the rack. He's Mr Studly, all plugged into his tunes and wearing enough cologne that if he ever escaped from max security the dogs would catch him before he'd gone 10 feet. (In other words, he reeked)
He's on the Smith machine doing benches, and walks over to the squat rack and takes the 10# plates off one side w/o asking. My husband yelled something like "hey, we need those" and of course, he couldn't hear us...
I looked over and counted 8 10# plates racked on the back of the Smith machine, but *kitten* had to walk to the squat rack and take ours. Really?
Then he looked upset when I told him to rerack them on the squat cage.
I see why people buy their own racks and equipment to work out at home.0 -
^^ That's annoying.
Tonight, at my gym I confirmed something that I've been noticing --
99% of the guys who bench in my gym don't actually bring the bar down their chests.
Now, I know some of them are doing whatever micro-movements they think they need, but that's not even what I'm talking about. I'm talking about the guys who are actually doing full on bench press.
Just seems to kind of defeat the purpose to me. Or maybe I'm just being a snob.0 -
i've been given advice here and there not to go all the way down to the touch because pec tears, so it seems like it might be legit. i do it anyway, but i've got a nice round ribcage like a labrador retriever, so maybe it just works for me.
my guys-in-the-gym . . . there are so many new random people in there, it's the plus side of happy new year i suppose. on the other hand, the whole 'buddy' factor of new years workouts is a thing to deal with. boyfriends telling their girlfriends how to do stuff is one trend i really notice and try not to bristle/eavesdrop about. and the other is roving collections of young/youngish guys. basically, if it's at either end of the teen spectrum and it's in the gym, then there's three or four others just like them somewhere very close by.
i usually try to just mind my own business and not try to critique other folks' form, since it's not like i feel anywhere near sure enough to give intructions to anyone. but right now it's really really quite hard to keep to that rule because even i see things that are making me flinch. the little cluster of 13-yo's all 'squatting' under the direction of one of them in the smith rack. and benching with their upper arms out at right angles eeek yike. two specific things spotted tonight though:
1. guy in a beanie and combat pants, instructing his girlfriend in leotards and tight tank top. they happened to be doing it in the floor zone where i was stretching, so this doesn't count as creeping them. he was teaching her squats first, and tbh from where i was sitting it looked to me like her form was much better than his. but anyway, i heard him saying 'you do five' to her, and then i heard her checking her phone and asking 'how come everything's five except deadlift?' and so i had to pipe up and yup, stronglifts. they were quite nice really and i think she was pleased to know i was doing it too. although i'm not sure how happy the dude was about me interrupting. he seemed to sort of know what he was talking about, but also sort of, in some ways, perhaps not. i was able to point them both towards the big skinny training plates when they did get to deadlift, and i feel like i did a good deed because he had her with only 25's on the bar, and the poor girl had long legs. i'm sort of hopeful she might become one of those people you don't ever really get to know as a friend outside the gym, but you kind of smile and feel pleased to see them inside of it. why not? the guys all seem to have plenty of people like that.
2. roving gang of young late-teens guys. oy vey. these ones just did hack me off because you could have transposed them straight to the sidewalk outside the 7-11 of a small town and they would have been less out of place. it was that typical configuration where one of them does something while the other two stand round and watch. they antagonized me without even trying because they were right where i couldn't help noticing them, and one of them was sort of doing something with some sort of bar in a half-assed hur hur kind of way, and one of the others picked up the broomstick people use for dislocations etc - and he was using it at his friend like a fake sword. you know the kind of stupid meaningless fake-fighting stuff stupid meaningless people do when they're bored and brainless and just arsing around. it surprised me how arnold i felt. You Don't Act Like That In The Gym. Show Respect For The Iron, all that. but they wandered off to take turns at wrecking their rotator cuffs on the cable pulldown before i could make up my mind whether to mouth off or not.
thing is, one of them . . . i was watching them a little bit anyway, kind of glowering, maybe kind of hoping that they'd make my day, i dunno. and i suddenly noticed one of them's socks. he was wearing i-dunno-what for a shirt, long stupid silky baggy blue shorts for his pants, and ankle-high motorbike boots. i kid not. the kind that come right across the whole foot and close with snaps and buckles and stuff on the outside of the foot, instead of laces or even velcro. and right above the top edge of his socks, some kind of bad-*kitten* ufc or marine-looking tattoo, all over one calf reaching up to his knee.
but his socks. his socks were the gift. they looked like a little girl's flannel pyjamas, is why i double-took and looked closer at them. toadstools, they had printed on them. toadstools. and some kind of woodland-crittery something else, and these bigger green images that looked like turtles or perhaps lily pads, i'm still not totally sure. i couldn't swear to it although i'd love to be able to, but even though i can't swear it i really do think he was wearing franklin-the-turtle-themed socks.
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I saw a couple of interesting things tonight.
1. Young male attempting to do rows. He had a small, light weight on the bar and looked to be trying to get them to touch the ground each time but he was also very thin and rather tall so it was a bit of a stretch. He'd do some reps, then ponder a moment, check his phone to note something and rest a little, then do it again. I almost wanted to go recommend he stack some plates to make it easier for him but I was still in my squat sets.
2. Male showing female how to squat. Or well, he was trying to but had some odd focus on the hip thrust. He had a bit of weights on the bar and didn't move it at tall to adjust height. It was still down from when I'd used it so pretty short. He showed the girl with him and paused before getting all the way back up to thrust his hips and that was really his focus. He then convinced her to try it though she was quite reluctant. I had to take my earbud out cause I was curious, and he tried to tell her how to squat and when to push her hips forward. She was not as into it as him, for sure.0 -
^^ That's annoying.
Tonight, at my gym I confirmed something that I've been noticing --
99% of the guys who bench in my gym don't actually bring the bar down their chests.
Now, I know some of them are doing whatever micro-movements they think they need, but that's not even what I'm talking about. I'm talking about the guys who are actually doing full on bench press.
Just seems to kind of defeat the purpose to me. Or maybe I'm just being a snob.
I've heard the advice to not go down to the chest for shoulder-protection purpose. But mostly from the bro-crowd that do the wide grip bench or don't tuck their elbows in at all when they go down. It *is* less damaging to the rotator cuffs to not go down all the way then. I think. Also, it also means they're not bouncing the weight off their chest. That can be a good thing, lol.
I saw this man on my way out yesterday on the lat pulldown... It made me cringe and I almost stopped to help him out because
1- he had too much weight on and was using lots of momentum
2- every rep, because he had so much weight on, I presume, he would curl his upper back down and almost "crunch" the bar down to his upper abdomen with elbows flaring wide out. I can't imagine how bad that can be on all of his upper body. There is a reason you're supposed to keep the shoulder blades back. =/
Didn't seem like a regular, or an experienced guy at all, so Ima go on a limb here and say he's all kinds of sore this AM.0 -
Yeah -- everything I've read recommends touching the chest, but this obviously assumes arm and elbow form is correct.
And yes, I'm seeing lots of couples too. Not so much yesterday -- they're probably too busy having sex or going on picnics or whatever couples do on Saturdays
-- but earlier in the week, it was like a requirement or something. And the men can't just explain things and show, they have to *touch.* Hands on the waist, on the ribcage, practically right up on the boobs. And while I'm aware there are legitimate reasons to do this, with these particular couples, it really does just look to be an excuse. 0 -
he would curl his upper back down and almost "crunch" the bar down to his upper abdomen with elbows flaring wide out. I can't imagine how bad that can be on all of his upper body. There is a reason you're supposed to keep the shoulder blades back. =/
this. but it's one of those things where how would you ever know, if you didn't know? all this stuff with my own shoulder has made me slowly capable of actually seeing various lifts in anatomical terms like humerus angle inside the shoulder capsule. but i had to start getting hurt before the picture began to put itself together for me.
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DawnEmbers wrote: »She was not as into it as him, for sure.
ugh, i hate seeing that. i wonder when i see some of the couple dynamics floating around in the gym. some of them give you the sense that it really is the woman's idea and the woman's initiative, kind of like the way crabada got to start out with help from her trainer friend. but then you get the other end of the fence where the guy has basically decided all by himself that he wants his girlfriend to have a different kind of physique, and she's basically just getting dragged in there to fulfill his requirements for him. i always bristle.
i hear that kind of thing now and then from men i work with too, because of the bike. how they want their wives to exercise more, and they think that their wives should take up biking like me. i usually find some way of telling them it's not nearly as much about what they want as they think it is.
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I get that sometimes there are underlying selfish reasons one half of a couple wants the other half to work out with him or her. I think a lot of times, though, the one half is just trying to share something he or she really likes with his or her partner. They might think the other will really like it and it will become a mutual interest. Unfortunately for them, it's not always easy to get someone else to "see the light" and get really into lifting or biking or martial arts or whatever. Exercise is very personal.0
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MissHolidayGolightly wrote: »I get that sometimes there are underlying selfish reasons one half of a couple wants the other half to work out with him or her. I think a lot of times, though, the one half is just trying to share something he or she really likes with his or her partner. They might think the other will really like it and it will become a mutual interest. Unfortunately for them, it's not always easy to get someone else to "see the light" and get really into lifting or biking or martial arts or whatever. Exercise is very personal.
This is so true. While I would LOVE it if my husband got into lifting like I do, I know he has no interest in it. I've gotten him to go for dog walks with me in the spring and summer, leisurely ride bikes with me and he'll hike with my parents and I when we go to Nevada to visit, but that's as far as he'll go with physical activity. I'd always thought that he'd "see the light" but it's just not his thing and you can't force people to do things they don't want to do.So, I take what I can get and enjoy the walks and whatnot when he decides to join me!0 -
So, there was this guy in the gym today...
He was freaking hot. Long curly hair. Beard. Re-racked all his weights when he finished with them. Aside from the good behavior, probably would have fit right in with @Canadian's rugby crew -- not terribly tall, stocky, young. I might have stared.
That's it. That's the whole story.
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Lol at hottiez at the gym Does anyone else completely lose their composure when talking to a gorgeous stranger? Where did witty, deadpan Miss Golightly go? All I hear is, "Hehe! Ding bong bong bing dong ding bong..." 0
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I'm going to Crabada's gym! No hotties at ours. Pimples, check. Wrinkles, check (OK, a few of the latter are ours).0
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So there was this guy in the gym that is one of my colleague. I didn't know he was working out there, but I met him this morning in the lobby (we arrived at the same time). It's one of those colleague you always made fun of, in that case because he is so typically dork for an engineer! The kind of quirky, socially ackward dude that was working with the National Defense when he was young, and is a holder of dozens of different patents, and love to talk about eletrical engineering and home automation... That kind of guy.
So, I was laughing in my head while I was changing in my workout clothes, because I was thinking that this dork will probably be doing dork things in the gym, and I immediately pictured him using the rowing machine (with some difficulties).
Well, it turns out that dork guy set up the power cage next to mine and was quite busy squating 225 pounds when I finished my sets. When I came back after my OHP to deadlift, he was deadlifting 315.
Oh well. Let's say I payed my respects.
(Oh, and also, there was this other guy in the gym that had two bars in his cage - and there was none in mine - and when I asked him if I could take the one he was not using, he insisted of racking if or me... dude, I'm not THAT weak, come on).0 -
That is kind of funny to me Daiva because the guy next to me at the gym was squatting 225 lbs too, and I really wanted to take a picture or video of him squatting (ATG no less!) to show to my stepson. I have tried to tell him he should be looking straight ahead, or even slightly down during squats to keep his back straight, but he insists he's supposed to look up, since that's what his football coaches have been telling him. The guy next to me probably thought I was a total creeper, since I spent most of my rest periods watching his workout! I should have asked him if I could take video, just to see his face. 0
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Nice Daiva. I actually work out at the same gym as my boss, who is rather dorky (whenever we put out seasonal toys he's always finding something to play with, hehe). We work out at different times so I've only seen him once there, when I went to a workshop thing and we chatted by the entrance for just a minute about the machine that was acting up at work. But he's into things like running marathons, so I'm guessing his workout revolves around that and when he's in season or off season. Though he was surprised I was doing squats and deadlift on the same day. He now jokes and calls me powerlifter when he needs me to help with something.
In the grit strength class there were a couple of girls who were quite attached to the small dumbbells. The instructor is not a fan of the dumbbells and always tells everyone to grab a plate for the single weight moves, but there are a couple that grab 2 sets of the small, colored dumbbells they keep in the group classroom. One is fine but they end up with a small little hoarded pile that risks getting in the way during the moving, especially if the class has a fair amount of people trying to do all the moves and lift without bumping into anyone.0 -
Here are three unrelated stories:
I saw a woman straight leg deadlifting 125 today while I was squatting the same. It was badass but l can't help but shed a tear for her hamstrings tomorrow! Last time I did that with half the weight, I couldn't move the next day without making terrible sounds. I felt bad for my coworkers.
I saw another woman hurt but I don't know what happened. I felt bad for her. She was sitting by the benches with a bag of ice and one of the gym trainers was manipulating her leg. Hope it's nothing serious.
I went to get water and noticed the gym rules for the first time and I'm glad they're not enforced. No outside shoes, no chalk, no use of cell phones, no excessive noise... Everyone breaks those every day 0 -
Oh, I almost forgot to add. Few times ago when I was working on bench, I actually saw a guy using an ab roller. He was set up close to the classroom where a senior fitness class was going on (they have a few a week at the gym with catchy names like "silver sneakers"). Almost in the walk pathway but tried to make sure people could still move around part of the time. He had a mat and was using the roller to go down near the ground and back up again. Later he got a box thing that had to have been at least 2 feet tall if not almost three. it pretty much was half my height or higher. He then did jumps with that, first just jumping on top, paused to check his form or something then would jump down to the other side. Then he did a few where he would jump over the whole thing. Inconvenient spot as the class finished and he struggled to get the distance he wanted to clear the box but he could jump and it looked kinda fun.0
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Alas, long haired hottie was missing today.
The 6'6" guy that I offered the 30 lb. dumbbells was there, though. Still using the 70s. He really is just insanely tall, and when he does his OHP he looks like a giant.
I got to squat and OHP next to three dudes who were rotating on the rack next to me. One guy was obviously a beginner and his form was TERRIBLE. He did half squats, his heels came off the ground every rep, and he was just all over the place. Another guy, who was slightly more advanced also lifted his heels constantly, and his bar was always tilting down on one side. The third guy rested the bar on the back of his neck. It was painful to watch. But was particularly annoying is that none of them gave any of the others any feedback. They didn't really even watch the others do their sets. What's the point of working out with friends if they're not going to watch your form?
There was also another young guy that I've seen a few times. He talked to me once, awhile ago, and asked if I was doing SL. Apparently the Chucks gave me away. Anywho, he has asked if he could do his pullups between my squat sets in the past, and now we kind of recognize each other. So, today I'm getting ready to do my deadlifts and he says something to me. I have to take out my headphones, and he asks me if I'm still doing SL. Yes, I am. He nods at my bar -- 95 lbs. -- and says, "But you can deadlift 135, can't you?" Yes, yes, I can! Thanks for noticing dude! I tell him today I'm doing 175 and he just gives me this weird grin for days. I finally ask him why he's smiling like that and he says, "That's... a lot." I just say I know it is and that I'm excited. So, fast forward through my warmups and setting up my bar for 175. I can tell he's kind of waiting for me to do my set before he does his 135 lb. OHP (!), so I just go for it. Only get four. It's fine. We chat a little bit, he tells me what he does that he thinks helps, shows me a couple times, etc. His name is Marco. Great, fine. Nice to meet you.
Then he says... "And you rock climb too, right? At Hangar 18?" WHAT?! I had to bite my tongue to keep from just blurting out, "And just how the hell do you know *that*?!" He proceeds to tell me he's just started and we compare notes on how hard climbing on rest days (upper body is totally depleted), and blah blah blah. I'm not exactly creeped out, but also still just wondering about this whole exchange the whole time. So, I do a few more reps at 135, try out his breathing technique (not a fan), say nice to meet you, and go off to the other side of the gym to do some accessories.
I still have no idea how he could possibly know that I rock climb and where, but whatever. Not going to worry about it unless he starts being a total creeper. But still weird.0 -
I still have no idea how he could possibly know that I rock climb and where, but whatever. Not going to worry about it unless he starts being a total creeper. But still weird.
call him out. ask him how. not that you asked me for my opinion, of course.
but yeah.
nobody noteworthy in my gym today. except a very young kid who seemed a bit lost and a bit not-really-into-it, who also seemed to be just hanging around in the weight room without doing anything. i bumped him off the pulldown after giving him 10 minutes or so to quit [resting i initially assumed] and start a new set, and turned out that nope, he'd just been sitting there. he wandered off somewhere else, and i saw him later nesting away in the legpress station, and so caught up in his own little world he was peacefully engaged in unpicking an ingrown hair on one of his own shins.
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@DawnEmbers box jumps are fun but they tire me out! Some people make jumping up onto a 36" platform look so easy. I see that and overestimate my abilities, telling myself I got this because I was a long jumper in high school then have a near heart attack once I'm mid jump and realize how uneasy it is!
@crabada sounds like you have an admirer.. or a stalker
I feel for you deadlifting with him watching you. That makes me feel super awkward and makes me almost self sabotage.
@canadian my mom used to leave me in the lobby when she worked out for that reason.
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In the spirit of this thread:
https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=1423124241161787&fref=nf0 -
^^ That was funny and SO perfect. 0
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taht's why i like buzzfeed so much.0
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Haha the part when the lady leaves yoga reminds me of the time I tried body attack or body pump or body murder completely out of shape. I got through five minutes, started seeing spots and broke out into a cold sweat. Grabbed my keys and water and ran out of there.0
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Couples were common tonight in the gym. Not sure if it's the post new years or pre-valentine's aspect, or a combination, but saw a couple of guys showing their girls weight lifting but they didn't spend much time on anything. As I did leg press, I watched one show the girl how to squat with the bar and she tried it for a couple of reps. At least he didn't focus on the hip thrust like the one from days before. The girls seemed a little more willing to listen and try something when the guys weren't being overly jokey and such.
That and there is an old guy I have seen there around 10-11 pm often. He has to go to the gym like 5 days a week and usually does elliptical and some weight machines. I gotta give some props cause he's the most consistent one I've seen. Great that he's there on a regular basis getting his workout in.
The video was great. I had my "I earned it" before going to the gym. lol. Well, if coworker hadn't cancelled I would have gone after working out but I went before instead. mmm Wendy's. I rarely have fast food or anything. Hadn't gone to the place in over 3 months and I know this cause it moved during that time as they redid that shopping area. All of a sudden it was in a different building and the lady said they had been at the new one for 3 months already. lol Oh well, probably good I don't eat it much since takes up a good chunk of my calories for the day.0 -
I own stock in Wendy's so on the rare occasion I do eat fast food, that's where I go. I usually go for a sandwich if I need something fast though. Fast food is a ton of calories and it doesn't make me feel so good. It might be all the fat.0
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A few good stories from the gym today:
First, my friend Marco was there. He was kind enough to offer to let me work in until a squat rack opened up (just after my warmups), which I thought was really nice. He wasn't at all sketchy. And then he proceeded to squat ~305 lbs. ("~" only because I was eying the plates from across the room, so I might be off by 10-20 lbs.) Uh-huh. Damn, son!
Second, there were two girls bench pressing while I was doing my rows. 65 lbs., so not bad, but oh my was their form ever crazy! They started the bar at the bottom hooks, so about six inches from their faces -- thankfully, they figured out it was easier to use the top hooks pretty quickly. At one point, one girl had her right leg / knee in a normal 90-degree-ish position, but her left was just lounging out to the front -- just hanging out, off the bench, foot turned in a little, not using it to support herself at all. I actually wondered for a minute if she had some kind of injury or physical abnormality (like a club foot or something), because otherwise, why on earth would she do that? Nope -- she got up and had a perfectly healthy foot/ankle/calf/thigh/leg. I was *so* close to going over and saying something, but then they packed it in.
Finally, about halfway through my 5x5 workout, this whole drove of gym employees comes into the weight room and starts putting things away. In the five months I've been going there, I've *never* seen even one employee straighten up, let alone five at one time. I actually asked one of them if they were closing early because it was so abnormal. (Nope. Just cleaning.) I finish a set of my bench press (@ 75 lbs.) and stand for my rest period. This one dude in his little gym-branded polo gives me a thumbs up, and then says something which I can't understand because I have headphones in. I take one earbud out, and he's like "Good job! How's your workout going?" and then puts his hand up to high five me. UGHH. I do NOT want to high five you, man. But I do -- because otherwise he'd just be left there hanging. Then he proceeds to say, "So, you're doing bench press?" I confirm his genius hunch. "Well, after you do your set, you should try this." And he sits himself down and proceeds to do 3/4 shoulder flys (flies?). "See how my elbows are bent? This will work the rest of your shoulder." Blah blah. And then he hands me the barbells he'd had in his hands. 5 lbs. Um, yeah. Thanks dude. I just take them and set them aside, but about two sets later, I can't even -- they're just sitting there, rubbing off on me -- and I take them back to their rightful home on the bells rack. Carried them both in one hand, thankyouverymuch.
So, that was my interesting day at the gym. How about the rest of you? 0 -
i would like a thank button. even if just specifically for this thread. @crabada, srsly? did you even ask him to tell you all about his silly whatever-they-weres?
i put up with grunters and plate-droppers, but anyone comes near me and starts telling me what to do, i tend to go all israeli-army inside. i've perfected this beautiful blocking bootface. 'okay. but at the moment i'm doing this.' in other words, 'cat . . . watermelon . . . lake; why are you talking to me?'0
