so there was this guy in the gym . . .
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That's rad!0
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MissHolidayGolightly wrote: »Oh back to gym talk? I was going to talk about nails next
@crabada I'm picturing him doing v-ups in a leg machine. Always good to rub your face all over a gym machine. Pink eye is fun!
I saw a man having three of his friends help squeeze him into a compression shirt in the middle of the weight room. I pictured Scarlett O'Hara yelling at her maids, "Make me 18 inches!" He then got on the bench and pressed 505 lbs. Holy hell it was crazy! It helped me stop being such a baby about doing 80.
Oh, bench shirt! I have yet to see anyone try to lift with any equipment but knee sleeves and belts at my gym, somehow.
Also props to the older lady! I plan on being that badass when I'm that age (if i ever get there... xD)0 -
I saw a woman walking on the treadmill today kind of randomly waving her arms in the air. I only realized it was part of her workout when she kept doing it for her whole workout -- about 20 minutes.0
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there's a huge chinese population in my city. i see people doing stuff like that all the time - mostly older people, sort of mao-era age. and if i get up early enough i get to ride past flocks of them doing t'ai chi en masse in places like school playing fields and municipal tennis courts. it's real neat.
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the one that throws me was more of a caucasian-middle-class-intellectuals fad while it lasted, and based on that i suspect it had something to do with staying brilliant forever or something like that. it seems to have gone out of fashion already. but for a while there, i was constantly coming across people who were basically just walking, but they were all kitted up with those cross-country-skiing type poles like a finnish swat team from wwii. i'm sure there's some *cough* science to it but i'm not surprised it died out. for sheer silliness of appearance it was so hard to beat.0 -
canadianlbs wrote: »And a little glimpse into the perhaps less kind and supportive side of my personality. (You've been warned!
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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.
I'm totally rude about it and proud of it. If I'm at the gym, which is rare because I finally got my own home gym, I'll watch people while I'm lifting. I can't help it, my eyes move to whatever catches them. I don't watch the clock but I do time people, sort of. If I can get through 5 sets of squats doing SL 5X5 and someone hasn't come back to their weights by then, I'll put their weight back along with mine. Gives me a little extra workout in between my sets and keeps the gym cleaner. Give's other's a chance to use the stuff that those jerkwads never bothered to put back or are hogging while taking half hour breaks fighting with their SO over the phone.
One day I went into the gym, noticed a guy just putting the bar down from squatting and then walked away. I figured he was using the rack so I'd start with my bench press. Went through all 5 sets, took about 20 minutes, and he hadn't come back so I firgured screw it, I was going to do my squats. La la la did 4 sets and he finally shows up just as I finish set 4, screams at me that I took over his squat rack. I did my final set as he was screaming at me, which just caused him to get even more angry, and put my weights back when I completed my 5th set. At that point, he was out of breath and I was done. I looked right at him and simply said "thanks for giving me the time to complete my workout during your %^&*( fest. It's all yours now."0 -
Guy at gym was using squat rack and offered to let me work in (first offer ever made thus far to work in cause it wasn't the cage so height didn't matter as much) cause he was just lunging with the bar. But, he asked if I wanted to work in if I just needed the bar. I don't even do warm ups with the bar right now. lol. He only had one set left so I told him I could wait. He probably wasn't expecting my working set to be 125. hehe
While I did my sets, however, he proceeded to do leg press and other ones like that and turns out he's one of the grunting types. Understandable to a degree but still awkward when I'm squatting and he's on the one right behind me making noises every rep he manages.0 -
Bwahaha! So funny! Thank you all for sharing!
Ah, yes, the grunters....there is grunting that is allowable...but then there are those that take it to the next level -eek!!0 -
Don't know how I ever missed this thread. I haven't laughed so hard in a long time! Thanks :-)0
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Bwahaha! So funny! Thank you all for sharing!
Ah, yes, the grunters....there is grunting that is allowable...but then there are those that take it to the next level -eek!!
oh man . . . there was the rugby team in the gym again last night (and no, really; you wouldn't drool. they're all about 14 years old, and their heads bounce all the time from the noise going on in their ears). one of them was on the leg-press thing, while the rest were scouring the gym and collecting every-single-freaking-one of the 45 plates to load him down with. as usual. i didn't see who the presser was, but i heard him, and so did everyone else. not just him but his entourage too. business throughout the whole gym sort of faltered and faded away and people were just kind of standing around looking sideways at one another occasionally.
they sounded like what you would get at a local tourettes-syndrome convention, if a capella had been one of the activities planned.0 -
they're strange kids actually. it's like they have selective manners. it's not like they're rude in any way, they're just completely oblivious, like 5-year-olds. i LONG for a chance to say to at least one of them 'bro, do you even math?' because the way they stick plates back on the pegs (when they do it) is like spiders spinning webs while they're on lsd. it is just absolutely effing random, and nobody even knows where the little plates are because they're all buried under the great big 45's that are higher up on the peg.
yet their etiquette is among the best in most other respects. they don't trash-talk each other, they don't seem to have a pecking order at all - which is something i really like especially because there's a huge range of strength and experience among the whole bunch of them. every one of them spots and coaches every other one with solemn respect no matter where they are on any lift. and they all seem to know the limits of their own expertise when they're 'coaching', which is even more admirable. and if you happen to intersect with any of them in a verbal way, like needing to negotiate for time on a piece of equipment, they're beautifully brought up in both directions. to me they're like a bunch of toddlers, almost. their selfishness is completely without malice or meanness.
heh though. the squat king was probably the one making noise, and as far as the group has an alpha i'd guess he's it. he slouched in all gangsta, wearing that sweatshirt with the hood pulled up over his head and the toque underneath it jammed down to BELOW his eyebrows, bobbing and bopping silently to whatever was on his ipod. and i swear i think that he had his eyes closed.
and he just went straight to the lifts without changing a thing. he must have been going for a pr, because the face he was making was devastating. he just had this little triangle of eyelids-to-chin showing inside all the headgear, and the whole expanse of it was puffed up with this ginormous breath he was holding in. cheeks puffed out like balloons, mouth all pinched shut from inside by his own teeth, eyes completely invisible. i happened to catch sight of him deadlifting behind me in the mirror, and i almost dropped my ohp bar on my own head.
when i deadlift, i can get an extra 5 pounds on the bar if i just plant my top teeth in my bottom lip. this guy was blown out like a huge puffer fish.0 -
Canadian, you are the best gym story-teller ever! I swear you could make money off a humor act just detailing that stuff! xD
Confession time: I am one of them grunters. It's something I honestly can't really help when I'm struggling even just a bit (and if you're trying to go heavy, that's pretty much every rep). I experience the weird looks from time to time and apologize. We don't mean to disturb, I swear! (although, some people DO take it to a whole different level, lol)0 -
She is indeed the best.
I don't mind grunting, just some times are more awkward than others. Like when someone is right behind me and I'm trying to squat. I'm the silent type though. Even when foam rolling. I don't make much noise except the occasional talk to self mutter after a lift.0 -
I wholeheartedly agree -- Canadian, I'm sure you are the best QA or QR or Q-whatever in the biz, but you've missed her calling as a writer. You're descriptions are simply fantastic.
The loudest I get at the gym is some heavy, forceful outward-bound breathing -- more of a whoosh than a pant, if that makes any sense. Maybe that will change when I get to heavier weights.
For the record, I have no issue with grunters -- as long as they're doing it for real, rather than as a way to draw attention to themselves. I can always tell the difference, you know?0 -
Canadian, you are the best gym story-teller ever! i love people stuff, and not everyone gets as much enjoyment out of the little nuances as i do. so it's a bit of a relief to hear i'm not boring people and there's so many other people-watchers in here. my squat king in his hoodies is one of my favourites
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DawnEmbers wrote: »Even when foam rolling.
lol! i have made definite noises while doing that. like 'ow! ow! ow ow ow eeeeessshh [swearword]' and sometimes some quiet whimpering.
but i do try to keep them quiet. i have a terrible habit of talking to myself while i'm on my bike, and holding long conversations with imaginary interviewers/biographers. it's how i sort some of the stuff in my life, but i just can't seem to absorb the idea that other people ride bicycles too. unbelievably embarrassing to turn round at a stop light or something and realise there's been someone behind me for half of some long-drawn out argument with one of my invisible friends.
my son doesn't talk to himself at all. it makes me think he's some kind of changeling. in fact, i have a sort of superstitious awe of someone who can think without hearing himself doing it - i'm not sure my brain quite understands how it's done.
a lot of testers mutter, i've noticed. we have these huge chains of thought and plan and intention going on in our minds, and if we didn't talk ourselves through some of it we'd never know what we were doing, sometimes. it can be fun to go into a designated 'test lab' and listen to it. if you had your eyes shut you would think it was conversation, but it isn't. it's just the sound of half a dozen people so deeply sunk inside their own heads they probably don't even really know where they are.0 -
I talk out loud to my self all of the time, just not at the gym. I live alone, not even any pets (yet) but even at work I will sometimes talk out loud. I've confused customers before, as I work in retail), because I won't know they are nearby then they'll ask if I'm talking to them. But one of the managers also talks to herself out loud. At times I've had to double-check just to make sure she wasn't talking to me. So, it was fun closing a few nights ago at midnight with her cause as we both faced different parts of the store, we talked out loud and not to each other. lol
I will admit, sometimes at the gym, if I'm listening to the musical playlist or the disney one I have on my iPod, I will mouth the words. Treadmill, lifting, doesn't matter. It probably looks silly but it's fun music. Especially when I'm pushing to break 80 on bench press and suddenly This is the Moment plays.0 -
Got 2 from today's workout at the gym.
Short guy who still was taller than me used the squat rack since I had the cage. He would get the weights, get set up, then suck in a bunch of air so his cheeks were nice and puffy before dropping down to squat. He held his breath during the squat so he didn't release the air till he was back up again. So his cheeks were puffed out the whole time. He kinda looked like a monkey when he did that.
Later, after finishing my blah of an overhead press, I had to wait to do deadlifts. I don't like taking up the cage bar for those so let someone else use that area for squats and awaited the one padded area for the bar that is always on the floor. One guy was using it and when I asked only had 5 minutes left. So I waited. When he finished, he let me know then just walked away, leaving 6 45's on the bar (3 on each side). Like seriously dude, let the almost 5' tall girl handle your weights. *grumbles* I struggle getting weight off the bar when it's on the floor, the 45's in particular. So, it took me several minutes to get 4 of them off.
Funny part. About half way through the struggles, I overheard another guy go over to the one that had left the mess and tell him that he should have helped take the weights off. The one guy just shrugged and said it looked like I had it okay. But the other still lectured him a little about it. During which, I struggled with the weights, as the knight didn't offer to help either. Boys...1 -
pssshttt. i guess guy 1 thinks he's a 'feminist'. where's the eyeroll?0
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I had the perfect song on my playlist though for that moment.
One Girl Revolution - Saving Jane
They could use a few more emoticons easily accessible on here, like an eye roll one.0 -
That's ridiculous. He'll lecture someone on not helping, but not actually offer to help himself? LAME.
Today, when I walked in to the random little gym I'm using while on vacation, there was a woman laying on the floor inside one of the squat racks. She's got her TRX band tied over the top bar and proceeds to do all these random exercises with her feet in the loops. Then she does all her stretching there too. There was a half-rack thing open, so I just used that, but I still thought it was weird.0
