so there was this guy in the gym . . .
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Heavy hip thrusting is a big part of Bret Conteras' Strong Curves. Also according to BC most people can thrust close to their max DL weight if not more, but I'm pretty sure there is no pad on this earth that would entice me to try anything close to my DL max weight.
So a million pages ago someone was describing the band around the ankles side stepping thing. I've heard of this/seen this as a way to activate your glutes and other muscles before squatting. I actually have a band to do it with, but my glutes fire fine so I've never used it. Until one day when I had already spent 20 minutes warming up with all kinds of Joe Defranco moves and was still waiting for the sole cage at the gym I was at. I was super warmed up so I didn't think it would do much, but figured why not since I'd just be standing around otherwise. I hadn't squatting in 3 weeks which normally makes everything terrible feeling even when fully warm/mobile, but that was the best day-back-to-squatting squat day of my life. I shall now always do the band-ankle-sidestepper pre-squat.0 -
Those abs are going to be eaten by the Godzilla beer guts in a decade. Admire them now for the endangered species that they are......0
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Last night there wasn't much of anyone. Really, slow night at the gym on Saturday, compared to Thursday which had a lot of people for after 10 pm.
Did see a guy bench in the power cage, which is not something I had seen at that gym before because it does have 3 flat benches and a couple incline and decline ones. But he had a reason for it. Lifted like 315 but let it rest on the safeties and focused just on the pushing up part from the bars, then would bring it back down. Kind of interesting to watch while I did my weird deadlift from a box thing from stage 2.
Also, one of the guys from the show off group was there but the full group wasn't, including the one that can't lift with his shirt on. It was just the one guy. He doesn't lift as heavy as the ones that take off their shirts but he's smaller overall and with a noticeably lower body fat percentage. Honestly, him watching the mirror while lifting to check on form looked more legit than his friend standing in front of the mirror and having buddies take pictures when he lifts. They may joke at the one cause he can't lift the same numbers but he lifts heavy for him and is more focused on physique than them. Kind of nice to see just the one and not the crowd too. Plus, no one to help him on the lifts...
Which is more of my this guy in the gym theory. The show off group does this some times and I just wonder how useful it is and for whom. Helping the friend do the lifts on the machines. Like if one is pushing up there is another right in front of him pulling on the handles too in order to help him lift super heavy. *blank stare* Plus, getting all up in the personal space while one is lifting something really heavy, I dunno about that.
Help when failing, I get. But don't do the lift for me, or at least that's my preference. Wonder if afterwards the helper tells them "it was all you." hehehe0 -
Fittreelol wrote: »Heavy hip thrusting is a big part of Bret Conteras' Strong Curves. Also according to BC most people can thrust close to their max DL weight if not more, but I'm pretty sure there is no pad on this earth that would entice me to try anything close to my DL max weight.
So a million pages ago someone was describing the band around the ankles side stepping thing. I've heard of this/seen this as a way to activate your glutes and other muscles before squatting. I actually have a band to do it with, but my glutes fire fine so I've never used it. Until one day when I had already spent 20 minutes warming up with all kinds of Joe Defranco moves and was still waiting for the sole cage at the gym I was at. I was super warmed up so I didn't think it would do much, but figured why not since I'd just be standing around otherwise. I hadn't squatting in 3 weeks which normally makes everything terrible feeling even when fully warm/mobile, but that was the best day-back-to-squatting squat day of my life. I shall now always do the band-ankle-sidestepper pre-squat.
Oh OK. I don't think I'd want to do my DL max either. The pad thing made sense, I just didn't understand using that amount of weight. It took forever for her to set up and put away, too.
The band around the ankles was also me if you're referring to the guys that did exercises with the bands then kept them on and walked around like T-rexes. I used the bands in PT for side steps and clam shells. It definitely helps the glutes and IT bands. Haven't done it before squatting though. Might need to give it a whirl.0 -
saturday is usually a good one for people watching. yesterday was full of old favourites.
- the pec prince was in, towards the second half of my workout. and if you want to know what i think, i think that he's either injured or trying to recover from onw. now that i am thinking about it i haven't seen him squatting or deadlifting in idk how long, although he does still camp out in the leg press with half the plates in the gym for the better parts of an afternoon. spotted him on one of the exercise bikes yesterday, or i might not even have known he was there. i felt kind of badly for him, because it looks like he's kept on eating like he's lifting even though he might not be lifting these days. i'm pleased to report that my water-fountain trips around him and the leg-press machine make me able to provide an update on the pectoral shelf situation. the waters have risen a little around its foothills, but it's still just as close to his collarbones and in terms of absolute height it sticks out just as far as it ever did.
- squat king was in, together with a tiiiiiny little woman i realised must be 'with' him the last time our workout times overlapped. she's about the size of a matchstick but any ideas i had about her being a lightweight appendage-type were stopped dead by seeing her squat well over 150 even before he stepped in. and once he did give her some tips and get in there to spot she did 225 a few times. which has to be around 2x her bodyweight. this time she was doing cable kickbacks when i saw her.
and i'll report again in favour of the pp and sk and their assorted friends: they're jerky to one another occasionally, but afaik i still have the impression they're 100% gender blind. there's something about them that's oddly sweet, almost as if puberty hasn't come to them yet. mr squats had a perfect opportunity to get all kinds of handsy with her both during her squats and while explaining exactly which muscles the kickbacks were supposed to hit, and he did nothing at all of the kind. same for the tiniest hint of patronizing or talking down of any kind. and what's more, when another woman on the next cable stepped in with far more knowledge to tell her *exactly* the answer to whatever her question was, he just laughed and backed off to make room for the expert, without looking to me like he was throwing in a little sideways sneer about girls getting together and doing girl talk about cosmetic lifting etc.
and finally, little wide-eyed gaggle of brand-new freshly hatched kids. guess i shouldn't talk down about them quite like that, but they just about broke my heart. minimum age to get in the gym here is 13, and these kids looked like they'd all had the same birthday last week and made a pact to come in together and stick close to each other for support and comfort. bluntly, puberty hasn't come to them yet, and i did find them touching. they looked just as awed as i ever felt . . . and you know? i actually thought it must be even harder for them. i can work out if i want and not work out if i don't, but no matter what i do, guys like the squat king are never anything but entertainment to me. these little guys were all clustered in a little huddle watching the behemoth display and you could read it right on their faces that to them, it's so much more personal. they were thinking 'is that what i need to be able to do?' and also measuring the distance between these older guys and themselves.0 -
Glad this thread has been brought back.
I get so envious when people can squat like that. I hope squat queen competes. She could get some serious points with that squat especially if she's in a low weight class.
I saw a man on Saturday go from a chin up to a reverse chin up (I don't think I'm using the correct terminology). He'd pull up, lift his torso over the bar, then lower himself down to the bottom of a chin up all in a slow, controlled fashion. It was impressive. Unfortunately, another guy came up to him to say hello and asked if he was going to do some exercise (I couldn't hear) to which double chin up responded, "Nah man, it's shoulder day for me." That's quite the split routine. I wonder if he has a neck day and an ankle day.0 -
MissHolidayGolightly wrote: »I wonder if he has a neck day and an ankle day.
iiiiiiiiii am now going to brag. ready? there was this guy in the gym. big huge strongman type . . . i saw him benching while i was on squats, and he was lifting two plates for reps, like it was nothing at all. noticed him because i was watching him when i had a chance. i figured anyone who could do that probably had form worth watching.
anyway. said muscleman dude drifted out of my life until i was doing rows, and then i realised in between sets that he was doing pulldowns right beside me so i asked if i was getting in his way. y'know, the nice friendly way that you do. he had monster headphones on so i don't think he heard the question, but he realised i was talking to him so he lifted them up and said something himself. guess what he said?
he said: 'you have really good technique with those bent-over rows. i've been noticing, and it's excellent.'
BEAM. i was pulling 70 too, which was not warmup weight.0 -
^ Well, look at you, miss fancy pants! That's awesome.
So there was this guy at the gym on Friday who was using the squat rack next to me. He was doing super sets with squats and dumbbell somethings and deadlifts. Squats, DB, deads, squats, DB, deads, etc. The he just shifts to deads for a while.
Left all his plates on the squat bar.
Left his 32.5 lb. dumbbells in front of the squat rack.
Left his 225+ on the deadlift bar.
And disappeared. Like a jacka$$.
About 45 minutes later, when I was cleaning up from my deadlifts, I picked up his damn dumbbells and put them back, so people could stop being confused about whether or not someone was using that rack. >:(
He also did that dipsh!t thing where he racked the bar too high, so he had to go up on his toes to put it back. It's so darn painful to watch.0 -
Gotta love this thread.
I saw a woman a few days ago doing push press with one of the fixed weights. She did get momentum from bending her knees for each rep. The part that confused me a little was she used straps for the lift. I've seen her do really heavy leg press (and leave it) few months ago and sometimes I'll see her sue the assisted chin-up machine but it was different seeing her use the straps for that lift in particular. Hadn't seen that before.
There is a guy I've seen pretty much every night that doesn't do anything funny or weird to be discussed in here. I just see him all the time. He has to lift 5-6 days a week at around 2 hours per time. I kind of want to know what program he's doing. I've seen him do squats, front squat, deadlift, pull downs, different cable and dumbbell exercises and sometimes cardio at the end. I wonder if @threnjen has also seen him around. He's tall, kind of lanky but little bit of muscle and now puts his hair in a small knot on his head (has an off to the side haircut so guessing he got tired of it in his face). I've interacted with him once, just to make sure the power cage was free, but that temptation to ask is there.
Also, I notice a number of guys who can just chat each other up. Late night gym, even the show off boys will joke with another guy that comes around. Some of the college girls also chat with each other and the younger guys. Seems kind of nice to have that social element at times.0 -
Great news @canadianlbs!! Kudos to you. The sort of opposite happened to me yesterday.
The gym was crazy crowded (Monday after work, go figure) so I started with rows because I do them in the open area with the bumper plates and don't require a rack or anything. I finished my sets and was taking the weights off when a guy came over and said he'd like to use the bar and not to bother taking the rest of the weight off.
Me: Cool, thanks.
Him: You know, just to offer some advice...
Me:
getting ready to say, "No, thank you."
Him: When you bench, don't arch your back.
Me:
I wasn't benching?
Him: No, if you do. Just a word of caution. Arching strains your back. I slipped a disc doing that. I benched then did some deadlifts just to work out my whole body but then my chiropractor said not to do what I was doing because I messed up my back.
Me: How do you know it was your bench form?
Him: words
Me: Alrighty! Glad you seem to be doing better considering you're lifting again.
Him: Yeah I also hurt my knees. I used to run a lot but I tore my meniscus so I can't do that for a while. I'm so out of shape. But it's all good. I'm working two jobs so I get paid a lot... words, words words.
Me: cannot keep up with rapidly changing topics Welp, gotta go over there.
Him: deadlifts for an hour with bad back and bad knees
Me: benches with arched back in powerlifting form0 -
I also overheard two ladies in their early 20s talking to each other. I use "talking to each other" loosely because it was more like they were talking about themselves at each other with little regard for what the other was talking about. Their voices were also very similar and they spoke in the same monotone. Below is a snippet (I call them Thing 1 and Thing 2):
Thing 1: Someone called out of work today and I had to work for them.
Thing 2: People are so annoying.
Thing 1: I made myself a sandwich before I came. I'm trying not to eat dairy.
Thing 2: Oh my god I'm hella lactose intolerant.
Thing 1: Yeah my friend is pregnant and she's mad she's gaining weight.
Thing 2: I lost four pounds. I'm like, "Do I even lift?"
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laughing out loud. you sure get them, don't you?0
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DawnEmbers wrote: »There is a guy I've seen pretty much every night that doesn't do anything funny or weird to be discussed in here. I just see him all the time.
the last real-world meetup i went to, this woman showed up like a hood ornament on some dude's ferrari. tiny cleavage-based top, big lips, big hair, jewel in bellybutton at the centre of tiny little waist, silver finger and toenails . . .
but when it came to intros she works out 'three or four hours a day, every day'. turned out she's aiming towards fitness modelling and with a bikini competition coming up. maybe this guy has something like that going on.
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I must be wearing a sign. I like to pretend I'm in a Diablo Cody movie sometimes. The ladies' conversation resembled something from Young Adult. 0 -
canadianlbs wrote: »the last real-world meetup i went to, this woman showed up like a hood ornament on some dude's ferrari. tiny cleavage-based top, big lips, big hair, jewel in bellybutton at the centre of tiny little waist, silver finger and toenails . . .
but when it came to intros she works out 'three or four hours a day, every day'. turned out she's aiming towards fitness modelling and with a bikini competition coming up. maybe this guy has something like that going on.
Yeah, I figure that he has a reason and such. Just curious about his program but asking would involve going up to him and saying things, so yeah... I'll remain curious. I don't approach people.
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DawnEmbers wrote: »
There is a guy I've seen pretty much every night that doesn't do anything funny or weird to be discussed in here. I just see him all the time. He has to lift 5-6 days a week at around 2 hours per time. I kind of want to know what program he's doing. I've seen him do squats, front squat, deadlift, pull downs, different cable and dumbbell exercises and sometimes cardio at the end. I wonder if @threnjen has also seen him around. He's tall, kind of lanky but little bit of muscle and now puts his hair in a small knot on his head (has an off to the side haircut so guessing he got tired of it in his face). I've interacted with him once, just to make sure the power cage was free, but that temptation to ask is there.
I know exactly who you are talking about. I've wanted to ask you if he is there on your nights too, because he is there every time I am without fail. He is seriously dedicated!
I've never talked to him. I have wanted to smile at him or something to acknowledge him because I see him so much, but I haven't (cool story huh...)
I also want to know what he's doing. He does all his lifting and then 30min on the elliptical every time.
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Well, now you have all of us curious, so you HAVE to ask!0
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On a different set of always there guys... The show off boys were there and it was ab day. They even need to do that together in a set of four and yes, the one did have his shirt off. Unfortunately, they were in the little stretch carpeted area when I had to do planks in my program. I never know what they say cause a good part of the time they don't speak in English and I have my headphones on but they sure did laugh a lot.0
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oh, there was an awful one in my gym yesterday. i forgot to write about him; i think my psyche's trying to just blank him out.
i deliberately did not look at him more than i absolutely had to, but i heard him. i've heard about people like this but i thought it was some kind of joke. billy joel face - i.e. spade beard, brillo hair, pop eyes and no bridge to his nose. bright red shorts, unremarkable everything else about him . . . apart from that slight tendency to walk like a barrel on legs that you see in some guys. you know, the sort of swivel from side to side with each step? seems to go with flat feet that turn outwards, although i'm not sure about that.
anyway. the point. the point was, he spent about 60% of his (long) time in there on the cable bench, rowing like he was trying to cross the pacific alone. earbuds in, face twisted upwards towards the revelation of ceiling tiles, eyes screwed tight shut. and every stroke, this kind of loud shouting whisper that filled the whole space. 'oh yeah . . . oh yeah . . . oh yeah. . . ' if you're thinking it sounded like what i think you're thinking it sounded like, we're both right. it totally effed up my head, because after taking one look i couldn't deal with it. he looked like the tasmanian devil in shorts. obviously he wasn't wearing huaraches because it would not have been allowed, but he spiritually was, i know that. and my head just kept saying, it sounds that way, but who would he ever find to get that way with? **
he did take short breaks from his rowing frenzy, but guess what he did in those breaks. idontwannatalkaboutthedeadliftshedid. okay? because with an entire empty gym for doing them in he came and did them Right. Behind. Me in the rack. and the noises he made doing THOSE made me want to turn on him. as in: 'listen, why don't you just give me ten bucks and i'll go get lost at the movies until you're finished in here?' it was that personal.
** i wanted to clarify this. it wasn't about his physique or his looks. i'm hardly mz fashion plate in the gym. but it was his whole . . . i mean. i mean. i'm not even like this, but this guy made it impossible for you to not picture him in the act. and let me tell you, it did not make for an appealing picture. it was repellent in the extreme.
pps: on the deadlifts. okay, i'll say it. i'm ready to put my hand on my heart and declare that he even did the 'oh jesus!' thing as he got to lockout. there, i've said it. and now it's out of my head and if it's gotten into yours now, well i'm sorry about that. i just need to be able to sleep.0 -
I'm sorry you had to witness lewd sex acts at your gym @canadianlbs! If I were you, I'd end up scrubbing myself in the shower screaming, "FOREVER UNCLEAN!!" I slightly feel like this when Biceps Forever is in the gym when I am. He is the guy that wears the string tank tops and "curls" 135 lbs in the squat rack by whipping his upper body back and yelling. I have a visceral reaction to his presence that makes me glare at him and the gross smirk he wears.
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