Why no legs/squatting in commercial gyms?
zaxx1953
Posts: 389 Member
Coming from an athletic background I was introduced to lifting/gym work from a functional POV but still loved the way I ended up looking aesthetically (big and powerful) as a teen. I always worked lower and upper body, and end up with a fairly balanced physique.
I guess everyone hears about guys in commercial gyms who only curl/bench, etc. etc., but the reality is actually worse than I ever thought.
Virtually NO MEN in commercial gyms squat to decent depth. You have the most effective exercise on the planet and no men seem remotely interested in even trying it. Furthermore, a lot of men- not all- basically just totally ignore their whole lower body...
Why is that?
I guess everyone hears about guys in commercial gyms who only curl/bench, etc. etc., but the reality is actually worse than I ever thought.
Virtually NO MEN in commercial gyms squat to decent depth. You have the most effective exercise on the planet and no men seem remotely interested in even trying it. Furthermore, a lot of men- not all- basically just totally ignore their whole lower body...
Why is that?
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Replies
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wuhhhh?
Who is "virtually NO men"?0 -
wuhhhh?
Who is "virtually NO men"?
Who are the men I am talking about?
The men who populate commercial gyms i've frequented around the country for over a decade now since i've been out of college. I see virtually no men squatting to depth where I would call the movement a full squat, even less to ATG where MOST people without injury consideration probably should be squatting.0 -
Wow . Where are you? I'm at the Jersey shore, and I see men working legs and squatting all the time.0
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thorsmom01 wrote: »Wow . Where are you? I'm at the Jersey shore, and I see men working legs and squatting all the time.
Chicago.
I see men doing something like the top 1/3rd of a full ROM squat, but that certainly isn't something I would ever call a squat. Maybe a 1/2 squat or lockout.
This is a full squat:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8If9qgSRQ8 0 -
I frequently see men doing decent squats.
IDK where you train at.0 -
wuhhhh?
Who is "virtually NO men"?
Who are the men I am talking about?
The men who populate commercial gyms i've frequented around the country for over a decade now since i've been out of college. I see virtually no men squatting to depth where I would call the movement a full squat, even less to ATG where MOST people without injury consideration probably should be squatting.
Country where you are from, because not in my country..
edited to add: I see you are in the country of Chicago... maybe it is this...
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That's odd to me because it's common here. But I don't usually go to gyms outside of my town, so I'm unsure why people squat here very often but not over in Chicago. Btw, it's a lovely town.:-)0
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thorsmom01 wrote: »That's odd to me because it's common here. But I don't usually go to gyms outside of my town, so I'm unsure why people squat here very often but not over in Chicago. Btw, it's a lovely town.:-)
Thnks, it is nice.
Not much squatting where i've been, but I admittedly haven't lifted on the east coast much at all.
Is montreal the coast?
Hey, if people are doing roughly what she is on the vid, that's phenomenal. I just don't see it often.0 -
I'm interested to see men reply to this thread and see if they've noticed the same thing where they live or their reasons why they don't squat. I would take a video but the men at my gym will likely assume I'm a weirdo lol . But feel free to come squat here!
The only thing I can think of is that some men at your gym possibly have injuries, because why else would they not work legs and squat properly? Unless they just don't know better. That's why I'm interested to see men's replies to this thread.0 -
I usually go to my small-town, non-chain gym during slow periods where there just aren't alot of people in the free-weight section anyway...but for the most part, the squat rack is almost always available, and when I do see guys use it, for squats (not for shrugs, curls, or OHP) they're not doing full ROM squats--more like quarter or half squats. I really don't see many guys do full squats. I saw a very in-shape gal doing squats the other day, and even she wasn't doing full ROM squats. Funny once you know what a full ROM squat is...and how important doing that full ROM...you notice when it's not done correctly. And it drives me sorta nuts. I have the urge to speak up, but don't. Not my circus.0
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People don't like doing squats or deadlifts. They are hard and draw attention from everyone else.
People don't like doing things hard and having attention drawn to them. They like quietly going through their lives doing the easy things...0 -
I'm with you! I've sat and watched meat heads grunt and all but poop in their pants only to do a 1/2 squat WITH knees over extended..... Yes. I laugh!0
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I've seen plenty of *kitten*-to-the-grass squats in the gyms in my area. I've even seen an interesting variation where you're on your knees, *kitten*-to-heels and then lifting up. It isolates the glutes.0
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View is subjective unless you're living in the gyms and seeing each and every day. I've worked in several gyms and lots of dudes squat. And lots of dudes don't.
A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
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Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
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thorsmom01 wrote: »Wow . Where are you? I'm at the Jersey shore, and I see men working legs and squatting all the time.
I'm on the Jersey shore, as well. I rotate between 3 different locations within the same chain of commercial gym and see people doing full range or Rippetoe depth squats all the time. Granted, there will always be plenty of people that don't go full range.
On leg day, I go to the location with a squat rack, squat cage, and two smith machines and I rarely have to wait for the rack or cage. As soon as I finish, someone always jumps on it.
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I squat a little
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I almost made a fool of my self by saying this wasnt a FOM squat till I noticed it was a video and not a still shot ...10 push ups for me....
It is kinda funny that most of the functional fitness guys do squats and Deadlifts along with OLY lifts all the time, but my experience from gyms around the county is that few "regular" lifters do legs the right way...thorsmom01 wrote: »Wow . Where are you? I'm at the Jersey shore, and I see men working legs and squatting all the time.
Chicago.
I see men doing something like the top 1/3rd of a full ROM squat, but that certainly isn't something I would ever call a squat. Maybe a 1/2 squat or lockout.
This is a full squat:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8If9qgSRQ8
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thorsmom01 wrote: »Wow . Where are you? I'm at the Jersey shore, and I see men working legs and squatting all the time.
Chicago.
I see men doing something like the top 1/3rd of a full ROM squat, but that certainly isn't something I would ever call a squat. Maybe a 1/2 squat or lockout.
This is a full squat:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8If9qgSRQ8
That's my lifting coach! She's awesome.0 -
Coming from an athletic background I was introduced to lifting/gym work from a functional POV but still loved the way I ended up looking aesthetically (big and powerful) as a teen. I always worked lower and upper body, and end up with a fairly balanced physique.
I guess everyone hears about guys in commercial gyms who only curl/bench, etc. etc., but the reality is actually worse than I ever thought.
Virtually NO MEN in commercial gyms squat to decent depth. You have the most effective exercise on the planet and no men seem remotely interested in even trying it. Furthermore, a lot of men- not all- basically just totally ignore their whole lower body...
Why is that?
For many men, because they weren’t trained to squat properly and now have bad muscle imbalances, they either don’t squat low because they can’t or because they’ve experienced knee pain doing so. Over time, they’ve come to believe that squating is dangerous.
Also, if they lift alone, they don’t want to deal with a failed rep. If they lift with others, the upper body work is easier to work in (variations in bench strength might be 20 lbs, so easy throw on two tens for a stronger lifter, whereas the squat might be 60 or more pounds, harder to swap weights).
And then there is the fact that leg days suck. That’s why I do full body programs, so every workout sucks. ;-)
But that isn’t every gym. There are some with some very good power and squat racks. If you see good heavy equipment when you go in, likely it is getting used.
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It's been a while since I've been in a gym regularly, but the squat racks where lifted mostly collected dust.0
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Why does OP care about what others do in the gym unless it's dangerous?0
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jediguitarist wrote: »thorsmom01 wrote: »Wow . Where are you? I'm at the Jersey shore, and I see men working legs and squatting all the time.
I'm on the Jersey shore, as well. I rotate between 3 different locations within the same chain of commercial gym and see people doing full range or Rippetoe depth squats all the time. Granted, there will always be plenty of people that don't go full range.
On leg day, I go to the location with a squat rack, squat cage, and two smith machines and I rarely have to wait for the rack or cage. As soon as I finish, someone always jumps on it.
Same here. I go to tilton and they also have 3 locations in this area.I've been to each depending on where I'm working that day. I see full range squatting often down here.0 -
I've actually noticed this where I work out as well.
I'm not complaining - I have never once had to wait for the power rack, and have in fact never seen evidence that anyone else uses it.
There's one dude who's been at the gym every single time I've gone, and he's obviously training lower body somehow. You can admire the results even when he's wearing sweatpants
His leg days must be on my off days. 0 -
I rarely see anyone using the power rack to actually squat in my gym. I suppose that I'm not complaining, because that means that it's usually open when I need to use it. Fortunately, the people I do see squat seem to do them properly.
The flat benches (there are three of them versus one power rack) are popular, as is the cable machine. People also seem to prefer the Smith machine for OHP and incline bench (lame).0 -
I lift in a commercial gym here in CT. Of all the guys I've seen squat - quite a few - I only know of two that don't go to at least parallel. There's a couple of women that don't get to parallel, but almost all of the guys I've seen do.
What I tend to see is only a handful of guys benching properly - butts up off the bench and/or only 1/2 ROM, mostly.0 -
Lots of people don't want to work legs because it is hard. My gym has 2 power racks and a deadlift platform that would be st home in a NFL weight room plus another bit lesser buy still good power rack. More people are hanging out in front of the dumbbell rack doing curls than doing leg work. Which is fine, saves the equipment power racks for me.
The people that are doing leg stuff tend to work pretty hard at it.0 -
Can I lift where you do OP? I hate waiting for the squat racks/power cage. Too many guys squat here...0
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This is also really dependent on what type of gym you go to. Chain commercial gyms have less people dedicated to seriously lifting in general than smaller local gyms that are more lifting focused. That's not to say you don't see people lifting, but seeing people doing traditional power or Olympic style weightlifting isn't as common. Many of those gyms don't even have the adequate equipment to do so, or not enough for several people to lift at once.0
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Maybe it's cause Chicago has like the best food ever and they just can't squat cause they just ate an Ann Sather Cinnamon roll or at some yummy mexican at Frontera.0
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From talking to others in the gym, most of the guys that don't train legs, don't do it for these reasons:
- It's harder. Harder to get the right movement, more taxing on the body due to larger muscle groups, more DOMS the next day (complaining about not walking comfortably for ages!)
- Then I think there's such thing as "beach muscles" and a lot of people care about them. They want a nice upper body to show off but don't care about the lower as much, that can be hidden easier I suppose with longer shorts or something.
- I've also actually heard guys say "girls don't care about legs" so the dudes lifting purely to attract women aren't gonna bother either. I hear women all the time talk about how attracted they are to a man's arms, his chest, his biceps, abs etc but never his legs. I usually only hear the occasional comment about a man's butt. Unless it's from a female lifter (which aren't that common unfortunately), there's not much praise for nice legs.
- Also, some commercial gyms don't even have a squat rack. In many cases there's no demand for it. Some avoid equipment like that altogether because they want to detract away from "meatheads" (stupid I know) who potentially intimidate other gym goers, in particular, women. Women bring in a lot of money for a gym so generally they want to cater to them. I've had conversations with gym staff about how they want to bring in more female members, that they don't have that many. This means more machines, more classes, less scary free weights and the banging and clanging of big deadlifts. I don't agree with it, but it's their business and if that's how they see themselves best making money, that's how they're going to go about it.
Granted, I've seen lots of guys squat and deadlift. I go to a commercial gym that's quite decent in that sense, we have a squat rack and people definitely use it, but it's still the same crowd. A lot avoid them altogether though, still prefering to spend their time just benching and curling.
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