so there was this guy in the gym . . .
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Man, that's outrageous, @bluefish86 ! I think I'd have told him where to stick his f-ing opinions. In fact, I am, mentally, right now.0
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canadianlbs wrote: »scrittrice wrote: »he made the same tired joke I've heard before from other obnoxious young gym guys: "Should I leave these plates on for you?"
what a total b.s.ish buttmunchy remark. put on your best dyel voice and face and just tell them no. because, really. what serious lifter skips warmup sets?
i do have one comeback that seems to not only shut down an individual piece of lameness or dickery - it actually crushes the problem right at the source. you just pretend like you don't know they were trying to troll you, and say 'yeah, a lot of people ask/tell me that'. you can use various tones and expressions with it, just so long as you make it so they have to TELL you they 'weren't serious'.
i like 'sort of mildly interested in the phenomenon but actually not really at all'. or 'oh, hey . . . you'll prolly be pleased to hear this'.
I wish you and @ar9179 were at the gym with me. I'm no shrinking violet, but I never come up with a comeback fast enough! I always have my headphones in, and I just shrug as if I can't hear them. (Likewise the teenage boy who was using the squat rack after me the other day and loudly announced that I could leave the plates on the bar because my working weight was a good warm-up for him. I didn't point out that he had a least a foot of height on me and the bar was racked too low for him.) It's a dumb joke on so many levels--it's rude; I need to warm up; you have no idea what kind of program I'm running or where I am in it and/or any issues I might have; and I'm a middle-aged woman who squats her weight, which probably correlates more or less to being their age/weight and squatting what they squat. Also, I consider failing to rack plates really rude--leave it the way you found it! Between sets I sometimes OCDishly rearrange the plates so that the 5s, 10s, etc. are together on the same peg.
But most people are either neutral or nice. It's just the few jerks who stay with you for the rest of the day, isn't it?0 -
On the putting away plates topic: I keep having to go literally HUNTING for the darn 2.5.
There are at least 3 sets of them at my gym. 6 of 'em total (at least. I've never actually taken inventory).
Sometimes I'm lucky and find them in the xfit area (usually from me leaving the pair there on my previous workout the day before xD). Or on the squat rack right by the room. Or on the plate rack by the benches.
Then on some days I have to go all over to the smith machine and the decline bench to find an actual pair. Who splits 2.5 plates up?! WHY?! If you need to do some kind of pump-class-y shoulder warm-up, please use the pink DBs instead?
Keep the darn things together! geez! 0 -
Ah, the hunt for the micro plates. Between lower body area, upper body area, in those plate loading machine type things, the benches, racks and curl bar spots it's often a challenge to find where the number of sets went off to that time. We have at least 6 total but I think there may be even 8 and still I've had to go across the gym to find a set before.
Last night had guy in bright red outfit using one of the plate loading things where you can do shrugs and one arm work, etc. He had on very red pants than a red superman tank. Nothing else too noticeable, just his fashion.
I saw a woman doing good mornings with the bar from the squat rack. Rarely see anyone else doing those. But she'd start in front, not using the safeties, do an rdl or two then clean the bar before moving to get it over her head in order to place it for the good mornings. She'd do some of those then hoist it back over her head to move it down. Sometimes she'd do a few more rdl's and other times not. Interesting though she struggled a little near the end with the getting bar back over her head after a set of good mornings. And guy had to step over the squat machine thing as she was blocking the walkway.0 -
bluefish86 wrote: »I was in the middle of doing squats when some random guy I've spoken to like once before started talking at me about how I didn't need to lift weights ("just do cardio... your body is great you just need to slim down a bit").
He kept calling me Sarah (my name's not Sarah). I basically blanked him until he went away but he was *kitten* annoying.
So I was feeling a bit defensive, when one of the gym's trainers came up to me and asked if I was being lazy... "No. I'm smashing it". He grinned and said "Yeah, I know you are." Strangely, that made me feel a bit better.
"Your body is great" -- how do you think it got that way, loser?! BY LIFTING ALL THE THINGS!0 -
bluefish86 wrote: »I was in the middle of doing squats
*kitten* me . . . just . . . that is just so freaking rude. so 1940's as well.
not surprised the trainer convo perked you up. he obviously sees you as an equal and a person - and takes it for granted that you see yourself that way as well. mr who-asked-you seems to assume you just see yourself as a thing.
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Haha! I really enjoy this thread too! Its just me...in the basement...sometimes with hubby and/or kids.fanncy0626 wrote: »I don't go to a gym so I really enjoy this thread!
Yeah, sometimes I miss the social interaction you find at a gym, but then I read some of these stories...
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this is the best thing I've ever read hahahaaaaa0
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woman i've seen before, now and then . . . benched a plate for 5 singles while i was in the rack beside her yesterday.
what i liked: she jumped in the air and hugged herself when she got up from the first one. her workout buddy who spotted the lift called across half the gym to little mr woody-woodpecker trainer dude to tell him 'she got a plate!'. i'm just on nod-terms with her, but i got a contact high just from being 6 feet away at the time.
i do love that about going to gym.0 -
I managed to go late morning today, thinking it would be quiet. Which it was, except for the squat racks. Grumble. One was taken by a slim young guy, who kept sitting down slumped against the rack for his rests, like a rag doll. Then up he'd stagger and do another set.
And the other rack was being used by one of the gym staff with a very old, very feeble man. They were doing tiny moves with a TRX tied round the top of the rack. Which ... I had to give myself a talking to. That poor old bloke probably comes at that time specifically to avoid bouncy people like me, and he's entitled to exercise. Maybe, maybe they could out the TRX somewhere else but ... be nice, Gillian, I told myself.
I got a bench and some dumbbells and started bench presses. I had done three sets, when the old chap shuffled off. Should I finish what I was doing? No, too risky - I was off that bench and at the rack before anyone knew what was happening....
And reminded myself that it might be me one day. So work hard on those squats...0 -
Which ... I had to give myself a talking to.
know that feel. however, did NOT have that feel about the young toob who wheeled a bench into the rack when the gym was starting to fill up again . . . went off and just left it there for about 15 minutes, then came back and sat around on it doing sweet bugger-all for 20 more. like, not even checking youtube on his phone, not doing reps (i was watching), just hanging out like he was on his own couch in his own home. and then, when he finally started a workout and was finally finished with it, signalled me that he was done and strolled away to his next leisurely adventure.
LEAVING THE BENCH IN THE RACK. and the bar on the safeties, i might also add. i don't usually do this but i was so freaking mad i went and found him and said 'could you get that bench out of there please'. didn't physically grip his ear between finger and thumb and lead him back to the scene of the crime, but my voice kind of did it for me. it wasn't that i couldn't have done it myself, but i was just double damned if i was going to.
edit: he wasn't that young either. he wasn't my age, but he was definitely old enough to know better than that.0 -
Canadianlbs - I would have loved to have seen you in action! Good for you!!!0
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So - the people at the gym were all fine, but the building itself was annoying me. It shakes! I switched squat racks after one set because the first one was trembling so much from the people running on treadmills nearby. I need all the steadiness I can get - having a mini earthquake going on doesn't help. And then later on I was at the other end of the gym and the ground was bouncing from the heavy footed class going on next door.
It's a 70s building - maybe it's just going to fall down one day...0 -
I have a squat rack in my basement, but these stories make me think it would be wildly entertaining to lift in a gym LOL. Too funny.0
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I loved reading this thread from beginning to end. I actually frowned when I got to the end. I've only been lifting for a month, so hopefully I'll have more stories to share. Canadianlbs, you're an amazing writer and if that's not already your profession, you should consider it.
My BF and I work out together on Sundays, and while he's not touchy, he does give me kisses from time to time which I'm slightly embarrassed about. I don't want us to be "that" couple.
A couple of characters I've witnessed are a massive guy doing flys with 125lb dumbells just grunting like a wild animal. I also saw a guy fling a bar off the bench onto the floor, not safe. I have to be careful not to give people hate stares in the gym. But I am loving the weights so far.0 -
Well, today I was this gal, who, in the middle of a set of goblet squats, had to let out a smelly fart. I felt bad for the other people in the room >_>
funny thing, i still don't like to admit that i giggle at fart jokes. i mean, i do giggle, but i'd really like to keep pretending i don't except with very specific people.
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So, this thread is hilarious...
I was at the gym this morning, warming up on the rower. There was a guy, dressed in a matching blue top shorts combo from what appeared to be "scientific" material (you know the kind of soft meshy stuff that wicks away sweat). With matching blue shoes.
Anyway, he looked fit & healthy. He was wondering around the weights, doing a few reps here and there. Then, he went right in front of my rower and used the ab wheel. Ok, no issue there. It's an open space with a lot of room. He did *maybe* 3 or 4 rolls, hoped up walked over to the mirror, lifted his shirt and admired his 6 pack. From multiple angles.
Admired himself from the side, with his shirt fully up.
With the shirt partially up.
Made a few kissy faces (seriously).
And left.
OK. He did have a nice tummy... but it did not need that much admiration.
He did not look like someone who belonged on Jersey Shore, or TOWIE. No fake tan (from what I could tell). No hair gel. His actions were in complete contradiction to his appearance (well, apart from the completely matching outfit)
It was the strangest 10 minutes at they gym so far.0 -
oh! i have a great one today.
there's this extra guy who's started coming to trainer day. from michigan, very deadpan. straight out of hemingway country. one of those shy kinds of guys who slightly-smile all the time and don't make much eye contact, and their mouths don't move when they talk. so today he was deadlifting and all three of us stopped to watch him doing his amrap set. conversation that followed that went like this:
mr michigan: done.
mr squat: nice. you got the whole ten.
mr trainer: how'd that feel?
mr michigan: felt good. yeah. felt fine.
mr squat: oxygen helps though, dude.
mr trainer: oh yeah, maybe try breathing next time.
mr michigan: huh?
mr trainer: big breath for each rep. inhale at the top, exhale as you pull.
mr michigan: you mean that's allowed? i thought you had to hold it for the whole set.
he was kidding. but he did it so deadpan, he caught ALL of us.
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canadianlbs- I love your stories! It is true as someone else said you should be a writer if you already aren't!0
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fanncy0626 wrote: »canadianlbs- I love your stories! It is true as someone else said you should be a writer if you already aren't!
i didn't make up that dialogue. mr michigan did.
anyway. yesterday the crazy selfish chicken-strut crossfit woman was in. with her cloud of red hair and her overbite and her weird headlamp stare and her yattering voice. plus, she brought her little hardbitten matchstick-sized sidekick girlfriend who i guess she's still trying to 'train'.
i really am bugged by those two. SO bugged. the loud one really does belong in a big crossfit box where her relentless ego will have all the space that it needs. the little one is . . . idk what my problem with her is, exactly. but i have one. for some reason i can't write her off as a meek little psyche just being dragged along in the glare of her big loud obnoxious friend. i guess because she seems to be such a willing student of not just the lifting but the mindset and attitude too.
and they're both just stupid in a way that i can't seem to find the right kinds of excuses for. like, a sort of oblivious-to-other-people's-safety type of stupid that i just can't quite see as innocent. it's almost like they deliberately borderline-endanger other people as a way of showing off how much more something-or-other they are. crazy lady is the one who approached me a year ago when the rack had a huge lineup, and offered to 'set me up' for squatting out there on the floor. because she can 'easily' clean my squat weight, you see. and apparently because she doesn't much care whether or not i get to get properly set and tight first.
her little ashblonde buddy did this same kind of blind-endangerment thing to me yesterday. the rack is right next to the smith machine at this place. once someone has the bar out, there's only about 12 inches of clearance between the bar end and the smith. nobody with manners goes into that zone at that time. if they absolutely need something from the smith pegs on that side, they can walk round the front of the smith from the opposite side.
but this little woman just blithely walked straight into my airspace when i was already unracked with 100 pounds. she ducked under that end of my bar to get there!!! and then she freaking STOOD there at the pegs like she was debating over a carousel full of clothes in a store. i was afraid to even move, with the kind of stupid she'd already been. i was so afraid she'd do it again while i was actually doing a rep, and knock me into two years of back surgery. it really is the kind of thing those two seem capable of casually allowing to happen to other people. and then crazy woman would say 'oh, you're not strong enough to stabilize 100 pounds on your own? gee'.
okay, mad off chest now.0
