so there was this guy in the gym . . .

Options
1222325272840

Replies

  • ar9179
    ar9179 Posts: 374 Member
    edited November 2015
    Options

    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.


    The set-up at our Y is the same. One day DH was just about to squat and a much older guy almost walked right into the end of the bar, trying to get to the ab thing that people do leg lifts on...can't remember what its called. I yelled "look out!" right before he almost rammed his head. I was actually talking to DH, so he wasn't mid-squat when the guy ran into him.

    Afterward, the guy came up to DH in the locker room to apologize. Stark naked. Apparently, it's a haunting image.


    Another day I was alone and two gals decided to use that same narrow aisle for foam rolling. It's RIGHT in front of an office door, just below that leg lift stand thingy, and I would have given her a concussion if I had squatted. There is a HUGE area right in front of where we where, just waiting for someone to do their thing.

    I just stood, watching, for a couple of minutes. After they realized, one pipes up about wondering why I was watching. People are funny. Well, when I don't want to concuss them.
  • canadianlbs
    canadianlbs Posts: 5,199 Member
    Options
    ar9179 wrote: »
    [Afterward, the guy came up to DH in the locker room to apologize. Stark naked. Apparently, it's a haunting image.

    okay, this made me feel just so much better. :D
  • DawnEmbers
    DawnEmbers Posts: 2,451 Member
    Options
    Haven't been in the gym so have a fast food situation story instead. Stopped at a Jack in the Box on the way home and it was weird cause very few people were there but some random guy talked to me. We were waiting for the workers to come over to the registers for inside orders as they were focused on drive-thru. He asked me about his glasses, if the frames seemed girly (they weren't, just plain thin metal). He said I could sit with him if I would like. It was awkward. Aside from being all alone, I had a headache, had been driving for so long and had waited till 2 pm to finally get food as was super hungry. So I picked a table by myself. I didn't feel like talking, so ate and scanned my phone. He said goodbye when he left before me, so he maybe wasn't too insulted at least. Just a little weird though.
  • canadianlbs
    canadianlbs Posts: 5,199 Member
    Options
    ar9179 wrote: »
    The set-up at our Y is the same. One day DH was just about to squat and a much older guy almost walked right into the end of the bar, trying to get to the ab thing that people do leg lifts on...can't remember what its called.

    i guess what made me so mad was, it wasn't one of those brain-fade moments where she just didn't see me or forgot to be conscious. i've been guilty of those and thanked god every time that i hadn't caused any actual wreck. but this woman - she saw me. she knew i was there. she had to duck under my bar, so she for-sure knew i was there. she just didn't give a damn. it was that same super-entitled attitude that makes some people just walk out into the street without looking because 'of course' it's up to everyone else to adjust around them.

    realistically, if there had been a collision then she might have picked up a black eye or something. but i could have been actually hurt. that's probably why she got away with it and why she did it, now that i think about it. wasn't going to be her problem even if something had gone badly wrong.
  • mirrim52
    mirrim52 Posts: 763 Member
    Options
    Probably related to the woman at my gym who stepped OVER the bar I was just about to pull from the ground instead of walking around it.
  • christch
    christch Posts: 238 Member
    Options
    I must admit that changing to a mixed gym has made the rest times between sets worthwhile :wink: Well at least for me poor guys now have this 43 yr old invading their space and wiping the benches down.
    And they're so nice, one even gave me some great advice when I was trying to murder the front squat, to be fair it was the first time doing it on my own.
    Will have get a crop top for under singlet if I do single arm bench row or at least find a bench that isn't in front of mirror. Showed a wee bit more than I had intended, (just aflash of sports bra)and don't want to scar anyone for life.
  • ar9179
    ar9179 Posts: 374 Member
    Options
    ar9179 wrote: »
    The set-up at our Y is the same. One day DH was just about to squat and a much older guy almost walked right into the end of the bar, trying to get to the ab thing that people do leg lifts on...can't remember what its called.

    i guess what made me so mad was, it wasn't one of those brain-fade moments where she just didn't see me or forgot to be conscious. i've been guilty of those and thanked god every time that i hadn't caused any actual wreck. but this woman - she saw me. she knew i was there. she had to duck under my bar, so she for-sure knew i was there. she just didn't give a damn. it was that same super-entitled attitude that makes some people just walk out into the street without looking because 'of course' it's up to everyone else to adjust around them.

    realistically, if there had been a collision then she might have picked up a black eye or something. but i could have been actually hurt. that's probably why she got away with it and why she did it, now that i think about it. wasn't going to be her problem even if something had gone badly wrong.

    I really do avoid public "calling out", because people are nuts. A recent road rage incident, over me stopping at a red light, has left me feeling very cautious. I had my 3 young kids with me, so didn't stop, pull him out of his fancy car, and let him know how I felt about his actions.
    There is a limit. I'd want to have a ready response for that person, which would assure that it would never happen again! No witty come-backs allowed, lol.

    Curly-In-The-Squat-Rack always says "hi" to me, now, and is super friendly. I had some good come-backs after he lectured that my squats took too much time in the squat rack. They interfered with his bicep curls. We've run into each other at the grocery store! Too funny.
  • Ariadnula
    Ariadnula Posts: 435 Member
    Options
    ar9179 wrote: »
    We've run into each other at the grocery store! Too funny.

    It's so weird when you see gym people outside, in the world. They always look so different, and I feel like we share a secret. (That sounds like my gym is much more interesting than it is!)
  • canadianlbs
    canadianlbs Posts: 5,199 Member
    Options
    Ariadnula wrote: »
    It's so weird when you see gym people outside, in the world.

    much weirder to me is when i see outside-world people in 'my' gym. like the banana woman from the contract i just walked out of in september. awkward. i like her and the conversation was friendly. but still didn't really want her getting to watch me doing my thing.
    I really do avoid public "calling out", because people are nuts.

    yeah. there wasn't a lot i could really think of to say anyway.
  • Ariadnula
    Ariadnula Posts: 435 Member
    Options
    much weirder to me is when i see outside-world people in 'my' gym.
    Do you know ... that's never happened. Well, I did once share a gym with my boss in a hotel gym and that was pretty weird! But I was just doing cardio then, and I'm less self conscious about that. I'd feel very strange seeing someone I knew while I was squatting, say. It's actually strange that it's never happened!
  • canadianlbs
    canadianlbs Posts: 5,199 Member
    Options
    Ariadnula wrote: »
    I'd feel very strange seeing someone I knew while I was squatting, say.

    this, yes. although i don't mind if i see them. it's them seeing me that upsets me. :tongue:

    sigh on the personal space. must be something in the water right now . . . yesterday i went into the rack and did a few presses. but then i wanted to squat and there was this guy who had set up a bench and was doing arm work with dumbbells, too close to the rails for my comfort. so i had to ask him to move it back just a couple of inches, and it turned into a Thing. went like this.

    me: um, you're in pretty close here. would you -
    him: it's okay, i don't mind. anyway, it's not a problem at all.
    me: yeah, it is fine for the press. but the thing is, i'm going to step out and squat now.
    him: so?
    me: ?? well, so i'm going to step backwards. i'll be standing about 18 inches back from where i am now.
    him: *blank face that's still going 'so?'*
    me: the point being, the bar is going to be moving up and down.
    him: *pissed face*
    me: it looks like it's going to be doing that right in your zone.
    him: *blank fac*
    me: i do not want there to be a collision.
    him: that's okay, i trust you.
    me: you'll be behind me. i won't be able to tell.
    him: well, it's fine. and anyway don't worry about it. *macho voice* i really doubt you'll be able hurt me.
    me: no, it's me that i'm worried about. i don't want to be bumped off balance halfway through a rep.
    him: *pissed face*. *moves bench* and let me be clear - he had at least three feet of clear space behind him so he could have done it at any time.

    gleh. it's just discouraging.
  • canadianlbs
    canadianlbs Posts: 5,199 Member
    Options
    so there's this trainer i see . . . :) i realised something today that made me laugh, in my fridays lift-club.

    mr trainer does not have a shred - not a shred - of sexism about the lifting, at all. you go to his thing and he'll make sure you're lifting as much as your body is safely able to lift. so he made me laugh because i realised today: it's like 'canadian, you're deadlifting 135, so you can set up over there . . .' and then it's 'here, no, let me carry that empty barbell over for you.' or i go to switch up my plates and he's like 'here, no - ' and picks up the end of the bar 'let me help you with that.' 'let me bring you your plates.'

    he's so un-sexist and he's such a pleasant person that all it does is make me laugh. i don't think he's even aware of how contradictory he's being. when i'm LIFTING, i'm just like anyone else. but as soon as i step back from the bar, it's like all his nice smalltown boy from saskatchewan reflex comes out.
  • Ariadnula
    Ariadnula Posts: 435 Member
    Options
    Today I hit a man on the leg with a 16kg kettlebell. Or rather, a man walked his leg right into the path of the kettlebell. Idiot! I had been swinging for a wee while - this was like the 12th swing of 15, so it was easy to see where the ball was going to be. My arms are short, the damn thing doesn't even end up very far in front of me, yet he managed to walk right into the path of it. Eejit. Luckily he seemed to be fine... though I hope he has a tiny bruise, just as a reminder.
  • mirrim52
    mirrim52 Posts: 763 Member
    Options
    Adult guy in the gym -
    Batman shirt. Batman shorts. Batman towel flung over the cable machine for all to see. Playing air guitar between sets. Yeah.

    And then there were the 3 guys doing half squats in jeans. Maybe their depth would be better if they were wearing less restrictive clothing :P
  • canadianlbs
    canadianlbs Posts: 5,199 Member
    Options
    mirrim52 wrote: »
    Adult guy in the gym -
    Batman shirt. Batman shorts. Batman towel flung over the cable machine for all to see. Playing air guitar between sets. Yeah.

    i love this!!!!!


    13-yo's on the bench. seen them before, flinched and written about them before, don't like them any better this time. in fact, like them less - originally i was too afraid of a terrible wreck to pay much attention to their personality defects. but, yeah. don't like them. horsing around, insulting each other, no idea what they're doing, kind of a low-grade aggression vibe from all of them.

    but the worst thing. the worst? their weiners. i mean, it wasn't only that they were all three going gorilla under those silky shorts they had on. that alone was bad enough when guy #x was the one on the bench with half a boner pointing off to one side. it was also the fact that the guy on the bench with the bar in his hands was the only one of them at any given moment, who wasn't actually handling the goods all the time. it was eugh.
  • bluefish86
    bluefish86 Posts: 842 Member
    Options
    OMG!!!

    Lol, I'm so glad this thread exists! :lol:
  • Vetticus_3
    Vetticus_3 Posts: 78 Member
    Options
    mirrim52 wrote: »
    Adult guy in the gym -
    Batman shirt. Batman shorts. Batman towel flung over the cable machine for all to see. Playing air guitar between sets. Yeah.

    And then there were the 3 guys doing half squats in jeans. Maybe their depth would be better if they were wearing less restrictive clothing :P

    When I start lifting a bit heavier, I will do this with a Wonder Woman outfit. I already have the t-shirt. :smiley:
  • Ariadnula
    Ariadnula Posts: 435 Member
    Options
    it was also the fact that the guy on the bench with the bar in his hands was the only one of them at any given moment, who wasn't actually handling the goods all the time. it was eugh.

    Maybe they keep their chalk down there.

    The group of young guys that I see all the time spend a lot of time giggling and waving weights about in the most peculiar way, like they think they're those shake-weight things. It's very odd.

    There was also a woman demanding that the staff 'tell me what to do'. They'd suggest something, she'd say no, they'd suggest something else, she'd explain why she can't do that. I suspect they ended by telling her to jump in the pool.

  • Sumiblue
    Sumiblue Posts: 1,597 Member
    Options
    OMG, @Canadianlbs-I'm cracking up!
  • icemaiden37
    icemaiden37 Posts: 238 Member
    Options
    I love this thread!

    I'm jealous - I rarely see anything too crazy in my gym. Sadly, most people seem to know what they're doing.

    We have a guy that strays into the gym from the tennis courts to use the cardio machines every now and again who dresses exactly like Bjorn Borg circa 1981, but that's as exciting as it gets.

    I want a batman!