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so there was this guy in the gym . . .

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  • canadianlbs
    canadianlbs Posts: 5,199 Member
    megemrj wrote: »
    OK. I will admit that I was "this one girl at the gym" last week or the week before. I was having a good day.

    aaaggh. i hate it when external circumstances walk you right into other people's assumptions about your competence. giving your helper the benefit of the doubt for now seems like the smart move. if he does turn out to be a manspleping dick you'll have tons of time to blast him later . . . and if he isn't no bridges are burned.

    i dropped in to give a little shout-out for my mr squats. haven't seen him for a few weeks but i knew he was planning a full dexa scan to kick off his year of eating keto to see what happens. last friday mr t and i were talking about how the reality check is always a bit of disappointment around things like that, so i asked squats the follow-up question last night. did he do it and how did it go.

    mr squats: "oh, i'm a fat *kitten*" :p i'd want to check a woman who referred to herself in those terms, but i've gotten so fond of this man.

  • dapunks
    dapunks Posts: 245 Member
    On Wednesday I was working out with my trainer and usually he does not say anything about the other people in the gym, but this time he could not help himself. It was the busy part of the evening and there was this guy doing squats in the squat rack. Not really funny until he was resting between sets. Not only does he rest in the squat rack but as he is checking his phone he is picking his nose. Once he is done this he adds some weight to the bar does a few squats with really bad form. Then during his next rest period stays in the rack checks his phone and picks his nose again. I left before he was done so not sure if he wiped down the bar after he was finished.
  • fanncy0626
    fanncy0626 Posts: 7,152 Member
    :s
  • amyinthetardis1231
    amyinthetardis1231 Posts: 571 Member
    dapunks wrote: »
    On Wednesday I was working out with my trainer and usually he does not say anything about the other people in the gym, but this time he could not help himself. It was the busy part of the evening and there was this guy doing squats in the squat rack. Not really funny until he was resting between sets. Not only does he rest in the squat rack but as he is checking his phone he is picking his nose. Once he is done this he adds some weight to the bar does a few squats with really bad form. Then during his next rest period stays in the rack checks his phone and picks his nose again. I left before he was done so not sure if he wiped down the bar after he was finished.

    :grimace:
  • canadianlbs
    canadianlbs Posts: 5,199 Member
    EWWWW. and you people all know what i mean.

    i've only approached the attendants twice. once was a gang of 8th-graders being downright dangerous with the horseplay - tickling whichever of them was trying to bench, as a matter of fact.

    the other was this kid who sat in the smith for half an hour picking at zits and ingrown hairs all over his legs. like, really absorbed and elaborate about it. i could tell he wasn't quite with it so i stood it for as long as i could, but it was making me so queasy i finally did say something.
  • lkpducky
    lkpducky Posts: 17,759 Member
    edited January 2017
    At a gym I went to years ago, there were a couple of trainers who would qualify.

    One of them was this big tall massive guy who was "helping" a client do pushups by lying on top of her. Another time he was yelling "Come on! two more! If you can't, I'll make you do 20 more!" okay...

    The other was my trainer.
    One time she had me doing some sort of exercise in which I was on my knees, then leaning to the left and then doing leg lifts with the right bent leg. The next day I woke up to find I had hip bursitis.
    Then she was testing my bodyfat change after 8 weeks. Please note: I was on Weight Watchers (that's another story)
    1) She used one of those handheld BIA devices
    2) I lost 8 pounds in 8 weeks and according to the device, 7 pounds were fat "Why didn't you gain any muscle?" At the time I didn't realize that you couldn't gain muscle in a deficit.)
    3) She also tested my RMR before and after with a BodyGem device. My RMR decreased slightly (week 8 - about 50 kcal lower than week 1). "Why didn't it increase?" Uh because I'm smaller now?
  • amyinthetardis1231
    amyinthetardis1231 Posts: 571 Member
    Today it was one of those couples at the gym...you know the ones, the couple that's practically having sex in the squat rack? Yeah, them. Beefy dude teaching his girlfriend how to workout with weights, and doing a *kitten* job of it. I really considered saying something to one of the gym trainers bc she was cruising for a serious injury with the crap he was having her do.

    First off was squatting. He had her loaded up with at least 150 lb on the bar, but she was doing quarter squats and struggling. They worked in but he would hang over her from behind with his arms draped over the bar while she was resting, then saunter over to do his set, so they took forever to do their workouts. The worst was that his form on his squats was actually good. He got all the way to depth, straight back, etc, and he just let her do these quarter squats with almost the same weight he was using, and her having a hard time with that.

    They eventually moved on and did some other stuff. After I finished my squats I went on to benchpress, and while resting from a set of those I see them across the gym, doing Romanian deadlifts. He had a 70 lb fixed barbell for the deadlifts, and he had her jump onto his back, piggyback style, and cling to him while he did the RDLs. They looked ridiculous, and it was so obviously showing off that it was eyeroll worthy. I happened to make eye contact with the only other female in the workout area, and her friend that she was working out with, and we all shared an incredulous chuckle. I don't mean to be mean, it's great that the girl was working out and trying stuff, but the way he was going about teaching her was so ridiculous!

    Finally, the part I almost went and tattled on, was that he had her doing jump squats.....with a 50 lb fixed barbell on her back. Her neck was cranked back and I was so afraid for her spine. She kept her back pretty straight but I feel like that is just a major injury waiting to happen. I feel like a wuss for not speaking up, but if I see them there doing that again I think I will. Maybe that's rude but she just looks like she is going to end up hurt bc he was so busy showing off that he didn't give her any pointers on form. :frowning:
  • canadianlbs
    canadianlbs Posts: 5,199 Member
    amyinthetardis1231 wrote: »
    Maybe that's rude but she just looks like she is going to end up hurt bc he was so busy showing off that he didn't give her any pointers on form. :frowning:

    yeah, i might tattle too. i don't when someone's only going to hurt their own self but it gets me going when they're endangering somebody else . . . especially when that person just doesn't know enough to defend themselves against whatever's coming.

  • canadianlbs
    canadianlbs Posts: 5,199 Member
    sigh. i was That Girl On The Road today . . . both directions. downtown bike commuting needs a phd or something. they have this messy network of terrific small sections . . . but cohesive they ain't. nor consistent neither.

    so both coming and going, i managed to airily follow what i thought was the established practice, and be travelling the wrong way down one way streets. i'll tell you people, an oncoming onslaught of lawyers in cars is not something you want to find yourself looking at. but nobody told me the bi-directional thing suddenly wasn't a thing right around the law courts.

    otoh, when i got into the gym there was an actual member of that mythical species on site. a guy curling very in the squat rack. i was pretty tired and my social circuits got wet on the ride, so i didn't even try to pretend not to look. he was pretty serious about it, and i just stood there dripping all over their floor in my orange giant-pumpkin rain cape, and watched him the entire time. not sure my tongue wasn't sticking out because i was so entertained and so mesmerized :tongue:
  • megemrj
    megemrj Posts: 547 Member
    canadianlbs wrote: »
    sigh. i was That Girl On The Road today . . . both directions. downtown bike commuting needs a phd or something. they have this messy network of terrific small sections . . . but cohesive they ain't. nor consistent neither.

    so both coming and going, i managed to airily follow what i thought was the established practice, and be travelling the wrong way down one way streets. i'll tell you people, an oncoming onslaught of lawyers in cars is not something you want to find yourself looking at. but nobody told me the bi-directional thing suddenly wasn't a thing right around the law courts.

    otoh, when i got into the gym there was an actual member of that mythical species on site. a guy curling very in the squat rack. i was pretty tired and my social circuits got wet on the ride, so i didn't even try to pretend not to look. he was pretty serious about it, and i just stood there dripping all over their floor in my orange giant-pumpkin rain cape, and watched him the entire time. not sure my tongue wasn't sticking out because i was so entertained and so mesmerized :tongue:

    Lol. Thank you. Very entertaining
  • avygyaru
    avygyaru Posts: 51 Member
    megemrj wrote: »
    Now I wonder if he witnessed my "difficulty" the previous week and thought he'd help me out or if he was just being nice. I was both mortified and thoroughly appreciative. I'm going with nice as I found out this past weekend the inner ring of that weight is bent and gets hung on the bar. They should mark that sucker so I know to avoid it from now on.

    Count it as a win either way! So many people would see someone struggling and not even offer nowadays.

    As for marking, I'd totally bring some washi tape and put a little at the far end of it. If you're lucky, it'll stay there.
  • megemrj
    megemrj Posts: 547 Member
    @avygyaru yep I'm pretty sure he was just being nice. I did really appreciate his help.

    thanks! I may mark it myself. I Didn't think of that. Guess I had a forest for the trees moment. LOL
  • amyinthetardis1231
    amyinthetardis1231 Posts: 571 Member
    Today it was two guys, and then it was a little bit me.

    I usually avoid the gym on Saturdays but my schedule was wacky this week so I had to go today or wait from Thursday until Tuesday. There were two teen boys using the lone rack when I walked in, "squatting" 200 lbs (quarter squats with scary bad form) and lots of dudes doing other exercises on most of the available benches. I asked the kids how many more sets they had, to which they responded by staring at me like I had two heads before saying 4 each.

    So I settle in to wait, and within about 30 seconds one of the kids rushes through unracking his bar and drops the whole thing behind his back. The entire gym stopped what they were doing to stare. I felt bad for him and I'm pretty sure he hurt his hand a little. Fortunately for him, another guy who was there to deadlift came over and helped him re-rack his weights. I saw the DL guy just standing and watching them after that so I asked if he was waiting for the rack too, and he said no, he just wanted to make sure they didn't kill themselves.

    The kids continued to rotate through crappy squat sets until the DL guy finally couldn't take it any more and went over to give them some form pointers and show them a pretty perfect squat. Another guy who was also watching them gave DL guy some silent applause, and we all shared a "good job" nod as he returned to his DLs. The kids' squats were still pretty rough, but at least they didn't break themselves.

    Then came my turn, and I lost my grip on a 35 lb plate and dropped it, banging it into my shin. At least I didn't make noise so I don't think many people noticed it....derp!
  • fanncy0626
    fanncy0626 Posts: 7,152 Member
    amy- I hope you didn't hurt yourself!
  • amyinthetardis1231
    amyinthetardis1231 Posts: 571 Member
    fanncy0626 wrote: »
    amy- I hope you didn't hurt yourself!

    Nah, just a tiny bruise. Mostly just chagrined at dropping a weight after feeling smug about my squat form :o
  • canadianlbs
    canadianlbs Posts: 5,199 Member
    amyinthetardis1231 wrote: »
    fanncy0626 wrote: »
    amy- I hope you didn't hurt yourself!

    Nah, just a tiny bruise. Mostly just chagrined at dropping a weight after feeling smug about my squat form :o

    heh. my klutz specialty is posing my flexed foot to 'catch' the bar end after i pull a plate off it. i never do learn that feeling strong doesn't mean your foot likes having that might weight dropped onto it. i yell OW! like it's never happened before, every time.
  • canadianlbs
    canadianlbs Posts: 5,199 Member
    zomgs, this is an awe story. there was this guy in the gym . . . . i happened to glance at his warmup and it was incredible. he was doing idk what to call them, cossack squats i guess. where you go one-legged, but with your other foot out to the side.

    absolutely rock-solid perfect form, and a cadence that was more like tai chi. he'd go all the way down *kitten* to grass on one side, and then he'd just turn the off foot until it was forward and planted and then flow himself sideways until he was *kitten*-to-grass on that side. then he'd flow up until he was standing again, go back *kitten*-to-grass on that side, shift and plant the original foot and flow over to the original side. kind of thing where you can't figure out how a person even learns to do it, because it looks like you'd tear some important groin muscle right off the bone at the very first try.

    i just tried them out for myself anyway, out on the back deck. couldn't do them without leaning way forward like a bad taco squat, couldn't get my bum below parallel until i'd done five or six reps either. and still they felt pretty incredible.
  • canadianlbs
    canadianlbs Posts: 5,199 Member
    the selfish relentlessly self-advertising crossfit woman . . . she was there on monday or wednesday this week. haven't seen her for months and i almost turned on me heel and/or said 'oh *kitten*' out loud when i recognised her. i hate only one other regular in that rec centre, but i hate her. veered straight off to not line up for the rack when i realized she was in there with her latest. she just has this way of inserting stingy little left-handed dyel negging into every interaction she starts, that i hate.

    so this time she had a guy who looked almost . . . normal. loserish, but somewhere not too far from the margins. this worried-looking 50-somethingish dude, sort of sitcom-dad type. aaand i didn't even realise they were associated at first, because he was in teh rack 'squatting' all by himself, and all i noticed was how uncomfortable [and noob-form-ish] he seemed. at first. then later i realised she'd set him up 'squatting' and gone off to do her own thing, like the way a parent gives a kid something to make a mess with and gets on with the real work themselves.

    i just thought he was another of her randoms. she does this; i've noticed it. seems to hang out in idk, biker bars or something looking for excuses to display her muscles and show off her strength, and then her showing-off extends to forcing these people into 'her' environment by some form of 'i'll teach you to lift!'. where she basically has a captive audience and shows off some more.

    so i rolled my eyes and carried on, especially when she put him into the smith to squat more and then forgot about him. but lo and behold, after a while she does one of her drive-by drop-ins to see how he's doing - and damn me if she didn't lean in and start giving him kissy-face stuff! she put one hand on his knee but i was so relieved she didn't try to sit down on him. he would have collapsed under her like a dry twig.

    i was like, wow. captain[ess] tacky is necking in the smith with mr rogers, and i think i just want to go home.
  • DawnEmbers
    DawnEmbers Posts: 2,451 Member
    Definitely sounds like someone to avoid.

    I went to a different location. These 24 Hour Fitness places are nice because they are all over and it's interesting to see the very different layouts. This one has racquetball courts. I've seen basketball courts at them all but this is the first one with racquetball. It was after 6 pm, so very busy. Saw a guy doing bench press, which that was normal. Often see guys doing that or using dumbbells for upper body. However, his grip was different. I know wide and narrow grip but his approach was underhand. Looked a little uncomfortable.
  • canadianlbs
    canadianlbs Posts: 5,199 Member
    i called in the form police on some other lifters today. young guy with two *extremely* young girls.

    i honestly try to mind my own business and not throw the staff under the bus about stuff like this. but this time i went down to the guy at the desk and asked him to just keep an eye on them because it really did look so dangerous. and it was that thing where the person who had no clue was not the one who would pay for it with a six-month back injury. little frail girl like a paper drinking straw trying to squat 65 pounds with no prior instruction AT ALL about tightening up or controlling the bar, so it was waving all over the place just from her walking it out. no safety rails, bar not centred, no form whatever, and the guy 'teaching' her not looking like he was even aware of the risks. when she missed the pin on one side trying to put that bar back and the guy couldn't get his arms unfolded in time to catch her, the attendant did step in and spend some time with them and i was SO GLAD.

    whatever he said he said it very well too, because after that things got a whole lot less terrifying.
  • amyinthetardis1231
    amyinthetardis1231 Posts: 571 Member
    ^^Neighing like a horse is a new one, I almost wish I could have experienced that (almost).
  • canadianlbs
    canadianlbs Posts: 5,199 Member
    LOL!
  • amyinthetardis1231
    amyinthetardis1231 Posts: 571 Member
    canadianlbs wrote: »

    but i talked to some-guy a few minutes later just to say thank you for that. just a nice, regular guy who was pretty offended by it, not being all white-knight or anything. there are ways and tones where it could have all been really wrong, but i liked him for being pissed off and prepared to tell the creep so.

    I am always appreciative of decent guys who tell creepers to scram! It shouldn't be such a noteworthy thing but I'm always happy to thank someone for being a decent person, esp when they don't make a big deal of it and you know they didn't do it to make you swoon.
  • amyinthetardis1231
    amyinthetardis1231 Posts: 571 Member
    Two guys, actually, monopolizing the squat rack for at least 40 min before I went over to ask when they'd be done. One guy was teaching the other to squat and, from the looks of it, introducing him to the SL program. Only problem is, neither of them was much good. Besides being utterly oblivious to the fact someone was (very obviously) waiting to use the rack, Teacher Guy loaded Newbie up with waaaay more weight than he could handle and said nothing about the major buttwink, leaning too far forward, and overall poor form on said Newbie. Then they'd hang out and chat between sessions, not just resting but having a whole conversations. After 40+ min, they hadn't even finished one set between the two of them!

    Then Teacher Guy starts his sets and whips out a belt. He proceeds to good morning every squat with the belt on and with the unfortunate wardrobe choice of sweats that were too big on him....suffice it to say, crack kills. He was also lifting more than he should have been with that form. Teacher Guy then gets Newbie to put on a belt to lift 160 lbs, which Newb was really struggling with. It looked like it was Newb's first session ever, so why he loaded him up with so much weight was beyond me.

    When I went and asked about how much they had left, they did immediately invite me to work in, and they were gentlemen about unloading/reloading and moving the bar down for me, which was nice. My angry adrenaline took a while to fade, but I know it's as much my own fault for waiting so long to ask. Thankfully, another regular at the gym pulled them aside while I was working to talk to them about form, and their squats did look a little better when they came back. My gym is planning to get another squat rack and a DL platform some time soon, and I can't wait! I don't have a problem with newbs (obviously, I'm not exactly a pro), but it's very frustrating to be stuck unable to do your workout bc someone else is using it for an excessive amount of time.
  • RNsusieQ
    RNsusieQ Posts: 20 Member
    Leg pressings on the Smith machine....even though the legpress machine was free?!?!?
  • DawnEmbers
    DawnEmbers Posts: 2,451 Member
    RNsusieQ wrote: »
    Leg pressings on the Smith machine....even though the legpress machine was free?!?!?

    Eh, I can see why they might. They can get a different angle, I would imagine, just based on the equipment. And depending on how low it goes before the safety parts catch, might be able to get a better range of motion, though can't say for sure as I don't know how low the smith machine can go. I always have trouble with the leg press because I'm short so not sure if I can even get a deep leg press as my current program recommends cause it's always stopping at the bottom safety part and can't go any lower.


    I always forget about this post when I do see things. Like the dumbbell hoarder, who had at least 4 different sets of dumbbells around his little bench and was using them all, no work ins. Haven't seen him lately though but I only go to that gym on Friday's now. Did have at another location the female grunter. Rare form indeed, working legs over at the squat rack.

    Still amazes me how shaky the floor is when weights are set down at the one location. Feels like it wouldn't survive an earthquake but guess since it's still standing the feeling and actual results aren't the same.
  • canadianlbs
    canadianlbs Posts: 5,199 Member
    i was that girl in the gym . . . who let someone new finish a set and then asked if they'd mind a little feedback.


    i'm trying not to be all gropey and weird and make someone else's next set sound like it's all about her, but, you know. this was our new person in friday club, who's concentrating so hard on all the small parts of overhead press her eyes cross. just from her face, i could see she was tryign to figure out what was wrong with the eccentric part of her press, and what she could do about it.

    so i'm very happy because *brag* i nailed it. and once i explained what i was noticing, it was one of those 100%-fix things for her.
    she was putting her head 'through' beautifully on the lockout, but not reversing that for the way down. the bar was going around her face and ending up four inches in front of where she wanted it for the next rep.

    just want to shout out again for mr t space. because he picks his people so carefully and he's so up-front about what kind of space he's got and what goes on in his space, things like this happen. he's nominally the 'trainer', but all of us look out for each other this way.
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