how should i deal with a jerk at the gym

ImSoSquishy wrote: »

this is going to be a rant and vent as i've been so frustrated with this guy at the gym i'm going to. so i've started and have been doing powerlifting for some time now. recently i switched from going to gym at night to the day time(1 to 3pm) as my schedule has changed. at first, going to gym at this time wasn't so bad, since it's less crowded. but since 3 weeks ago, there's this *kitten* bodybuilder who won't leave me alone. he keeps following me around the entire gym and tries to have one sided competitions with me with every lift i do and it's just so annoying. there are even a lot of times he would purposely get in my way to interrupt my lifts. i'll use an example based on the past friday.

so on friday i got to gym, put my stuff in the locker, did my mobility work, and proceeded to the squat racks. i didn't see him there so i thought "great, maybe he won't be here today and i can workout in peace" while doing my warm up sets with the bare barbell, i see the guy walking into the gym from the mirror and i thought "sigh... here he comes again...". he looks around, he sees me, and immediately comes to the squat rack next to mines when there's 5 other squat racks available as usual. while working up to my actual working sets which is 90% x2, 92.5% x1, and 95%x1(275 lbs) and 80% for 1+ reps. the guy keeps throwing on the same exact amount of weights i'm using. while i was sticking to 3 reps to 4 rep ranges to work my way up while still preserving energy for my actual working sets and he would constantly turn his head over at me to see what i did and try to compete with me by dishing out more reps than me every time.

for the past 2 weeks, this is the first time he has seen me on my heavy days. i did repetition day with 225-245 lbs last week and speed/explosive reps 155-180 lbs with resistance bands the week before. also he has a habit of interrupting me right after i get under the bar and about to walk out before the guy will come and grab weights between our squat rack by the mirrors in front of us, sometimes he waits until i completely unracked the bar, got into position, tightened up and about to engage the first rep to switch out his weights. every time for the entire 1 minute to 2 minutes during my rest time, while i was sitting there waiting for the timer and while he just was standing there dicking around, he could've loaded/unloaded weights. but no, he would just wait until i'm about to start my set first before he does this childish crap.

so anyways, once we got past past the 245 lbs point, that's when his grunting and half/quart squatting started. when i finally got to my actually working sets, i completed 260 lbs x2 reps. i sat on the floor to start the timer for 1 min 30 seconds, and sipped on some water. all of a sudden the guy started grunting so loudly that even with my powerbeats 3 set to 80% can hear him screaming. but the thing is he is literally screaming/grunting for no reason. from the mirror, i see him just standing under the bar with his head turned over facing me, he's just looking at me and the bar is still sitting on the hooks while he was screaming his lungs out like he's a character from dragon ball z powering up for a fight. after that it is time for my 92.5% x1, i did it and sat back down, set timer, change songs, drink water, and etc. he was still standing under 260 lbs and screaming his lungs out, he hasn't moved, or did anything at all. then a guy from across the gym came up to me, he offered me $20 and begged me to just turn over and look at him so everyone can have some peace and quiet in the gym. so i was like "oh $20 to look at some one really quick, sure why not?" so i accepted the money, me and the guy was watching him and he finally started his squat because we're looking at him now. he did a quarter squat, got stuck for like 2 seconds before he got out the hole.

so basically i've been dealing with this guy for 3 weeks now. one time he almost bumped into the barbell in mid rep of a bench press and it got me so scared. i've tried to talk to him a couple of times after that to get him to stop following me. but each time he would be a jerk towards me. each time when i tried to talk to him to tell him stop, he starts mocking me with a fake asian accent. he would be like "oooooh me no english" then he like squints his eyes, puts his fist on his palm like what ancient chinese people did in the past and then laughs about it. like wtf, i don't even have an accent, i'm born and raise at USA. i spoke to gym management, they said they will talk to him. but it doesn't seem like they ever spoke to him as he kept doing it. so, i just don't know what to do anymore or how to even deal with this guy. i did think about switching gyms, but the only other 2 gyms in my area is NYSC elite which cost $100 per month, and a Equinox $250 per month, both of them are too expensive for me. i'm so frustrated at gym, i just want to work out alone and not be bothered but this guy is just too much. sigh... any advice would be great.