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No intimidation "gyms"

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Replies

  • newmeadow
    newmeadow Posts: 1,295 Member
    edited November 2018
    It takes a tremendous amount of contorting to equivocate shaming fat people with shaming lunks. A lunk behaves in a way that many find offensive, it isn't just the state of being heavily muscled. If you are a big monster of a guy (like the guys in that PF commercial) but quietly going about your workout, then none of these PF commercials are targeted at you. And yet people are actually stretching a long way to find elements of the "lunk" stereotype within themselves in order to feign offense. "Poor me, I am a guy with big muscles and my feelings are being hurt" lol, really?

    I think lunks and fat people who eat Pringles in bed and take the elevator to go up one floor usually get along pretty well.

    I worked with this lunk who was very good natured and loved to tell dirty stories to large groups of people with no fear of repercussion.

    He had a little crush on me even though I'm fat and out of breath and he asked to be my partner in our yearly mandatory diversity class when we had to do the role playing.

    He used to ask to do CPR on me and he would call me at all hours and sing Rhianna songs on my voicemail and change the lyrics so they were more titillating.

    Then he quit to go work in a vitamin store and I really miss him.
  • lemurcat2
    lemurcat2 Posts: 7,899 Member
    OP's post makes no sense, since he seems to assume that "not intimidating" means "no actual exercising gets done." I've been involved in various group training program (including for a half ironman) and a member of various gyms, and none were intimidating, and yet people worked hard. I don't see why intimidation = working harder, vs. discouraging people from thinking they can exercise too.

    Even the gyms focused on heavy lifting don't seem to sell themselves as "intimidating." I got a groupon for DEXA at a local powerlifting focused gym and the people there were all about how they liked to see new people and beginners were of course welcome, people were at all different levels. I didn't join since it's not convenient and I like my gym. Same when I did an olympic lifting class for a while (where you would sometimes drop weights) -- people were actually very friendly and excited to see other people interested in an activity they liked.
  • newmeadow
    newmeadow Posts: 1,295 Member
    AnvilHead wrote: »
    mreichard wrote: »
    It takes a tremendous amount of contorting to equivocate shaming fat people with shaming lunks. A lunk behaves in a way that many find offensive, it isn't just the state of being heavily muscled. If you are a big monster of a guy (like the guys in that PF commercial) but quietly going about your workout, then none of these PF commercials are targeted at you. And yet people are actually stretching a long way to find elements of the "lunk" stereotype within themselves in order to feign offense. "Poor me, I am a guy with big muscles and my feelings are being hurt" lol, really?

    So let me understand, if the "lunk alarm" goes off at a planet fitness when I am deadlifting there (assuming I could find an Olympic bar and plates) because I grunted or clanked weights that are heavy FOR ME (but wouldn't be for an actually strong person), am I being shamed for being a lunk? Or am I being shamed for "acting in a way that people find offensive"? Also, given that pretty much 100% of people will clank the weights a bit when doing heavy deadlifts, is there just something inherently "lunky" about doing deadlifts that deserves shaming, despite the fact that most experts think that deadlifts are the most effective single exercise for developing whole body strength? TIA
    They consider deadlifts (and squats, and bench press, and Olympic lifts, and most anything else done with a free barbell) as "intimidating" exercises. Less fit people may be "gymtimidated" by people doing those exercises, lifting such heavy weights, and the noises associated with those lifts.

    What sort of noises do you make when you do these things that the Ellen show can't drown out?
  • Packerjohn
    Packerjohn Posts: 4,855 Member
    cmoorecole wrote: »
    I have to tread carefully here. On the one hand, the idea of PF sounds great and I especially love that they will throw you out for wearing sexy workout clothes and treating the place as your singles pickup facility and that they toss out guys who make a lot of noise while lifting weights, etc, etc.

    I guess I don't understand why it would be a plus if a gym threw people out for wearing "sexy workout clothes," given that is a pretty vague term. If PF asks someone to leave because their clothes are "perceived as . . . revealing" (the language on their website), how does that improve my workout experience (as a member of that gym) in any way?

    Yeah, their actual rules (or at least what they were a few years back when I looked them up when there was a thread about the actual rules) seem to have a lot of bizarre stuff in. Sometimes the most sensible clothes for an activity (e.g., snug fitting so loose clothing doesn't get caught on equipment) might be construed as revealing (if "revealing" includes body contour as well as actual skin) -- or comfortable clothes temperature-wise in a warm gym is likely to leave some bare skin.

    I believe I recall some PF restriction on the allowable size of water containers you can bring into the gym, apparently because there's some belief that intimidating heavy-lifting folk like to carry their water around in gallon containers. I don't recall having seen this since fear of being underhydrated has led to practically everyone carrying around 16 to 20 oz containers of water practically everywhere they go. Even before that, I don't remember it being at all common to carry gallon-containers of water into gyms. I think I maybe saw a few guys do this, and I just figured it was practicality -- they bought their milk in gallon containers and then refilled them with water because those were the most readily available, cheapest reclosable food-safe containers they had to hand.

    Which to me is pretty stupid in the weight area of a gym when you're normally within 100 ft at the most of a drinking fountain. End of rant, carry on.
  • mmapags
    mmapags Posts: 8,937 Member
    Packerjohn wrote: »
    cmoorecole wrote: »
    I have to tread carefully here. On the one hand, the idea of PF sounds great and I especially love that they will throw you out for wearing sexy workout clothes and treating the place as your singles pickup facility and that they toss out guys who make a lot of noise while lifting weights, etc, etc.

    I guess I don't understand why it would be a plus if a gym threw people out for wearing "sexy workout clothes," given that is a pretty vague term. If PF asks someone to leave because their clothes are "perceived as . . . revealing" (the language on their website), how does that improve my workout experience (as a member of that gym) in any way?

    Yeah, their actual rules (or at least what they were a few years back when I looked them up when there was a thread about the actual rules) seem to have a lot of bizarre stuff in. Sometimes the most sensible clothes for an activity (e.g., snug fitting so loose clothing doesn't get caught on equipment) might be construed as revealing (if "revealing" includes body contour as well as actual skin) -- or comfortable clothes temperature-wise in a warm gym is likely to leave some bare skin.

    I believe I recall some PF restriction on the allowable size of water containers you can bring into the gym, apparently because there's some belief that intimidating heavy-lifting folk like to carry their water around in gallon containers. I don't recall having seen this since fear of being underhydrated has led to practically everyone carrying around 16 to 20 oz containers of water practically everywhere they go. Even before that, I don't remember it being at all common to carry gallon-containers of water into gyms. I think I maybe saw a few guys do this, and I just figured it was practicality -- they bought their milk in gallon containers and then refilled them with water because those were the most readily available, cheapest reclosable food-safe containers they had to hand.

    Which to me is pretty stupid in the weight area of a gym when you're normally within 100 ft at the most of a drinking fountain. End of rant, carry on.

    Guess it depends on where you are. I've belonged to multiple gyms that didn't have drinking fountains.
  • jseams1234
    jseams1234 Posts: 1,216 Member
    mmapags wrote: »
    Packerjohn wrote: »
    cmoorecole wrote: »
    I have to tread carefully here. On the one hand, the idea of PF sounds great and I especially love that they will throw you out for wearing sexy workout clothes and treating the place as your singles pickup facility and that they toss out guys who make a lot of noise while lifting weights, etc, etc.

    I guess I don't understand why it would be a plus if a gym threw people out for wearing "sexy workout clothes," given that is a pretty vague term. If PF asks someone to leave because their clothes are "perceived as . . . revealing" (the language on their website), how does that improve my workout experience (as a member of that gym) in any way?

    Yeah, their actual rules (or at least what they were a few years back when I looked them up when there was a thread about the actual rules) seem to have a lot of bizarre stuff in. Sometimes the most sensible clothes for an activity (e.g., snug fitting so loose clothing doesn't get caught on equipment) might be construed as revealing (if "revealing" includes body contour as well as actual skin) -- or comfortable clothes temperature-wise in a warm gym is likely to leave some bare skin.

    I believe I recall some PF restriction on the allowable size of water containers you can bring into the gym, apparently because there's some belief that intimidating heavy-lifting folk like to carry their water around in gallon containers. I don't recall having seen this since fear of being underhydrated has led to practically everyone carrying around 16 to 20 oz containers of water practically everywhere they go. Even before that, I don't remember it being at all common to carry gallon-containers of water into gyms. I think I maybe saw a few guys do this, and I just figured it was practicality -- they bought their milk in gallon containers and then refilled them with water because those were the most readily available, cheapest reclosable food-safe containers they had to hand.

    Which to me is pretty stupid in the weight area of a gym when you're normally within 100 ft at the most of a drinking fountain. End of rant, carry on.

    Guess it depends on where you are. I've belonged to multiple gyms that didn't have drinking fountains.

    Mine doesn’t. It’s either bring your own or buy it from a machine for two dollars... or drink from the sink in the bathroom. ;)

    I have a big Camelback bottle that holds about 32 oz. I can go through that easily on a hot day.
  • lynn_glenmont
    lynn_glenmont Posts: 9,950 Member
    mmapags wrote: »
    Packerjohn wrote: »
    cmoorecole wrote: »
    I have to tread carefully here. On the one hand, the idea of PF sounds great and I especially love that they will throw you out for wearing sexy workout clothes and treating the place as your singles pickup facility and that they toss out guys who make a lot of noise while lifting weights, etc, etc.

    I guess I don't understand why it would be a plus if a gym threw people out for wearing "sexy workout clothes," given that is a pretty vague term. If PF asks someone to leave because their clothes are "perceived as . . . revealing" (the language on their website), how does that improve my workout experience (as a member of that gym) in any way?

    Yeah, their actual rules (or at least what they were a few years back when I looked them up when there was a thread about the actual rules) seem to have a lot of bizarre stuff in. Sometimes the most sensible clothes for an activity (e.g., snug fitting so loose clothing doesn't get caught on equipment) might be construed as revealing (if "revealing" includes body contour as well as actual skin) -- or comfortable clothes temperature-wise in a warm gym is likely to leave some bare skin.

    I believe I recall some PF restriction on the allowable size of water containers you can bring into the gym, apparently because there's some belief that intimidating heavy-lifting folk like to carry their water around in gallon containers. I don't recall having seen this since fear of being underhydrated has led to practically everyone carrying around 16 to 20 oz containers of water practically everywhere they go. Even before that, I don't remember it being at all common to carry gallon-containers of water into gyms. I think I maybe saw a few guys do this, and I just figured it was practicality -- they bought their milk in gallon containers and then refilled them with water because those were the most readily available, cheapest reclosable food-safe containers they had to hand.

    Which to me is pretty stupid in the weight area of a gym when you're normally within 100 ft at the most of a drinking fountain. End of rant, carry on.

    Guess it depends on where you are. I've belonged to multiple gyms that didn't have drinking fountains.

    In the last decade or so what I mostly see are water cooler type dispensers with little spigots that you have to put a container under, and typically the container supplied if you don't have a water bottle (which is generally awkward to fill because it won't fit upright under spigot) are little paper cones that hold 60 ml max, and aren't practical for retaining to refill later, so you stand there and refill them three or four times to slake your thirst, and then drop them in the trash.
  • lemurcat2
    lemurcat2 Posts: 7,899 Member
    edited November 2018
    There's a workout room in my office building (one time payment and you can use it as long as you work in the building, but the hours aren't as good as it should be and the equipment is so-so). Anyway, it has a cooler, but no cups or containers at all. If you forget to bring a container, no water for you! Regular-sized bottles or similar-sized containers fit easily, though, as they do with my office water cooler.

    My gym has water fountains with that attachment that allows you to fill a container. We have no rules on container size, and yet I've never seen ridiculously large containers (although honestly I'm not sure I'd notice, it seems like a super dumb thing to care about or have rules about). The only reason I could see caring is if there were lines at the fountains because people were taking too long to fill up giant containers, and that seems extremely unlikely.

    More on water, went for a nice run the day after Thanksgiving when it was around 50 and actually wanted some water during the last bit of my run. Had chosen a trail not too far from my house along the river where there are fountains (it's in the city). Fountains had nothing to do with while I was running there, but I was happy to see one and ran over and of course it was off, because winter (or almost). Right now running is a pain because the sidewalks are too icy (off and on) in the areas I'd run, so going to have to talk myself into the darn treadmill (which is something one could do at a PF just as well as anywhere else, to get back to topic!). ;-)