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Unwanted advice at gym

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Replies

  • girlwithcurls2
    girlwithcurls2 Posts: 2,257 Member
    Headphones.
    The only unsolicited advice I got was from my own trainer who saw me a couple of weeks after I started. He opened with, "Can I offer a suggestion?" Clearly I had forgotten how to correctly execute the lift. If a stranger offered a suggestion, I might listen (I might not), but then the headphones go back in. OP, that guy was weird. Go back and reclaim your space.
  • huango
    huango Posts: 1,005 Member
    I've had to bite my tongue many times while passing the erg (row) machines.
    Their form were terrible!!!
    I mean, at least watch some videos!
  • JohnnytotheB
    JohnnytotheB Posts: 361 Member
    Some people are just plain akward and/or creepy AF. Public humiliation is the way to go. Otherwise, call the cops and have them come in. Dude will shut the f up quick.
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 27,819 Member
    huango wrote: »
    I've had to bite my tongue many times while passing the erg (row) machines.
    Their form were terrible!!!
    I mean, at least watch some videos!

    Ok, rowers, I don't currently have a gym membership, but if that changes and there is a rowing machine, I'm going to be thinking of this thread and feeling self-conscious. Video recommendations?

    @AnnPT77 @aokoye
  • Azdak
    Azdak Posts: 8,281 Member
    huango wrote: »
    I've had to bite my tongue many times while passing the erg (row) machines.
    Their form were terrible!!!
    I mean, at least watch some videos!


    I have a sticker on the flywheel of our C2 ergs that says the most efficient damper setting is 3-5.
    Whenever I walk by and it is set higher, I always change it (and it is almost always set higher). Two days ago, right after I changed it, one of our trainers walked over and set it to 10 for her client. It wasn’t the time or place to address it, and I am still trying to figure out how to do it. And our trainers are really good. But rowing still seems to be a mystery for too many people.
  • Azdak
    Azdak Posts: 8,281 Member
    kshama2001 wrote: »
    huango wrote: »
    I've had to bite my tongue many times while passing the erg (row) machines.
    Their form were terrible!!!
    I mean, at least watch some videos!

    Ok, rowers, I don't currently have a gym membership, but if that changes and there is a rowing machine, I'm going to be thinking of this thread and feeling self-conscious. Video recommendations?

    @AnnPT77 @aokoye


    This is as good as any:

    https://youtu.be/4zWu1yuJ0_g

    Its from Concept 2.

    Also, note the damper setting ;)
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 31,610 Member
    edited September 2019
    kshama2001 wrote: »
    huango wrote: »
    I've had to bite my tongue many times while passing the erg (row) machines.
    Their form were terrible!!!
    I mean, at least watch some videos!

    Ok, rowers, I don't currently have a gym membership, but if that changes and there is a rowing machine, I'm going to be thinking of this thread and feeling self-conscious. Video recommendations?

    @AnnPT77 @aokoye

    Beginner videos at Concept 2 web site, to start, assuming the gym's rowing machine is one of those (or a similar configuration type) . (There are other things called "rowing machines" that generally have 2 handles and don't really work like normal on-water rowing at all. Concept 2, WaterRower, and some others use a motion pattern that's quite similar to the on-water pattern . . . just without bladework or balance as big issues, so a little simpler :lol: ).

    https://www.concept2.com/indoor-rowers/training/technique-videos

    Lots of good info at other places at that site, too, including very active forums with help for beginners. (IIRC, @MikePfirrman is active in providing beginner help there.)

    The big deal is that with the C2 machines, technique creates increase in difficulty: The harder one pushes/pulls, the more intense the workout can become. The best way to be able to push/pull hard is via good technique. I think people are more used to machines that have resistance settings to make the workout harder, or you just move your body faster to make the workout harder, or both.

    So you see people on rowers at the gym using pretty awful technique, but with the damper (which they think is resistance, but isn't) set at the #10 setting (wrong in virtually all cases), and they're zipping up and down the slide at a gazillion strokes per minute (something in the 20s of strokes per minute would be good for training, at sub-race-pace), but still not getting a very good workout. While I am being critical here, I'm not intending to be blameful. Correct technique is not intuitively obvious. I don't know how one would figure it out just by getting on the machine and doing stuff.

    The even bigger deal is that some of the things people do are potentially injurious (cumulatively, more than instantly, in most cases, fortunately - as no one with really bad technique tends to stay on the machines all that long ;) ). It's things like bending of the back as part of the rowing stroke, i.e., articulating the spine; it's supposed to be straight spine, firm core, swinging forward/back from the hip joints. This is just to name one common problem that's potentially dangerous.

    It's not impossibly difficult, it's just not intuitively obvious, and at intermediate/advanced levels, the necessary changes to improve further can be quite subtle.
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 27,819 Member
    Thanks all!

    I have been guilty of putting the damper on 10, but I did get the straight spine part right :)

    The machine in the video is the type I've used at gyms. I think I start pulling at the right time, but can't be sure from just watching the videos.
  • magnusthenerd
    magnusthenerd Posts: 1,207 Member
    As others have said, I've heard headphones as advice and not just any. Unforuntately, the most effective way is to get the really big, really clunky ear covering headphones over earbuds - ones that make it obvious you have them on. I think most would find them uncomfortable to work out in, but it seems they're more manageable than dealing with men that want to use the gym as a dating site.