Gym "guys"

This guy at my gym is constantly "wooing" , Clapping and making other weird sounds, and yelling weird sayings- even out in the parking lot. He slaps himself in the face and pounds on his chest before he does a bench press. Everyone is just so impressed.

Funny, was just complaining about people who won't stop staring at me when I wear booty shorts and a sports bra. I'm not there trying to look cute or get attention. I am usually there to 1.) run my *kitten* off in time trials or intervals which are best preformed on a treadmill with accurate speed control or 2.) lift heavier weights than a lot of the dudes or more than likely 3.) both. I work out three hours a day and get really HOT and see no reason why I should have to drape myself in another layer while I do so. A lot of the time, I leave the gym and eat, then follow it up with an outdoor heat run to increase my endurance in the summer. No one complains about my outfits when I run my *kitten* off outside, why complain when I wear them inside?

Oh and I also stretch, hold complicated yoga poses (shoulder stands are my favorite) and use the bench to execute a balancing act core workout where I spend the majority of the time upside down. It was so popular at my old gym that the trainers stole it and started adding it to their sessions :P I always wipe down everything (before and after), rerack weights with compulsion, and only do supersets in an empty gym.

The biggest beefs here are ones of respect for others and those are totally cool. But when people are respectful and cognizant of their impact on others, it's not nice to judge them because of what they are wearing (ladies) or stare them down like they are dead lifting a spear with with a halved antelope. (guys)

And if I'm wearing headphones, which I always am, don't freaking talking to me unless my life or limbs are in imminent danger.

That being said, my biggest beef with my old gym was the trainers. if they weren't lounging around drinking coffee and having people do step ups on the bench under the smith machine for 45 mins (a balance machine, apparently), they were looping their giant rubber bands around every single piece of serious weight lifting equipment so as to allow their clients a stretchy back row with ease. god forbid you try to get a few sets in of anything while they were working out for themselves. talk about monopolizing every single dumbbell. insanity!

This is the best detailed explanation of what really happens in a gym that I have ever heard. They drive me crazy!!!

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I tried so hard to stay away from this one but I just can't help myself, I guess.

It stuck out to me the first time I read the OP as well. He most definitely did what I call "othered" the Somali guys. Whatever. I just let that stuff slide off me. Better that that get labeled as the Angry Black Guy.

The young man just pointed out that about the original post. He wasn't referring to any of the other posts. So to answer your questions, Yes, it's fairly clear that people (in the OP) who's ethnicity wasn't pointed out were probably white. No, he wasn't saying that every other post in this thread was about white people, No, he's not trying to start an argument, just pointing out a conversational gaffe that a million people make a million times a day without being aware that they are "othering" and it might be offensive.

Why are you automatically assuming the other people weren't black?

The last question is really a question for another thread, on some other site. But whatever, I'm neck deep now. The answer is because the weren't. I read about one book (fiction) per week, and as a rule of thumb if no race is mentioned, all of the characters are white. When the occasional character of race shows up, the author will make you keenly aware (violent Somalis!) by some combination of name, description of skin or hair, or maybe even go Full Mark Twain and have them speak in a ridiculous accent. There are some books where none of that happens and I'm free to imagine the characters in my head as various races, but the second they do that labeling thing, I realize that every character up until that point was supposed to be white. Sometimes I don't care, sometimes it makes me sad. Depends on how stupid the accent is. As always, YMMV.

Hopefully that didn't come off as angry or like I'm trying to start and argument, because that's definitely not the spirit I typed this in. Just wanted it noted that he didn't just pull that thought out of his *kitten*. Or even if he did, he wasn't the only one
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ME <stands and applauds>
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Me too!!!

This might be one of the funnest things i read. It is all true and every gym has these people. being a short guy like myself i sometimes get that look from those stereotypical "gym" guys like i shouldn't be in there around them

I agree with all of these, hilarious.

Mr. barelycracksthejoints - He racks up 1,400 lb on the inverted leg press machine, crachs his knees, letting the weigh move 2 inches, and pushes it back into place. He also does shrugs with 400 pounds on a bar, and shrugs while using his arms and his legs to move the bar no more than .1". Puts 315 on the bench and moves the bar barely 3", can't bring it to 90 degrees, and his left arm is lagging behind his right.


I do however, drop weights sometimes. For example, when doing dumbbell flat bench press, if I go to exhaustion with 100lb dumbbells, you can bet I'll bring it down to my chest, and drop it from there. Trying to lower it to the ground would risk shoulder injury.