ExRx.net

I hate the panzy gym rules. But I also hate it when people drop dumbbells. Unless you have to to dump them to keep from getting injured, there is no reason to drop them. Bailing out of a lift should be very rare. People just need to learn how to lower them right. If you can't use the equipment right, you shouldn't get to use it.

Nothing wrong with some grunting, we should be free to do that. I just hate it when people scream like they are giving birth.

I can understand the no chalk thing though. Nobody cleans up after themselves.

Well since I'm more of a bodybuilder type I like to do alot of sets of dumbell flyes. I don't have a spotter to help me with those so I tend to dump them. But I am guilty of doing that for DB presses as well.

Chalk I can see as being important but if people are to irresponsible to clean up after themselves then you might as well take it away.

I'm more of a bodybuilder and I rarely do flys. With flys you have to move them in at the elbows when you reach failure. That's how you keep from dropping them. On presses you move them inwards and lower them on to your chest.

Most of the time when I'm in the gym I'm in my own little world so there isn't much that bothers me but there are a few. Of the few the most annoying to me are the dumbfounded looks people give me when I either ask to work in or ask for a spot. I understand that people have their own reasons for acting the way they do in the situation but come on practice a little gym etiquette and sociability.

Similar to the spotting thing and I think this may have already been said...

I hate when, even if I haven't asked for a spot and i'm performing a 'grinding rep' - low reps, heavy weight, slow bar speed - someone comes up and out of the goodness of their heart, helps you complete the rep.

I loath this actually. If your doing several sets of 3, it can take a good 10 minutes to get up to your heaviest set. Then some 'nice guy' from the gym sees you 'struggling' and proceeds to help you. Effectively spoiling the best part of the exercise.

I pick my spotters carefully because of this. If my preferred choices aren't their, the conversation can go like this - Say, for Bench Pressing,

Me: ok, i'm not actually going to fail, all I need is for you to help me unrack the weight. I'm doing 3 reps, so the reps will be slow, but that's ok as I know exactly what i'm capable of (show him training program with detailed notes, weights etc on it). I train to one rep shy of failure, so if I think i'm going to fail on THE NEXT REP, I will stop.

Spotter: OK

Rep begins... rep one, rep rwo re----p----thr

Spotter helps lift the bar...

Unless I have my preferred / trusted spotter, I will always have a questionable rep left in the tank i.e. I probably could manage another one, but there's a good chance I would fail.


This, and people standing 4 inches away from the bar as i'm about to DL, is probably the things i hate the most.

KPj

My last post reminded me of something else, which really genuinely makes me laugh...

You can't get away from spotters in general, as mentioned before...

HOWEVER

Take the box squat. The way I do this, is - Squat down, actually sit on box with very brief pause, and then 'blast' up. I love this exercise, and do it quite a lot.

But.. There has been 2 occasions that I can remember when I have failed without a spotter to help (or at all, actually). The first one was ok because I was on the way up from the box, so I could just crash into the racks. No harm done.

The second one, though, I couldn't get up from the box. So i'm sitting their, gym at peak time (very busy), completely wedged between the box and the bar on my shoulders.

I'm still sitting there...


And still sitting there...

No one done anything. And i couldn't shout because I knew my core would lose tightness and I would fold. Exactly my luck, I secretly loath anyone who gives me a spot without permission, and there I am, unable to move, giving my core one hell of an isometric strength test...

All I could do was fall forward, rounding my whole back, and slam the weights into the rack...

...the shame....

KPj

haha kpj happend to me but i was benching. I had 220 on the bar and i was going for 14 reps i was on my 13 i go up than bring it down going up up up then stop then slowly back down down and then just holding the weight. The gym was packed and I'm sitting there with 220 not on my chest just holding the weight must have been for minutes looking around kicking my legs untill this guy walked by me and I was like HEY! CAN I GET A SPOT! lol hes like sure comes over and picks it up helps me get it off my chest. Completely ruined my workout haha but i hear ya. IT SUCKS.

LOL - When i don't have a spotter, I actually just bench without the collars on the bar so that I can lean to the sides and let the weights fall off..... ...Just encase.... .

Gone are the days when you could just roll the bar down your chest and stomach!

KPj

LMAO kpj i would drop the weights off but at my gym i could get kicked out for that. Its crazy but .... yea. lol thats another thing that bothers me at the gym the lameness and panzyness of my gym. thats really.... lame haha

Wait a minute. There's a section in this same website called "Gym Etiquette" with the header "Avoid making too much noise"

http://exrx.net/ExInfo/Etiquette.html

It's noisy enough with the gym music blaring so loud my own MP3 player is damaging my eardrums as I try to listen to my own music. Imagine all the extra noise if everybody dropped his weights all the time - not to mention the damage to the floor mats and equipment.

Don't think anyone mentioned dropping weights ALL the time...

Sometimes it can't be avoided... :-)


KPj

workout partners skipping leg days and people that look like they're in amazing shape and then i see them smoking a cigarette after some intense cardio. That irritates me lol I want to be healthy watch me run watch me lift watch me eat healthy. Anyone want to help me build a bonfire in my lungs? Yea smoking is bad for you completely negative. When I hear people talking about smoking and how their about to quit the talk flo leans toward rehabbing a torn acl or something. RIDICULOUS. Just IMO.

Understandable if you can't avoid it just the one time. But isn't it always the one time when you get caught at it (like rolling through a stop sign or speeding?)

Anyways, I don't think the staff would appreciate it if during each session each and every person were to drop his weight once.

Clearly, there's a difference of opinion as to what a training session should be like. So we should probably agree to disagree here. Different if it was a gym with one of these lunk alarms or had a strict 'no dropping the weights AT ALL' rule i.e. 'no one train with a high intensity, all workouts should be a moderate or low intensity because we don't want to intimidate the other members with any loud noises.'

It's a gym. They have weights. In my gym, they have quite heavy weights. If you have heavy weights in your gym your going to attract local guys who like to lift heavy. That's a fact and is one reason a lot of commercial gyms only have DB's that go up to 80lbs (ish) - anyone who lifts properly / seriously is going to be held back by that. Same with no chalk rules, i don't believe for a second that it's anything to do with cleaning up - it's because they don't want guys in the gym who lift a lot of weight.

If you have the equipment that's going to attract proper weight lifters with strength and/or size goals, then weights are going to get dropped, people are going to grunt occasionally. If you have guys that are deadlifting 500lbs, then I'm afraid to say that there's going to be a little noise when the bar makes contact with the floor on the way down.

It's the nature of the game. If staff aren't going to 'appreciate that', then they either should make a strict rule (which it isn't in my commercial gym and yes, weights do get dropped all the time), or better yet, make it a rule AND get rid of all the heavy weights (the really heavy weights that the average gym goer will never pick up).


KPj

Or they can just grow a pair.