ExRx.net

The one time I was in a commerical gym this happened. A friend of mine got me in on a guest pass so I could help her work through her routine and check her form. Some hefty lady kept offering us help with all sorts of bizarre machines, it was annoying.

My friend commented later that she was really amused that this lady clearly knew how everything worked but didn't actually work out hard enough to make any difference in her shape. Probably because she was working on the thigh adductor machine and the pec deck. Not the person you want to help you work back up to feet-elevated pushups and unassisted pullups.

The total hard-sell approach was annoying, too. I directly told the guy "Look, I'm here to help my friend, but I'm moving to a small suburb in Japan in two weeks, I'm not joining." "But if you join today, I'll get you a 10% discount on blah blah blah..."

John, you've probably hit the nail in the head for me as far as pet peeves go.

This angers me to the extent that, in my work, there can be an out loud debate about diet and exercise, and i just sit there with my mouth shut and say NOTHING. Most of the time, conclusions are drawn that not only do I disagree with, but are just plain stupid. In the interest of my own sanity, I need to just be quiet. Can you imagine that, given how much I type?

I wouldn't even know where to start with some of the things I've had to justify. And to look at the people trying to tell ME how to improve my health when they're usually (about 99% of the time), as you say, "fat and out of shape".

I used to get involved all the time because I really felt like I could help but half the time I get so mad that i've been tempted to just remove my t-shirt then stand beside the idiot that opposes me, and declare "well folks, who you going to believe!!!!"... put t-shirt back on, sit back down, and say nothing else. Maybe throw my cup of coffee at them or something (what, i'm in hypothetical land, I can do things like that).

Some of the things i've had said to me, so that other readers can understand frustration,

"all that protein powder stuff isn;t good for you, it's unnatural, it's processed"... (whilst eating a McDonalds)... I will say "so... your McDonalds isn't processed? That's 100% natural is it? What exactly do you mean by 'processed' ?" ... and their stumped. Another pointless statement.


One of my personal favourites
"I got told that it's not good to loosen your belt after eating - blocks your intestines or something? Is that true"?

My response - "ahhh Sh!t! I need to start wearing a belt then, i could be in serious trouble?"

The debates usually start because someone will just ask me something, so i'll answer. But I get interrupted by people who are overweight with really bad posture and movement patterns of a 95 year old. Posture comes up a lot, given the environment and that half the staff pay stupid money to chiro's, PT's and physio's every month and don't get any more than temporary relief - Hey here's an idea, consolidate all those fees into one big fee, give it to me and i'll fix your dam aching neck, back, and shoulders! Sit up straight and move around some more! Aaarghhh!

Amazing how I had quite bad posture and most of these people phsycially witnessed the somewhat dramatic change yet, still want to argue. They only argue because they refuse to accept that it takes HARD WORK - that's my theory.

Well that's a weight off my shoulders. beginning to like these off topic discussions :-)

KPj

John, that's why I have my gym on my back porch and scattered DB's all over inside the house.
Tim

Haha Tim I would love to have my own home gym but I have two kids ones a toddler and I have an apartment that doesn't have an extra room for equipment. So I pay 20 bucks a month to go to a "fitness center"!!

What I was refering to was the people at work that supposedly are experts at weight training dieting etc. but are very overweight they smoke and eat very unhealthy and do not ever do anything to burn calories or resembles excecize other then fork to food and then food to mouth.

Another pet peeve I have expressed to a workout partner yesterday is making a 25 minutes workout 1hr and 45 minutes due to my partner constantly talking with other gym patrons. You're there to lift not socialize. Kind of obvious right?

Common knowledge isn't common.

On the occasions I've had to make road trips, and actually had to use a commercial gym, I saw a lot of that, especially between 6 and 9 PM. These guys would be treating it like a singles bar, hitting on the girls, chatting it up, taking long breaks and hogging equipment. I can see longer breaks (3 mins or more) if you're up in the 90% 1RM range, but the average Joe that's doing sets of 8-12 w/around 75% doesn't really need more than 2 mins for recovery. Just kind of drags things out.
Tim

Okay, I have one ... I hate it when people refer to overweight women as curvy. There's a big difference between curves and rolls! This really annoys me because it feeds into the notion that a woman can only be two things, rail-thin or fat. Meanwhile, it's become so prevalent that you can't even refer to an attractive woman as curvy anymore without someone taking it as a euphamistic insult.

On a related note I also hate it when people use the word skinny as a compliment.

Matt's post got me thinking. Curvy is good. Booty=licious with rolls is not, yet most women I see like this think they're God's gift. I think they're fat a$$es This is not to confuse this with the young lady that posted earlier about getting a booty. She was an athlete, looking to gain some muscle down in that region for curves, and thats a good thing. And why on earth when you see someone like that wearing skin tight pants with a short shirt letting the navel (in the middle of a roll) be exposed, would anyone in their right mind be attracted to it?
Tim

Tim, are you referring to a muffin top?

So that leads to one of my pet peeves--wearing clothes that are too small. I have at times found myself outweighing my clothes, but for the most part I try to be honest with myself and admit that my waist isn't really 4" smaller than it really is, and wear clothes that fit. I get the impression (like this picture) the some people try to fit into the smaller clothes to convince themselves that they're really smaller than they really are!

Ironaiden, yep, that's exactly what I'm talking about. Back in the day, that isn't what young red blooded males were looking for, but the culture ha changed, I guess.
Jungledoc, I've had that problem too. Tried to put 32's on when I was 35 and a half. Had the good sense to realize it was insane, and cut the curcumference by changing lifestyles.
Tim

My wife used to be friends with a girl named Carolyn. Carolyn was about 5'2" tall and 280 lbs, and liked to wear pants that were two or three sizes too small. She also liked to wear thong underwear, something I never wanted to know about her. However, it was a little hard to miss when I saw her getting out of a car with litterally half of her enormous backside hanging out of the top of her pants and a whale-tale big enough to have come from a real whale. It reminded me of what happens when someone wraps a wire around a tree and leaves it there for five or ten years while the tree grows and the wire cuts deep into the trunk.

Well I just tossed up my lunch thanks Matt... :(

Seriously though, there are many reasons guys date overweight women. Some guys actually prefer heavy women. Others are willing to overlook physical appearance to be with someone they have a real connection with. Unfortunately, I've also met guys who like dating (or at least hooking up with) overweight women because they think overweight women are desperate and lonely, with low self esteem, and therefore often easy and/or willing to do just about anything in bed. Likewise, some guys think that overweight women are low-maintenace, less likely to cheat, and more likely to tolerate men cheating on them. Finally, some scumbag guys use overweight women in very much the same way golddiggers use horny, old geezers. To put it bluntly, it's highly unlikely that some unemployed loser will be able to find a supermodel who'll let him move in with her rent-free, drink beer and watch tv all day, and sleep with other women while she's away at work. However, he might be able to find a fat girl who'll put up with his BS.

wow ... matt you opened my eyes. WHY THE HELL AM I WORKING!? HAhaha Just kidding . Should jump on a fat chick.... haha Thats hilarious. Wow how low selfesteem does a guy have that does that? People are more animal than dogs sometimes. Yuck.

The guy has low self esteem? What makes you say that?