ExRx.net

i'm glad i'm not the only one who has to deal with retarts when they workout.

kpj, why not just get all the lifters to take over the cardio section. give them something to really complain about when they come in and see all the big dogs taking up every machine.

That would be pretty funny if we did do that. And, that's what their attitude makes you want to do - give them something to complain about. When i'm deadlifting and get any stupid comments or looks I make sure I slam the bar down extra hard just to give them something else to moan about, and put too much chalk on my hands so that I can clap them together before I get down to bar and cause a big cloud of chalk to appear lol. Quite bad really but when the testosterone is pumping it's hard not to do it.

I was thinking that I should get all the lifters to complain everytime one of them runs for more than half an hour or runs 'too fast' or something. Say they sweat too much on the machine and don't wipe it, or that we can't concetrate on our lifting because of them thumping constantly on the treadmill. The thing is though, it's just a select group, you know - not everyone that does cardio all the time is like that. It's not just cardio - they do light conditioning type workouts, this is how they get into the weights area and start moaning.

I could go on about it forever, it's shocking. The lifters in the gym are quite friendly aswell - quite a good atmosphere. Newbies get helped out quite a lot and made to feel welcome, it's not half as intimidating/daunting than a lot of other gyms i've trained in.

KPj

there are a few decent dudes at my gym. ones that see you there every other day and give you some respect because you are trying to better yourself, not for how much weight you can lift. it's unfortunate that in the area i live in(white upper middle to upper class), you get a lot of the "better then you" attitude.

KPj--I think lots of chalk on the handlebars of the bikes and ellipticals would be good. Do all the lifters grunt properly? Grunting helps the atmosphere. When the cardio guys come into the lifting area, lifters should line up and do the same lifts, with the same weights, and grunt.

LOL. That paints a funny picture. We don't have excessive grunters, really, but we could fake it. My training partner grunts a lot. I don't really, just one of those things. I'm the strong silent type. He's the strong loud type.

What they hate the most I think is the increasing number of people doing squats and DL's. haha. ooops. I've made rack pulls quite a popular exercise, too. I LOVE doing anderson style squats when they're there - stupidly wide stance, all hips and lower back. They really hate things like that. Actually remind me of the tutor for my gym instructor course.

Oh, funny aside, really, but we learned bench press last weekend. When I dived down on the bench I screwed my feet into the ground and my upper back right into the bench and coiled myself into the biggest arch I could muster, and i've got a dangerously good arch. I only bring it out on special occasions though (PR Attemps). The guys face was priceless but he just said, "don't arch your back too much", I was like, "oh...ok..."

We should be learning the squat this week. Think i'll go as wide as I can and use as much lower back as possible, see what he says.

BTW - might amuse everyone to know that I was doing upright rows last weekend. It was traumatic but I managed to get through it.

KPj

today while doing back and bi's i witnessed a dude do 15 sets of curls. when i started my back routine, he was doing barbell curls. i counted 3 sets, then moved over to the squat rack to do another 3-4 sets. followed by a few sets of incline curls, hammer curls, and then concentration curls. he then asked one of the jock dudes he was with if he knew of any other curls exercises! i don't think he did anything else but curls and be up on this guys junk. it was really funny when i was discussing curls with my partner and how i only had 4 sets to do. he then said to me, "why so little, don't you want to have big guns?". i just looked at him funny and went back to my conversation. his guns were MUCH smaller then mine, and mine aren't big at all.

Loud noises and random noises annoy me.

I hate excessively loud music at gyms. One gym I tried had it cranked up so loud that it was painful. I understand the sound of the weights hitting the ground, grunting and whirring and thumping noises from the guys on the cardio machines is fairly loud already but the music was loud enough to drown all of that out. Ears were ringing for a while after that.

There's this screamer guy at the gym and he's totally annoying. Grunting and even excessively loud grunting is fine but out of no where this guy will scream an overly loud and sharp "aahtt!!" and he tries to do something strenuous like when he starts his pull up. Because it's a sharp "aht!" kind of sound instead of something a martial artist would shout when punching and it goes from silent to "AHT!" it always grabs my attention because it sounds like someone is in pain / needs help / etc.

I haven't seen this guy as much any more but he's annoyed me enough to leave a negative impression in my mind. He would randomly sing parts of songs he's listening to on his mp3 player. It's in some foreign language too so it ends up being noise in my ears.

Plus if it was in english I would probably find it tons more entertaining. Could you just imagine some odd 6 foot 200lb man dead lifting 500 lbs with a loud throaty "hhhnnnnggggg" for a few reps, dropping the weights with a loud clang on his last attempt, wiping the sweat off his brow and randomly singing the lyrics: "just a small town girl... living in a lonely world" only to grab the weights shortly after to bang out another set.

pet peeve from my last gym session. how can you have an overweight, out of shape woman work the front desk? all the dudes are in great shape, all the women are super hot, except this one. i just don't get it. idk, if i worked at a gym and was heavy, i would work out all the time!

What the hell? I would rather have out of shape friendly folk working the desk when I walk in then douches or bitches that feel only people should be working out in an $100 outfit, they're better than you, and so on and so forth.

I'm kind of w/Rucifer on that one. She's working the desk, not the floor, and you don't need a Barbie or Ken there. You need someone with a clear min that can deal w/ contracts, sales, and be a people friendly customer service type. I've seen a lot of those types art the local vitamin/supp shops around here, and while their bodies may not show it, they do have the attitudes and working knowledge to make them an asset to the company.
Tim

I should reiterate a bit. I was a little ticked after reading that last message. Not to say that all beautiful people are gonna treat you like crap, but the bulk of the ones I have seen working the desk have an attitude to anyone who is not part of their "clique", to use a high school term. God forbid they realize the customer is what is keeping them in business. I work in customer service so even if I don't like someone, I do my best to hold my contempt back. A lot of them don't.

And besides- she might have just started working there, or like Tim said, is good at the behind the scenes stuff, of which her weight has no bearing. Cut her some slack. I was fat too once. It's not a whole lot of fun.

sorry if i came off as an a$$, i just think it's kind of weird. this is the person that is trying to sell you and talk you in to personal trainer sessions.

A new one for me is... how cold my home gym is! I had to go out and buy a damn gas heater to warm up the garage! It's okay now, I point the fan forced gas heater towards the squat rack and in 5 minutes it's lifting time! Could be worse, if I lived in some parts of the Northern Hemisphere I'd have to trudge through snow to get to the garage, at least it's not that cold Down under in winter!

John

i was that guy today at the gym. did bb curls, bb rows, and used the bb from the station to do dead lifts. ONLY because no one was waiting and it makes $h1t real easy.

I HATE HS AND EARLY LEVEL COLLEGE KIDS. WORST INDIVIDUALS AT THE GYM.