ExRx.net

Like:

1. The new Olympic platform with bumper plates that no one apart from me and 1 other person ever uses.
2. The hex bar, which again no one else ever uses.
3. The trainers who run the gym are actually pretty clued up, and have no problem with things like lifting barefoot or using chalk. Not bad for a gym that is 99% football (soccer to you yanks) players
4. The squat rack is rarely ever in use so I hardly ever have to wait.
5. There's this massive guy who's recently joined who is not only a beast, but he's the most helpful guy ever. He helped fix my deadlift and my clean technique. Thanks buddy.

Hate:

1. The goddam awful music. There are no words to describe it. Who gets fired up for a workout listening to the new Robbie Williams/Gary Barlow duet?
2. The idiots. Don't you realise srugging like that is going to ruin your shoulders? Why are you shrugging anyway? Cos it's the one move you can lift a pair of adult sized plates on? Shame on you.
3. The idiots II. Why do you ask my advice and then not take it? You wanted to know how to get big and I told you to squat, but then you mumble something about your knees and go do curls. Shame on you.
4. The idiots III. I understand you've never seen anyone deadlifting or doing olympic stuff before, but until I whip out a guitar and put a hat out for pennies, you can bet I don't want an audience. Mind your own business. Shame on you.
5. The idiots IV. Put. Your. Damn. Weights. Away. Shame on you.

Like:

At 8AM there's only 3 other people in the weight room.

The squat rack is empty unless someone's doing pullups and in that case it's usually a friend and I can work in squats at the same tome.

Just bought 50# kettlebells to go with the 35s they bought last year.

Easy walk to the office.



Dislike:

I have to rearrange benches to make enough room to swing a kettlebell.

No lifting platform. That's OK, the floor is rubber.


I'm actually pretty lucky. I also get to workout during work ours.

Like

It has pretty good open hours

The squat racks are usually not being used

There are a lot of really hot girls at the gym

The people who work there are idiots and don't realize I'm using chalk.


Hate

There are only 2 squat racks

Most of the girls are wasting time by just doing cardio

I've only seen 2 people with good squat form the rest are terrible.

They're not putting up my suggestions for more squat racks on the bulletin board.

They don't have a glute-ham raise.

There is hardly any space for power movements

Dislike (i'm in rant mode and this thread came up right in the midst of it - just a pre warning):

Pretty much everything that's already been said applies to my gym, too. I've especially got a growing disliking for the people and atmosphere which i'll expand on below.

The standard... For a while there we had a couple of really good lifters who would put everyone to shame. It was great. You got stronger just watching them lift. Now though it just seems to be mostly idiots. There's a handfull of people who train properly but a growing number of complete idiots. A small influx of guys that tell you how much they USED to lift or how much they can NORMALLY lift but just happen to be recovering from - insert common illness - .... I miss the days when I blatantly blanked everyone. I actualy avoided speaking to anyone for about 3 years. I miss this!

How many times have you came across someone impressively strong who randomly tells people how much they can lift? Honestly i've met no one like this. I now conclude that anyone who tells me they can lift "X" lbs without being asked is most likely full of crap.

The work rate/effort. I reckon 98% of lifters in my gym just pi$$ around doing random lifts with random weight for random reps for how ever many sets they feel like. As long as they don't break a sweat or strain in any kind of way they seem happy. They train with the same intensity required to take a hot bath. Not only that but it seems to be contagious.... These are the people who will bother you between sets. Problems can arise, too, when you think you're doing well because you look at others and see what they are doing.

Aspiring to be better than the people around you can still lead to no where if you train in a typical commercial gym. Don't lose the you feel towards those around you. Otherwise, you'll start comparing yourself to them. This is a mistake because you can be miles better, stronger, faster, bigger, and still, at the end of the day, be crap.

This can sound harsh but honestly I think it's quite accurate. In every commercial gym i've trained in there seems to only be a small handful of lifters who actually train with any effort. How many people do you see barely able to walk after training legs? Or who actually NEED to sit down between sets and catch their breath. Or looks light on their feet because their blood pressure is still sky high from grinding out a heavy lift? What about a "genuine" grunt. That sounds silly but it's not. You hear grunting all the time but you don't see any straining. Why do they grunt, then? It's completely stupid.

I'm stopping before I throw my laptop off the wall

Deep breath....count back from 10.....

like:

is a franchise that allows access to other franchises, so can work out near my office if i feel like it
franchise near my work installed BIG MONKEY BARS for grownups.
a fairly consistent group of regulars
most trainers appear to deliver advice/routines i think would be exrx friendly.

not like:

at my usual gym there's always 1missing olympic bar - there's always a shoulder press rack without a bar
1 power rack that is either totally unused or there's a long queue behind someone pyramiding shrugs
smith rack has a BIG sign saying "this equipment is faulty - any upper body exercises you do at your own risk". two problems here: 1. they're not fixing broken equipment 2. people still do upper body exercises in it
trainers who allow (what even I know is) bad form and spot whole sets for their clients.
i left my copy of practical programming in the locker room and someone borrowed it without filling out their library card...

woah seems like we've managed to exorcise a few demons here eh KippyJay?

I think we're all agreed then that our gyms are full of fannies and that's our number one issue (except for Stu - because of the times he works out he only has to share the gym with owls).

It is frustrating to see so many people wasting time, I wonder about the people in my gym. I don't think some of them have any friends and come to the gym just to meet people. I trained at my gym for years before ever talking to anyone, and even now I only talk to 3 other people, and they happen to be the only other people there that train with any consistency and effort.

There's always a big group of guys that stand around talking and texting on their phones. Good thing is they only seem to be interested in the Smith which I rarely use anyway.

And KPj what you said about people who go on about how strong they USED to be, I hear that all the time! What happened then? Why are you such a pussy now? Fair enough if you had some sort of horrific accident or something, but if you just went soft then it's your own fault. There's guys in my gym who can't be older than 22, 23 and they talk about how strong they WERE. Fair enough if they were in their sixties but I reckon it's fairly easy to make strength gains in your youth. Just a theory I have.

Yeah I was in the zone yesterday lol. I basically ran myself to the ground training wise and am currently in a lot of pain and feel like i've been hit by a truck. Yesterday was an off day after 2 consecutive training days so my mood wasn't the best!

However the more I work in my gym the less tolerance I have for some of the people in the gym. When I say people I actually mean the "lifters". I used to be most comfortable with the "lifters" in the gym but now can't be bothered with a lot of them. They actually make my job more difficult (this is a post in itself), so I think i resent them a lot now where as before, I just didn't bother.

I could go on forever. For some reason little things have been infuriating me recently, but I think it's because i'm on the fringes of "burn out", as I have all the signs - constantly tired, skin breaking out a little, coldsores, quite irritable etc... What I don't have is the lack of motivation but I think that's been over powered by the "irritable" thing, as I get so mad that I just NEED to train.

RobertScott wrote
"And KPj what you said about people who go on about how strong they USED to be, I hear that all the time! What happened then? Why are you such a pussy now? Fair enough if you had some sort of horrific accident or something, but if you just went soft then it's your own fault."

Well, son, there's a guy out there known as father time. I hope you never meet him, but if you do, prepare to be humbled. After I hit age 55. levels took a down turn, and nowadays, I just try to keep what I've got. Kenny is living proof you can prolong it, and even get better, but that is the exception rather than the rule.
Tim

ah Tim, I'm sure you're still ten times as strong as me.

All the guys I'm lifting with are the same age or younger than me, I'm 25, and they ALL talk about how much bigger and stronger they used to be. I just think "well where'd it go then?"

But father time? He doesn't scare me! I'll keep on rockin' and rollin' forever!

We'll he scares the piss out of me, and he's starting to really get on my nerves.

You're not 25 anymore. At 25 you were probably immortal too.

Like: My gym is in the back yard, no waiting for the power rack!

Dislike: Hands stick to the barbell when its minus 9!!!!

Yeah, the one's i'm talking about are from 20-30. I know a few - cough cough - old timers and love speaking to them. But they've never came up and randomly said, "yeah i used to lift X weight on Y lift" without even talking to them about anything. In fact normally you have to kind of awkwardly ask them!

KPj

yeah I've noticed that too, old timers being much more modest about their lifts.

A guy I trained with a couple of years ago was well into his fifties, but in his younger days was a powerlifting champion. He NEVER talked about his maxes.

It's kinda like an article by TC at t-nation I remember from a while back, about how skinny guys with 14 inch guns'll walk around wearing tight tank tops to show off their arms, while the big 250lb guys'll hide it under a hoody. TC's theory was the better your body gets, the less likely you are to try and show it off. I guess the same could be said for strength.

There used to be a competing Mr Scotland that would train in my gym - years ago. He would only do it when he couldn't get to his usual gym. He would wear a full tracksuit zipped right up. I could never work out if he was Bodybuilder big or powerlifter big. I think I seen him once in a T-shirt and was like, "WTF???!!!!!!". You can kind of see why he hides it, especially in normal gyms, because it was as if the circus had came to the gym.

KPj