Please Scroll Down to See Forums Below 
Anyone familiar with my posts knows that I'm a DC trainer. They also know I write a lot. It's a force of habit; I have an English degree which, while otherwise next to worthless, cultivated a love of hearing myself speak/write/etc.
But I'll try to stick to the nitty-gritty...that'll cut things down from a million nine to maybe 1.2 million words?
Hmm...we'll see, but I make no promises.
Anyway:
I'm going through a somewhat lighter training cycle at the moment, gearing up for that next big push. I'm still training at maybe 70% full capacity or so...no rest-pauses and nothing to failure, but still fairly tough. Workout by workout I can tell I'm getting ready to go really hard again!
Anyway, today I did leg presses. I only worked up to like 755 for 10 deep reps, but I was still pretty tired after that, the curls, calf raises on the leg press beforehand, etc. I was moving at a quick pace, too, finishing my workout in about half the time I ordinarily spend when lifting really hard. So, as I typically do, I "only" unloaded 6 plates on each side, leaving two/four total still on the leg press.
But I get ahead of myself.
While I was doing my set, there was some fat kid milling around near me. I watched him do some of THE worst bounce presses I've ever seen with 225 and then 245. I bet he wouldn't get 225x2 with even your regular touch-and-go style. (He would've been surprised if I grabbed it and did a couple of militaries with the fuckin' thing.)
Yet, when I was doing my quad stretch on the other side of the gym, this kid comes up to me and asks if I was done with the leg press. I said yes, I'd had enough fun over there, haha (grunting through my stretch, which if you haven't tried, gets rather painful).
Then he gave me some lip about how I should unload the rest of the plates because "the management was throwing people out" for leaving stuff loaded up.
?!
I've been a member of that gym for six years. I've trained for 11. And I was stronger than this kid after lifting for four-five months. Who is he, some relative newbie and definitely NOT the manager, to tell me this?
Still doing my stretch, I responded with something like, "I ain't too worried about it" then he walked off.
A bit later, I approached him and said I didn't mean to blow him off, but that talking to someone in the middle of a set (or stretch) is itself bad form. I didn't put it quite like that, but he got the point: don't fucking talk to someone while they're doing a set.
He shook my hand very limply and said something to the effect that, "Duh, yeah, you're like concentratin'..." The limp handshake irritated me...it's disrespectful to give someone a "fish," or so I was raised to believe. But I laughed and let it go.
The boy did seem a bit...slow, and I shouldn't pick on him. His intentions might've been good.
Then again, intentions are irrelevant. (Anyone watch Star Trek and seen the Borg? They're cyborgs that whip up on the Federation good guys in a lot of the Star Trek spin-off series. They say stuff like, "Blahblahblah is IRRELEVANT." They're supposed to be trillions of people and aliens all talking in unison, so it sounds synthesized and cool.
Of course, after Terminator, I've had a soft spot for cyborgs...)
Or as the saying goes, the road to hell is paved w/ good intent.
But the whole thing did irritate me, especially because I'm good about unloading bars and machines. (If you can't budge 2 wheels/side on that leg press, you don't need to touch it anyway. My ex-girlfriend, an out-of-shape 38 year old schoolteacher, could EASILY handle that shit.)
Maybe that's just a weak justification, and indeed, I should've left the thing unloaded. But that's not the point, either: it's not that kid's business to tell me so, let alone to presume I'll be "kicked out" for as much. (Yeah. Suuuure
Why didn't the little fat bastard help if he was so concerned?)
Therefore, I have come up with a new rule for Gold's Gym to adopt:
Thou shalt not speak to strangers during warm-up sets, work sets, stretches, or are otherwise exerting themselves.
Better yet:
Thou shalt not speak of gym rules to strangers unsolicited unless thou sense a clear and present danger to the welfare of thyself or to other lifters. Thou shalt leave general busy-bodyness to thy gym's staff.
While we're at it, it sure would be nice to make up some rules about excessive perfume or cologne. Some genius always thinks he/she must fill the air with their "scent," and walk right by you during breathing squats. I would rather have someone FART near me than smell some nasty perfume.
Don't get me wrong. It's okay to use a little something to cover one's French-like odors. But when you're using, oh, say, 750,000 parts cologne per million of air, something is NOT right.
The other rule that COULD be enforced is cell phones. I have one, but it seems like every dipshit in the gym has to bring them along and see that they ring some goofy tune every...oh, say, point five seconds.
Is it REALLY so important to talk to Billy Bob Blow Job in the middle of your endless sets of 20 lb. cable curls?
I think not.
I know this ground has been covered, and there will be people who say, "Ignore it." I'm all for that in general. But there are times that you cannot.
And I wouldn't be able to rant at all if I was always content with that. And I had fun writing this. So there
But I'll try to stick to the nitty-gritty...that'll cut things down from a million nine to maybe 1.2 million words?
Hmm...we'll see, but I make no promises.
Anyway:
I'm going through a somewhat lighter training cycle at the moment, gearing up for that next big push. I'm still training at maybe 70% full capacity or so...no rest-pauses and nothing to failure, but still fairly tough. Workout by workout I can tell I'm getting ready to go really hard again!
Anyway, today I did leg presses. I only worked up to like 755 for 10 deep reps, but I was still pretty tired after that, the curls, calf raises on the leg press beforehand, etc. I was moving at a quick pace, too, finishing my workout in about half the time I ordinarily spend when lifting really hard. So, as I typically do, I "only" unloaded 6 plates on each side, leaving two/four total still on the leg press.
But I get ahead of myself.
While I was doing my set, there was some fat kid milling around near me. I watched him do some of THE worst bounce presses I've ever seen with 225 and then 245. I bet he wouldn't get 225x2 with even your regular touch-and-go style. (He would've been surprised if I grabbed it and did a couple of militaries with the fuckin' thing.)
Yet, when I was doing my quad stretch on the other side of the gym, this kid comes up to me and asks if I was done with the leg press. I said yes, I'd had enough fun over there, haha (grunting through my stretch, which if you haven't tried, gets rather painful).
Then he gave me some lip about how I should unload the rest of the plates because "the management was throwing people out" for leaving stuff loaded up.
?!
I've been a member of that gym for six years. I've trained for 11. And I was stronger than this kid after lifting for four-five months. Who is he, some relative newbie and definitely NOT the manager, to tell me this?
Still doing my stretch, I responded with something like, "I ain't too worried about it" then he walked off.
A bit later, I approached him and said I didn't mean to blow him off, but that talking to someone in the middle of a set (or stretch) is itself bad form. I didn't put it quite like that, but he got the point: don't fucking talk to someone while they're doing a set.
He shook my hand very limply and said something to the effect that, "Duh, yeah, you're like concentratin'..." The limp handshake irritated me...it's disrespectful to give someone a "fish," or so I was raised to believe. But I laughed and let it go.
The boy did seem a bit...slow, and I shouldn't pick on him. His intentions might've been good.
Then again, intentions are irrelevant. (Anyone watch Star Trek and seen the Borg? They're cyborgs that whip up on the Federation good guys in a lot of the Star Trek spin-off series. They say stuff like, "Blahblahblah is IRRELEVANT." They're supposed to be trillions of people and aliens all talking in unison, so it sounds synthesized and cool.
Of course, after Terminator, I've had a soft spot for cyborgs...)
Or as the saying goes, the road to hell is paved w/ good intent.
But the whole thing did irritate me, especially because I'm good about unloading bars and machines. (If you can't budge 2 wheels/side on that leg press, you don't need to touch it anyway. My ex-girlfriend, an out-of-shape 38 year old schoolteacher, could EASILY handle that shit.)
Maybe that's just a weak justification, and indeed, I should've left the thing unloaded. But that's not the point, either: it's not that kid's business to tell me so, let alone to presume I'll be "kicked out" for as much. (Yeah. Suuuure
Why didn't the little fat bastard help if he was so concerned?) Therefore, I have come up with a new rule for Gold's Gym to adopt:
Thou shalt not speak to strangers during warm-up sets, work sets, stretches, or are otherwise exerting themselves.
Better yet:
Thou shalt not speak of gym rules to strangers unsolicited unless thou sense a clear and present danger to the welfare of thyself or to other lifters. Thou shalt leave general busy-bodyness to thy gym's staff.
While we're at it, it sure would be nice to make up some rules about excessive perfume or cologne. Some genius always thinks he/she must fill the air with their "scent," and walk right by you during breathing squats. I would rather have someone FART near me than smell some nasty perfume.
Don't get me wrong. It's okay to use a little something to cover one's French-like odors. But when you're using, oh, say, 750,000 parts cologne per million of air, something is NOT right.
The other rule that COULD be enforced is cell phones. I have one, but it seems like every dipshit in the gym has to bring them along and see that they ring some goofy tune every...oh, say, point five seconds.
Is it REALLY so important to talk to Billy Bob Blow Job in the middle of your endless sets of 20 lb. cable curls?
I think not.
I know this ground has been covered, and there will be people who say, "Ignore it." I'm all for that in general. But there are times that you cannot.
And I wouldn't be able to rant at all if I was always content with that. And I had fun writing this. So there
Last edited:
But then, I never told bigger guys that they were doing something wrong, and I certainly didn't threaten them.
