Do You Inform People When You see Them Lifting Wrong?

[djeclipse]

In the past I have learned that it's just not worth the time to offer a suggestion/help to people. I have done it with people doing deadlifts with rounded back, horrible squats (on balls fo their feet) et. But for the most pert people just don't want to listen or take the hit in the ego and do a lift properly.

But last night at the gym there was this young kid with his friend, both were around 16. She was showing him around the gym and he was asking her where to do bench press. She took him over to the smith machine and told him to grab a bench.

He didn't look to happy with the thought of using the smith machine (it must have giving off it's usual evil ora of entrapment, and he must have sensed it). She walked away while he went to find a bench to set up for the smith machine.

When he came back I said" if you're wanting to do bench press don't use the smith machine, use the bench over there. I brought him over to the bench press, told him to start with just the bar, showed him where to lower the bar to etc. and then explained how shitty the smith machine was and if he could, avoid the smith machine like the plague.

hopefully I saved someone form the wrath of the dreaded smith machine. lol

 

[silver_shadow]

i've seen the expressions on faces when i do push presses. it's as people think i'm cheating! those are the kind of guys who will then do 1/4 squats on the smith with a pussy pad and a lifting belt with a few coins on the bar and walk around with puffed chests like they pwn you.

 

[WoNderWoMan25]

My biggest issues

1. People doing walking lunges. I cringe when I see horrible form. It makes MY knees hurt watching them, and this is the ONLY time I will casually ask about their form and make suggestions.

2. People, mostly male, questioning the weight I'm lifting/pushing. If you don't have a clue in general AND you don't know what my personal goals are, keep your mouth shut.

 

[steig]

I never correct form of anybody at the gym except for my fiancee. So many people have bad form and think that it is correct that when you lift with proper form everyone thinks you are wrong...Such at barbell rows and being bent over all the way.

Let me describe a scene at my gym, there are two guys who come to the gym, don't cover up their fat enough and like to throw around the weights. On reverse hypers they swing their legs and body so high that their stomach and low chest come off the pad and their legs are almost over their heads. The day that they officially hurt their back and can't walk I will laugh rather than help them. They also do swiss ball pushups with their feet on the swiss ball. They load 45 lb plates on their backs and rather than bent their elbows to do a push up they just kind of wave their upper body around thinking about all these pushups they are doing. They only use all the weight on every machine and then barely budge the movement.

So these people are the two dumbest guys I've ever seen at the gym, trainers have told them they have poor form and they don't listen but then we find out one of them is a doctor and the other is a physical therapost who had a hip replacement after hurting his hip in the past due to working out. These guys are even dumber than the guys I see getting on an ab crunch machine with a weight belt.

 

[rick_hfh]

Good thread, I usually don't offer advice unless they ask. I hate it when others offer advice to me. It is usually some pt geek with spaghetti arms trying to inform the world about the new technique he read in a muscle mag.

In the rare case I do offer advice is when there is potential to harm self or equipment. There was an obese guy in the cardio room with a bunch of machines in it. He obviously had no clue waht he was doing. He hoisted the weight and would let the stack crash on the eccentric part of the lift. Not to mention the power grunt he would yell in a room full of girls doing cardio. After each set he would get up and walk in front of the cardio machines and puff out his chest. After the first few times I let it slide, I didn't think he would stick with it. The next day he was back to his old tricks and I told him that he could easily crack the weights and was missing out on the benefits of lifting correctly. The weightroom supervisor pulled me aside and thanked me for pointing out to him that he was doing something wrong. She had warned him repeatedly but he just laughed. She was a tiny little girl so he thought he didn't have to listen to her. After that he was doing things the right way.

 

[karachi183]

Way too many times people think your a prick and trying to show off as opposed to helping out so now i let people learn the hard way as i did. It took me a good year to learn how the majority of movements should be made. For example now i just laugh to myself when i see people flexing there entire upper body and swinging when curling...

 

[streetrat]

I do thank its funny to see this one guy that is a freak in size do messed up reps like the curl and as always in my gym the cable pulldown. Now i'm not as big as a lot of you guys on here but i was told that the proper way was the only way to get big and not get injured.So, I stress this fact to the young kids and my own teens.

Its also funny to watch guys do a swing curl with like say 35's on each side of a e z curl bar and i come up beside them with 25lbs dumbbells and my arms get as big or bigger than theirs but no don't say nothinng to anyone but teens and younger.
it is to much of a lifting match to see who can lift more at my gym so i just go in and do my 45min-to hour and leave.