Gym Pet Peeves

[TonyStalloni]

I'm fortunate enough to be able to workout between 10:30 and noon most days I go and there are rarely more than 10 people in the gym working out. None of which bother me or have strange lifting habits. There is often a 30 something mom who runs on the treadmill. She runs at about an "8" speed with her hips about 2" from the front bar and her arms flailing above her head. At first I was laughing to myself but she runs like that for 30 to 45 minutes and now I have to leave before I get arrested for videoing her so I can show her how stupid she looks.

And the 70 something guy in the shower who uses half the soap in the dispenser everyday by lathering himself till he looks like a snowman.

Another humorous character is the 80 year old guy who lives in his "82" Chevy camping van year round and comes to the Y for free coffee and cookies. He came in to where I was working out last monday to watch tv and told me he was moving back to California soon so he could umpire games in a college softball city league where they pay $150 per game and he plans to do 6 to 8 games a day. He also played pro baseball and ran a 10 flat 100 yard dash in high school.

 

[BIGREDIOWAN]

My biggest issues stem from the people that have no damn clue what they're doing! Pay a trainer to show you how to do the exercises or GTFO! The teenage bada$$es drive me nuts too. One guy was doing these wrestling takedown moves with his porn stache. Was all I could do to keep it together.

 

[DaveH]

People that decide to take a 15 minute break between reps on a machine/equipment and then get mad when you decide to step in. Gets a quick "f#*k off" from me.

Had that experience last week. Guy is a regular and probably the strongest person in the gym, but he takes inordinately long breaks. I was scoping out this adjustable bench while I finished up my lift to see if anyone is on it because it has a towel thrown at the foot of it. Nobody is near it for a couple of minutes and everyone is using a piece of equipment so I figure somebody just forgot their towel, because if you were saving it you'd probably place your towel on the bench right? So I start my lift on the bench and he comes over all pissed off like and swipes his towel out from under the bench and pouts off muttering something (I have head phones in). He just glares at me the rest of the night, and he never even used a bench after that. It was pretty entertaining, but I would have apologized if he didn't act like a little 3 year old.

I can understand taking long breaks. Hell, when I'm going heavy I take about 8 minutes between sets. Less rest will almost guarantee me not getting my next set.

But if someone wants to work in the rack I'm using, go for it. I'll even help you unload and load the bar if you want.

I mean I understand it but from someone who isn't training for raw power, over 5 minutes of rest seems wasteful. It's like the difference between being strong and functionally strong to me.

Functionally strong? I've never understood that term. Strong is strong. Functionally strong sounds like a justification for not getting stronger IMO

 

[StPaulHusker]

There was a guy at my gym that used the community hair dryer to dry his nut sack and a$$ crack after showering. Can't say I appreciated witnessing that.

As far as in the gym, when 2 or more muscle heads are lifting and they are doing weird sh#t like slapping each other in the face and screaming at each other to get pumped up to bench 375 one time.

Other than that, I usually just mind my own business.

Really dude?

Time to find a new gym. WTF

Yeah. I don't go there anymore. My wife had even stranger experiences than I did.

 

[ZRod]

People that decide to take a 15 minute break between reps on a machine/equipment and then get mad when you decide to step in. Gets a quick "f#*k off" from me.

Had that experience last week. Guy is a regular and probably the strongest person in the gym, but he takes inordinately long breaks. I was scoping out this adjustable bench while I finished up my lift to see if anyone is on it because it has a towel thrown at the foot of it. Nobody is near it for a couple of minutes and everyone is using a piece of equipment so I figure somebody just forgot their towel, because if you were saving it you'd probably place your towel on the bench right? So I start my lift on the bench and he comes over all pissed off like and swipes his towel out from under the bench and pouts off muttering something (I have head phones in). He just glares at me the rest of the night, and he never even used a bench after that. It was pretty entertaining, but I would have apologized if he didn't act like a little 3 year old.

I can understand taking long breaks. Hell, when I'm going heavy I take about 8 minutes between sets. Less rest will almost guarantee me not getting my next set.

But if someone wants to work in the rack I'm using, go for it. I'll even help you unload and load the bar if you want.

I mean I understand it but from someone who isn't training for raw power, over 5 minutes of rest seems wasteful. It's like the difference between being strong and functionally strong to me.

Functionally strong? I've never understood that term. Strong is strong. Functionally strong sounds like a justification for not getting stronger IMO

Not an excuse, just a difference of philosophies. Stamina and strength go hand in hand. You can bench 350, great! But if you can't get back under the bar in less than 5 minutes and push out more than a couple reps it seems a little overrated to me unless you're a power lifter.

Functionally strong probably has a lot of different meanings depending on who's using it, but to me it's; being able to have the coordination/balance, flexibility, stamina, and strength to complete tasks in a reasonably short time.

 

[Minnesota_husker]

There was a guy at my gym that used the community hair dryer to dry his nut sack and a$$ crack after showering. Can't say I appreciated witnessing that.

As far as in the gym, when 2 or more muscle heads are lifting and they are doing weird sh#t like slapping each other in the face and screaming at each other to get pumped up to bench 375 one time.

Other than that, I usually just mind my own business.

Really dude?

Time to find a new gym. WTF

Yeah. I don't go there anymore. My wife had even stranger experiences than I did.

Like some lady drying her balls with a hair dryer?

 

[DaveH]

People that decide to take a 15 minute break between reps on a machine/equipment and then get mad when you decide to step in. Gets a quick "f#*k off" from me.

Had that experience last week. Guy is a regular and probably the strongest person in the gym, but he takes inordinately long breaks. I was scoping out this adjustable bench while I finished up my lift to see if anyone is on it because it has a towel thrown at the foot of it. Nobody is near it for a couple of minutes and everyone is using a piece of equipment so I figure somebody just forgot their towel, because if you were saving it you'd probably place your towel on the bench right? So I start my lift on the bench and he comes over all pissed off like and swipes his towel out from under the bench and pouts off muttering something (I have head phones in). He just glares at me the rest of the night, and he never even used a bench after that. It was pretty entertaining, but I would have apologized if he didn't act like a little 3 year old.

I can understand taking long breaks. Hell, when I'm going heavy I take about 8 minutes between sets. Less rest will almost guarantee me not getting my next set.

But if someone wants to work in the rack I'm using, go for it. I'll even help you unload and load the bar if you want.

I mean I understand it but from someone who isn't training for raw power, over 5 minutes of rest seems wasteful. It's like the difference between being strong and functionally strong to me.

Functionally strong? I've never understood that term. Strong is strong. Functionally strong sounds like a justification for not getting stronger IMO

Not an excuse, just a difference of philosophies. Stamina and strength go hand in hand. You can bench 350, great! But if you can't get back under the bar in less than 5 minutes and push out more than a couple reps it seems a little overrated to me unless you're a power lifter.

Functionally strong probably has a lot of different meanings depending on who's using it, but to me it's; being able to have the coordination/balance, flexibility, stamina, and strength to complete tasks in a reasonably short time.

I guess that's the difference. Time. It doesn't make sense to me to relate strength to time, at all. Strength and stamina go hand in hand in that, all things being equal, the guy who's stronger probably has more stamina too. It's never bad to be stronger.

If you can bench 350 5 times, you're stronger and than the guy who can bench 200 10 times. There's no doubt about that IMO.

Being stronger is always better than not IMO. Being able to rep out a lighter weight more times with less rest doesn't really get you much stronger.

 

[StPaulHusker]

There was a guy at my gym that used the community hair dryer to dry his nut sack and a$$ crack after showering. Can't say I appreciated witnessing that.

As far as in the gym, when 2 or more muscle heads are lifting and they are doing weird sh#t like slapping each other in the face and screaming at each other to get pumped up to bench 375 one time.

Other than that, I usually just mind my own business.

Really dude?Time to find a new gym. WTF

Yeah. I don't go there anymore. My wife had even stranger experiences than I did.

Like some lady drying her balls with a hair dryer?

Well the lady didn't have balls but it was used in a similar fashion. And she was like 70

 

[Whistlebritches]

Bare a$$ on the benches in the locker room. I don't care if you've just come from the shower, sit on a towel.

 

[teachercd]

I like the guy who comes over to offer advice...

 

[True2tRA]

On a regular day on the bench I do 4 sets -10 reps of 225. Usually on the fourth set I only get 7-8 but I just go to exhaustion. I max 335 on the bench. Two things I've never heard of in my life til' reading this thread is functionally strong, and I've never heard of five minute rests. Honestly, if you're resting five minutes I'm gonna go out on a limb and just tell you now that you're not putting your muscles under a whole lot of stress. Hard to build stamina that way also. I'm no expert though. Just my opinion.

Of course, all of these things depend on your desired result. Still, if you're lifting weights, there's really no purpose of doing it if your not going to stress the muscles, get the acid pumping into them and burning them up a bit. Five minute rests doesn't do that.

I just looked into this five minute rest thing and that long of rest is only suggested if you are doing extremely heavy weight (your maximum) with only 1-3 reps. I guess I wouldn't know anything about that because even on my heavy days I do weight I can rep between 5-6 times.

 

[DaveH]

There was a guy at my gym that used the community hair dryer to dry his nut sack and a$$ crack after showering. Can't say I appreciated witnessing that.

As far as in the gym, when 2 or more muscle heads are lifting and they are doing weird sh#t like slapping each other in the face and screaming at each other to get pumped up to bench 375 one time.

Other than that, I usually just mind my own business.

Really dude?Time to find a new gym. WTF

Yeah. I don't go there anymore. My wife had even stranger experiences than I did.

Like some lady drying her balls with a hair dryer?

Well the lady didn't have balls but it was used in a similar fashion. And she was like 70

gross

 

[DaveH]

I just looked into this five minute rest thing and that long of rest is only suggested if you are doing extremely heavy weight (your maximum) with only 1-3 reps. I guess I wouldn't know anything about that because even on my heavy days I do weight I can rep between 5-6 times.

If you can hit your reps with the amount of rest you are taking, then awesome. Keep doing that.

My point was that when training for strength, the most important thing is to get your reps. If you need to rest longer to do that, then do that. That's all.

 

[4skers89]

I just looked into this five minute rest thing and that long of rest is only suggested if you are doing extremely heavy weight (your maximum) with only 1-3 reps. I guess I wouldn't know anything about that because even on my heavy days I do weight I can rep between 5-6 times.

If you can hit your reps with the amount of rest you are taking, then awesome. Keep doing that.

My point was that when training for strength, the most important thing is to get your reps. If you need to rest longer to do that, then do that. That's all.

I haven't really researched the rest period except I do remember reading a recommended rest period of 1.5 to 2 minutes. I do 2 minutes because when I finish a set I just have to note the second hand on the clock. After 1:50 rest I'm starting to get back into position for the next set. I tried 1.5 minute rests but the additional calculation of subtracting 30 seconds always messed me up and I wasn't hitting a consistent rest period. I think it was because my sets usually are around 30 seconds or 5 seconds per rep give or take 10 seconds. I'd like to do a 1.5 minute rest just to make the workouts shorter but being more consistent in the rest period is more important to me since I notice a big difference between a 2 minute rest and 3 minute rest. Longer rests beyond 4 minutes seemed to make the sets independent meaning the last set was not much more difficult than the first set. With 8 minute rests I would tend to skip workouts when free time becomes scarce simply because the workouts take too long. Also I wouldn't want to tie up a piece of equipment for 25 minutes because someone would want to "work in". I don't like to alternate sets with someone because invariably I'll miss my 2 minute rest and then I can't judge whether I'm gaining from previous week. I'd rather tell someone that they can have the equipment in 5 minutes since I do a strict 2 minute rest. Nobody seems to have a problem with that. Someone "working in" probably is not an issue for you since you don't notice a difference between a 7, 8 or 9 minute rest. Your rest period would impact me since I don't like to work in and I would patiently wait 1/2 hour for you to finish. The heaviest I lift is 4 x 4 @ 6 RM weight and with 2 minute rests I have gained considerable strength going from Novice to Intermediate/Advanced. If you're in the Advanced/Elite category my experience may not apply.

 

[True2tRA]

Oy......