Tonight was leg night; you know, the kind of leg workout that leaves you barely able to walk, but when you have to go up stairs, you can feel every individual muscle in your leg asking you what the hell you think you're doing (answer: shutup). By the latter part of this workout, I've developed a good sweat, and frankly feel pretty good about it because, damnit, I worked for it! I was about to do some calf raises to finish up the workout and I noticed a couple guys in the corner kind of snickering and pointing at me, body language obviously describing the subject of their conversation.
This both amused me and annoyed me.
As I said, I felt like I earned it (I still feel that way), and I wouldn't have considered that I had given it even 50% if I hadn't gotten at least a couple sweat spots on the shirt. If they were finding that amusing, it's too bad they didn't see me doing a vaccuum! I probably look ridiculous doing it, but my abs are sure tired afterwards.
What annoyed me was that the only thing I saw them do was throw around a couple light weights in some semblence of a chest exercise, BS for a while, stare blankly around them gym, then decide it's biceps time.
Of course, lets see those guys crank out some Bulgarian Split Squats, or hell, Squats.
Ignore them. They are not worthy of your time and attention. Step over them like you would a bug on the sidewalk.
__________________ "I'm growing older but not up. My metabolic rate is pleasantly stuck. So let the winds of change blow over my head. I'd rather die while I'm living then live while I'm dead."
Just relish in the fact that you can probably push more weight than either of them, and that you can kick both their a$$es if you wanted to.
I didn't realize it was strange or weird to sweat while working out. What kind of gym do you go to? Hell, I usually get a light sweat while warming up for squats or deads and 3 workout sets later I look like I ran 10 miles.
__________________
"Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go." -- T.S. Eliot
"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act, but a habit."-- Aristotle
And the correct latin expression for "irony" is
"bullus sheetus."
Mahler
Mahler, being one who possess such a wealth of knowledge, had me going for a bit , found it rather amusing, too bad that was just a joke
And on the sweat thing, I kind of get that in the wellness center gym, my school gym, the other guys sweat too and love it. But at the center, people take their time and what not, when your doing supersets and or squats or something (and i sweat alot), its bound to happen. As long as your respectful and clean up/wipe down when your done, you should be damn proud. Hope you run into those same guys again a month 2 months , sometime down the road, and let them take another look at your progress.
__________________
"Obsession is a word that lazy people use to describe the Dedicated."
Originally posted by Jimbo: jruck! LOL. Your right. That just sounds painful. I'd sweat too. Specially if it's an industrial vacuum. Dang. [img]redface.gif[/img]
Well doing a leg workout in particular usually involves alot of... plates... and stuff... well you know! [img]tongue.gif[/img] Which makes you look extra-badass when you train, and to me sweating only adds to that effect, so I don't see any reason for them to think it's funny. I guess watching a guy doing 5rm squats with just the bar could be slightly amusing, but it's pretty safe to assume that you were doing something at least slightly heavier than the bar as most people start with an already relatively heavy weight. How could they make fun of you if you were doing a LEG workout, and were probably using more weight than they ever have on ANY exercise is what I can't understand. :E
I would totally pefer to workout in a gym where everyone are sweating their asses off knowing that death is only one rep away, struggling to breath over some fancy 'health club', the type where you see a dude sitting on the leg extension machine reading a book.
Igonre them. You're healthier, stronger, bigger and smarter than them. They're unworthy of your attention.
I suppose seeing someone doing a vacuum, so-to-speak, would be a sight indeed There's no end in sight for the amount of innuendos and references we can make thinking about this.
For those who are actually curious, a vacuum is pretty much sucking in your abs as much as you can, to oversimplify it. Check out this page if you are interested; I was doing the kneeling version, and after doing 10 reps of holding each rep for a while, I was seriously sweating.
My main point of this post was to provide an amusing story; I'm not saying those kids are bad people, and I laughed at their ignorance. After all, I like being able to see tone in my legs, and I personally am aware of the benefit I've seen from lifting in my tennis game, rollerblading, and hell, any time I have to climb stairs.
I was proud of the sweat I had going; as I said, I earned it, damnit!
Paradigm- thanks for the explanation. We were a little worried. [img]tongue.gif[/img]
I looked at the link that you posted. Do those "vacuums" actually work? I've never seen that as a means for developing ab strength, but it sounds good in theory. Do you hold your breath for the whole set? It's kind of hard to tell from what I read.
Originally posted by jruck37: Do you hold your breath for the whole set? It's kind of hard to tell from what I read.
When doing vacuum's, or any other lifting, you do not hold your breath.
In the case of vacuum's, however, it's a little more difficult so you need to breathe shallowly through your nose; it takes a little getting used to, even a set to warm-up and get the feeling of what movement is right. I know that I'm doing them right when it feels like I'm pulling my hips forward; your stomach is pulled in as much as possible, now push forward with your hips, you should feel it.
Sounds like a "vacuum" is similar to what BoM calls "thin tummy."
I hope these guys were a couple of kids rather than adults (not that it would make comments like that okay, just a little more understandable). Chances are they won't keep coming back to the gym, anyway.
Gyms are where people work out and sweat. Nothing wrong with that.
__________________ The trick is in what one emphasizes. We either make ourselves miserable, or we make ourselves happy. The amount of work is the same. -- Carlos Castaneda
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