Stupid people in the gym - a rant!

[Dean Szilvasy]

She probably bit the guy's ear off and is just sort of cleaning the story up for JP. War "Iron Lisa"!!!

[Jean-Paul]

Originally Posted by Isaac Wilkins

A quote for the ages.


When I was in college I had just recovered from a partial cuff tear (like 90%) and was finally starting to move a bit of weight again. I was all set to do some dumbbell benching. JUST as I rolled back with the weight this little 110 lb bonerack girl tried to squeeze by me!

I, without thinking, tried to pull the dumbbell in my left hand in so as to not hit her. I managed to retear my cuff AND land a 100 lb 'bell on my face.

She jumped, squeaked, and literally ran out of the gym. I'm sure she was taking a 10 lb dumbbell over to do either a) calf raises, or b) lateral raises.

No, concentration curls followed by kickbacks, with completely sucky form at that!

Dude, that SUCKS! I really do feel your pain. I wish you could run into her to explain to her just how much her self-absorbed complete absence of care for anything or anyone else around her had such a long term detrimental effect on you. She deserved to have that DB drop on her foot rather than your shoulder getting torn.

I hate seeing skinny girls do kickbacks with 3.5 lb. DBs, especially when they swing their arms, flex the wrists, and don't even maintain proper spinal posture. It takes every ounce of strength I have to not walk over there and tell them that they're wasting their time.

Actually, that's not true. I don't resist the urge. I should get a stamp with an image of a girl doing kickbacks with a big crossed out circle over them to put on my gym wall for every girl I line out for doing stupid exercises. Since I own the place I tend to be pretty up front with people. My other favorite is when they do lat pulls with 30 pounds down to their hips, or do SB crunches where they sit up all the way on the ball without activating a single ab muscle.

Now look at what you've started!

[diamondpete]

Hi Lisa

I feel for you. That sucks but remeber:

Originally Posted by Lisa~

I think you’re a great trainer.”

Cheers

[chris_f]

Originally Posted by GQArtGuy

They should. Actually, for me, its more of a southern thing than a sales thing. East coast people are not as nice.

I hear you - I have a tendancy to try to talk to almost everyone I meet: cashiers, service people, etc. "Hi, how are you today?" "good." most people just blow me off and look at me weird like, "you're actually trying to talk to me?"

"yea i am, jackass."

[jdford]

Having worked in a couple gyms I have a ton of stories I could add to this thread, however I'm going to post something positive. Yesterday at work I noticed a couple guys doing front squats on the smith machine with terrible form, they kept looking over at me while I was helping people or putting something away. Finally one of them came up and asked me about front squatting and I was able to pry them off the smith and set them up on the squat rack with a bunch of pointers to set in the right direction. Saved. Phew.

[liftintexas]

I agree with the sentiments expressed about those who cause injury, distract/interrupt, harass, or are out of control obnoxious -- simply no excuse! But some of the other comments about pet peeves were my hidden fear when I started lifting in college 12+ years ago (am I lifting enough, am I using the right technique, will others be able to tell I have no clue). I was the skinny kid who never entered a weight room until he was 19 years old and was intimidated by those who seemed to know what they were doing.

After much encouragement from friends who said "don't worry, no one is even paying attention to you, etc. They're only worried about their workouts, not yours," I went from 150 lbs to 175 lbs -- in a good way.

But hearing some of these comments about skinny gifts not exercising their abs correctly or using the correct weight, "heavy" people on cardio equipment, or those who cannot squat properly, I think my friends from 12 years ago were lying. If I had known others were looking at my workouts and mentally critiquing, not sure I would have kept them up!