"Are you using the bench?"

[fitfairy]

Originally Posted by Mahler

This reminds me of a joke:

A guy is on the subway and happens to be sitting on a newspaper that someone left behind on the seat.

A guy notices and walks over and says, "Hey, buddy. You readin' that paper?"

The first guy says, "yes." Then he stands up, turns a page and sits back down on the paper.

[Lou Schuler]

Okay, speaking of trisets, and sharing equipment, and all that:

I've had a gym membership somewhere since 1980, with hardly any breaks. And something happened on Tuesday that had never happened before.

My gym is owned by an orthopedic practice, so it gets lots of seniors and middle-aged beginners who've been sent there to rehab an injury or because they've been told to start working out for the first time.

At any given moment, you can probably see one of them standing in between two benches in front of the DB rack, doing some kind of standing DB exercise. They have no idea they're blocking equipment when they do this. If it's crowded, I sometimes have to ask one of them to stand behind a bench, rather than between two of them, so that I can use the one they're not standing behind.

I probably have this conversation once or twice a month, and it's never a big deal. It hadn't occurred to them that they're blocking equipment, and it's always resolved with a simple, courteous explanation.

Until Tuesday.

I was trisetting three exercises, one of which involved a bench. The other was a standing DB exercise that I was doing a few feet behind that particular bench.

A middle-aged woman walked up, set her clipboard on one bench, then stood between that bench and the other one that was unoccupied right then -- the one I'd been using. Then she started doing a set of DB curls, blocking both benches.

So I said, "Ma'am, I need to use that bench," pointing to the one without the clipboard.

She gave me a look like I'd just farted on her grandchildren. Swear to God, this is what she said: "Why's that?"

I said, "I need to do an exercise on that bench, and I was wondering if you could just step over there so I can use it." I pointed to a spot behind the other bench, which was maybe 3 feet from where she was standing.

"I'm not using the bench!" she said, raising her voice.

"But when you're standing right there, I can't use the bench. If you just stand right there instead ..."

That's as far as the conversation went. She threw her dumbbells at the rack (luckily, they were Barbie weights, so they didn't hurt anything), grabbed her clipboard, stormed over to the trainers' desk, yelled something at them, then stormed out.

She came back a couple minutes later, wearing her coat, yelled at them again, then stormed out again.

Until I told the trainers what had happened, they had no idea what had made this woman so angry. All they knew was that she told them some guy was ordering her around (they were surprised to find out it was me), it was the second time it had happened to her, and she wasn't taking it anymore.

The whole thing was so bizarre and irrational, I was having visions of Kathy Bates in Misery. If I disappear one of these days, you know where to start looking.

[SpacecityPaula]

We'll look for you handcuffed to some psycho woman's bed :lol:

[Mahler]

Originally Posted by SpacecityPaula

We'll look for you handcuffed to some psycho woman's bed :lol:

If she walks in with a sledgehammer next time, head for the hills.

[Phaedrus49er]

Originally Posted by Mahler

If she walks in with a sledgehammer next time, head for the hills.

I wouldn't worry. It'd probably be pink and plastic

[liftintexas]

Lou, your story literally made me laugh out loud in my office.

[Simon C]

Holy shit! She should be in a mental institution!

[sg516]

you know, people don't surprise me anymore. maybe it was bc i used to work in a psych hospital and now think virtually everyone is crazy until they prove otherwise. but that story is awesome. seriously.
unfortunately it seems that there are lots of those kind of ppl in this area. they think they shouldnt have to move if they are in your way. or if you are trying to merge onto the highway bc the merging lane is about to end they shouldn't make a space for you bc it might delay them 5 seconds from getting where they need to go. they just run you in to the shoulder. i think its bc a lot of ppl here have money. they are the kind of people that think they are special. you know.. assholes.

[trian2]

Originally Posted by sg516

i think its bc a lot of ppl here have money. they are the kind of people that think they are special. you know.. assholes.

I know people with money and I know people who have little money.....the porportion of jerks in each of these two groups are about the same.

[Phaedrus49er]

Similar proportions, different reasons.

People with money = sense of entitlement
People without money = sense of misfortune/inferiority/inequit y

Someone cue Bob...

[trian2]

Originally Posted by Phaedrus49er

Similar proportions, different reasons.

People with money = sense of entitlement
People without money = sense of misfortune/inferiority/inequit y

Someone cue Bob...

And what is the reasons for all those jerks inbetween the people with money and the people without money?

[GG300]

And what is the reasons for all those jerks inbetween the people with money and the people without money?

They are Asshats.

[Phaedrus49er]

Other than "having" money being a relative perception, I'd just say they need to get laid more, just not at the gym

[daraz]

I have an uncle who pulls crap just like that about once a month, despite being really cool the rest of the time. He's around 280lbs and really strong, so you got lucky there to just catch a middle-aged woman :P. Anyway, we are pretty sure he's bipolar (it runs on his side of the family) so maybe your friend there was in a phase of that.

[Irishdazza]

I've not had a problem with resolutionists this year - the joy of living on a small island - I guess gym membership has reached saturation and there just isn't a lemming like bunch left to join at the same time.

Although I do have 3 people ho were members but not doing a lot no anting to do NROL with me as part of their new life plans....

[rookie]

Come on Lou. We all know you blew your lid and screamed at the lady. You really need to be more considerate and helpful. Geez!

[Lou Schuler]

You really need to be more considerate and helpful.

Actually, for me, the hardest thing for me to do in the gym is avoid offering unsolicited advice.

Case in point:

I saw a guy in the squat rack the other day doing a series of Oly-lift variations with a practice bar. He was doing a variation I'd never seen before, where he catches the bar on a clean with his legs straight, knees locked.

I'm hardly an expert, but I know you aren't supposed to lock your knees when you catch the bar. So I told him you want to do that with soft knees, to help absorb the impact from the bar landing on your shoulders. I figured it would be good to know when he's using a real bar with real weight.

But he told me he was following the instructions he'd seen on a website, which told him to do exactly what he was doing. He then told me the name of the site, which I forgot five seconds later.

Anyway, I left the guy alone after that, realizing that whatever he was doing, he was doing it exactly the way he thought he was supposed to.

He was a really skinny dude with kind of a triathlete's physique -- clearly in good shape, very lean, but not much muscle mass. Every rep of every exercise he did, he performed exactly the same way.

Problem is, everything he did looked wrong to me. He was doing these full overhead squats where you could see his lumbar spine going into extreme lordosis and then straightening on every rep.

Like I said, I don't know a whole lot about Olympic lifting, but I think Bill Hartman would have to change his name to Heartattackman if he saw someone lift with that degree on movement in his lumbar spine.

If this guy manages to keep lifting without getting hurt, it'll be because he never lifts anything heavy. He did all his Oly lifts with the plastic practice bar, which probably weighs less than 10 pounds. Even when he did conventional exercises, I never saw him pick up anything heavier than a 20-pound dumbbell.

The whole thing helped remind me that, 99 times out of a 100, it's a mistake to try to help people who haven't asked.