OT: gym etiquette

[Travelman6]

-Not cleaning the machines after use.
-Grunting and groaning excessively and unnecessarily. I've even seen some guys yell. Ya, we are all working hard, just stop.
-Bringing in personal speakers and playing the music for everyone to hear. Usually cr@p music too, like reggaeton or aggressive rap. Get some headphones! Not everyone wants to hear your music!
-Taking personal phone calls/pacing around the gym chatting on the phone.
-Taking your shirt off. No one wants to see that man.
-Switching on the tv or changing the channel and not asking anyone else.
-Big groups of sorority type girls trying to lose the freshmen 15/trying to get thin and than just stand around one machine chatting about nothing. Then you don't see them for 2 months, thankfully. But still, do something.
-I do a lot of cardio. The guys who take a machine RIGHT NEXT TO YOU instead of the dozen others and almost seems like they get hype competitive an try to match and surpass your pace. Let me watch my youtube with headphones in peace, I don't care if your mile pace is slightly faster than me!

 

[Rocktheworld]

Guys who insist on performing all of their personal grooming (shaving, brushing teath, blow dry) in front of the sinks/mirrors, all while completely naked. Sometimes they’ll even use the blow dryer on their junk. Wtf.

My gym opens at 5 and every day there are the same two dudes taking their time with their first big crap of the day in the only two stalls there. One of the negatives of being a regular at a particular hours with other regulars at said hour

 

[jibsey]

Sitting at a machine for a long time reading a cellphone or texting. Not too many complaints at LA Fitness but I do do see all of the transgressions listed above from time to time. In the locker room itself there are some hilarious and horrifying sights that I try to avert my eyes from. Like when Jerry asked George in the Seinfeld episode “did you peek”? . George: “yeah I peeked”.

 

[B1GEast]

Sitting there on a machine taking your sweet arse time and then that person realizes that you want to use the machine so they move even slower

 

[Hans Sprungfeld]

Guys who enter the sauna still wearing their their stinky gym clothes and/or automatically add water to heat up the space without either sensing if it's needed or asking if anyone minds.

 

[sledog]

Farting while doing the bench press / squat renders the equipment radioactive until the haz-mat team neutralizes it.

 

[Husky68]

Chicks that do dumbbell curls with each dumbbell weighing more than I use to do barbell curls!

 

[superjohn]

1. The idiots at 5:30am that park themselves on a bench scrolling emails on their phone while drinking their Dunkachino, complaining about getting up so early to work out. They do 2 sets of bicep curls (the most useless weightlifting exercise ever), the complain they’ll be exhausted at work, then leave

2. Fat old farts that try to pick me up at the gym. I wave my wedding ring in front of them but they’re oblivious. I’m on a schedule at 5am, get away from me

Agree to an extent but curls have their place. You hit your arms with all the other big movements to some extent but curls are still probably the king for arm development. Incline dumbell curls are great, keep the form pretty tight and don't have to go heavy at all. Standing hammer curls I like to go heavy.

 

[phillionaire]

Not re-racking your weights. Curling in the squat racks. Doing either of those should lead to you being shot into the sun with a cannon.

 

[RF79]

Some of the most outrageous ppl in the gym are the ones that are using multiple pieces of equipment for their “super set” and taking their sweet time in between sets hogging up all these pieces of equipment and caring less about anyone else’s time or lack there of.

 

[Scoe]

Guys who take the bottom of their shirt to wipe their sweaty forehead, most of the time it happens to be a fat guy, like dude we dont need to see your gut.

 

[Dream Jobbed 2.0]

Just today, this guy who looked like he could have been the crypt keepers dad was jogging up and down the stairs ignoring the “workout lane” in the middle.

 

[Rocktheworld]

Farting while doing the bench press / squat renders the equipment radioactive until the haz-mat team neutralizes it.

Bruh that glute squeeze and hip drive is at least 50% of the squat and at least 25% of your bench.

Funny thing that happened to me, the first time I hit a front squat double at 225, I had to let out a MASSIVE rip in between reps. Everyone had to hear loud and clear. Almost lost the second rep but it went up to my amazement, so it was worth it.

 

[Rocktheworld]

Just today, this guy who looked like he could have been the crypt keepers dad was jogging up and down the stairs ignoring the “workout lane” in the middle.

Yes let’s make this a “what I saw today in the gym” log lmao

 

[HuskyNan]

Agree to an extent but curls have their place. You hit your arms with all the other big movements to some extent but curls are still probably the king for arm development. Incline dumbell curls are great, keep the form pretty tight and don't have to go heavy at all. Standing hammer curls I like to go heavy.

Depends on your goals, I guess. My trainer wants me to use big, multi-muscle exercises to add to my core strength which helps me lift more. I get a complete workout with fewer exercises that way.

 

[Rocktheworld]

Depends on your goals, I guess. My trainer wants me to use big, multi-muscle exercises to add to my core strength which helps me lift more. I get a complete workout with fewer exercises that way.

Well generally, women shouldn’t bother training isolated movements like a curl. You all for the most part, from an endocrinology standpoint, just can’t and shouldn’t try to lift like men.

I agree that you should really just do the bigger compound movements. As you said, get more out of fewer exercises. Any female will look great consistently doing squats, bends, lunges, (assisted) pull-ups, rows, and overhead press.

In fact, if you did something like

Deadlift/dumbbell row/step-up
Squat/pullup/overhead
Goodmorning/lunge/barbell row

That’s a solid Monday/Wednesday/Friday split

 

[superjohn]

Depends on your goals, I guess. My trainer wants me to use big, multi-muscle exercises to add to my core strength which helps me lift more. I get a complete workout with fewer exercises that way.

Yep, you're doing it right. I've found over the years that if you go hard on big compound type movements you can get the most out of your workouts in a short amount of time. Intensity is way more important than volume, IMO. Pretty sure I get more out of 40 minutes of hard work than people who spend 1.5 hours plus.

I'm just saying curls have a role if you want big arms. Not sure why women would want big arms. Years ago I would do all sorts of heavy curling movements and cable stuff but I don't think it's necessary in the least bit. Nowadays, I'll just finish a back workout with one or two curl movements. Rotate between standing ez bar curls Incline dumbell curls and spider curls.

 

[JimHurley]

Lifting right in front of the dumbbell racks so that nobody can take the dumbbells that they are blocking.

 

[AllAbout5]

Screaming wildly while lifting 10 lb weights

I find those hilarious.

 

[NYCHusky]

Naked old guys that treat a locker room like a 1950s Men’s Club

 

[Rocktheworld]

Screaming wildly while lifting 10 lb weights

Bro those forearm curls are inteeeennnse

 

[Mano]

This thread seems like its primed and ready for some fresh Rocktheworld lifting related copypasta. Someone egg him on about what his regimen is.

 

[CTBasketball]

Why would you want them to leave the 45's on?

135 should be lowest setting on the bench.

 

[superjohn]

135 should be lowest setting on the bench.

That's stupid. The lowest should always be the bar. Everyone should do whatever weight works for them, if you're too lazy to put on your own plates or strip your own weights you shouldn't go to the gym.

 

[CTBasketball]

That's stupid. The lowest should always be the bar. Everyone should do whatever weight works for them, if you're too lazy to put on your own plates or strip your own weights you shouldn't go to the gym.

If you can’t bench 135 you should probably start with dumbbells so you don’t hurt yourself. Has nothing to do with laziness.

 

[superjohn]

If you can’t bench 135 you should probably start with dumbbells so you don’t hurt yourself. Has nothing to do with laziness.

It's pretty rare that any woman can bench 135 lbs.

 

[Palatine]

I have a Planet Fitness "Black Card" membership, which allows me to use any Planet Fitness, anywhere. It costs $10 more per month but totally worth it for me because I travel around the state frequently for work and I keep a packed gym bag in my car at all times so I can hop in and get in a workout whenever, wherever I am, if I have an hour or so to spare. I really like the anonymity of going to other gyms, especially at non-peak hours. And almost every one of them is nicer than my "home" Planet Fitness.

But the thing that still makes me scratch my head about my home gym is free pizza on the first Monday of every month. And it's really good pizza from a very good local place. But it is absolutely the last thing I am thinking about when I am going to the gym, especially on a Monday, when I am almost always trying to atone for overindulgence over the weekend. It's gotten to the point that it angers me when I end up at the gym on those nights because it's a completely unnecessary temptation that seems antithetical in just about every way. And there is clearly a crowd of people who are there because it is free pizza night, which blows my mind. I've never given in, but I have to block out the thought because, well, it's pizza and it's damned good.

The free pizza keeps you coming back to the gym, like a rehab center giving out free heroin.

 

[Fishy]

Depends on your goals, I guess. My trainer wants me to use big, multi-muscle exercises to add to my core strength which helps me lift more. I get a complete workout with fewer exercises that way.

OP: I have a trainer and he says...

Boneyard Advice Columnist: Yeah, but you’re a girl, so....

 

[AAC Guru]

Naked old guys that treat a locker room like a 1950s Men’s Club

I totally agree and it seems to be a certain demographic. What was it about that generation that makes them so comfortable walking around the lockerroom naked? Did they grow up showering in gym class in front of everyone? Is it a want to show what your packin type thing?

 

[Rocktheworld]

135 should be lowest setting on the bench.

You’re not the same guy who “lol big deal” over Kevin Mensah hitting a triple at 315, are you?