Now THAT was great!
"I stepped through the double doors onto a yellow-speckled blue carpet and was greeted by thump thump thump and a loud voice monotonously chanting “Dollar, dollar, dollar.” This was merely the exterior door though..."
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Now THAT was great!
Fun post. Reminded me of when I first started SS, the gym bros and HIITers kept trying to get me to join their tribe, stopping me between squat sets to talk about how I should be doing it. Now I am either ignored or eye balled by these guys.
Reminds me of a kid I used work out with back before the Y closed. Good kid, did a fair amount of actual barbell lifts along with the usual bro nonsense, always "bulking" for a week or two before deciding he had to go on a "cut." But we often spotted each other and he knew better than to steal a rep, so he was alright in my book. At one point we were both stuck on the bench at 185 and I was struggling to get past it at the time due to some shoulder issues and YNTDP; he was struggling to get past it too and we traded some ideas. Fast forward to a few months later and I was setting up for a 252 lb bench and he noticed my microplates. "You load in two pound increments?" he scoffed, incredulous. "I can't believe two pounds makes a difference." I laughed and then did something I almost never do (because, hell, 252 isn't anything special): I reminded him that he was still chasing two plates for a single. No idea if it made a dent, because I haven't been back, and won't be now that I have my own gear. But I wonder how he's doing, sometimes. You can lead a horse to water, but the rest is up to him.
I had a similar conversation with an old Marine at the YMCA. He was telling me a story about how in the old days they painted the 2.5lbs plates pink. He was shocked when I pulled out my 0.25lbs plates. While he could bench press more than I, he also watched me load up 405 and beyond for my squat. It was all in good fun.
As a wise man once observed, what are you going to do if you can't add 5 (or 10) lbs but can add 2? Not get stronger?
I do quite enjoy watching the “gym idiots” videos on YouTube. However after an evening at my local generic mega gym I was amazed to realise that this is not simply the condensed top 1% of the stupidity witnessed in the gym but an accurate reflection of the training of a large minority of the idiots which surrounded me.