Joined a new gym last night. Hilarious

[Blackjack]

First time I've seen a bro duo load a ton of weight on the bench and then don gloves to jointly row-bench it through about five inches of ROM. Is this described in magazines?

I saw a guy at my gym load 4 plates per side on the Smith Machine, then do 3 quarter reps with spotter row-assist.

[mev20]

I've always found the total disconnect between what's considered heavy in the SS/training community vs. commercial gyms really interesting. I can count on my hand the number of times I've seen a 315+ lb. deadlift in a gym, and anything at 225 or above always invovles belts, gloves, and straps. Yesterday there was a guy that was struggling to half-squat 185. But the only reason I was even watching him at all was because that's the heaviest squat I've seen attempted in months.

I belong to a Life Time Fitness, which is a chain of mega-fitness centers. To get a sense of the enormity of the place, it contains a hair salon and restaurant (the fish tacos are actually quite good) and both the indoor and outdoor pools have dual, two-story waterslides. I read somewhere that my location has over 20,000 members. I've been lifting there for about two years. In that time, I have seen less than 10 people squat more than 225 to parallel or below (and I'm being very generous with what I'm counting as parallel).

[luke.conrad]

I saw 40 year old guy come into the gym with a wooden baseball bat. He screwed a hook into the end. He attached it to one of the useless fancy freemotion machine things and started working on his "swing". It is funny enough when people try to mimic sport movement with regular gym equipment, but bringing an actual bat in was too funny.

[16bit]

thats awesome, i would like to buy that man a beer.

i guarantee 0 fucks where given that day.

[Kyle Schuant]

Looking across the gym at this very moment, a healthy young woman is being trained, doing "front squats" to a bench with her arms crossed supporting a broomstick as her tells her to shove her knees out to 45 degrees and feel the stretch in her hamstrings. This is the sort of thing I am faced with each day.

[Sean Herbison]

I saw an older gentleman (probably ~75) with an awesome shirt: "Seven days without exercise makes one weak."

[PaulBeech]

Spent a while arguing with a couple of people that a 3 or 6kg Kettlebell really wasn't going to be any use buying and to get a 12kg one as your first. A guy said 12kg is too heavy, that's the realm of strength and that he couldn't use it for more than a few reps. I had to explain to him that his training methods aren't working he's atrociously weak and should hand in his masculinity at the first opportunity.

[Dave Paauwe]

Puny weakling, thou shall not enter the Realm of Strength, until you fetch a kettlebell of not three, not six, but 12 THOUSAND grams!

[Alex Kershaw]

Enjoy:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Of4T...sGcMnswP04TbhQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6NL...sGcMnswP04TbhQ

[Brodie Butland]

Things seen over the last two months:
--Woman performs entire routine with a helmet on. Most of said routine consisted of sitting on the ground and moving 2 lbs dumbbells about 4 inches.

--Old guy asks a dude if he needs a spotter for the deadlift, because he's "being rude and dropping the weight" (he wasn't...descent was nothing unusual). Old guy then goes and complains to the worker at the front desk that he "has a heart condition" and can't take loud noises. (Then why are you in a gym?) Worker at the front desk, who himself deadlifts, politely indicates that the old guy is mistaken. Old guy leaves with a huff.

--7 consecutive types of barbell, dumbbell, and cable curls in a row (with multiple sets for each, too!).

--Without any prior warm-up sets, dude loads up the cable pull for a bunch of weight, psyches up, and then tries to do a tricep extension with the rope attachment. Doesn't budge. Then moves on to another machine.

--Person 1 tries to explain to Person 2 the difference between a clean and a snatch. "In this one [the clean], you start from a squat position and pull up to here [indicates ugly reverse curl]. In the other one [the snatch], you start lower and pull all the way up."