Joined a new gym last night. Hilarious

[MBasic]

Today was a new one.

I didn't get to see the very beginning of this, but a guy either got pinned in a back squat, and/or lost balance and lost a squat behind him. I had just sat down after a pretty heavy rep, there's this loud bang. I look up, the dude is lying on the platform, the loaded bar (~285#) is rolling across the floor of the gym....pretty fucking fast too.

For a micro second, I'm like "fuck, I'm tired, not going to get it"

Next micro second, "aw fuck, it's headed for a bunch of unsuspecting people"...I start to get up.

Next micro second: others start to notice, take action to stop the barbell from steamrolling a bunch of soccer moms watching a trainer demo some new move....so I sit back down. Thank God.

The lifter dude guy: I guess he thought for a second that the bar was still on the platform. He nonchalantly turned(rolled) around, then saw what was going on, and ran after it. It must've hit the corner/edge of the platform to give it a good horizontal push...it just didn't roll off the edge to get going that fast.

So after the bar has been stopped, the lifterguy deadlifts with a mixed grip, kinda tucks into his hip crease and walks/waddles it back to his platform...face completely beet red with strain. I was like WTF ... The barbell, being like a car axle, could've been rolled 25 feet back to his platform...the plates ARE round ya know. ...much like wheels.

Oh, and another guy who was wearing a "I know SQUAT" shirt...squatting 6" high, in running shoes, having to tip toe the bar out of the hooks cuz they were set too high...

[gallon_of_cheese_a_day]

Had to ask a guy who was doing pistol squats and falling over to stop doing that behind me while I was snatching.

Also saw a girl using two 10kg bumpers to prop up the 10kg iron plates she had on the bar so she could deadlift from the proper height.

[melody]

My gym is a lifter's gym. There's a couple of cardio machines but otherwise it's barbells, dumbbells and strongman equipment (+ some recently acquired machine shit in trying to change it's image - more on dis below)

So I'm convinced the owner is now trying to appeal to your mainstream weight loss / tone folks, and as such they do daily classes for 6 weeks where the prowler / yoke / farmers stuff is used. Clients pay a few hundred £ and do 1-1.5 hours of circuit training outside every weeknight for 6 weeks to burn fat

They've just completed the first 6 weeks and are posting testimonials on Facebook. However, I know some of the women in that and they look the same to me? Yet the testimonials are goddamn novels - going on about how much fun it was, how great and supportive all the girls were, how it was outside their comfort zone and they had to push themselves... I asked the gym where the weight loss numbers are lol. Waiting for a response

It was the same with the strongman/strongwoman competition. Everyone who entered was asked for a testimonial. Mine was something like 'I had fun training with different equipment and met some cool people'. The other guy's were similarly short. Some of the women's were talking about how this was the hardest thing they've ever done, they were really out of their depth but they pushed themselves and are proud of how they did. The women's weights were relatively lighter than the men's (my sister met the minimum requirements having trained properly for less than a year) and I know a good few of the girls didn't train at all for it - just turned up on the day lol.

I don't know where all this heartfelt bullshit comes from. I'm sure I sound like a dick but I don't think either the 6 week / minimum result fat loss club or the barely prepared for strongwoman comp warrant the aggrandizement

You realize your gym needs to make money, right? If those people don't pay it, you'll have to.

[Bill Been]

You realize your gym needs to make money, right? If those people don't pay it, you'll have to.

I think Kregna was just taking a shot at the over-the-top descriptions of how deep and meaningful the whole experience was. I saw way too much of this in Kettlebell Land where it was routine to describe simple "how to swing" workshops using terms like "a new paradigm". Don't even get me started on the instructor cert weekend - which I thought was one of the biggest disappointments ever - being described as "life altering" and "a forge in which lifelong bonds of friendship and comraderie are formed". It literally reminded me of all the overwrought pronouncements about "trials, tribulations, good times, bad times, fun times and character molding challenges" - that habitually get made in High School graduation speeches.

[Kregna]

You realize your gym needs to make money, right? If those people don't pay it, you'll have to.

Of course I do, that wasn't the point of my post. But he's also wrong for trying to go mainstream with the gym, and I'm happy to elaborate if you want

I think Kregna was just taking a shot at the over-the-top descriptions of how deep and meaningful the whole experience was. I saw way too much of this in Kettlebell Land where it was routine to describe simple "how to swing" workshops using terms like "a new paradigm". Don't even get me started on the instructor cert weekend - which I thought was one of the biggest disappointments ever - being described as "life altering" and "a forge in which lifelong bonds of friendship and comraderie are formed". It literally reminded me of all the overwrought pronouncements about "trials, tribulations, good times, bad times, fun times and character molding challenges" - that habitually get made in High School graduation speeches.

Yes, put way more succinctly than me

Very cringy. Some people try to make more of these things than there really is...

[chrisd]

I think Kregna was just taking a shot at the over-the-top descriptions of how deep and meaningful the whole experience was. I saw way too much of this in Kettlebell Land where it was routine to describe simple "how to swing" workshops using terms like "a new paradigm". Don't even get me started on the instructor cert weekend - which I thought was one of the biggest disappointments ever - being described as "life altering" and "a forge in which lifelong bonds of friendship and comraderie are formed". It literally reminded me of all the overwrought pronouncements about "trials, tribulations, good times, bad times, fun times and character molding challenges" - that habitually get made in High School graduation speeches.

Was this a training course or the Spanish Civil War ?

[Mark E. Hurling]

Was this a training course or the Spanish Civil War ?

Perhaps you should re-read The Road to Wigan Pier. Or maybe Burmese Days would be better.

[chrisd]

Perhaps you should re-read The Road to Wigan Pier. Or maybe Burmese Days would be better.

Perhaps I'll just maintain my fond memories of the people I have known who were there.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Perhaps I'll just maintain my fond memories of the people I have known who were there.

Yes. Perhaps that might be better.

So you knew/know people who were in the colonial police in Burma like Orwell was?

[Mark E. Hurling]

It was his time in the colonial police, particularly Burma, that his political views that culminated in going to Spain were formed. There's photo of him from his Burma days where he is sporting a Hitler mustache.