Joined a new gym last night. Hilarious

[Jr_Geezer]

Well done RJ. Hopefully that is a turning point in the young man's training. Maybe it could wind up infecting the rest of the football team.

Thanks, but I harbor no illusions that my small effort will have any noticeable effect. But I tried. Turns out the kid is also on the track and field team (pole vault), as is my son (throwing events) so I'll probably see him at meets.

It was interesting to note two things though. One, that Rip is right, once again, about football coaches in general when it comes to strength training. Two, watching the kid deadlift from a hips low position, it really is true that the bar doesn't move until the hips are up in the standard SS starting position.

[Erik Y]

When someone is wearing a belt just walking around, not actually lifting or about to lift anything, that is always a good sign.

You did a good thing. I also doubt the whole football team will be ordering the blue book, but little interactions like this one add up over the long term. Seems like you’ve made a positive difference in at least one person’s life.

[danomite!]

As sad as it is I'm sure you are right. As you said- you tried. And that's all one can do.

Definitely true about the sorry state of strength training in athletics and the meddling of football coaches. The local college football strength & conditioning coach has an instagram page. It makes my eyes bleed with the silly BS he does. He gets paid to teach Cheech & Chong squats (very high) and various 'functional' core exercises.

[Britbong]

At the boxing club I go to, I was getting ready to spar when I overheard this one 'coach' who only does circuit training say "We're going to do an exercise I came up with."

30 seconds later I turn round and observe him holding a pair of gloves by the straps, tickling his partners face with them.

Must be a new core exercise.

[Clyde]

A few weeks ago someone was hanging around the power rack, and I asked if they were using it. Their reply..."I got a few more sets up push ups to do, bro."

He was doing incline push ups with his hands on the safety bars in the rack. Why he couldn't do inclines on any of the hundred benches or other things is beyond me. Not sure why he needed to hog a whole rack.

[danomite!]

I often wonder if people like this are just that inconsiderate or are really that dumb. Maybe it's an attempt at male dominance? Squat envy? Most likely it's some sort of bro science that I can't hope to understand.

[danomite!]

At the boxing club I go to, I was getting ready to spar when I overheard this one 'coach' who only does circuit training say "We're going to do an exercise I came up with."

30 seconds later I turn round and observe him holding a pair of gloves by the straps, tickling his partners face with them.

Must be a new core exercise.

I tried to think of something witty to reply with but came up empty. Just wow.

[PowerDaClean]

This isn’t really funny I think but I’ll share anyway. This guy was deadlifting 315 for reps with a curved back and dropping the weight every rep. One of the attendants came up to him and told him not to drop the weights. The guy says it hurts his back when he doesn’t drop it, so the gym attendant says “Dude, your back looking like a scared cat is what’s hurting you, letting the bar down in a controlled manner is not. I can show you if you want”. The guy refuses to recieve instruction and not drop the weight, so then he gets kicked out of the gym.

How can you be so hard headed

[Mark Rippetoe]

This isn’t really funny I think but I’ll share anyway. This guy was deadlifting 315 for reps with a curved back and dropping the weight every rep. One of the attendants came up to him and told him not to drop the weights. The guy says it hurts his back when he doesn’t drop it, so the gym attendant says “Dude, your back looking like a scared cat is what’s hurting you, letting the bar down in a controlled manner is not. I can show you if you want”. The guy refuses to recieve instruction and not drop the weight, so then he gets kicked out of the gym.

How can you be so hard headed

Like this:

That's precisely the point. I'd much rather have 16" arms and 24" legs than 16" arms and 26-28" legs. I'm not going to be the biggest and strongest lifter in the world, so I'd rather approach lifting from a proportion and symmetry perspective after already having gained an intermediate strength level.

[PowerDaClean]

Haha nice one Rip. I still stand by what I said.