I saw two bizarre things at the gym yesterday.
First, a girl on the lat pull-down machine. The weight was very light and she was pulling it down at about 100 mph. She then just let it go back up without providing any resistance. The result was that it went up so fast that it actually lifted her up off the seat on each rep. She did one set of about 6 million reps.
Second, a couple of new guys joined the gym and told the guy they didnt know what to do so one of the gym instructors (janitors?) showed him. He showed him how to do a squat and myself and several others were just staring in disbelief. At the down position he was up on his toes like a ballerina with his knees about 6 inches in front of his toes and his back almost totally vertical. I felt really sorry for the new guys since they now think that is the right way to do it. On the bright side they probably wont ever do another squat, just curls and bench...
Remember, Squats are dangerous...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GF7fQoHaRBo
-Bowdirk
He wasn't this guy was he http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QlfdPFjcfZY& ?
I work out at the local college gym. It's small, they have mostly the entire Nautilus series and small free weight section in the back.
What's funny is no matter what day I go or what time morning or afternoon it's always BENCH & CURL day. Just yesterday I watched these two kids run through just about every curl exercise possible. They barely weight 200lbs put together. I must admit though *that* was me when I was their age too.
One day the instructor was showing a bunch of students how to squat without hurting their knees. This entailed loading up the Smith Machine, getting under the bar and putting their feet way out in front of them. His reasoning was that when you squat with your feet under you it causes a lot of shearing in the knees. Using the Smith Machine cures that problem.
I guess the instructor wasn't up on his physics; it's a shearing force when it's parallel to the face of the material, so the femur/tibia will have more shearing force when the foot is further out.
They tend to be a bit muddled on their physics - my PT school teacher, otherwise a very smart guy, his manual said that a bullet could knock someone down just from momentum. Given that every action has an equal and opposite reaction, it makes me wonder how the shooter stayed upright. Others were worse, mixing up force and momentum, etc.
Probably the instructor just had crap core strength, and couldn't stand upright for long with any decent weight on his back, the Smith machine saved him from the embarrassment of going back to squats with 135lbs.