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I've learned to question the folks that come into the gym wearing those wide-brimmed baseball hats with some baseball team logo embroidered on the front. I can understand a bandanna or something along those lines for badassnses (see "Old Testament God," above. By the way- best nickname ever) but a HAT? Whats the point, besides style?
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Its an MMA thing.Originally Posted by mcsquared
All the MMA fighters put their tapout hats on right after a fight so the idiots in college who "train MMA" have to walk around in the gym head to toe in tapout shit with the fighting shorts, gloves, tight shirts and of course the hat worn ever-so-slightly to the side
I seriously fucking hate MMA
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I cannot understand how it is possible to converse while training.
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You can't. He wasn't.
Signed up for a couple classes at the local community college a while back. Included use of the gym for free.
There was a power rack. Waited for the curling boys to finish (that shit's everywhere, isn't it?). Started warming up. I get up to 135 (still warming up) and this kid working there runs over and asks me if I need a spot. I'll refer to him as "Manorexic," because I doubt he weighed as much as my warmup set. I said, "No, thanks, I got the pins set up in case I need to dump the bar." He looked puzzled by that comment, but he simply warned me about going so deep (you know, the "knees" thing) and walked away.
Finished squats, walked over to the dumbbell racks to grab a flat bench, and there were two chicks sitting there. One was saying she used the seven pound dumbbells because the other colors looked bad with her outfit. She wasn't joking.
Back at the rack, started warming up. Manorexic runs over and tells me I can't bench without collars, and I "really shouldn't use the power rack for benches, anyway." He wasn't joking.
I tell him I get distracted by spotters, and use the rack and pins so I can bench alone. He allows it. Lucky me.
I get done benching, and a guy who was watching me asks if he can use the rack for squats. "Sure, thanks for waiting." I move my crap out of the way and set up for deadlifts over in the corner.
Glance back, and the squatter has put on gloves, a belt, some sort of slip-on knee things, and "the pad" on the bar. He does a couple sets with 135. I doubt he went below a 1/4 squat, and it looked more like a sort of quick bow, like when those guys in an old kung fu movie do the quick bow to the boss before they go get beat up by the star.
Oh, yeah, everyone else there was either on a treadmill, a bike, or one of those skiing things- and every one of them was watching television.
I'm glad I got my power rack at home. It was interesting, though.
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That's a hilarious image.
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My 24Hour Experience
24 Hour Fitness, that is--cousin to Bally's, Powerhouse, Fitness Planet et al.
Thought I would pay them a visit because I've been having trouble working in my workouts during the day. (24 hour is open all the time you see). I should have known better, but trying to remain positive about the experience, here's something things I observed:
Positives:
High ceiling (helps with noise and I like high ceilings anyway)
A water fountain that works
A sauna and steam bath
Negatives:
One power rack, one squat rack, both next to a smith machine (guess what seemed to be more popular?), 1000 or more cardio machines, oh, and a lot of people in the gym. They must be doing something right.
They have a platform with rack for deadlifting (what the salesman called it but actually not--it's elevated, and you can't set a barbell on it). What it can actually be used for is romanian deadlifts. So, I'm doing some romanians, and two guys working the smith machine a few feet away are yakking away, just obviously to the fact I'm dealing with a heavy weight.
Saw some guys earlier on same said platform doing some exercise I've never seen before--bar at the hang, curl grip, grunt and lift it a few inches toward the waist. I'm tempted to call them hang curls, although they weren't really curling the weight. Mebbe shrug curls?
Somebody had thrown their sweater on the T-Bar row machine--one of the few pieces of equipment I might be tempted to use in a place like that.
Mirrors in front of everything including the squat rack and no good way to avoid them. I really hate mirrors in the gym.
Leg lift/dip rack. Dude does his set, and instead of getting off the damn thing in case someone else might want to use it, just hangs slouching in the rack in anticipation of the day when he decides to do another set.
The sauna and pool made for a warm, humid environment. Bad for weightlifting. There was, in fact, rust on the power rack--something I've not see in Colorado before.
Dirty, wet locker room. I didn't even take a shower there. Just took my sweaty body home.
Last edited by matclone; 01-19-2010 at 04:56 PM.
Member
Today at the gym I was watching from the squat rack as this guy and his training partner, both wearing shirts with the sleeves cut off, loaded up the bench press with 275 lbs. Now, neither of these guys were "hyuuuge", but the one that was getting ready to press this weight was pretty decently sized. I suddenly felt this huge crushing disappointment, having been so proud of my 210 lb squat just minutes earlier - and now this guy was about to bench press more than I can deadlift. He starts his set. He brings the weight crashing down to his chest. His training partner is spotting him, and is holding the bar with his elbows bent at 90 degree angles, like in the middle of a bicep curl. He starts doing these deadlift-like hitches to help his partner bring the weight up, with his arms still in the bicep-curl position. This looked painful. They proceeded to do 6 more reps of this, with the weight crashing down onto the guy's chest and being raised very, very slowly. The guy on the bench gets up, puffs out his chest and starts to brag about how his chest muscles feel so sore and pumped from that set, while his training partner pats him on the back. Despicable.
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My first set of squats I did backwards to the pins, having to rack it behind me. I immediately felt the folly of my attempt, but I must have looked like a complete retard.
Once I had no collars on the bench - and had a plateslide, resulting in one side then the other unloading about 250 lbs. of plates. I jumped up, pumped my fists and yelled "YEAH!" and had everyone laughing. Of course I meant to do that.
Busted the ass out of my shorts squatting one day. Fortunately it was a PL gym, so I tied my shirt around my waist and finished the session, looking like a complete fag, but got 'er dun. Remove your shirt at any of these other gyms on the east coast and they'll be on you like white on rice.
We all screw up sooner or later, not thinking or not knowing something.
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oops-never mind (how the hell do you delete a post?)
Last edited by OldMike; 01-19-2010 at 07:02 PM.
Member
I feel you on that, brother. I guess the good thing about this "style" of training is the fact that we rarely ever use spotters, and when we do, they are utilized properly. I'm almost afraid to ask for a spot on bench (the only time I'll ask for a spot if i can help it) because I feel like most people don't the proper way to spot. Nevertheless, most of the gym population over-utilizes spotters, as Rip addresses in SS: BBT. I try not to compare myself/ my training to people like that anymore unless I'm trying to enrage myself right before a heavy set.
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