Apparently Planet Fitness is not entirely judgement free Man charged after nude workout asks if Plaistow Planet Fitness is a 'judgment-free zone' | New Hampshire
4. Spink Alarm
5. Monk alarm, but with a different, more celebratory tone. After all, if you're a monk, there is no spunk.
At my local Anytime Fitness, five sixteen year old boys come in and crowd around the big Cybex pulley thing. I don't know the names of all this stuff, but it's got the lat pulldown bar, and a thing where you can do triceps push-down things. These boys' plan for today was to take it in turns doing the triceps exercise "to failure" over and and over until---I don't know, they might still be there. I wasn't counting, but it looked like they were doing 15-20 reps at a time, with the goal of feeling the burn and being sore tomorrow. Over and over and over. None of them ever appeared to be doing anything other than wearing himself out.
I haven't used that thing in well over a year, because I've been busy training the barbell lifts with a SSC at a better equipment gym. But today I intended to give the triceps pushdowns a try. I waited for these guys to finish, but after a while it was clear they never would. So I walk over and ask to work in. Sure, no problem.
I'm a 51 year old woman. I take the pin out, and place it at the weight that I used to use before I started SS. It feels like no resistence at all. So I ended up putting it on the setting these young men had been using, fully prepared for it to feel a bit challenging for me, what with being an old woman and all. I decide to do as many as I could manage with good form, which turned out to be 15. The first ten were pretty easy, but the last few were genuine work.
The funny thing was the silence behind me as I continued. I know they had watched me set the weight to exactly what they had been using. "8", whatever the hell that means. Obviously these kids can be stronger than me, and should be, but it didn't look like any of them had any experience lifting something that's actually heavy for them, and just didn't know what that feels like.
I don't want to make fun of them (much), but I do hope that the experience of seeing their mom crank out a big set with their weight inspires them to try going a little heavier. If I had done another set, it would have gone up a few plates and done a set of 3, and let them see what that looks like, but I was ready to leave.
I resisted the urge to give advice.
Loved this post Evelyn.