This sounds like bullshit...

[tweakxc03]

Today I was deadlifting 365 for a set of 5 with iron plates. I was not dropping the bar or setting it down stupidly fast like a goober... just setting the bar down. It was heavy of course, so it made moderately loud noise.

After I was done, a trainer came up to me saying I needed to tone it down, because the rubber on the floor was only 1/8" thick and I was going to crack the concrete.

1. Who in their right mind buys 1/8" rubber flooring for a free weight room?
2. Is there any validity to my cracking poured concrete with 365lbs on a controlled descent?

[Mark Rippetoe]

1. There is no commercially available 1/8" rubber flooring product for a gym application, or any other application that I know of. Measure it.

2. If the slab is perhaps 1 inch, probably. But again, there are no slabs poured in a commercial building less than 4", to my knowledge. Building codes and such. Did the guy build the floor himself?

[elVarouza]

Maybe there's no way you can crack the floor, but will a well-reasoned, cogent argument change the trainer's mind? Doubtful.

[strideknight]

Ask him to stand next to you and jump up and down with you. If that breaks the floor then you have your answer.

[tweakxc03]

This gym is on the 2nd floor of the office building that houses the Omni Hotel in Uptown Charlotte. It's a skyscraper, so I have a hard time believing the floors can't handle this.

I have discovered that the trainer in question manages all of the other trainers there and thinks he's a hard ass. Apparently he is a moron, as are most of the other trainers. There is ONE trainer there with a brain in his head (he is the one that demanded they get a Pendlay Oly platform and power rack). I am begging the guy to go get his SS certification so that there will be a legit Starting Strength coach in Charlotte. The other day I saw a trainer put a client on a leg press and then gave him a barbell to do INCLINE PRESS AND LEG PRESS AT THE SAME TIME.

I would have just used the bumpers for my DL's, but a lot of the trainers that have NO idea what they are doing put their clients on it for an entire workout of "functional" exercises using no more than 65lbs. Makes my blood boil.

[Mark Rippetoe]

You're training in the wrong gym. Which makes this YOUR problem.

[OCG]

Any concrete used in a skyscraper or even moderately large building is going to be reinforced concrete. And they will use many, many inches of it. It is very unlikely you could ever manage to crack it with anything short of a very large jackhammer. But as Rip said, perhaps you should find another gym.

[wal]

controlled[/B] descent?

No. I have dropped a 25Kg plate a few times onto a tiled floor from about a meter, cracked a tile or 2, but thats it. Reinforced concrete, no chance. I would move to somewhere else. Skyscrapers generally have tons of water stored on the top floor, so your 365 lbs is a fly on an elephant.

[andrewg]

Today I was deadlifting 365 for a set of 5 with iron plates. I was not dropping the bar or setting it down stupidly fast like a goober... just setting the bar down. It was heavy of course, so it made moderately loud noise.

After I was done, a trainer came up to me saying I needed to tone it down, because the rubber on the floor was only 1/8" thick and I was going to crack the concrete.

1. Who in their right mind buys 1/8" rubber flooring for a free weight room?
2. Is there any validity to my cracking poured concrete with 365lbs on a controlled descent?

Why are you working out at this gym? You can go to the uptown Y and deadlift with no problem. Plus there plenty of other gyms in a close radius where you can do this.

[tweakxc03]

For one, the uptown Y is swamped with people. For another, I am fairly certain they don't have bumpers plates (a nice to have, not a need to have...)

For the most part these idiots don't bother me. I can just wait and deadlift on the platform and they'll leave me alone. The pro's outweigh the cons at this gym, however stupid the con's may be.