Weekend Archives: No Chalk Allowed!

[Mark Rippetoe]

No Chalk Allowed! | Shaun N Jafarian

[Scaldrew]

Just today one of the girls at the front desk, whom I used to train with in my first three months of lifting, came up to me and told me I couldn't drop the the bar from the rack position after cleaning it. Other people drop all kinds of much heavier weight on the floor, slam it down even, and now the concrete underneath the cheap mats is shattered. Even though the concrete is fine where I always clean, snatch, and deadlift, I can't clean anymore. Says I have to set it down really gently. I basically told her to go fuck herself, but she wasn't having it and I tried catching the bar on my thighs which worked perfectly fine. Still wasn't good enough, but I stopped caring before that point so I just did my cleans and got out. Save your floor by building a platform and restricting pulls off the floor to it, then kick everyone out who continues to pull on concrete. Easy, but no, why spend 200 bucks on a platform when you can spend thousands to renew the floor every few years. Idiots.

Reading the conclusion to this article made me anxious to start my own small, private gym. Even though I'm financially safe right now, I probably shouldn't. But damn it if I don't really, really want to right now. No chalk, no liquid chalk, no cleans or snatches, no heavy deadlifts, no coaching unless it's theirs (which sucks ass), no using yoga mats without putting your towels on them (100% srs), no benching without a towel, and be nice or we'll treat you like shit. Never mind the fact that I disregard all of these, um, instructions anyway. I just hate commercial gyms so much.

[Bwhntr247]

Sad part is some of the best gyms left are where I work, inside Max Prisons. The membership is free though...lol.

[Gerald Boggs]

My Y and every Y I've be to, allows chalk.

[Jimidasprinkla]

Do any of you travel frequently for work? If so, what do you tend to do during the week?

I usually work out at home, and I see a coach at an Olympic gym, so I have no issues normally. However, I may change jobs soon and would need to travel during the week. I’m a little worried about my training but gotta pay the bills.

[WeightsAreHeavy]

I agree with the gym about not dropping the bar from your shoulders.

[Mark Rippetoe]

I do too. They can run their gym any way they want to. I don't let people squat high in my gym. That's why there is more than one gym.

[Scaldrew]

Except that that's not what they're doing. The staff effectively wants to get people like me out. This is why you can't: use chalk; use liquid chalk; deadlift (even though they provide bumper plates); clean and snatch; use benches properly; move equipment around; coach people; use mats without towels on top; fill your water bottle; close the door to the group dancing sessions when they blast their music; do anything other than kiss the staff's asses; shut up, look down, and find another oppressive semi-gym environment in which to train. Never mind that everyone else is dropping weights, plates, barbells, and dumbbells. So what if that's a lot more damaging to their bottom line than a controlled drop of the bar in the clean? It doesn't look or sound as scary and other parts of the gym's floor are damaged, so stop trying to get strong and git out.

They can ask you to do whatever, I agree. But don't let's pretend that they're somehow being reasonable gym managers that somehow know better about training. Most of them couldn't watch someone do cleans, let alone perform one, themselves. My shithole area doesn't offer a serious training environment, sadly, but I intend to change that in the next few years. All I need is a bit more money and the location and it'll be heaven on E-arth.

[Mark Rippetoe]

Except that that's not what they're doing. The staff effectively wants to get people like me out. This is why you can't: use chalk; use liquid chalk; deadlift (even though they provide bumper plates); clean and snatch; use benches properly; move equipment around; coach people; use mats without towels on top; fill your water bottle; close the door to the group dancing sessions when they blast their music; do anything other than kiss the staff's asses; shut up, look down, and find another oppressive semi-gym environment in which to train.

Then leave. It's their gym, not yours. Ownership, private property. etc. Wait... Belgium has private property, right?

[Mark D]

I've been going to a Gold's Gym in NJ which isn't TOO bad. They don't mind chalk (they just ask that you not make a mess with it, which is reasonable, I keep mine in a plastic bag which I put my hands inside to chalk up without getting it all over the floor/walls/parking lot). The biggest problem is lack of equipment, one power rack, two angled racks. One day I went in an a woman was doing burpies in the power rack, one bro was curling in one squat rack and another was doing toe-raises in the other. I ended up buying my own 2.5 lb plates because as far as I can tell the gym owns seven of them (why an odd number? It's New Jersey, nothing has to make sense). One day a guy had six of them on a bar doing wrist curls, because math is hard.

Oh yeah, tons of machines, and a cardio cinema I've never been in.