There are two times of the year that the gym gets inundated with people that have resolved to get in shape again. The gyms I go to haven't been that bad so far this year. Until today. I'm in the middle of my workout, and this group of five early 30-ish guys descends upon the squat rack next to me. One of them starts barking out orders to the rest of them. Stretch now. Do this, do that. He keeps on stepping into the space I'm lifting in. Then they load up the bar with too much weight and start doing squats. The first guy gets under the bar and does a set of squats with horrific form, going down maybe an eighth of the way, his back taking on the shape of an inverted C. I moved somewhere else, but kept on running into them around the gym. The best part is that they were all listening to this one guy that had no idea what the hell he was doing. They're all either going to quit in a short period of time, or someone is going to get hurt. It was painfully comical to watch this group in action.
This is such a guy thing to do. It's as if we're supposed to be born knowing how to work out, fix cars, and fix shit around the house...and if we don't, we fake it. We can't actually admit we don't know about this stuff! That being said, would it really be too much work to buy a freaking book and at least try to develop a decent workout plan before starting? The ego really needs to be checked at the door. It's pointless to try to lift weights you can't handle, or to do exercises with terrible form.
I know some people are intimidated at the gym because they don't know what they're doing. Most gym memberships include at least one free training session. There is a TON of information in bookstores, the library and the web that can provide you with good workouts and proper form. Anyone that is inexperienced and wants to start working out should do a bit of homework first.
I'm always torn about speaking up to these people, but I rarely, if ever do. The odds are that they won't listen anyway, and I'll just catch some attitude. So I keep my mouth shut and do my workout.
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1 comment:
Its the same at my gym, i too am torn between saying something or just leaving them to it. It is painful to watch them getting it so wrong.
I wish that the trainers would actually walk around and give adivce when they see things like this. Maybe they turn a blind eye as they are not getting paid for a training session.
Those guys will be gone in a few weeks and you will have the squat rack back to yourself!
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