injuries I suppose is a valid reason. from reading a couple of Louie Simmons' articles, he uses belts as well, but he trains weightlifters in an entirely different class than regular gym goers.

I guess its just people looking to look cool or whatever but do they really think any of those things actually do anything? I suppose I have never tried using a lifting belt so can't really talk about that, but straps only help with grip strength, but nothing anyone does besides deadlifts would get any use out of them! And gloves? Really? WTF do they do, exactly? The only "hand problems" I get are the calluses I get from deadlifting and thats hardly a big deal. And I've never seen anyone else in my gym deadlift, ever, but yet I would say 1/4 of the guys in the weight room have gloves on.

haha, some guy had these heavy duty gloves, probably fireman gloves or something. Was doing the basic curl, tricep extension, bench press routines. Not really lifting anything heavy.

I've seen some people squat and deadlift and row with a belt, and usually they squat bad, so they probably need it. Sometimes you'll see a guy do frat exercises and pullups with a belt on. big wtf.

after spending most of my life not doing anything to improve the inflexibility of my hamstrings, I've spent a few months trying to stretch them regularly and only recently had the presence of mind to add in mobility drills regularly

start now. It's worth it. Do it all the time. Do leg raises, toe reaches from all positions, everything you can lightly pressing it more and more. For me at least it was a very slow process. And I still have a long way to go. One of the most motivational things for me was seeing my 6'4 300 pound father with no warmup bend over and touch the ground with his palms. Gotta start somewhere, no shame in it at all.

well this is what I was referring to more or less about always wearing a belt.

And you're right about people who usually wear belts when they squat or DL that they have bad form.

Man just the other day I had to wait for a squat rack because the guy was taking forever. Apparently he's some junior pro football player; for his last set he loads on 4 plates on each side, puts on his belt, and MAYBE went down a 1/4 of the way (if even). Sometimes I want to just ask them what they're trying to accomplish with that much weight if they're barely going down...

It would probably set them straight (at least temporarily)

Actually, supramaximal holds / quarter squats do have some value in increasing max squats.

Most likely he's a douche though, but there are serious trainers who suggest them as a way of getting comfortable under the large weights and stuff.

I'm guessing wearing gloves is more of a fashion than anything else. A lot of people at my gym wear them for the machines. All the handles are padded with dense foam. So there's no way their hands need to be protected.

Ic... but yeah I'm pretty sure he's just doing them completely wrong. Thing is he's a trainer at the gym too which brings me to another observation.

Of all this "knowledge" that trainers should have about exercises, they should at least workout their lower body... damn I mean 95% of the trainers I see at my gym only do upperbody and if they do lower body (like the guy mentioned) they do a ****ty job of it.

Obviously trainers are not as bright as they should be; I saw a session take place where a trainer made his client do lunges with 95 pounds on his back; this client looks as if he just started with his trainer not too long ago and he was surely not capable of doing these lunges. He barely went down on them and rather than the PT say something like, "maybe we should drop the weight", he doesn't say ****. There's only one trainer I know at my gym who has some pretty good knowledge on weightlifting and he's done pretty good for himself.

maybe he is a massage therapist and has to keep his hands soft.

fyp, at least for squats. DL's are ok for doing partials.

K, im gonna go against the grain here and admit I wear gloves w/ barbell and dumbbells. I've lifted many times w/o them, and I get better grip with them on. The weight just seems slightly lighter when I'm wearing gloves, and I can squeeze out an extra rep or two. I still get callouses through the gloves, so thats not a reason to wear them. YMMV.

Contribution: About 25% of the time I'm at the gym there's these same two gimungous roid pumpers that are using the only two benches there. They do one set each (on seperate benches) and then proceed to stand up and lean against the bench and talk for 10 mins between sets. FFS, how long does their workout take?

For some reason it really pisses me off when I see someone at the gym EVERY MORNING like I am, but they do the exact same thing.

For example, there's this older guy, prob in 40s, he looks like a fat/cracked out John Elway with hair like David Gilmore. So everyday when I walk in the gym at 7am, he's walking on the treadmill. Then when I finish my lifting (~45min later) he goes straight to the cable cross and does 15 sets of 6. Then goes to pec dec and does 10 sets of whatever and goes home.

The guy has been going for 6 months and hasn't changed at all, I don't know why but this really makes me angry and kinda sad.

Didn't someone say the definition of a crazy person is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result? Eitherway this guy drive me insance.

you must go to the one on trop and decatur?
The south fountain is the nuts, north...sux donkey balls.

I know in highschool they used to make us wear a belt whenever we did anything like cleans or squats. If it is the only thing you have ever been taught, I can understand.

Can my Gym observation be pickup basketball related?
Ok....why is everyone a douche? I would say that 65% of the time an argument breaks out that never ends and eventually leads to each argumentor spouting their highshool basketball stats from 10 years ago. Furthermore, everyone on both teams is Dwyane Wade. Just because someone contacted your person with the lightest of caresses does not give you the right to call a foul for the 96th time in a row. When you lose your dribble, it was because 6 guys were guarding you and you aren't very talented. It wasn't a foul. Additionally, when you tomahawk me in the head to the ground and I get up and my elbow is bleeding, I shouldn't have to run my foul past the Dwyane Wade Overcompetitive Rules Committee.

Furthermore Mr. 6'4" extremely athletic lazy black guy, it doesn't really make you cool to run up and push the 5'10" white kid as hard as you can when he tries to set a screen on you. Your game would be better served if you didn't 1. get your shot blocked by the unathletic 5'10" white kid the next time down the floor 2. give up three (3) three pointers to him 3. when you clear out and dribble the ball between your legs 12 times, it would probably be good if you sometimes scored.

those are funny

this thread makes me so happy i have a private facility that is 100% empty to work out in.

although i do miss so of the shenanigans that go on at big gyms and miss seeing all the workout girls and their douchey bf's. lol. great thread.

I honestly can't say I'd ever really be willing to workout with my girl. I'd prefer to just find someone who's doing something that works and then not **** with success.


Though is is kinda funny to see hotties doing like 8000 sets of tricep kickbacks while hugey McHugerson does an equivalent number of 1 rep dry hump incline bench reps with accompanying grunts.

Though I'm glad I workout at the post lunch crowd that consists of like 2 hot mommies/2 trainers/cadre of HS girls that come in when I'm leaving.

In the gym today, and this weedy little asian kid comes in. Does about 500 different reps on crappy lightweight exercises... Weird triceps pull downs, about 5 different kinds of chest exercises, 8 million bicep curls with like 2 kilos of weight on each arm.

So I'm considering whether to offer some friendly advice, when this happens.

I've been working out on the bench, wiped it down pretty good, but may have left like 1 drop of sweat on it. He asks me if he can use it, because I'm still standing close by doing other stuff, and I say sure. So he goes over, grabs some of the disinfectant spray they have in my gym for wiping stuff down, and takes about 5 minutes wiping down the bench with 15 metres of paper towel... Focuses for half the time on the bit where id left one drop of sweat...

So is this weird, or is it just me?

Wow, you're stanky! haha!

Seriously, I don't blame anyone for not being fond of anyone else's grease/slime, but 15 minutes is probably taking it a little too seriously. If he's that germ-phobic, he should just lay a towel over the bench and rest easy.

baby's mamas in da morning

young hot chicks in da evening

Eh if it's like super nasty then I'll just grab a bare paper towel and wipe it down; other than that I always shower after so w/e.

Oh and don't bother giving friendly advice because 95% of the people in the gym need to be given advice. Unless yo actually start talking to this kid, who cares?

I've seen a couple people endorse them for squats (Chad Waterbury is the one I saw most recently). Sure, some idiot "squatting to 90" all the time isn't a good thing. However, the logic that "holding big weights makes a lifter more confident and physically prepares their body to lift those weights in future" seems good to me.

I noticed today that there are many, many people who just seem to have big arms and that's it. Their chest, back, shoulders, and legs are small while their arms are gynormous... must be all those curls and tricep extends.

I actually see a small group of people come in and go straight for the curls followed by tricep extensions; and yup, there arms aren't small (though everything else is). So if you want arms disproportional to the rest of your body, you know what to do!

"Furthermore Mr. 6'4" extremely athletic lazy black guy, it doesn't really make you cool to run up and push the 5'10" white kid as hard as you can when he tries to set a screen on you."

1. Call a foul.

OR

2. If this happens once, the next time you screen him, pull a Boris Diaw and turn your body to check him hockey style as he tries to bowl through you.

QFT, I don't look like much of a basketball player so I like to guard this guy because then he thinks hes gonna put up all the points. Usually he talks some ****, can't understand why I won't lock him up 30 feet out ( no shot). Thinks its and 1 mixtape time, does some silly **** while i just move laterally and stay in front of him the entire time. No you didn't "drop me" dude.

Pick up game observation/funny story: one time there was this absolutely awful player who had a heat shaq jersey on. Well after about 3 possessions, he got scored on all three times. He is running down the court, mid-play, with his right hand in one swift motion he rips off the shaq jersey to reveal a lakers kobe jersey. Needless to say it wasn't exactly a superman phone booth transformation as it didn't help much.