Not a gym observation, but I thought this was amusing after my own horrific belligerent old guy experience. From
www.70sbig.com (now one of my new favorite sites):
"Hey Justin,
I’ve been following the linear progression for about 2-3 months, and working on doing things right like in Mark Rippetoe’s book. I train at a “fitness gym” (because they have child care, but I hate the place). I’m 180lbs and 5’9″, not naturally strong. I am at 250 on squat (started around 200), 280 on dead lift (working on 300), and 130 on press ( started at 115). I’m not the strongest guy but I’m working on it.
The other day I was going for a PR on deadlift and this guy yelled at me from across the room and tossed a 45 lbs weight at me. He went on and on about how he much he used to lift and that my weight was “chicken ****”. All this while he was doing leg presses. He told me I was an insult to people like him, tearing up his gym, and making too much noise. This is a guy who does curls inside the squat rack.
A few days later I was looking in my notebook to see what my work set was going to be he yells at me across the gym, “Hey you need me to sign off on that? Holy **** that’s a lot of weight. Man, you might need a spot!” This is while he and his friend were doing press with the smith machine by the way. All this has really discouraged me lately, because picking a fight would cost me my career in law enforcement. There is not a whole lot I can do but keep getting stronger.
I tell you all this to say that it was really hard to ball my fist around a barbell and lift when I wanted to just walk out. I just wanted to thank you for making this website. I know a lot of posts are funny, but a lot of the posts put some fire in my ass to go lift in spite of idiots like him. So thanks, it really helps a lot. OK, I’m gonna go drink some milk.
–Russell"
I bet ANYTHING that the dude bitching him out was over 40. Deadlifting seems to really piss off old dudes.