So I work in a "4ish" star hotel and I walked passed the "gym" and I had to take a double look. There was a 300ish lb dude standing next to the treadmill, looking upwards to the tv on the wall.

His dog was walking on the treadmill.

Wow. Mercy kill.

I need help with something.

I recently taught my girlfriend SS lifts, which she really enjoys. The problem is, because she goes to the gym alone people can’t wait to give her “tips,” with the dumb personal trainers being the worst offenders. Last Friday was the worst – she did one rep on her first squat warmup set when an idiot PT came over and said “WHOA WHOA missy, walk forward and rack that bar, you’re gonna hurt yourself.” Apparently the bar was too low on her back, she needed to point her feet forward rather than angled out, and she was going too deep. He then proceeded to have his client demonstrate “proper” squat form, after which he wanted her to squat “properly” with him looking on. She said thanks but no thanks and did cardio instead.

Now this whole situation obviously pissed my girlfriend off even though she handled the situation much better than I would have. If I accompanied her to the gym I could just say “Get the **** out dude you have no idea what you’re talking about and you are a detriment to society” when these idiots approach her. Unfortunately I belong to a different gym, and since she is a slightly built and fairly non-confrontational girl she doesn’t have the same capacity to be a dick that I do. So instead she wants black and white evidence to show the idiots that what she’s doing is correct.

Given all that, what are some good websites she could print out that show correct squat form (pictures and text, no videos)? I sent her the SS wiki link, but I’m looking for something a little more succinct, and ideally a resource showing how NOT to squat. The more condescending the better. Thanks.

My wife had the same thing happen. A few things that I can think of

- her gym has tons of personal trainers, and it turns out that one of them is a power lifter. Have your girlfriend ask around to see if any of the trainers are power lifters and then have her make friends with that one, both for defense and for good advice.

- have her bring a copy of Starting Strength to the gym and say she's following the program from the book.

- if none of that works, have her pretend to be really dim and just say "my boyfriend said to do this" as an excuse to not really listen to the trainers.

then again, my wife used to be a rugby player and didn't really have much of a problem with telling the trainers they were full of it, so YMMV.

Tell her to tell the "PT" that she's doing low bar squats as instructed by the program she is following.

I wish it were this easy.

The problem is, the trainers clearly think "LOL GIRLS CAN'T LIFT" and feel the need to protect their precious little frames from getting hurt. I'm afraid her assurance alone that she knows what she's doing won't be enough to get them off her ass, so she needs an independent source.

I like poincareueaux's suggestions for either befriending a non-******ed trainer or bringing a copy of the book to the gym.

Tough spot for sure. If the book thing doesn't work, teach her how to be a dick lol. GL

Really just sounds like she needs to be more assertive, her being a girl doesn't have much to do with it. If someone interrupts you in the middle of a squat set, tell them off imo. Other than that if she wants to be non confrontational she can just act disinterested and ignore whatever they say and they'll get the idea pretty quickly and leave her alone

http://www.nsca-lift.org/HotTopic/do...at%20Depth.pdf

i can't for the life of me find the article that gives the actual amount of force produced in a squat. it showed some negligible amount of force that, iirc, was only like 1/4 of what the ACL can withstand by itself.

and yea, a simple 'i'm not interested' or '**** off' works amazingly well.

cheers

Anyone who would say a line like:

will never listen to any evidence she presents no matter how logical and correct it is.

It's best to ignore such "helpers" as much as possible. Wearing an ipod/headphones will deter most unwanted conversationalists. For fools who persist, short responses are better than entering debates. Quick response, redo headphones/ear buds, and ignore.

She might enjoy this article. It covers a whole bunch of bs that she's likely to encounter.

Finding a workout partner might be nice in general, but I'm not sure using big men to fight these little battles for her is a great life strategy.

Hopefully, she won't allow stupid people to keep her from doing what she knows is right.

Perhaps she could say something like:

"I already have a boyfriend."

"I wouldn't go out with you.... ever."

"How about no."

"lol @ u"

Option 1: Completely ignore the guy, like he isn't there and you don't hear him, don't look at him or acknowledge him in any way.

Option 2: "F**k you dipsh*t." then do option 1.

This is unfortunately more the norm than the exception, and can be pretty intimidating. A couple of the girls I worked with dealt with this when they lifted alone in different ways.

One just smiled and said something to the effect of "Thanks for the tip!" and continued. Of course, this was after she was confident in her lifts/technique. Another one just mouthed off and laughed at the depthtards.

It's also key to note that PTs are looking for new clients, and once they know you're not looking for a trainer, they usually back off. Like solrit said, headphones work as well.

ETA: logic and reason is probably a waste of time

this stuff always happens to girls or when girls are around. i posted here about the ****** PT who called a press a snatch and described a push press as starting at chin height and ending at a significant forward arm angle. but only when i was showing my girlfriend how to press.

i definitely agree with those saying bringing evidence or getting into a discussion is completely pointless if not one of the worst responses. no response (probably ideal) or short statements like "i know what i'm doing" are vastly better.

I remember that post, THE SHOULDERS GET THE FULL BENEFIT.

It's worthless because most of the time they just want to sleep with the girl or show how expert they are in order to pick up a client to pay them monies and don't truly care about the person's form. Or they're just too dense to argue with anyway and you'll spend too much time not exercising and bitching about squat form or whatever.

+1 to the bolded

Solrit et al are correct. It is not worth it and will only cause her more hassle. She will do best to simply ignore them or just say "ok" and continue doing what she was doing.

rape whistle

I agree.

lol, good one

When I get unsolicited advice (doesn't happen as much now that I squat more than I've seen anyone squat in my gym lololsickbragzzzz), I usually respond with something along the lines of:

- Thanks for the tip.
- That sound good.
- I'll give it a try.

Then obv go back to what I was doing.

Either that, or what Thremp said.

the walk forward out of the rack thing is so illogical. not just on the "well to rack the weight afterward will be pretty hard", but jesus, you're a lot more stable taking a short step backward than step forward.

and yeah, best play is just a quick dismissal and that you know what you're doing.

How about some form of "this is what my power lifting coach tells me to do" and that'll both tell the PT that she already has a PT and that she has a source of expert advice.

She probably doesn't want to have a 10-minute debate on benefits of the deep low-bar squat and carry around evidence for her side (but I prefer not to talk to anybody, so maybe she secretly wants to have gym conversations). And she can't just say "this is what my bf said to do" because that doesn't imply any expertise.

"leave me alone, f**kface" seems to work pretty well for the girls i know that used it.