Yea, perhaps more for RDLs. Hamstring flexibility should define ROM.

This really young kid came up to ask me about powercleans and squats. Asked me if I've heard of Rip-toe.

<3

Show this fine youngster the ways of the iron my friend! I think in the UK we get a lot less hilarious frat boys etc doing ******ed stuff but I am thinking we get more asian and muslim guys in doing 100 sets of curls.

Not for normal deads, obv, but, depending on your individual body, if you are lowering the weight all the way to the floor, you're probably also lowering it enough to lose the arch in your back and your lower back becomes curved while doing a stiff legged deadlift. Combine this with the fact that your spine and hams are under enormous pressure during the lift and that most people are going to relax the muscles as they put the weight down then pull it up with a quick JERKING motion, and I can see why this could lead to injury.

That's pretty much awesome... how young was the kid? Damn I sure wish I'd gotten started on training well when I was really young.
I asked a personal trainer like 2 years ago when I first got started lifting about power cleans and he couldn't show me how to do them. = /

That sucks for you, I had this guy to help me with my form thankfully. Was a big big help when I was first getting into weights and wanting to learn some olympic style lifts.

Saw the same two guys who come in with jeans + doc martins today. They once again did maybe 6 variations of curls, swooning mightily on free-standing ones, and helping each other on preachers.

They actually talked to me today. I think they mistook my grin of disdain for some kind of friendliness. One asked me what a preacher curl was. I told him "you're sitting at it."

Why would you pay for a membership when the only thing you do can be done at home with one or two pairs of dumbells? Ooh, and you could do like 50 sets every day if you grouped them right.

those guys sound cool. i'd probably hang out with them.

level?

what do you think?

of course not

I saw the most epic fail i've ever witnessed in a gym in all my days today.

I looked over and i saw what can only be described at two people lifting a loaded barbell in the exact same position in perfect symmetry. I thought wtf is this, what in gods name were they doing, some sort of wierd tandem exercise.

I then looked closer and noticed that one guy was actually barbell bicep curling it and the other guy was actually spotting him but was putting a HUGE amount of effort into it (enough for it to count as a set for him). They did this for at least about 4-5 reps at the end of their last set when i'd just noticed them. I just shook my head. What can you say about that? It's beyond words.

In other news some guy under the instruction of a PT was sitting on a big rubberball doing chest expantions on the cable machine.
There was so many ******s putting benches in such positions to stop 3 people using an entire multi-use station so they could do some wierd ass exercise that could be done with a 2 dumbells on a free bench. My gym sucks enough without some of the few decent stations get occupied by clueless ****s. Vent complete.

standard. it just so happens that the spotter and the lifter use similar motions in this exercise. other tandem workouts include bicep curl+seated military and shrug+bench press.

My gym has a bench like this:



Ppl regularly use it to DB row and DB bench I swear. The other day I want to bench and ask the guy DB rowing if I could use the actual bench. He goes "I've got two sets left". I'm like, "can't you use that?" and point to a free bench on the floor no more than 10 feet away. He goes silent for about 10 seconds, then looks kind of irritated and say "Oh I suppose".

Wtf???? You can DB row anywhere why do it on the only bench?

had to ask someone to beat it from the squat rack saturday.

i've seen the kid enough, and he seems like he has some idea of what he's doing.

I ask him how much he has left to do (after seeing that he's doing shrugs). "i just started"

"Well, i need it, i can't squat anywhere else here, can you shrug with one of the bars from the bench setups?"

"i suppose"


he then goes off to do something else. My body dies 3 sets in squatting and i give him the rack back.


Between people occupying equipment they don't need and idiots who want to walk within 2 inches of you whenever you're doing something cause they're incapable of walking around someone who is working out- i'm relatively sure that i'm going to have a serious problem in my gym soon.

This is actually a serious concern of mine too... My gym has two squat racks right beside each other such that you can barely squeeze in between them to add weight to the bar.

On the other side of one is an assisted pull up machine and a water cooler, very close to the rack...

there is about 45 feet of floorspace for 7 or so benches in the open space of my gym.

There have been several times that i have to stop mid incline press or whatever cause someone is just comin too close. i see them comin in the mirror and just pause at the top of the movement- it's annoying because there is just no reason for it.

---

I pulled the barbell off the squat rack today to do bent over bb rows (yes i'd give it to someone if they wanted to squat obv).

I put the bar on the ground, and there is this mexican dude doing 45 degree bent over rear lat raises or some other pointless shoulder excercise.

The barbell is literally 4 inches from his feet. I put a 45 on one side, wait for him to finish, walk by him and walk towards him with the other 45.....he's just standing there staring in the mirror oblivious- i'm not sure if he was being defiant or what but i finally had to speak up to him about it and motion to the other 45 feet of floor space that could be used for his shat.

----

i'm now beginning to worry if i'm being elitist or selfish in my use of the gym but whatev....

as long as you're bigger and stronger....


saw a guy who was probably the same height as me (6'3) and probably 130-135 (skinny as hell) in the ab area of the school gym. it's where all the guys come to do ab work, but it's where the girls usually do most of their freeweight work since there are those cute little plastic dumbbells.

first, he does this mega long shoulder/back complex on a stability ball with, i think, 2.5lb plastic DBs. i kinda wanted to tell him where the freeweight room was in case he didn't know we had more than plastic DBs.

anyway, he moved on to isolated forearm curls across a flat bench with a 5lb DB. biggest gym tilting move ever.

the last thing i saw him do was the hip adductor/abductor machines.

and that's when i knew that this kid, in the best collegiate years of his life, would never get laid.

Other favourites at my gym are smith machine squat+breast hug (what do people even think that does btw) and numerous DB incline presses with the spotter pushing on the guys triceps the full workout. My gym sucks all you guys who have a home gym setup count your lucky stars, infinately better than most gyms imo.

72 degrees and sunny. On my way walking into the gym, notice at least 2 cars waiting for someone backing out of parking space so they can get a spot close to the door.

There's about 100 empty parking spaces 20 feet away.

That's because you're in Massachusetts...Ughhhh M*******s.

NJ actually. Much tougher down here.

south jersey is a beat, north jersey ftw. you guys are eagles/phillies fans which is just terrible

Agree, although driving in South Jersey is a lot less stressful.

Lol, how could anybody think that?

Since I dislike spending half my time every day either sitting in traffic, waiting for a parking spot, standing in line at the grocery store etc. etc. I prefer South Jersey.

Also, hoagies (no they're not grinders, or subs, or whatver the **** you call them), unless of course I'm in the mood for a sandwich with pork roll on it ("Taylor Ham" is a brand name not the name of the meat obv).

Plus our baseball team just won the World Series. That was fun.

I'll have to defend SJ here - green, lots of trees, no pollution. 30min to Phila, 1 hour door to door to Harrahs/Borgata.

I have some friends from Central and Northern and all hear about is the Mets/Giants, blah blah blah. Nothing against north jersey. I think we can all get along.