Commercial Gym - Loathing

[Brick]

So I was in school for 3.5 years and went to the gym on the university. It's a great facility (full outdoor track, 3 different size tires for flipping, full football field, full soccer field, small indoor track [200 meters], bazillion cardio machines, every cable and other machine known to man, two db sets up to 65, one set to 160, 3 full power racks with Olympic bumper weights, Olympic sized pool, steam and dry sauna, rehab clinics) but so full of ****tards. It is technically a city facility so everyone and anyone can go. I took some time off (1.5 years) and I am back at school so I got a pass to do some cardio or a quick hit session between classes. Today was my first time back there and man o man it was bad.

1) I saw at least 20 people there that I would see frequently when I was there in my previous 3+ year stint that have made little to no progress if not regressed. I see them still benching 135x10 like its a big feat and riding the bike sweating there ass off listening to what sounds like 90's Britney Spears and still looking like shit. You would think after years in the gym and no progress you would do at least one google search for 'how to get ripped/fit/workout' and learn something!

2) I can't help but notice how many people , 90% +, are working out incorrectly or poorly. I see skinny guys squatting 1/4 of the way and fat people deadlifting with out bending knees and with a rounded back and then turning it into a switch gripped shrug and everything in between. The gym portion of the facility employs 10+ personal trainers who take some bullshit training courses to get some certificate. That aside for the most part they are reasonably fit and seem to know what they are doing. Case in point. WHAT THE FVCK ARE YOU BEING PAID FOR?!?!? Why are you not going around the gym correcting people from lifting incorrectly and hurting themselves? Why is mr skinny fat have 3 plates a side on the bar and have it resting on the puss pad ON TOP OF HIS NECK heels off the floor 1/4 squats? You're paid $20+ an hour to wear your stupid blue vest. Please help these people. You're causing more harm then good!

3) healthy eating. What's with people and redbulls these days? I saw 5-6 people drinking redbulls (110cal, 27g sugar) or similar while on the cardio equipment! If you walk 3.0mph for an hour it's about 250 cal burned. So 25 minutes or so are wasted! I know you need a boast sometimes but grab a black coffee, green tea, or even a sugar free redbull if you have to!


Sorry, I was pissed off and needed to rant

[Bigshotvictoria]

Feel better?

[Brick]

Feel better?

No. I'm saving it for deadlifts in about 2 hours!
Grrrr!

[gixxerboy1]

Gay.

[jasc]

[diesel101]

Wow now that's a rant!

[cherrydrpepper]

Nice rant. I always worry im turning into one of those spinning their wheels people but I got told I look big today so thats something. We have a kid at my gym I have known almost 3 years now I swear I don't think he has gained more than maybe a pound or two of muscle if that. He's my age maybe a little younger and I always want to talk to him but thats a conversation people really have to want to talk to you about.

[Lunk1]

Soooo...just to recap, Brittany Spears music and Red Bull are no no's! Note to self (damn and I love brittany)

[Bigshotvictoria]

Soooo...just to recap, Brittany Spears music and Red Bull are no no's! Note to self (damn and I love brittany)

you missed a couple:

Poo breath
Stale sex smell

[Lunk1]

you missed a couple:

Poo breath
Stale sex smell

I like stale sex smell....it causes my brain to remember how I got the stench to begin with.

[Bigshotvictoria]

I like stale sex smell....it causes my brain to remember how I got the stench to begin with.

I can picture you walking down the street, sitting in a meeting at work, paying for your groceries, all the while smelling your first two fingers...

[Brick]

Wow now that's a rant!

Boom! I needed that! Can't wait to hit the dead lifts soon!

Nice rant. I always worry im turning into one of those spinning their wheels people but I got told I look big today so thats something. We have a kid at my gym I have known almost 3 years now I swear I don't think he has gained more than maybe a pound or two of muscle if that. He's my age maybe a little younger and I always want to talk to him but thats a conversation people really have to want to talk to you about.

You would think they would notice eh? 3 years of nothing!!

Soooo...just to recap, Brittany Spears music and Red Bull are no no's! Note to self (damn and I love brittany)

Britney is okay IF its a mash up dance remix. Gotta move that booty and let me tell you there was some fat fvcking bootys there. Not good ones.

I can picture you walking down the street, sitting in a meeting at work, paying for your groceries, all the while smelling your first two fingers...

Don't forget the pinky

[Lunk1]

I can picture you walking down the street, sitting in a meeting at work, paying for your groceries, all the while smelling your first two fingers...

Oh...the memories of high school....

[MuscleInk]

I don't see why any of this is a surprise. 70% (likely more) of the people in most gyms, especially franchised locations, don't know how to lift properly. I see it every day from guys engaging every body part except the target muscles to the kids that load up a machine or bar to do one set, one rep of extreme weight so they can grunt, groan and then look at themselves in the mirrors.

Trainer? Don't get me started. At corporate facilities, the majority of trainers have complete a few certificate programs and know one maybe two styles of training. They teach nothing about corrective from and some of them (and I find this totally unacceptable) are in worse shape than the clients they train. I saw one trainer last week and his moobs were bigger than the female client he was training!!!!!!!

[Brick]

I don't see why any of this is a surprise. 70% (likely more) of the people in most gyms, especially franchised locations, don't know how to lift properly. I see it every day from guys engaging every body part except the target muscles to the kids that load up a machine or bar to do one set, one rep of extreme weight so they can grunt, groan and then look at themselves in the mirrors.

Trainer? Don't get me started. At corporate facilities, the majority of trainers have complete a few certificate programs and know one maybe two styles of training. They teach nothing about corrective from and some of them (and I find this totally unacceptable) are in worse shape than the clients they train. I saw one trainer last week and his moobs were bigger than the female client he was training!!!!!!!

I feel like I could put together a proposal to have the gym safer and people healthier through positive correction action. I could get paid a lot for an investigative report like that!

[MuscleInk]

I feel like I could put together a proposal to have the gym safer and people healthier through positive correction action. I could get paid a lot for an investigative report like that!

Corrective form should be the FIRST thing taught in a gym. I see so many guys doing tricep cable extensions as a whole body movement. That's one of many errors.

[Honkey_Kong]

As a business concept, I think a gym which employs a staff of trainers that know what they're doing whose job is just to walk around the gym and help/motivate/coach people while they're lifting would be really beneficial. You'd have to pay the trainers a lot more than what they make currently at the commercial gyms, but you could recover that by raising membership rates up. Each member gets a private session with a trainer per week (separate from the trainers that walk around and help people as they see them working out). And they get to regularly see a dietician to help them create a diet that will help them reach their goals.

I'm willing to bet it could be done without excessive costs.

[Brick]

As a business concept, I think a gym which employs a staff of trainers that know what they're doing whose job is just to walk around the gym and help/motivate/coach people while they're lifting would be really beneficial. You'd have to pay the trainers a lot more than what they make currently at the commercial gyms, but you could recover that by raising membership rates up. Each member gets a private session with a trainer per week (separate from the trainers that walk around and help people as they see them working out). And they get to regularly see a dietician to help them create a diet that will help them reach their goals.

I'm willing to bet it could be done without excessive costs.

I'm thinking in some areas those wages of trainers and dietician would actually be subsidized. What costs more. Paying a $80k salary a year for a person to correct 200-400 peoples diets or the insurance of 1/3 of those people (66-122) diabetes medication at 20k a year!

[Honkey_Kong]

I'm thinking in some areas those wages of trainers and dietician would actually be subsidized. What costs more. Paying a $80k salary a year for a person to correct 200-400 peoples diets or the insurance of 1/3 of those people (66-122) diabetes medication at 20k a year!

You might be on to something. I'm surprise the chain gyms don't have a negotiated contract with insurance companies. That would save those insurance companies millions if even a small percentage of their customers took advantage of it.

[gixxerboy1]

You might be on to something. I'm surprise the chain gyms don't have a negotiated contract with insurance companies. That would save those insurance companies millions if even a small percentage of their customers took advantage of it.

Alot do, some insurance companies pay for gym membership s

[MuscleInk]

Alot do, some insurance companies pay for gym membership s

^^^This and some corporations have wellness programs where employees are incentivized and/or merit (wage) increases are tied to fitness/health goals. Something I'd like to implement in the future for my employees.

[Lunk1]

^^^This and some corporations have wellness programs where employees are incentivized and/or merit (wage) increases are tied to fitness/health goals. Something I'd like to implement in the future for my employees.

Will you be supplying supplements as well? Hmmmmm, I could use a new job in a warm climate....

[Honkey_Kong]

^^^This and some corporations have wellness programs where employees are incentivized and/or merit (wage) increases are tied to fitness/health goals. Something I'd like to implement in the future for my employees.

That sounds like something you could get sued over though. Still it seems like a good idea.

[Metalject]

Like the other guy said, this is pretty much all gyms. Unless you go to a locally owned gym (non-chain) this is the kind of stuff you see. There are exceptions but few and far between.

On the trainer thing, I did the personal training thing for several years. I did not work for a gym, I paid them a monthly fee/rent, got my own clients and relied on myself...not the gym. That's the only way you can make any money as a trainer. As far as certifications go, who cares what cert someone has? They're either good at what they do or they're not...most all certifications programs, even the high dollar prestigious ones are loads of crap IMO. And it's not a trainer's job to go around correcting people. Not only is that annoying it pisses people off and if you piss them off they will never hire you. From my experience, most of my clients were people who had been in the gym for a time, made little to no progress and by then they either stop coming or get a trainer.

[lovbyts]

I like it the way it is. I went into one of my old gyms yesterday for the 1st time in 2+years. Since then I have had 3 different surgeries including rotator cuff surgery 7 months ago.

Ive been working out only at my little pos gym at work. Ive been shy to go to a real gym, sort of embarassed. I saw several of the old faces looking exactly the same as three years ago. I was still bigger than any of them and in better shape by far.

[Metalject]

I like it the way it is. I went into one of my old gyms yesterday for the 1st time in 2+years. Since then I have had 3 different surgeries including rotator cuff surgery 7 months ago.

Ive been working out only at my little pos gym at work. Ive been shy to go to a real gym, sort of embarassed. I saw several of the old faces looking exactly the same as three years ago. I was still bigger than any of them and in better shape by far.

I used to feel embarrassed in the gym if I was coming off an injury. If it's a real injury that keeps you from training for awhile of course you're going to come back weaker and this would always embarrass me. But as I've gotten older I've finally realized this one really important thing....no one cares. Does anyone care about how much you can lift? No they don't and if by some random chance they do they are a very strange human being with such massive mental problems their opinion shouldn't matter. I could give a crap about how strong someone else is in the gym or what they're doing and no one cares what I'm doing either.

[bdos]

I used to feel embarrassed in the gym if I was coming off an injury. If it's a real injury that keeps you from training for awhile of course you're going to come back weaker and this would always embarrass me. But as I've gotten older I've finally realized this one really important thing....no one cares. Does anyone care about how much you can lift? No they don't and if by some random chance they do they are a very strange human being with such massive mental problems their opinion shouldn't matter. I could give a crap about how strong someone else is in the gym or what they're doing and no one cares what I'm doing either.

as you've gotten "older" key word there , a group of kids at my gym who always have to see what your lifting and then when your done they do the same but more...why?? the ring leader is the best though he has to lift the most out of all of them looks like a giant S when he's curling

[DSM4Life]

[TheChosen1]

So I was in school for 3.5 years and went to the gym on the university. It's a great facility (full outdoor track, 3 different size tires for flipping, full football field, full soccer field, small indoor track [200 meters], bazillion cardio machines, every cable and other machine known to man, two db sets up to 65, one set to 160, 3 full power racks with Olympic bumper weights, Olympic sized pool, steam and dry sauna, rehab clinics) but so full of ****tards. It is technically a city facility so everyone and anyone can go. I took some time off (1.5 years) and I am back at school so I got a pass to do some cardio or a quick hit session between classes. Today was my first time back there and man o man it was bad.

1) I saw at least 20 people there that I would see frequently when I was there in my previous 3+ year stint that have made little to no progress if not regressed. I see them still benching 135x10 like its a big feat and riding the bike sweating there ass off listening to what sounds like 90's Britney Spears and still looking like shit. You would think after years in the gym and no progress you would do at least one google search for 'how to get ripped/fit/workout' and learn something!

I have a coworker who tries to convince everyone that he works out regularly. I say "TRIES TO CONVINCE" because I point out to others that someone who really trains in the gym NEVER EVER brag about what he/she does or did. In my 25+ years in strength training, I never have to talk about my training since it naturally shows.

For the past 8 years of working with this former crackhead, he's always been bragging about how he benches 220 (he weighs about 200 or less). After years of hearing about his 220 bench or benching 2-110 pound dumbells, I asked him, "Bro, you've been doing that same bench for more than 5 years and never once added like 5 pounds to it? No wonder why you're still little like PeeWee Herman." The poor dude then claimed that he has an injured shoulder, to which I came back with, "I know what you mean. I got 2 injured shoulders but heavy benching is what helped mine heal. Maybe you should try it sometimes." LOL

[fit2bOld]

See it all the time. Right now all the resolution makers are polluting the gym and a bunch of punk tough guys that will be out with injuries shortly. This cycle goes round and round every year. Most frustrating is they park their butts on a piece of equipment just as your headed to and screw up your workout.

[Honkey_Kong]

I have a coworker who tries to convince everyone that he works out regularly. I say "TRIES TO CONVINCE" because I point out to others that someone who really trains in the gym NEVER EVER brag about what he/she does or did. In my 25+ years in strength training, I never have to talk about my training since it naturally shows.

For the past 8 years of working with this former crackhead, he's always been bragging about how he benches 220 (he weighs about 200 or less). After years of hearing about his 220 bench or benching 2-110 pound dumbells, I asked him, "Bro, you've been doing that same bench for more than 5 years and never once added like 5 pounds to it? No wonder why you're still little like PeeWee Herman." The poor dude then claimed that he has an injured shoulder, to which I came back with, "I know what you mean. I got 2 injured shoulders but heavy benching is what helped mine heal. Maybe you should try it sometimes." LOL

My brother does the same shit. He'd be all telling me that he's benching like 350 reps and all. He finally got out of the army so I get him to go with me to the gym. To try to impress me he puts the 3 plates on and barely moves the bar at all. And I'm like "if the bar doesn't touch your chest, it doesn't count." To which he claims he's got a shoulder injury that prevents him. So I have him drop it to 2 plates and he still can't do one real bench.

People typically rather talk/lie about it than actually do it. Then when they get called on their BS, they'll just try to find some excuse. It's really all the same. The thing that pisses me off though is that I'll be like "just lower the weight enough so you can actually do it" and he'll just get pissy and insist that he can handle it.