I just wanted to share this experience with you, for what its worth. I was coming up to do squats the other day, so I go over to wait at the squat rack. There’s a guy on there looks twice my weight. He’s got 200Kg ready to go for his next set. He asks me what im waiting for, I nod to the squat rack, and say im just waiting until hes done.
He says to me, work in if you like… I laugh and let on 100KG is my limit, 4 and a half plates a side would snap me. Anyway we get talking, he starts to ask all about my weight, how long lifting, then whats my stance, demonstrate how I squat.
Now this is the best bit: He uses up his rest time to really take the time to find my best stance width. He brings a bench over and gets me to box squat, because apparently im bnreaking at the knee and not the hips. He gets me driving up properly. He finally does his work set, and then we take the weight right down, and he coaches me on technique as i start to work up the weight on my own squats.
I’ve never met him before that day, and yet he took the time to show a fairly scrawny looking guy like me to squat properly, not just make a comment like “thats not right” and walk off. Hopefully he realised I was listening properly and desperately trying to remember every little nugget. But those 10-15 mins probably have been the most productive i’ve had in a long time. I just thought i’d share that, as perhaps we’ll all be on one side or other of a similar moment ourselves one day.
Thats awesome dude. I mean some guys are such wankers at gym but its awesome that some big guys decide to coach and help out. Thats what gyms should be, a community!
totally agree , I thought this would be just another thread about a guy looking for an ego boost about his workout but I really smiled to read what happened to you , most big guys at gyms everywhere look down on new trainees as if they were born 250lbs with 10% BF and with textbook form for every lift known to men.
It was probably a good day for him too. I bet he tries it every now and again with guys who struggle with their form and usually gets ignored. Good on you for listening to what he had to say and taking it on board, a lot of guys would have approached the situation with a very different attitude and continued to suffer for it.
Definitely very cool, good to hear that there’s really a brotherhood of iron still prevalent… even if quietly.
***BTW, on a totally unrelated/somewhat related note, yesterday I got into a minor car accident with a dude driving a Jaguar. To my extreme surprise, he was very calm, cool, and rational… something that’s definitely not to generally be expected in a similar situation.
So in other words, maybe I still have a little faith in humanity.
@OP
Cool story, bro.
In my experience, big/strong guys are usually very helpful.
Maybe it follows from the simple fact that said guys are usually 25+ (now, don’t get all worked up, sub-25 TN boyz ;)).
Well I’m glad I posted that now, since it’s appreciated. Genuine guys appreciate genuine help. So thanks to all those that do it. I dont offer much advice myself, as I dont feel I have that much knowledge, but I’m always happy to offer a spot if anyone wants. When I thanked the guy involved, and said I’d used his time up, he just shrugged with a grin and said he was happy to help. Hopefully I’ll be in the same situation one day.
[quote]bushidobadboy wrote:
Kidding, but why don’t more of you practice the habit?
BBB [/quote]
Age stops me. Being 22 I don’t feel like I’m in a position to be giving someone older advice unless they specifically ask for it. If I did try, I’d probably get told to piss off. lol
To younger dudes, I usually don’t give advice unless I’ve seen them in the gym for a couple months consistently and I feel they need some help, and will take it on board. Most 18 - 21 year olds are more concerned partying, drinking, cruising in their modded shit boxes, getting laid and lazing the days away than actually putting in a little work to self-improve.
I’ve been training for 4 months and two months ago when I was trying to teach myself how to squat I had two guys come up and teach me how to do it I’ve gone from just being able to squat the bar to doing a set of 10 for 85kgs.
I also had a different person teach me how to do walking ludges the right way as i was falling inwards on the the step forward.
So there are some nice people out there but I’ve also had the bad where a guy took my bench in between a BB bench set because i was only doing 40kgs and said the ladies gym was up stairs. (im a guy and find it funny now but at the time i was shattered lol)
Good stuff dude. Everything happens for a reason and the purpose always serves us.
Life is very complicated, but in many ways its really simple, be aware and be sensitive to the changes around you, you’ll pick up a lot of things by just observing and somehow you’ll always be where you need to be.
Every session, I always see someone with improper form. Out of the 10 people I see lift improperly, I help out one person, and move on with my routine. I always pay it forward because I’ve never had any one critique my form, but I read from the best sites on the net.
