Don’t you just love when someone that doesn’t know anything gives you advice? I was at the gym the other day in the squat rack just starting my OVT leg day, when i see the guy next to me in the Smith Machine eyeing my drink. He makes me take my headphones off… “What’s in the bottle?”,he asks. “Biotest Surge mixed with Synthesize creatine.” Then, “Have you ever taken NITRO TECH!!!” I thought his eyes were gonna bug out of his head. “Well, no, it’s just whey protein.”, I responded. “Nah man, it’s wayyyy better than just whey.” Thanks for the pointer dude, now please let me get back to my squats, your fffing up my 120 sec rest interval. Then on another occasion there’s this guy at work who hasn’t been anywhere close to a gym at any point in his life. “Did you ever try Ultimate Orange?” “No.” “That stuff is sick, it’s 2 molecules off from being steroids!!!” Why do not big, not ripped people always try to give you their two sense? Anybody else have similar stories?
"Why do not big, not ripped people always try to give you their two sense? Anybody else have similar stories? "
well, i don’t think duchaine was that huge and ripped was he? Mentzer(not the young version of course) wasn’t a sight either.
When size indicates knowledge, let me know.
I think the difference here is that these people are trying to advocate what they do. The original post is musing why one would want to approach someone who is in better condition and offer unsolicited advice, based soley on the argument of, “I use it, and it’s great!”
To be honest unsolicited advice is a complete pain.I had an instance last week,where I was performing Dimmel deadlifts and one of the bb guys came over to tell me I was doing it all wrong.
When I asked him what my fault was with the Dimmel deadlift,I got this blank look.He did not have a clue behind the reason why this lift is different to a standard deadlift.
These people know little,yet always seem quick to give their “knowledge”.
I can kind of relate. Although what I have to say is a tad different. I have people come up to me ALL the time and ask what supplements do I take. I say none, other than whey and fish oil (which in my book aren’t necessarily supplements). Anyways, I have these guys who come up to me in the gym I work at and ask, “hey…which supplements do you recommend I use. I have been in the gym 3-4 times per week and I just can’t get rid of this gut.” I look them in the eyes and say, “listen, before you even say the word supplement you need to make sure that your diet is on track. Whats the point in working your can off in the gym when all you do is go home and stuff your face with pizza and cake every night!” It amazes me how often I stress how important diet is and yet they still insist that a pill or powder is going to solve their problems and guide them to “low % BF heaven”. It goes in one ear and out the other.
I find it interesting that the biggest guys in any gym I see are the ones that use the same old tired exercises, day after day after day, never periodize, only do speed reps and laugh at every exercise other than the ones they do. If we were all so lucky to get stronger and bigger using the methodologies many of them use, we wouldn’t need T-mag or anything else.
Yeah, someone should tell the Westside guys that they should do the Dimel DL all the way down. Oh, and that bands don’t work, lol. That’d be an interesting ass kicking.
just responed with jargon and random facts. Sometimes i make shit up to see if they even have any idea about what they are blabing on about… its fun
“well actually, the myofibrilation of the sarcoplasmic reticulum, propigates with the t-tubules to form new mitochondria…”
if they nod they are dip shits.
problem solved!
I agree with Zippy, unsolicited advice is never welcome, in any sport. But I always try to cut people some slack and figure they are really just trying to help even if it is out of their ignorance. My usual response is not to argue or blow them off but to point them here and tell them to type in “Westside” or “Dimmel Deads” or what ever they are asking about.
Educate don’t Exterminate!!
And it goes higher than the dipshits who just work out at these gyms…
At my first ever job interview following grad. from univ, I asked the head of personal training what certs. they require. He said ACE minimum. I said, "Ok then, I’ll be more than fine with my PFLC right? (Canadian cert. that you need a degree, a shitload of labtime, and a big ass test to get) He said, “W-eeeel, we’d like to see you get the ACE anyways.” I shook his hand and told him they weren’t quite what I was looking for. Of course we all know that the cert. often doesn’t mean jack squat but the head of PT should know what the top cert. in his own frickin’ country is!!!
So there I was, doing cardio on the eliptical machine and a dude walks up to me and starts talking about the Atkins Diet.
He’s lost X amount of Weight over Y amount of time and it’s easy and everything else. I was like “wow dude, great” You could tell he doesn’t train much and that he just needed to tell somebody about his 8lbs in 6 weeks.
One bad thing about doing cardio on a machine is that you can’t run away from someone no matter how fast you go.
Brad
I was in the gym Monday doing my Meltdown II workout. A few people commented that it looked tough.
My girlfriend was there doing her workout and said she felt weird doing “supermans” as part of her workout. She was across the gym from me, and I blurted out, “Don’t worry about how funny it looks. You’re doing it correctly. Half of the people in this gym don’t know what the hell they are doing anyway, so don’t worry about them watching you.”
A hush fell upon the gym while I churned out my next set.
Nate –
I think you mentioned your girlfriend was getting into training - mine has been getting more and more into it (thankfully she really likes deadlifts and other heavy compounds…) but the one tough thing to do is convince her that she needs to stop thinking about what anyone else is thinking or doing in the gym.
Any good lines of reasoning you have used to argue about the meaningless of ‘fitting in’ to the gym environment?
Whetu, hahahahaha, that cracked me up!! I’ve got to use that sometime. People sometimes ask me about my Surge and then question my use of it. Last week I got, “You’re NOT drinking MILK, are you?” LOL
And Tony G, I am in the SAME situation. In the gym where I train, there are other people who want to know if that SURGE is why I’m making such great progress and looking so good, lol. They’re gonna get some of that! I talk about clean nutrition first and formost, not JUST Surge, and certainly before you discuss supplementation, and it’s like I didn’t say anything. They just want to know “what to take.” After a lengthy discussion of clean nutrition with one lady, she said to me, “But all you eat is lean protein and green veggies! How could I possibly do that!”
I just shake my head in amazement every day at one thing or another. There’s always something, every day.
How about the fact that 90% of the people in the gym lift the same weights all the time, never get stronger, never get bigger, and never get leaner? Frankly, not fitting in should be a mark of pride in the modern commercial fitness center.
Franks,
I have used myself as an example many times. When doing Renegade Training, I would get all sorts of looks and comments. Just imagine what people are thinking when you do burpees, other GPP, turkish getups and a variety of other “weird” exercises. But I was the one making progress. I have reminded her of this.
I also reinforce to her that she is accomplishing her goals and doing it correctly, unlike many other people in the gym. And it’s what her workout recommends.
She is intimidated at my gym because it is hardcore (mostly men, dirty, stinky, etc.), but she is beginning to fit in.
I’m always there to support her and give her assistance as needed. But she is doing what we have all done at some point: We compare ourselves to others and think there is something wrong because we are not as big, strong, fit, etc.
I did that for years! There just comes a point in time when you realize that it doesn’t matter what anyone else is doing or how they look. As long as you are happy with your progress and making consistent gains/changes that you can see and that others comment on.
So she needs more time. This is only her first week at my gym. She had been working out at our fitness center at the apartment, where the average person is fat and in their middle 30’s. So she didn’t have to worry about how she looked. Also, she didn’t have as much equipment available to her.
She’ll be fine soon enough, especially with her progress. Her boss commented on her biceps and back the other day. She was ecstatic.
Patience, grasshopper.
Oh yeah, put your blinders on when training so you don’t watch/compare yourself to others!
Or do like I do, train hard, train without your shirt and hit it no matter what someone else is saying behind your back or while they gawk.
Your boss is puttin’ the moves on 
I wouldn’t doubt it! LOL!
Nate, words of wisdom. Exactly the same story I gave my gf when she started getting serious. She eats up my suggestions, comments etc. and she says that whenever she tries something that feels silly or makes her think people are laughing at her, she remembers what I told her “focus on what you are doing unless you want to look like everyone else in the gym.” She reminds herself of this a lot since I got her deadlifting, squatting, doing dips, zottman curls, power cleans, overhead squats etc. she says she sometimes has an audience and I tell her that’s a good thing. Perhaps she’ll help change someone’s life.