So I’m having a great back workout tonight, full of deadlifts and other goodies, and I move on to a bit of bicep work. I’m moving along feeling great, really in a groove, until I decide to do concentration curls at one of the benches. Not a flat bench, but a barbell bench because there were no other flat benches open.
In the middle of my second set, a scrawny kid who couldn’t weigh more than 150-160 wearing a tank-top (who shouldnt be) walks RIGHT in front of my and stands there staring down.
Kid- (In an annoyed tone) Hey man, can I use that bench for benching?
I ignore him for a few reps because I really cant hear him over my music, but I realize he’s not leaving and he’s still asking me.
So I stop mid set and am like “what?”
Kid- Can I use this bench for benching?
Me- I have like one more set left, sorry.
So the kid doesn’t leave and gets this annoyed look on his face as he looks around, and I notice this and get up and just grab my dumbbell and walk away to a different bench.
He then proceeds to throw on about 150 for his warm up and struggles to get about 4 with a spot. And trust me when I say this kid was barely getting 135 or so up. I laugh to myself and wonder why I didn’t punch a hole through his head.
Am I just overreacting? Or do kids like this annoy you just as much as they annoy me? And the worst part is that it happens all the time in my college gym.
That and kids who walk around WHILE doing db curls, it never ends.
However, I never acted like a punk ass in the gym. Scrawny fucks that get an attitude when they can barely lift a buck fifty shouldn’t act bad. When they gain some weight, respect will come naturally. I don’t think you over reacted.
I agree with the kid. Benches are for Bench Pressing.
You’re like the old woman who drives 50 mph in the fast lane. Yo uscrew up the highway for the rest of us and force us to pass you on the right.
Curling could be done anywhere. Swapping one set of concentraions for Preachers, Standing, Incline, or Hammer curls wouldn’t have killed you or your awesome pump.
[quote]Bujo wrote:
I agree with the kid. Benches are for Bench Pressing.
You’re like the old woman who drives 50 mph in the fast lane. Yo uscrew up the highway for the rest of us and force us to pass you on the right.
Curling could be done anywhere. Swapping one set of concentraions for Preachers, Standing, Incline, or Hammer curls wouldn’t have killed you or your awesome pump.
[/quote]
I second this post. It’s also prudent to mention that you wrote “yo uscrew…” which was funny.
[quote]ParadigmShifter wrote:
So the kid doesn’t leave and gets this annoyed look on his face as he looks around, and I notice this and get up and just grab my dumbbell and walk away to a different bench. [/quote]
This has to be a) a troll thread or b) a post by some dude lying about his stats. I just can’t imagine someoen weighing 150 lbs. to someone 70 lbs. heavier.
Haha. I guess you guys are right, I probably was at fault there, but I figured I’d share it with you. I don’t know why people think I’m a troll, I never meant to try to be one, but thank you for your input, if I see the kid again, I’ll have to apologize and buy him a coffee or something.
I agree wit most of tha posts on yo thread. The OP had no business doing concentrizzles curls on a barbell bizzench. A flat free bench maybe, but not a biznench used primarily fo` steppin’. The kid rules…
[quote]vandalay15 wrote:
To whoever posted, you were in the wrong.
And why do people always mention how they were deadlifting or squatting “atg” when they rant about what someone else did at their gym.
Do you get extra points everytime you mention you deadlift?[/quote]
Yes, as a matter of fact, you do get extra points for squatting or DL’ing properly in a gym. It’s a rarity these days and deserves to be rewarded as such.
Hate saying it, but curling on a barbell bench is almost the equivalent of doing and SRC. Kid wanted to use the equipment for it’s designed purpose.
Gym etiquette has definitely gone downhill. I was working in weighted pull ups the other day on the cable cross over while this nice couple was working on their chests (everyone was working in together and getting along just fine) when these two little metrosexual teen knuckleheads jump up on to the pull ups while the girl was doing her cross-overs (If you can picture that one, and they didn’t say a word to us!!!). I usually ignore the knuckleheads in my gym and they ignore me, but her boyfriend and I flipped on these two and told them about where they could go, how, and what we were going to do to them if they didn’t figure out some of the unwritten rules of a gym in a hurry.
The kid was right, but there is right way and a wrong way to approach someone. From your post, it sounded like by the time the kid came in there was a flat bench available, and you moved to let the kid have the bench. You did what you should have done, but the kid should have been polite when he asked you.
If I were in that situation, I would have moved if he asked politely, and ignored him if he was rude, in fact, I would probably add a couple sets. Courtesy is a two way street.
[quote]ParadigmShifter wrote:
Kid- (In an annoyed tone) Hey man, can I use that bench for benching?
I ignore him for a few reps because I really cant hear him over my music, but I realize he’s not leaving and he’s still asking me.
So I stop mid set and am like “what?”
Kid- Can I use this bench for benching?
Me- I have like one more set left, sorry.
So the kid doesn’t leave and gets this annoyed look on his face as he looks around, and I notice this and get up and just grab my dumbbell and walk away to a different bench.
[/quote]
I don’t know if you were technically wrong or right cus I wasn’t there. If he asked nicely you should have just said “yeah man, no problem, I’ve just got one set left, if you wanna load up the bar for your benching, I’ll probably be done by the time you’re set to go” If he had to wait like 30 seconds or a minute while you finished up your last set, I’m sure it wouldn’t have killed him.
Perhaps I’m just lucky, but I’ve never in my life encountered even one gym goer who was even half as aggrivating as the people just about every T-Nation poster seems to encounter every day.
Sure, I see plenty of gym idiots who clearly don’t know what they’re doing, but all they ever really do is provide me with a source of amusement.
In your situation I likely would have been pretty annoyed myself. I guess I should just be happy I’ve lucked out and never had something that annoying happen to me.
[quote]Zell959 wrote:
Perhaps I’m just lucky, but I’ve never in my life encountered even one gym goer who was even half as aggrivating as the people just about every T-Nation poster seems to encounter every day.
Sure, I see plenty of gym idiots who clearly don’t know what they’re doing, but all they ever really do is provide me with a source of amusement.
quote]
Me to, and I work out at Bally’s. I see a bunch of morons, and the occasional freak, but no one bothers me. I do work out in the mornings though, and plan to go at the slower times on weekends.
I was a member of three gyms so far and ive never had probelsm with any thing i read about on here
All three gyms were basicly full of power lifters (a few 600lb+benchers) and bodybuilders. I work out at home noe but I got so much info from experinenced lifters at all three gyms.
Hmm I would not be overly concerned about it. The kid interrupted your set, and that’s got to aggravate ANYONE. While he did have a right to use the machine for its intended purposes, he probably went about it in the wrong way.
If you were rude to him, in the process of moving, the next time you see him in there buy him a cup of coffee like you said, and apologize. Also let him know how he could have asked you and gotten better results. In any case its not the end of either your world, or the kids. He might not be small either if someone showed him how to lift and eat.
what’s funny to me is that it’s the big guys who are always the jerks at my gym. Mr. Bench for example. Mr. Bench is awesome - benches 225 for reps to what MUSt be total failure, since he can’t seem to remove that last set of plates. The ladies who want to bench 65 or the old man struggling to get 95 just love it when Mr. Bench leaves those last two plates on for them to remove.
Then there are the two “bodybuilders” who come in every day and load up the leg press to the fullest every day for some awesome 1/4 reps, but wouldn’t know how to spell deadlift, much less crank them out.
Of course that last is sour grapes cause these guys still have better legs than me. Bastards.
[quote]treco wrote:
If they can’t do 135, they should do pushups or use DBs until they work up to it. ;>[/quote]
Meh, you can’t really bang on the kid for asking to use the bench for what its made for regardless of the weight. Thats like saying “ya i was doing my SRC and some 120lb kid asked to use it to squat his 100lbs.”