Bad form, I honestly would never say anything. I’ve only ever said anything once in about 11 years of being at the gym. Two super skinny and tall guys were trying out the incline bench, and they didn’t adjust the seat, so to avoid the pins, they had to push the weight out at a 45 degree angle. I wasn’t going to get into how they were pushing their shoulders forward, or any of the other stuff. I told them they were doing good, but that if they dropped the seat a bit they could push the weight straight up, then told them again, good job and keep it up, and walked away.
Sort of like what @FlatsFarmer said, but I like the compliment sandwich (nice thing, correction, nice thing) and employ it often as a 29 year old supervisor over 50+ year old trade workers. They fixed the seat and got back to work excessively flaring their elbows and pronating their shoulders as they benched too much weight, but they were genuinely grateful. I still felt kind of douchey for saying anything, but it was more of a mechanical issue with the device they were using than it was a dig at their form.
As a rule of thumb, its best to just keep your mouth shut, but I’m sure the day will come where I’ll say something again.
As a side note: one of the best pieces of advice I ever got was totally unsolicited. I was 19, clueless and skinny, doing cable rows and not stretching my arms out past 2/3 of lockout, thinking I was doing myself a favor by keeping tension on the muscle. Two jacked ass dudes came up to me and made me do a rep where I slowly went all the way out, spreading my shoulderblades, and initiated the concentric rep with scapular protraction. That bit of knowledge was the foundation for much of my back growth since then.
Walk over, piss on their shoe. At that point, they should present themselves to you. They will now give you their full attention.
More seriously, as far as they are concerned you are most likely just another goof at the gym, perhaps even a particularly stupid one. If that is the case, then your advice almost certainly carries zero weight.
If you are impressive to them and they think you know a thing or two - demonstrated by lifting weight that seems unreal to them- then they’ll come up and ask you.
Just in general, letting the person with the problem drive the solution works better in nearly all situations
You don’t, unless they’re in immediate risk of death. Not injury, death. First, it’s a never-ending, uphill battle to play form-corrector in the gym.
Second, you rarely know with 100% certainty that what you think is “bad form” isn’t deliberate. there are countless examples of form the looks bad and actually isn’t.
Of course he was resistant. Opening with “You’re doing that wrong” is a terrible approach. I’m not condoning offering advice, but going over between sets and saying “Hey man, I saw you moving a lot of weight. Can I give you a quick tip to get a little more muscle recruitment?” would be better (although still plenty awkward).
Speaking as someone whose kid was on a motorcycle hit by a distracted driver, this isn’t in the same universe as the other examples.
Very true: it’s even WORSE.
And I use it as an example because people will just let it happen. Hell, some people will even ENGAGE in texting and driving and think nothing of it. But then, at the gym, suddenly they’re a superhero good Samaritan there to save hapless citizens from danger, all purely out of benevolence and love for their fellow man.
I don’t buy it.
Are you suggesting there’s an ulterior motive to these things?
I’ve written before on how I’m fairly certain these interactions tend to be an attempt to establish superiority in an arena where people are intended to be equals.
You and I are both at the gym, we’re both working out, doing our thing: we’re equals. But now, I come over and tell you that you’re doing your thing wrong and I’m doing it correctly, and I offer to teach you how to do it the right way. I’ve established that I’m your better. But I say I’m doing it because I’m concerned about your safety, because then it’s a benevolent reason.
And sure, it’s cynical, but it’s weird to me that these safety concerns ONLY manifest at the gym, when people are constantly engaging in FAR riskier behavior completely unchecked in other venues.
I 100% agree. My post was intended to be sarcastic, for essentially the reasons you just spelled out. I’m not good at this internet thing.
I’ve met quite a few people and I can say for sure that far more of them liked to show off than liked to help people.
Nah, picked up on the sarcasm, but saw it as a volleyball serve opportunity for me to spike, haha.
I’m not sure why this isn’t obvious to everyone. It’s a paternalistic smartypants action in the guise of helping.
I’m happy to set 'em up, if you knock 'em down.
I think if somebody is risking immediate injury, you’re in the right to at least address it if you feel morally obligated to. Once you’ve told them, your work is done and it’s on them to listen.
I honestly hate unsolicited advice at the gym. There’s this know it all kid with a decent total at my gym, who always gives unsolicited shit about stuff that he doesn’t even do and I just brush it off.
Do you take this approach in every life arena?
Only if I feel a moral obligation. Depends on the person.
My view point is you don’t since people will get offended. This is regardless of how knowledgeable or accomplished one might be who is trying to be helpful.
The best option is taking a page from Darwin and let natural selection do its job.
Sometimes I wish Natural Selection worked harder. It seems a little too laid back at times. Lol
Don’t walk up to high school kids and start speaking about the right way to do things. It will go in one ear and out the other.
Send a text message instead. Or post a meme. Or make a tik tok video to get your idea across. Those darn kids can’t have a conversation without the help of a glowing rectangle.
Get with the times and use technology to give some kids you don’t know a condescending talk about how they are doing it all wrong.
Man, I’m not too sure about this advice: it can come back to bite you. I heard some teenagers talking about getting ripped for the summer, and their diets sounded awful. Zero vegetables. I tried sending them a text to let them know they needed to get more veggies in their diet, and kept sending them this helpful image of an eggplant to express my point
and now I’m on a sex offenders list.
I don’t get it.
If it’s a form thing it’s almost certainly not an immediate risk.
If it’s something like a running box jump onto a bosu ball stacked ontop of a bunch of 45lbs steel plates and you feel you have a moral obligation to do something then I’m a little surprised that you would be okay with just saying something and then seeing if they carry through with it. I feel that’s a strange halfway point.
Persecution of Vegans is real.