An hour ago, I was doing deadlifts for ME Lower Body Day (WS4SB).
My training partner and I started with 135x5 and went to 155x5 before I heard a guy on the adjacent power rack say, “That kid’s so loud.” I then heard a response, “Yeah, I filed a complaint.”
Turns out the complaint-filer was an employee of the university gym where I train at. He stated that I was too loud, and he claimed that by dropping them the way I was, I could break the weights.
Side note
I could understand this if I were deadlifting a respectable weight. But, it was 155. 155. One forty-five and one ten per side.
With less than 25% of the weight Kroczaleski is doing on this video, I was dropping the bar like he was.
End side note
I told the employee that I would try to drop them more quietly and with more control.
For 165, I did the first four more quietly, but I lost control of the bar on the last one, so it was louder than the first four. The employee reverted to hardass mode.
He came up to me and said, “Hey, I’ve warned you once, already. You’re too loud, and you might break the weight. Do it again, and I’ll write you up.”
I wasn’t just going to take his crap silently. I asked him whether or not the first four were better. He said they were, but “you’re still not lowering it under control. It’s not that hard.” I responded, “It’s actually better if you don�??t lower it under control.”
His response? “It’s not better for the weight.”
Luckily, it didn’t affect my performance. I lowered the bar with more control. I did 175x5 last week, so I set 185x5 as my goal, which I was able to meet.
When I finished, I wanted to give the employee some of my thoughts. I told him it wasn�??t fair to give warnings for “mistakes,” that is, trying to follow directions and messing up once. I shouldn�??t have used the words “mistake” and “trying” because he seized on those to bring out his excuse of, “Hey, ‘mistake’ or not, ‘try’ or not, if you break the weights, it’s not my fault, and I will write you up, which I could easily have done.” From listening to his response, I could tell that he didn�??t care about the “noise” or even the weights. He just wanted to go hardass on me.
I mean, who files a complaint when the weight is 155?