Sorry Another Angry Rant...

Sorry guys just alittle rant from good ole Josh… Well I just got back from the gym (wellness center) where I witnessed some of the dumbest shit I?ve seen there yet.

Let me start by stressing this is a wellness center that is ran in partnership with the local hospital and although they have free weights its kinda the forgotten area of the facility. They have replaced every piece of equipment in the building except in the weight room, its gotten so bad they don?t even show it on most tours of the place.

Well needless to say the equipment we have is limited at best and honestly what is there is usually worn-out and bent, that was with the exception of one bar we loving called our bench bar.

So with that in mind here is my rant/story… Well we have a hoss of BOY that comes in about every 2 weeks and trys to show us all some great feat of strength, usually with very poor form but none the less he still can move some decent weight for a kid that only hits the gym 2 or 3 time a month.

So today must have been leg week or something cause he starts with squats, not in the power rack with safeties and stuff, just off the open squat rack thing that every one elses uses as a curl rack or to pull rack pulls from. Why I don?t know, no one was using the power rack and its in decent working order.

We all continued our shoulder workouts without to much attention while his proceeded to crank out some 1/4 squats with 315, then some 1/8 squats with 405, racking it too high after each set so that he had to unrack it on his tippytoes for the next set.

About this time I hear him coming over to me as I select my next weights for my arnolds, he ask for a spot - I say sure, for what? He points to the rack, loaded with 585lbs on the bar, I say what do you want me to do, squat that for you? Ha! I can?t squat 585 for anymore than a partial myself but hey I?m not the about to try it either.

He laughs and says no, I can get it, I just feel more comfortable with a spotter, so sure I?ll watch ya do your little 1/16 squat with some heavy weight no prob…

This is where it gets me pissed, as we walk over to the rack I tell him he should be in the power rack with the safeties set in case he misses with this much weight and only me spoting. He blows me off and says he doesn?t like to see him self or some bullshit and sets up under the bar.

Now he has a bench under his ass as if he is going to box squat this thing! This makes it hard for me to spot him but I do the best I can and he assures me he has gotten this before. (not even close by my judgment but I don?t argue).

So up on the tipply toes to unrack the almost 600lbs well needless to say it didn?t go well, he finally unracked it took one step back, bent his knees and then dumped it over his head. I was behind him ready to catch him if he looked like he was struggling on the way back up but damn it happened so fast I think he did it on purpose just to get attention!

Well the bar is toast it was bent so badly it wouldn?t even roll. And this dick weed thought it was funny! I amost bent it the rest of the way around his damn neck! First if you are going to attempt a new PR fine do it in the power rack with the safeties set so you can bail easily or have atleast 3 spotters.

Second don?t attempt something that is WAY out of your league! And third DON?T FUCKING LAUGH WHEN YOU DESTROY THE ONLY EQUIPMENT WE HAVE!!!

My fear is this will give the management the leverage they have been looking for to restrict us even more from using the weight room, we are the ones that show up everyday and use the equipment not the bread and butter that pays and never shows up.

They don?t want us there anyway and this dick rash gives them 1 more reason to get rid of the weights and use the room for more swiss balls and stretchy rubber things. Not to mention there is no fucking way they will replace our beloved bench bar. Damn I need to go home and hit the heavy bag tonight!

Sorry guys, had to get that out…

my god people are insane

you probably should have stopped him or made him get in the rack

madness

could have ended real badly

sry to hear that man.

As a general rule I don’t spot people I don’t know. You never know what kind of shit they’ll pull

you spotted him.

How do you think you look next to him?

I really should have tried harder to stop him, but hindsight is 20/20 as they say and i think he would have tried it anyway, spoter or no spoter. Scared everyone back there. A coupe of ladies in the back actually turned and left after that, Going to complain about the crazy steriod addicts in the free weights no doubt… Damn…

[quote]Airtruth wrote:
you spotted him.

How do you think you look next to him?[/quote]

My thoughts exactly. I think there were two douche bags at that squat rack that day.

Yeah I tried spoting him, but he aborted before I could do anything, like I said he didn’t even drop with it, he just dumped it forward, what would you have done? Personally I don’t care how I looked, I wasn’t the one trying to do something that was way out of my league. I have done 600lb partials before but I did them in the power rack with the safeties set high enough that I could drop out if i needed to without damaging anything but my ego.

I’m not claiming to be all superior here, I’m just pissed this guy was reckless and destroyed the one good bar we had left. If i was gym management I would bill him for the bar and ask him not to come back until he could lift with some sense.

[quote]Joshua632 wrote:
I don’t care how I looked, I wasn’t the one trying to do something that was way out of my league.[/quote]

But you SPOTTED him. How many guys have to point this out to you? “But officer, I wasn’t the one driving the stolen car. I just went around for the ride!”

You are just as (or almost just as) responsible for the bar getting bent as the guy who went to squat the weight. If you had a pair, you would have checked the guy. You simply should have said: “You have no business lifting this weight. I will not have anything to do with it. And then walked away”

Yet instead of checking the fool, you went right there into the rack with him.

You need to take responsibility for your own acts and own decisions. If you cannot see that you are at least somewhat responsible for what happened, then you have just as serious problems as the “squatter” you went into the rack with.

[quote]Joshua632 wrote:
We all continued our shoulder workouts without to much attention while his proceeded to crank out some 1/4 squats with 315, then some 1/8 squats with 405, racking it too high after each set so that he had to unrack it on his tippytoes for the next set. [/quote]

In other words, you knew the guy was not able to handle the weight he put on the bar. You knew it. Period. Yet you went into that rack with him.

This is stupid for so many different reasons. First, you could have hurt yourself. What if he had dumped the weight or fell into you? Second, idiots like the guy you spotted are the ones who make guy owners remove squat racks. To protect your own interests, you must protect the interests of the gym owners. Third, he could have hurt someone else. By spotting this guy, you really were acting the fool.

Are you such a lemming that you always do what people ask you?

I’m sure you think I’m “mean” or something. But someone has to call you out for the stupid shit you did.

You were a damned moron when you went to “spot” someone who had way more weight on the bar than he could have reasonably handled. You put your own safety and the safety of others at risk. You also jeopardized the very existence of your weight room.

Instead of hitting the heavy bag or otherwise directing your rage outward, you need to engage in some introspection.

I do accept that I am responsible for my actions, but as I already stated he was going to try it with or without me there, so I felt the risk of him failing and me having to help him up with it was better than the risk of him bottoming out and not having a spotter at all.

Never in a million years did I consider him dumping forward at the very top of the lift. Do I regret not trying harder to persuad him to switch racks? Yes and to that I do feel somewhat responsible for what happened, but if you think there was anything I could have done differently that would have changed the outcome of what happened then you are mistaken.

I can tell someone not to do something and i can refuse to be a part of it but it they are dead set on doing it they are going to! As much as I hate to do it I think I will replace the bar out of pocket because in all honesty that is the only way it will get done.

Sorry to hear about that Joshua. You did the right thing by warning him, and he thought he was tough (which, apparently, he’s not).

Hopefully you get to keep lifting there with no more issues.

Joshua, don’t feel like you have to respond to CaliforniaLaw…he is usually a dick.

If he thinks he sees people acting differently than he would have, he likes to rub their face in it.

Funny for people who deserve it, but irritating the rest of the time.

[quote]CaliforniaLaw wrote:

a bunch of crap[/quote]

Are you kidding?

Ha! Thanks, He actually makes a valid point … kinda. In a perfect world where everyone listened to me I would have told the kid squating: NO! That is too much weight if you must try it do it in the power rack so you don’t get hurt, and he would have listened. But since this is the real world and he was going to try it one way or the other, I felt that i had to atleast try to assist him if he failed, the alternative was him trying and failing without someone to help him, also not good.

I made what I considered the less dangerous choice… unfortunately the kid either had never been spotted on a squat or just panicked when he felt the true weight on his back and instead of trusting his spotter to help him rerack it he dumped it forward. Hopefully everything will be fine and the heavy loads will keep being lifted!

[quote]Joshua632 wrote:
I do accept that I am responsible for my actions, but as I already stated he was going to try it with or without me there, so I felt the risk of him failing and me having to help him up with it was better than the risk of him bottoming out and not having a spotter at all. [/quote]

This was a kind sentiment. But you could have seriously hurt yourself. You let yourself get taken advantage of.

Why risk an injury to yourself for this guy?

If you see a guy drowning, jump in if you can swim. But if the guy tries pulling you down, get the hell away. And if someone is doing something so stupid as the guy you spotted was doing, you should either a) stop him or b) let him kill himself.

I would have either told him: “This ain’t gonna happen,” and started unracking the weights, or I would have called management.

[quote]daraz wrote:
CaliforniaLaw wrote:

a bunch of crap

Are you kidding?

smallmike wrote:
If he thinks he sees people acting differently than he would have, he likes to rub their face in it.
[/quote]

Just to be clear: You two think it’s appropriate to spot someone whom you know clearly has at least 100 pounds too much weight on the bar? Is that really your position?

You actually strike me as a decent and nice guy. It seems like you were trying to prevent the guy from hurting himself. I used to be a lot like that. But you’ll realize in life that’s an easy way to get burned.

When people are doing stupid, life-threatening shit, leave them be. There are enough deserving people in the world who could use your help.

Let me get this straight, you feel it is ok to let someone get seriously hurt just to prove your point? Are you kidding me? You know you sound alittle bit like an asshole, no offense I’ve been an asshole a few times in my life not something I’m proud of but it happened, and I’ve got to tell you apologizing will really make you like yourself alot more.

Sometimes people make bad choices and all we can do is try to keep them from hurting themselves that is life…

You attempted to spot 600 lbs by your self…? You are either dumb, he-man strong, or crazy. If you can’t lift it on your own don’t spot it on your own.