Strange Things You've Seen at the Gym

Why this place doesn’t already have such a topic is beyond me. I’ll go first then.

My gym is quite good. It’s got many different bars, racks, handles etc. but some of the people who come there are so insanely weird that it removes focus completely.

First place for the strangest person I’ve ever met is a fat immigrant in his 40s who’s completely lost it. The people you see on various youtube videos doing strange stuff cant even begin to compare to what this guy is doing.

I guess everybody does something odd now and then, but this is a full blown comedy with a mildly retarded actor who does not know he is in a movie.

Today…
First he tries one treadmill but he did not like that one. Then another and then back again, then the third, then besides me where he puts treadmill to 3kmt and starts singing to the lady standing next to him. The lady moves to another treadmill, but he does not care, he just follows her and continues to sing. The lady leaves. He comes back to the treadmill besides me. All other treadmills are free, but he has to be on this particular one. Sets the treadmill at 3kmt and begins to pretend that he’s running. Breathes ot loud as if he runs. Arm swinging. Wild arm swinging. He hits me several times. Begins to laugh and say strange noises while looking at me. I Move. He follows and does more arm swinging. I ask him nicely to get away from me. He begins to sing. I raise my voice and tell him to get the fuck away from me. He sings out louader. I am out of here.

Later.
A guy’s doing cleans on a platform which is designed with rubber pads, to absorb weights being dropped.
He walks over and yells at him. Can’t understand a single word. It just strange sounds. His hands insinuate that he isn’t allowed to throw the bar down. Gets a 2.5kg plate and starts swinging it around in uncontrolled patterns. Stupid plate. Gets a new and better one. Swings it around in a uncontrolled pattern. A guy starts squatting. Hurries behind him and starts swinging with the plate. Stupid plate. Gives the plate to the guy squatting. Off to the shoulder press machine. Laughs at the machine for 15 minutes. Boxing. Off to a random girl at the other end of the room. She must help him get the glove on. He sings. finds another girl. She must help him with the other glove. Hits the bag one. Begins to run around the bag instead while laughing. Pushup. Off to the cross trainer, with gloves on. Starts stretching on the cross trainer. Treadmill. Starts stretching on the treadmill. Pushup. Boxing. Runs around the bag while he laughs. Takes a plate I’m using. Swings it around. Stupid plate. Gives it to a random guy who’s doing dips.

Later, downstairs. I have to make a dumb. The toilet is occupied. There’s singing. He opens the door. He’s destroyed the toilet. He laughs as he says strange noises and points to his masterpiece. He still weares the boxing gloves. I go home

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Most likely he was on drugs, but Jesus, why didn’t the gym staff kick him out?

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I once saw a guy doing glute ham raises while holding a medicine ball at full extension swing down and slam the ball off of the floor at try to catch the bounce. It bounced back straight into his face and knocked the stupid right out of him!

… wait, that was me…:grimacing:

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There have been various iterations of this thread, it’s just that they start to fall down in the thread order if no one’s been posting in it. Invariably a new one gets started every couple of months, like this one.

Here is the last long one I remember, if they had a different thread title it would be missed more by regular and the thread would die off.

Crossfit! Haw haw haw

But pretty sure no one will top that story.

Best i got is when i used to go to a commercial gym. These 3 guys would grab DBs, hold them by their sides. Then proceed to tap them infront of themselves, then behind themselves for one rep keeping arms straight . They do about 3 sets of 20 all synced and lined up in front of the mirror.

There’s a strange number of people at my gym that will get on the treadmill and walk at 1.0 to maybe 3.0 kph, which is slower than miles per hour, and I see lots of guys lifting insanely light weight. Like 30 lbs on the lat pulldown, and 10 lb db bench.

I think that as many of us get farther and farther from manual labor, we see the gym as this place where bodies change. Sure they do, but these people seem to have a disconnect from reality as to how much they’re really accomplishing in the gym each day.
three light sets of lateral raises does not mean you need to drink protein powder immediately after in a dirty locker room. You don’t need to do ten minutes of stretching ON the treadmill before you use it to walk at the aforementioned 1.0 kph for 20 minutes.

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One gym i was a member of had a guy who would do 1" ROM movements on everything. He was twig thin but very sinuey looking.

I kinda respected that he stuck to his guns for years despite no one training in that fashion and endless helpful gym goers telling him he was doing it wrong.

Also the guy in the full body compression suit and the guy who would hang from the lat pulldown machine upside down and do upside down bodyweight shrug/rows.

There used to be this old head who would come to the gym with ove mitts duct taped to his hands.

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A couple of weeks ago while resting between sets I saw a squirrel fall probably 40 feet out of a tree and hop away.

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Two strange things:

  1. I was in a university gym where this kid was bench pressing. I think he was lifting like 115 or 95lbs, I cant remember exactly. What I do remember is that he had the highest pitched grunts Ive ever heard, like was having an orgasm every time he pressed the weight. I just walked out of the room because I didn’t want to listen to this guy ejaculate in his pants for the next 30 minutes.

  2. At a low point in my life between leaving grad school and starting my job, I lifted at a local place near my parents house. There was this scrawny kid and his little bastard friends who were loud, obnoxious and weak. Well this little pain in the ass is yelling at his friends while they are doing cable rows. He proceeds to hit his friends back every time he does one row. Then after that, he takes 1 10lb plate (about the weight of a gallon of water…) in each hand and does shrugs, grunting and yelling as loud as possible. I wanted to kick this kid’s ass so bad.

The strangest thing I’ve observed at the gym is the shocking rate of knee problems among young, healthy-looking men.

Hah that sounds almost exactly like a guy at my gym! Strange looking fellow. Older, with incredibly harsh, gravelly voice and really thick glasses who “squats” 315 and “rack pulls” 405 for reps.

There’s a super religious guy who regularly wear religious-themed tanks and cut offs, who otherwise looks like he never left the 70s.

There’s this tall, swole looking guy who’s the absolute embodiment of gym douche. Wears tiny tanks, never seen him train legs, steals machines/racks from smaller/weaker people, wears wrist wraps as a fashion accessory, and hits on women in the douchiest way possible. He’s a good bit stronger (and a lot bigger) than the average trainee, but his strength (even upper body) is absolutely laughable for his size. Several people have complained about him being an asshole. Every time we see him, I say to my girlfriend in my best Australian accent, “Crikey! Look what we’ve got here, a gym douche in it’s natural habitat! Let’s sneak a bit closer to see if we can get a closer look.” That never fails to get a laugh. Love having the guy around. Sometimes you can train and get a show too.

I certainly can’t top the OP’s story, but there is a guy in the gym I’m currently going to that squats with the worst form possible. He has a decently strong upper body but I have to look the other way when he squats.

The guy will load up 315 and do a quarter rep… the problem is that he goes down 6" on one side and 3" on the other. The bar is at a decent angle in his bottom position and makes me cringe every time. I swear his back and/or knees are going to snap.

I once saw an old man put a 100lb plate in an army backpack and try to bounce on the mini trampolines used for some cardio class. He busted right thru the trampoline and came to slamming halt on the floor! Shook him to his bones.

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Break dancing between sets… University gyms, amirite??

Haha if only this was a joke!!! Also, guys who think they are at a metal or hip hop concert between sets

Sometimes you see lifters from Eastern Europe do goodmornings in the Hack Squat “Machine.”

It looks kinda silly, but I was checking out a girl’s butt when she did it, and she got good contraction/activation.

Following her lead, some old guy in my gym gets in the Hack Squat backwards, and does kind of a front squat. It looks pretty bad. My man loves this moves, and its a staple in his routine now. He was trying to get me turned on to it a couple weeks ago.

Break dancing could be a cool way to do calisthenics/mobility between sets of real lifts.

that’s actually quite common, I’ve seen it on a few workout videos from fitness chicks showcasing their, um, gains?

I’ve mentioned this before but there’s a dude at my gym who does some really weird shit.

He was walking around a few months ago shouting “constipated trainers! You’re all constipated trainers! That’s why you shit yourself!”

I did actually try and point out the confliction in that statement but he just kind of ignored me. He’s actually not that bad a dude, I’ve spoken to him a few times, he’s obviously just a few cards short of a full deck.

He does do one really gross thing where he spits down the inside of his shirt when he’s working out. Just hocks up this big massive loogy, pulls his t shirt out a bit and spits down onto himself. It’s pretty funny and gross at the same time.

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