Alright, I know i don’t post here a lot, but I read everything and know a little bi about proper technique, nutrition, training frequency, volume, etc. Well today, I was doing Zercher Goodmornings for my lower back and hamstrings. I’ve watched the video of the Westside guys doing them so my form is pretty damn good because at first I just practiced with an empty bar. This guy tells me im arching my back too much. Needless to say he was right. I thanked him for his help because occasionaly other people can see or technique flaws better than ourselves. BUT HERE IS THE KICKER, on every single fucking excercise after that he decides to correct my technique or saying im going to heavy or not enough reps. Just thought I’d fill you in on my gyms new genius.
Well, before you question others intelligence maybe you should learn to spell genius.
If you spell the subject thread incorrectly the only reason people will read the thread is to mock you.
ha my bad on the spelling seems im didnt pay attention in english class all i was trying to say is thats its aggrivating when people try to tell you everything you are doing is wrong or they have a better way to do it i am very open minded but things like that aggrivate me especially when the person telling you what to do is doing curls on a machine while watching you workout
I know what you mean, that can be very AGGRAVATING 
[quote]chtdrmn wrote:
ha my bad on the spelling seems im didnt pay attention in english class all i was trying to say is thats its aggrivating when people try to tell you everything you are doing is wrong or they have a better way to do it i am very open minded but things like that aggrivate me especially when the person telling you what to do is doing curls on a machine while watching you workout [/quote]
That’s cool dude. Great that you can laugh at yourself. And you’re right…know it alls aggravate me, too. Best thing you can do when they don’t know what they are talking about is just to nod and move on.
jesus i spelled aggravate wrong too seriously instead of hitting the gym in the morning i think im going to hit the books this is embarrassing(spelling?) haha
Try to think of/find an exercise that you are pretty sure that they won’t know of. The kind that when you bring it up they get that scared look of “I have no idea” on their face. Say something like, “Oh, you seem like a knowledgable guy, while I have you here could you show me how to do a Steinborn squat?” or “You know I’ve always wanted to know how an over-head squat was performed, could you show the teqnique to me.” The word squat will make it seem common but he will either have no idea what it is(i.e. Steinborn) or not be able to demonstrate it for you(i.e. Over-head). He should then feel like a jack ass and proceed to leave you alone and pester someone else.
“excuse me are you a personal trainer”?
KW: “I used to be, but when they found out I could squat my bodyweight for more than three reps, I lost my certification”
“excuse me, are you a personal trainer”?
KW: “No, actually I am a im-personal trainer-I make everyone do the same workout”
so ya “spelt” somethin wrong, it happens to the best of us! although proper “grammar” and spelling is good to use!
Ok, I met a few gym knobs last night. First off right after my set of warm up squats this guy has to come a talk my ear off for like 20 mins because I wore my Pearl drum shirt to the gym and this guy was a fellow drummer, which any other time I would have talked to the guy for hours about Neil Peart, Dave Lambardo, snare heads, and other drummer shit, but don’t mess with my rest periods damn it! I’m freaking small enough as it is, go pick on the freaks that do cheat 1/4 rep benchs and are twice the size of me. So anyway, this guy finnaly lets me finish my sets, and I go grab the decline bench and do some skull crushers, and then I saw him…the frat boy in the squat rack doing…wait for it…bicep curls. With 2 whole nickels on the bar. I just stood there with the E-Z bar in my hands and watched this dude. He did like 6 reps, flexed in the mirror for about 5 mins, walk across the gym to the drinking fountian like he is some kind of badass becuase he can curl 55lbs. Whatever, so I do my first set of skull crushers, than this guy with huge arms, a pretty large chest, and NO back whatsoever goes to setup to do some deadlifts. The guy throws 2 45s on the bar and does something that looks like a deadlift. His knees are slightly bent, he pretty much bends over the grab the bar, and lifts all the weight with an arched back, my back hurt just watching. So then the guy gives me this “WTF are you doing look.” You gotta laugh!
HA! It always puts a smile on my face when I see someone doing bicep curls in the power rack. Since I work out at a college, I see it quite often.
Confidence and Certainty in your Training Program
by Keith Wassung
I have come to the conclusion that weight training is either one of the simplest things in the world, or the most complicated. Developing impressive strength and muscular development seems to be a matter of simply stressing the muscle with increased loads in order to force them to respond with greater strength and muscular development. On the other hand, if the average trainee begins reading just sampling of the available literature available on strength training, they will immediately see differing opinions, conflicts and dogmatic statements, which can cause them to second guess their own training program. Doubt, confusion and frustration can wreak havoc on your progress. It is vitally important that you have confidence in your program even if it is not quite where you want it to be. Stick with the fundamentals of resistance training and combine that with consistent goal setting and record keeping, and you will be on your way to realizing your maximum strength and development potential. Along the way you can experiment and add some variety to your training plan. I am constantly “tinkering” with and fine-tuning my training regime, but I never stray from the fundamentals.
There are approximately 17,000 medical or science journals published in the world and new ones are added each day. A search of the Library of Congress reveals over 35,000 published books on the subject of strength training. Please keep in mind that “medical research” is inherently biased in that the persons conducting the test almost invariably have some type of interest in the results. You could make just about any statement regarding health and or physical development and it is likely you can find some published studies to support your position. I have seen published studies from years back that show that cigarette smoking increases a person’s health and longevity. Another example of skewered medical research occurred about 15 years ago when it was widely publicized that a study had been done which proved that taking one aspirin a day would reduce the risk of heart attacks. A follow-up study by the British Physicians Association revealed three interesting things that had not been reported (1) The study was essentially a mail-in survey done on white, male doctors (2) The study only showed that an aspirin a day would prevent a second heart attack and (3) The aspirin used was buffered aspirin, that is coated with magnesium, a valuable mineral who’s deficiency is often associated with heart disease, in other words, the magnesium was responsible for any cardiovascular benefit not the drug. Despite the reports risks associated with chronic aspirin use, such as bleeding, increase stroke and male sterility, the number one use of aspirin in the United States is now for prevention of heart attacks. This does not mean that all research is suspect, but it is simply not the only source of information. I would suggest that anyone who is serious about their training should spend a few hours reading up on basic physiology with any good college level anatomy and physiology text such as Guytons Anatomy and Physiology, or Marieb’s Essentials of Physiology. This will enable you to sort through and discern much of the research you read.
If you have been training for any length of time then you will have no doubt encountered the gym “know it all” who love to point out the shortcomings of your training. I have found that the more underdeveloped these guys are, the more they believe they know. I am sure you have encountered these weasels more than once. The fact is that they care nothing about true strength and development and are only there for vanity. They cannot accept hard training for one simple reason- BECAUSE ITS HARD! I pretty much ignore these types, except they are kind of fun to watch between sets. When I was training many years ago, there was one of these guys, who was about my height and general structure, except I weighed about 75 more lbs than he did. He had a bit of bicep, chest and shoulder development, and that was about it. He was in the gym 2-3 hours a day, 6 days a week and other than bench press, I never saw him do a single compound exercise. Of course he could lecture extensively about why compound movements were dangerous and unproductive for hours. He would often follow me around in the gym, with his latest muscle magazine in hand, lecturing me, in a very loud voice on the latest muscle building secrets.
I once saw him in a restaurant peeling the skin of a piece of baked chicken because he did not want to ingest those harmful fat calories, even though the chicken had more meat on its chest than he did. He was a constant thorn in my side and I did my best to ignore him, though I knew I drove him crazy that I was making great progress doing only about 12-15 sets, twice a week.
One day I overheard him telling some high school trainees that I had been helping, that my training protocol was absurd and that steroids were responsible for my level of strength and development. I walked over to him and gave him an atomic wedgie that I am sure required extensive surgery to remove the spandex from his butt. (Note: It is best not to piss off someone who can clean in excess of 350lbs as the pulling motion transfers quite nicely to the type of force needed to perform a serious atomic wedgie)
Strength and development is as much of an art, as it is a science. You have to experiment, keep track of your numbers in a training log and make adjustments as necessary.
I am ALWAYS bombarded by people in the gym here. I’m the only American in this city (in China). People are always trying to tell me to do “time under tension” “use the Smith Machine” for squats…or something equally BS and out of date.
Most of them spend more time watching me from the Smith Machine or flapping their gums with each other. Even though they don’t know English (for the most part)and I know little Chinese, i know what they are trying to say.
Well, one day I take a few of these brainiacs and show them a few things from T-mag…exercises they never tried before. now, I’m like the guru there…although i’m NOT big…not the strongest guy there…nor really that knowledgeable yet. I have them all staring and trying to speak to me during my rest periods…even children gather around me as I do lifts (it happened today with deadlifts)…and say “jason you are the best” or something.
Kinda funny in retrospect, but very disrupting to my focus at the present time…
So it’s gotten to the point where I tell them all to “not bother me during my workout” and that I’ll speak to “my public” before or after the workout. Either in BADLY broken Chinese, in English, or with gestures…When they break that rule, I ignore them and keep focus…sometimes bumping them out of the way.
Sorry, but you violated the rule.
To be fair…a couple of the regulars know that I know a little “sumtin-sumtin’” so they just do their own thing…only occasionally breaking rule #1.
Oh yeah, and no biggie about the spelling, it happens to everyone…especially when free-writing.
Take care.
One of the few times I went to a gym was with my ex-girlfiend. The first two people I run into were the resident roid salesmen.They ask if I want anything and I politely decline, telling them I’m just checking out the machinery and planning a workout. They continue to lurk and look and see what is wrong with me. I do some warm up and stabiliser drills then procede with a back workout. As I’m watching my form in the mirror on bent rows, roid boy #1 comes over and starts flexing in the mirror while standing behind me. He then takes off his shirt in a fit of passion, to reveal one of the saddest skinnyfat physiques I have ever witnessed.Tits like a 13 year old girl, back like a quadraplegic, and a belly like a woman who just gave birth to a whole litter of children. I know it’s bad form, but I dropped the bar and just about shit my shorts lauhging. I don’t have a problem with someone who uses or sells roids, but this guy wasn’t doing himself any favors when it comes to advertising his product. A real man of jeenyis.A couple more episodes like that and I wrote off going to that place all together. Thats my humerous little anectdote. hope you like it.
We recently had a gym genius whom we have never seen before walk up and tell one of our female lifters that she missed a shirted bench attempt b/c she didn’t line up her eyes with the bar before she unracked it.
We were speechless. Totally and completely without speech.
We just kind of muttered, “Yeah, thanks.”
[quote]apwsearch wrote:
We recently had a gym genius whom we have never seen before walk up and tell one of our female lifters that she missed a shirted bench attempt b/c she didn’t line up her eyes with the bar before she unracked it.
We were speechless. Totally and completely without speech.
We just kind of muttered, “Yeah, thanks.”
[/quote]
What a dumbass!
[quote]apwsearch wrote:
We recently had a gym genius whom we have never seen before walk up and tell one of our female lifters that she missed a shirted bench attempt b/c she didn’t line up her eyes with the bar before she unracked it.
We were speechless. Totally and completely without speech.
We just kind of muttered, “Yeah, thanks.”
[/quote]
Yeah dumbass! Everyone knows that she missed the lift because she didn’t rocket her ass off the bench and kick her feet in the air.
After he walked off I said to her, “That’s funny. I thought you missed it because you suck in your shirt.” Heh.
Nobody is immune from a nutbust.