Offering Help

[-TIM-]

I don't know about everybody here, but doesn't it get annoying seeing some the the things people try to do at the gym. Example being, loading up weight for an exercise and then jerking the bar a million miles an hour with no form and no real benifit just so it looks like they can lift a lot? It gets to me sometimes and I want to say something but I'm not sure how it would come off. It's an injury waiting to happen. I got thinking about it today when I saw this kid doing roman deadlifts with the worst form and he was jerking the weight really fast. It made my back hurt just looking at it.

So does anybody else ever feel like offering help when it's not asked for?

[p_t]

Unless your decent sized and ripped up I think it will come off as you trying to be a know it all. It's easy for me because i start off by telling them I am a trainer at the gym and if they would mind if I made a suggestion. You could try something like that. But make sure instead of just telling them that it is wrong you also let them know why. This way they know you know your ****.

[steveo]

Gym rules:
never tell some one what they are doing wrong unless they ask.

I've seen big ripped dudes doing things completely wrong and they come up to me and they say things like
"Swing your arms when you curl you'll get a lot more reps."

Sure dude, whatever.

[-TIM-]

Originally posted by steveo
I've seen big ripped dudes doing things completely wrong and they come up to me and they say things like
"Swing your arms when you curl you'll get a lot more reps."

Hmm...use momentum or the muscle to get the weight up???

You know I do see some large people in the gym that have sucky work out ethics and it makes me wonder how much BIGGER they'd be if they did thing right

I kind of feel the same way though. As far as not offering unless they ask. That's why I was curious if others thought the same way.

[drew]

I saw this one dude on a chest machine putting up probably about 150. His ROM was less than 2 inches and he was just flying through it. Just annoyed the hell out of me, because I knew he was accomplishing nothing. But I kept my mouth shut. Unsolicited advice is almost never welcome.

[-TIM-]

It's funny I asked this because somebody just came up to me and offered some advice on my incline bench without me asking. He was one of the trainers so I didn't mind to much. Not too sure I agreed with everything he said but some of it was helpful

[drew]

It's different if it's a trainer

[Relentless]

Originally posted by drew
It's different if it's a trainer

I disagree.

But then again, I work out at a Good Life Fitness gym, which is mostly full of yuppie pukes. Every so often an FNG trainer will try to tell me something about my lifting, or give me advice, obviously hoping to get me interested in them as a personal trainer. If they interrupt my set like a fool, i glare at them (and I have a pretty good pissed-off glare). If they're at least polite enough to wait till I'm between sets, I'll explain why I do what I do and they usually move on.

But anyway, Tim?

Unsoliticed advice is a terrible, terrible vice. Focus on your own lifts and let the fools around you hurt themselves if they must.

[drew]

Oh, I work out at World Gym, more of a balance there between serious lifters and gymbunnies. I've worked with most of the trainers there, they try to get you to work with at least 3 or 4 of them for one session each as part of the annual membership. So they all know what my goals are, etc.

[steveo]

Ive seen guys that bench with about a few inches from their chest. These were pretty big and I saw someone go up and tell them that they needed to go all the way up. Well the big guys explained that buy only going up a few inches it focuses more on their chest and not on the tricept. It turned out that those big guys were Pro BBer's and the guy looked stupid. So I made it a rule never to a help anyone.

[Rock]

I will do the exercise wrong or half wrong, or not by the book all the time, since I think it works great for me, but many people get pissed by it

One old normal guy got really mad at me and asked me why I had to use so much weight, I didnt even bother to respond him, what a weird person, why should that bother him, jealous asshole.

[drew]

Rock, that's ridiculous.

I once had someone comment on the stack of my leg press, but he was complimenting me, not b*tching.

[SquareHead]

Originally posted by Tim Nissen


Hmm...use momentum or the muscle to get the weight up???

See your lookin at it all wrong man! That's like a forced rep with out the partner assist. LOL j/k

[unshift]

Originally posted by drew
Oh, I work out at World Gym, more of a balance there between serious lifters and gymbunnies. I've worked with most of the trainers there, they try to get you to work with at least 3 or 4 of them for one session each as part of the annual membership. So they all know what my goals are, etc.

do you have to pay extra to see these trainers? i work out at Worlds too and there's this trainer chick there who knows olympic/powerlifting techniques which i want to learn. would this be covered by my membership fee?

[drew]

You can probably just ask her to show you something specific and she'll do it for free. But a full session (an hour) is usually $49 or something like that. I had 4 free sessions when I signed up, and used different trainers for all of them. But if I have a specific question, they're always happy to help me.