Do you even gym? (Weird/Bad workouts you've seen people do)

[MelissaLauren]

Since my gym didn't have the best hours , I got a membership at Planet Fitness for a couple of months last summer. Let me tell you, I have seen some pretty questionable things in those couple of months, things that have forever engraved themselves in the back skirts of my memory when I look at particular machines/equipment. It's get's especially odd in the later hours.

Sightings:
-teenage boy staring up, then using entire body weight to hurl down lateral pull-downs on cable
-man who runs on treadmill at stupid fast speeds, yet props himself up on side bars entire time with arms
-older woman who does bridges very slowly and sexually (uncomfortable to watch)
-squats on curl rack
-curls on squat rack
-man grabbing cables and sprinting forward then backward (you'd have to see this one to understand)

I'm all for people trying new things, and new gym members taking that leap into a healthy lifestyle. But man, someone of these people. What's the worst workout/use of equipment you have ever seen?

Another example:

^^^Found on internet and LOLed a little

[MadCatLady]

I don't generally take much notice of what everyone else is doing, unless it's curls in the squat rack which gives me rage... But the other day I wanted to use the leg extension machine and there was a guy using it to do bent over rows. Lol

[Jodie10]

The cardio bunnies are the worst. They are painfully thin or skinny/fat, spend an hour doing hard cardio, then do weird things with tiny weights (3 or 5 pound dumbbells). I realized the other day that the combo, along with a restricted calorie diet (you KNOW this is happening), results in their bodies NEVER EVER CHANGING

[VO2Maxima]

I don't generally take much notice of what everyone else is doing, unless it's curls in the squat rack which gives me rage... But the other day I wanted to use the leg extension machine and there was a guy using it to do bent over rows. Lol

I'm trying so hard to picture what this would look like and just can't wrap my head around it.

[AshleyStAndrews]

I'm trying so hard to picture what this would look like and just can't wrap my head around it.

Same here

[shesprints]

There was a man at my gym last week doing squats in jeans and and a neck brace, wearing a hoodie which he partially wrapped around the bar. So: neck brace, jeans, attached to the bar via hoodie. WTF?

Seemed very unsafe, especially with the noises he was making, but he did have the safety bars up so I just side-eyed and continued about my way.

[Artemis00]

I'm all for people trying new things, and new gym members taking that leap into a healthy lifestyle. But man, someone of these people. What's the worst workout/use of equipment you have ever seen?

Well rather than bring up what other people do...I'll just mention a few of the things I do at the gym that I'm sure get me weird looks.

- Dragon flags on bench
- Elbow levers on bench
- Elbow levers on smith machine bar
- Skin the cat on smith machine bar
- Upside down Crunches on smith machine bar
- Jim Stoppani's Hip thrusts on smith machine
- Pull over on smith machine bar
- Attempting various levers on smith machine bar

[Artemis00]

I don't generally take much notice of what everyone else is doing, unless it's curls in the squat rack which gives me rage... But the other day I wanted to use the leg extension machine and there was a guy using it to do bent over rows. Lol

Was it something like this?



I mean of course with the leg extension, but similar setup

[VO2Maxima]

Was it something like this?



I mean of course with the leg extension, but similar setup

See, I wouldn't question that, that setup makes sense to me. But the leg extension has that big pad thing, I don't know how you'd grab it? Although I was imagining them on the seat, which is why I couldn't for the life of me picture how it would work.

I use the lat pulldown machine sitting on the floor with one arm and palpating my lat with the other hand. I'd imagine people are wondering wtf I'm doing when I do them. Probably looks less bad than the time I attempted to use the lat pulldown machine for glute ham raises and nearly fell on my face though. Note to self: I am not strong enough to do glute ham raises.

[LollyLifts2015]

Note to self: I am not strong enough to do glute ham raises.

This made me lol!! Thank you for that.

I've watched many a people in sandals at the gym; people collapse because of improper form and trying to show off because they're using too much weight. I watched a guy doing tricep dumbbell kickbacks on a bench and totally went facefoward over the bench one time. I totally spit all over myself laughing... I felt really bad about that actually, for like a second. He turned out being one of those guys that spend 10 seconds on EVERY machine in the gym, leaving benches and Dumbbells in the middle of the floor.
My gym is too small to really see much. Usually it's home bodies who bring Sonic as their "post workout meal," walk on the treadmill for 23 minutes, sauna it, then leave.

[rockangel]

Tuesday: Dude doing squats on a smith with a HUGE sissy pad and bar set way too high on the neck....looked over and hes got 10 pound plates on either side. I soooo wanted to stop him and show him how to do it right.... bring the bar down and you wouldnt look like and idiot with the huge sissy pad...

Gym i worked at a few years ago, i had to stop a guy (i was on floor time).... he was at the abductor/adductor machine... he would set it up how he wanted it... then get about 6 feet from behind the machine, run, and jump over the top of the head rest to get into it..... i told him he couldnt do that as it was not only the wrong way but a liability issue (in case he got hurt or hurt someone else) offered to show him how to better get into it......he said that is the way he has always done it and no one has ever said anything about it....

Gym before that we had the crazy runner dude.. he would come in these tiny tight boxer shorts... get on a treadmil and run hunched over at the waist and holding on to the handlebars at a level 10 incline..speed 9

and the last one was what we call the library lady... she wanted the gym quiet so she could get on the recumbent bike and read her book. She complained about EVERYTHING, from the level of music in the classes, to the regular noises of the weight room, to the level of noise from the basketball court, and the music in the gym. Got so bad my boss finally told her "if you want to read, go to the library. This is a gym" lol

[cjobson]

Just a few sightings from this week:

- Woman speaking on speaker phone in the weight room, just sitting there not working out, and speaking really loudly in Spanish. So annoying.
- Dude who always counts his reps out loud and does most of the exercises wrong...and smiles creepily at women...and always takes your machine in between sets.
- People who hog the shower and take their sweet and precious time while other people (like me) are trying to haul ass to work.
- Dude who always SITS on the assisted pull up machine and basically does some kind of weird dip movement. So awkward.

I go to a small gym with a lot of older people (60+), so some of the sightings are pretty hilarious. I see so much sh!t I can't even remember all of it from this week. I just laugh and keep working. Keeps things interesting...besides the shower one of course. ugh.

[Echo814]

I haven't had to deal with other people in a long time and I'm glad lol. When I did belong to a gym there was this woman that would walk around the perimeter of machines and free weights doing lateral raises. She nearly hit several people doing that. I remember this younger kid sitting upright on a bench, with maybe 3 lb weights in his hands, arms held almost in a standing OHP position, bouncing them up and down. To this day I have no idea what that was supposed to work.

[MadCatLady]

[QUOTE=Artemis00;1338921911

I mean of course with the leg extension, but similar setup[/QUOTE]

Sort of yeah. He was bent over facing it, with one hand on the bit you sit on. The bit that sits in your shins to extend is divided into two pads with a metal bar between, that's what he was holding on to.

[vhenley164]

Oooh, a thread about idiots in the gym - I love those

Here goes:

- People doing endless curls where they swing their whole body all over the place. No bicep was worked that day
- The person strapping their knees up within an inch of their life, and, as I wait to see what amazing feat of powerlifting they are going to achieve, they walk around with their knee straps on doing chest and curls
- People doing lat pull downs and use pretty much any part of their body to get that cable down other than their lats
- Putting clips on the bar on the smith machine. Can't imagine what they are going to be doing with that secured bar to make the weights fall off either side
- Girls who hang around with the guys and don't lift a single thing! I am embarrassed on their behalf!

That felt good. I know we shouldn't be watching others and just getting on with things but you can't help yourself sometimes. So judgmental!

[Shawal16]

Without a doubt the funniest thread I have ever read!!

[AshleyStAndrews]

Today it was the guy doing tai chi in the free weight floor instead of one of the giant areas for things like that... The lady on the lat pull down doing some type of twisty thing not moving the weights.

There's also the guy who takes 3 large steps on the treadmill and then glides all the way back... Wash rinse repeat for 1 minutes... He steps so heavy you can hear it all over the gym and into the locker rooms.

[vhenley164]

What about the guys who run backwards on the treadmill - I like them, always waiting for them to fall arse-over-tit

[esh83]

never paid enough attention to really see what people were doing in the weight area. the rec center i used to go to was associated with SUMMA healthcare, so alot of old folks were there for rehabilitation and PT and i think they had a "silver sneakers" club. i used to run/walk the track and the general observation made was that the old folks would shuffle around in herds like the walking dead lol. i know its mean, but if you saw it..you'd totally agree lol

[MelissaLauren]

The cardio bunnies are the worst. They are painfully thin or skinny/fat, spend an hour doing hard cardio, then do weird things with tiny weights (3 or 5 pound dumbbells). I realized the other day that the combo, along with a restricted calorie diet (you KNOW this is happening), results in their bodies NEVER EVER CHANGING

I could not agree with this more. I always notice these women. I used to be one but finally figured it out down the line after I looked the same for 2 years.

There's also the guy who takes 3 large steps on the treadmill and then glides all the way back... Wash rinse repeat for 1 minutes... He steps so heavy you can hear it all over the gym and into the locker rooms.

Would pay $$$ to see this. Sounds painful. Maybe 4+ steps are too cardio heavy for him XD

What about the guys who run backwards on the treadmill - I like them, always waiting for them to fall arse-over-tit

Gahahaah this too! There is a lady at my gym and I have yet to see her use the treadmill frontwards.

[viccles007]

The guy who does about 100 micro reps at 1000 miles an hour on the seated row...??

[vhenley164]

Oh yeah, and the guy who puts as much weight as they physically fit on the leg press and does one very noisy mini rep while all his mates look on.

[AshleyStAndrews]

Would pay $$$ to see this. Sounds painful. Maybe 4+ steps are too cardio heavy for him

I had video but felt bad and no longer have it...

[starrysim]

One of my faves (or the opposite of fave, depending on how you interpret it) is the hunchbacks on the steppers. Ugh.

Recently I saw a guy doing heavy power moves with weights that were waaaaay too heavy for him. Oh, and with a belt too. His whole body was contorting in all kinds of ways to get that barbell overhead. It looked so dangerous, I felt really bad for the guy. Guys always have so much to prove...

Also, earlier this week there was a girl doing something weird on the assisted pull-up. It was so weird that I couldn't figure it out so I don't even remember.

[IzTriv]

Ha, this thread is golden!!!

I'm usually really lucky with my gym and ridiculous sightings (apart from lazy PTs....grrrr) are pretty unusual. There was one random morning though where all the **** hit the fan all at the same time! I detailed my horror in another thread, so I'm copying it from there (http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showth...post1322433401)

- I was in the exercise room doing some barbell curls. For the best part of half an hour, two middle-aged men walked back and forth across the room backwards. And barefoot. Talking loudly to each other all the while.

- They leave, and almost on cue, a woman walks in. She asks if she can turn off the lights so she can ''do yoga''. Somebody (not me!) says yes, so the lady proceeds to severely dim the lights and lie motionless on her yoga mat, leaving the half dozen or so other people in the room doing weights and other exercises in darkness.

- I leave and go to the chest machine. Opposite me, another lady arrives in the gym and lies down on a yoga mat. She's wearing a shockingly revealing top, tits hanging out. Seriously, this top would turn heads in a NIGHTCLUB with its inappropriateness! The usually-respectful men who frequent my gym are staring at her, mouths agape. So are most women! She proceeds to put in earphones and call her friend about the plans for the weekend. This (loud) call lasted about twenty minutes, consisted of lots of excited expletives, and seemed mostly centred about food. As in, most of the call was a list of ingredients for Xmas treats and menu items for various restaurants. Not distracting at all! The lady did (I counted) two sit ups while lying on the mat during this time. Then, after the call, she stood up and did jumping jacks, tits flying everywhere, and when her Ipod inevitably fell out of her pocket, the lady made this ridiculously loud sex giggle, thus drawing even more attention to herself, distracting the men, and p1ssing off the women.

- I move to the shoulder press machine and it is moist and visibly dripping with sweat from the previous person who used it.

Grrr.

[kaydence]

I work at a gym, so a see a lot of weird stuff. The thing that bothers me when I'm training are the people sitting on the machines texting! Also the teenagers who come in after school and socialize in the weight room while half-ass lifting weights. There is also this guy that never reracks his weights have leg presses, so I have to put away 8 45 plates before I can even use the thing. The problem is I never actually see him leave, so I can't stop him to ask him to put them away!

[kaydence]

Oh, and I see a lot of people wearing jeans! One time I saw this lady, in jeans, sitting on the leg extension machine drinking a coke. Mind blown.

[IzTriv]

Oh, and I see a lot of people wearing jeans! One time I saw this lady, in jeans, sitting on the leg extension machine drinking a coke. Mind blown.

Ouch! Actually now that I think of it, there was a girl in my gym last night running on the treadmill in denim shorts/hotpants >.<

[pamplemousse27]

I saw someone riding the smith machine like a horse once. That one confused me. He was a big guy, definitely looked like he gyms regularly. But that move was so....interesting. :/

[vhenley164]

I saw someone riding the smith machine like a horse once. That one confused me. He was a big guy, definitely looked like he gyms regularly. But that move was so....interesting. :/

I am intrigued as to what that looked like