At my gym, there is a power rack, and then a "squat rack." I prefer using the power rack for squats, so I loaded up my bar to begin my workout. After about 15 minutes, some kid (probably about 19 years old) comes up and starts looking at me funny.

Finally he says, "How many more sets do you have? I wanted to get in some curls"

I respond "8"

He says "can I just work in"
now, I'm looking at this kid, and I know that there's no way he's going to be curling what I have been squatting, not one rep of it ever in his life. So I tell the kid "why don't you use the CURL bars over there" and point him in the right direction... well he must have thought I was talking about the rack next to my power rack, because he takes the bar and starts pumping out curls. I continue to do my workout, supersetting as I'm planned on, and some big looking personal trainer comes up to the kid in the rack next to mine and has some words with him. 10 minutes later, the trainer has some 45-50 year old guy at that rack doing curls (with just the bar)... I couldn't beleive it.

At least that's one thing I don't see up at school because of this little invention, a sign that reads "squats and overhead lifts only"

I'm thinking of making one for my summer gym.

This and for that matter, many other stupid thing people do in the gym is why I just bought myself a power rack, a set of Power Block dumbells and an O-weight set and work out at home. Of course, I was not about to do that when I was a student though. Just keep up the good work and try not to let the idiots get to you.

This is by far my worst peeve!
You get all pumped up to go do Squats and when you get there, a metrosexual punk ass is taking up the ONLY squat rack there and does F*&$%# curls.

Luckily for them no one has asked me to work in because he would have had an earful. Not necessarily cussing but he would have heard about weightroom etiquette.

Moerte

One of the many things that really pisses me off is when there is some idiot that feels it necessary to have cell phone conversations between each set. The guy will do a set of bench presses and then pick his phone up and talk on it for 5 minutes and Im not over exagerating. He manages to turn a 8 minute exercise session into a 90 minute telethon. Because of him, there is a rule in the gym now that if you are going talk on your cell phone you must leave the weight area and you give up your rights to that piece of equipment.

I can beat all your worst curling in the squat rack stories.

I actually saw a guy doing dumbell curls in the power rack.

Yup. OK, to be a little fair to the guy, he was also doing something with a barbell. I think it was upright rows, anyway it was some BB thing that did NOT require him to bogart the rack, but he was supersetting with dumbell curls... so when I walked into the gym ready to squat I saw him in my rack curling his dumbells and there was an instant where I was struck, frozen with shock and fear thinking MY GOD, WHAT WILL THE GYM WEENIES THINK OF NEXT???

I don't know why I haven't bought a rack for home yet. I have the space, have the money. I guess I keep praying that EliteFTS will have a free freight special.

Nick

Speaking of what "the gym weenies" will think of next...

I saw a guy using one of the hip and thigh piston-resistance things... doing CURLS with it. He was trying to mack on some chick or something and proved to look like a complete idiot by using this thing for curls.

It was funny to watch him fumble with the piston positions and saying "this really gives you a good pump in the arms" as the girl looked at him blankly

i felt bad the other week when I was doing meltdown I program day 1 in the power rack. I had one bar racked up high for my squats, one bar racked low for deads, used the rectangular cross beam for pull ups and the floor for push ups. Best setup for MT1 in a commercial gym. The awkwardness came when I would drop to do push ups.

Why did I need to do push ups in the power rack area? I'm such a rack hog.

Oh yeah because everything else I was doing was in there and there's no room to set up for deads because the floor is loaded with hammer machines and smith machines. Sorry to those who wanted to do curls and quarter squats.

Yesterday I saw something that beats curling in the squat rack. And oh have I seen my share of curling in the squat rack-- guys curling, guys standing on boxes curling, guys standing on one foot curling. (No joke.)

Yesterday I witnessed someone load up the dip belt with two plates and do tricep press downs. Why did he put on the dip belt, you ask? Because he did not physically weigh enough to move the ridiculous amount of iron that he had pinned on the cable stack.

We've all seen some horrendous things in the gym. We all have our pet peeves as well. Personally, aside from the classics of curls in the squat rack, talking on the cell phone and using way too much weight with dangerously bad form, I hate when people do dumbbell side raises standing just inches away from the spot where they got the dumbbells off the rack. Thereby making it impossible to get to any of the other dumbells for 4 foot in either direction until they're done with their set because of their giant wingspan. If the weight is too heavy to walk three feet with it, its too heavy for you. By the way i think RITJared has got all our stories beat. I can just imagine that little guy with his dip belt lifting himself up off the ground.

Because he did not physically weigh enough to move the ridiculous amount of iron that he had pinned on the cable stack.

Seriously RITJared...you must be joking. Please tell me you're joking.

Check this out. I actually saw a new one yesterday.

Guy comes up and asks my workout partner for a spot. Turns out he's doing smith machine benching. I told my partner I would have refused to spot him and told him how a smith machine works.

Not to mention the fact the guy was only lifting 205. When my partner came back he said the sad thing was he had to deadlift the bar because the guy could not even come close to moving it.

To top it off the guy finishes his set and comes over and proceeds to try and give us lifting advice for getting strong. I told him you must be kidding, right? I haven't used a smith machine in ten years because they're useless and as far as 205 is concerned, it wouldn't be sufficient for a warm up on a real bench much less a work set.

I was doing squats in the squat rack one day when some kid came up and asked me "how many more sets do you have in the curl rack?"

I also had a kid tell me that I'd never get huge guns if I didn't work on my curl form and isolate my biceps. Fortunately for me, I was doing hang cleans.

And finally, I once observed a guy load a bar with ~225 on a flat bench. He never unracked the bar, he just grabbed it and laid on the bench to do leg lifts. The funny thing was that after each set of leg lifts, he'd add weight to the bar!

Hey Tom,
Just ask the guy to spot your Deads and see what he does..and bring your camera.

Does anybody else have this guy at their gym?
The guy who comes into the gym already wearing his Valeo "weight belt" and leaves it on the entire time no matter what he is doing. This is the same guy that told me that he cant do real squats because, you guessed it, he has "knee problems" but he still managed to do what seemed to be 100 sets on a hack squat machine. Talk about bad on the knees. Give me a break!

Yesterday at my Gym. Most of the people in the free weight area on the cell phone. (7 out of 10) None of the conversations in English. Most in Spanish or Chinese. Me and my partner using the bench everyone else doing some form of curl. I kid you not.

Then two guys come in, get on the incline and start singing raps. They were rapping about wearing "Orange Suits and eating bad food" It is a song they wrote about being in Rikers.

I have to find a different gym.

Guys,
I've seen a guy perform a DB Chest Press. The funny thing about that was that he used wrist wraps around the DB.
I've also seen a guy do the DB Chest Press on a Swissball. Not the vinyl ones that can hold 1000lbs, but those thin rubber ones used for aerobic classes. The ball blew up. What was even funnier was that the trainer had warned him before to use the vinyl ones but he still ignored it.

Barbender,
Does the guy with the velcro belt have a sweater tucked in his belt? Does he wear a headband too? If so, Iv'e seen him.

Actually Incubator those mobility drills in the squat rack are a good idea. Depending on your rack and your height (mine I set the pins at hole 3 and 7)squat under one pin and step over the next one. Really loosens up the hips for squatting. If you were at my gym you might even see me duck walking occasionally. Everybody has many people at their gym that do stupid things and it used to bother me now I could care less and just lift. The one thing that I will never get over is when somebody is taking up the squat rack by doing curls or shrugs. So to get back at them I do almost my whole workout in the rack. Ticks them off when you say you have about 16 sets left when they want to do curls.

I wish I could've filmed the Swiss ball explode under that guy... it would've made worst Plays of the Week on Sportscenter!

This week I've had to cover for my boss and come in early to work, usually I only get to see the humans leaving the gym when I get there, but this week was an ewxperience.
I saw some clown doing 1/10 hack squats with like 8 45's on each side, I couldn't belive it he didn't even move the weight, I had to go to another power rack to do squats lest I be mesmerized and loose my focus\
Then on chest day I saw this guy about 5'4" maybe, decent ok arms, but he was so small if he turned sideways he'd disappear. Well this OG was wearing a baseball hat sideways(I don't know who he was representing, and he was paler than me) well I saw him do dumbell presses, do trhe obligatotory slamming of the weight, and then take a 5 minute walk to socailise. Then finally he was doing hammer presses, and slamming the levers hard for no apperent purpose, the best part was that he had to look in the mirror to adjust his baseball hat after the set, that was priceless

Let me introduce to you - "Mr. Spot"! You probably have him in your gym too. The guy who needs a spot on every exercise he does, right from the first set! Saw him the other day doing DB Incline Presses. I knew it was too heavy for "Mr. Spot" and sure enough, he starts eyeballing me. I got caught once, but next time he UP'D the weight, I was getting water! Next up for "Mr. Spot" (sit down for this) - Smith Machine Bench Press w/Spotter. Yes, apparently turning the bar to lock it was too much after the monstrous weight he had just lifted. Go figure...

Another favorite of mine is the Hammer Strength Curl w/Jumping Monkey. This is where the guy 'working' his arms loads up a couple 45's and has his friend hang on the ballast part and pull it down. Then as the weight is lowered, the guy jumps back up to a standing position!! Very entertaining...

I'm no big guy (6'2", 198lbs), but I try to have common sense when working out. I need to buy a camera!!

These are some funny stories, so I figured I'd add mine.

A guy at my gym was supersetting, which is cool, but not when you are using EVERY PIECE OF EQUIPMENT IN THE ENTIRE GYM. I shit you not, this tubby guy was using the bench press, smith machine (doing bench again for some reason), both cable pulleys, the preacher bench, the lat pull-down, and a differnt flat bench for doing something bizarre with dumbells. Now this is a tiny gym, there isn't two of anything, and to top it off when I tried to step in after he had finished a station, he asked me to wait untill he was done. I restrained the urge to give him a barbell enema, finished up my last exercise and went home. Some people.

Every Monday, bench day for all lifters (rigth?), the same guy uses gloves for incline DB bench with...wait... 15lb DB's. Quite a riot for me.

Of all the I hate my gyms here and at elitefts, this is the most bizzare and funnies yet.