Gym Pet Peeves (6/1/12)

1 06 2012

I sure hope you all get a good weekend of rest, because there’s a major national holiday on Monday that all of the GymGeek Nation should know about:  National Bench Press Day!

Ok, clearly I’m kidding.  I’ve just always found it interesting that there’s an unwritten rule that Monday’s are for bench presses.  I still shudder at the thought of waiting in line for the bench press stations at the UCF Rec & Wellness Center back in school (and we’re talking about a school with the second highest undergraduate enrollment in the United States).

There really is no explanation for this phenomenon, other than most meatheads like working their show-off muscles while girls are mildly interested in working out at the beginning of the week.

I bring up the bench press not because of the high traffic on a certain day.  That’s not so much a pet peeve as it is a necessary evil at every gym.  I’ve adjusted by doing my leg workouts on Mondays, just to knock out a tough day early.  Besides, no one’s fighting me to do squats!

So without further ado…

The Mayor of The One-Rep Max

This Pet Peeve Has a History…

I’ll be the first to admit it; finding out your one-rep max is a very important measuring stick when tracking your progress, in terms of muscular strength.  In fact, I do it once every two months just to see how far I’ve come.

But what about the guy that only does one rep…for ten sets?  It’s a head-scratcher to me.  All it does is get you tired, defeating the purpose of building both strength and endurance.  The idea of weightlifting is making your body efficient.

Doing your bench press in this fashion is a lot like driving a luxury car as fast as you can for ten seconds, hitting the brakes, resting at the red light, then doing it again at every…single…light.  All it’s going to do is beat the crap out of the car (or in this case, your body).

If your goal is to get stronger and bigger, you’re far better off doing three or four sets of four to six reps.  It’ll be much more taxing than doing ten sets of one while also giving your body a reason to recover.  Again, it’s about muscle efficiency.

So to this guy/gal, I leave you with this; use it as a measuring stick, not as part of your routine.  Besides, on National Bench Press Day, you’re also going to piss off A LOT of people waiting to get work done!  Also, you don’t want to end up like THIS guy, right?


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Categories : Gym Pet Peeves

Gym Pet Peeves: 5/17/12

17 05 2012

Before we get into my Gym Pet Peeve for this week, let me just say that some of these suggestions you guys are giving me via e-mail, Twitter, etc. are awesome!  I think I have enough material for the next year, so keep them coming!

I actually had one ready to go!  I was going to write it up last night, look over it this morning and post.  It’s a good thing I didn’t though, since I ran into one of my BIGGEST pet peeves this morning while doing my 5:00 AM workout…

The Mayor of The Machines

“One down, four more machines to go!”

You can spot this guy from miles away!  There is absolutely nothing more annoying than the jerk who takes over five or six different stations at once, ESPECIALLY when one of those is what is standing between you and getting ready for work.

Now, I’m all about circuit training.  In fact, that’s part of how I was able to lose weight in the first place.  Conceptually,  the combination of strength training with the cardio benefits of the exercises being in succession is fantastic.  What makes THIS guy so freakin’ special is that:

  • He has his “territory” spread out all over the gym floor like it’s a game of “Monopoly”
  • Take ages to get through the circuit because he…
  • Puts enough weight on each station where “working in” isn’t an option, and most importantly…
  • At the end of the circuit, he takes time to chat with other people instead of taking the minute or two rest and starting over again.

Aside from simply calling this meathead out (which, at 5 in the morning, is a totally reasonable thing to do), all you can do is adapt your workout.  Today, for example, the last part of my routine was four sets of seated calf raises.  Since this week in Jim Stoppani’s “Shortcut To Size” prescribed high rep/low weight sets (and this idiot had every 45 lbs. wheel in the joint on the machine),  I wasn’t about to ask the guy to work in.  Instead, I was forced to do a variation using some cables, steps and creativity.

If you’re “that guy,” I do have some suggestions to make you look less like a douche and blend in with your surrounding gym patrons:

  1. If you’re going to superset or do circuits,  try to make sure the exercises are all in the same general area (i.e. keep it to the power rack for squats, calf raises, shoulder press).
  2. More power to you if you can lift a ton of weight.  I can’t fault you for that, so go read rule #1 again.
  3. The idea of the superset is to be efficient with your time.  Talking to someone about whether or not FSU is going to the Big 12 is not efficient.  Neither is watching the same Sportscenter that’s been on since 3:00 in the morning.

I hope this has been as educational for you as it has been calming for me.  Keep the suggestions coming, GymGeeks!  Hopefully next week, I won’t have a last second moment of inspiration at the gym…


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Categories : Healthy Choices

Gym Pet Peeves: First Edition

10 05 2012

The beauty of beta testing a site like this is that since there are so few readers and followers (…go ahead, send the link to your friends & family) that I can playtest ideas and see what works and what doesn’t.

Yesterday, on Twitter, Status Fitness Magazine (@StatusFitness) was running a re-tweet for the best use of the hash tag #GymPetPeeves.  To be honest, a lot of them were rather impressive!  I found myself thinking, “You know what?  Yeah that drives me crazy too!” quite a bit.  I even put one up of my own, which got some action (and followers, thank you very much), so I thought I’d start this segment of NerdyGymRat.com with my Gym Pet Peeve.

“When people use their gym membership as an expensive book club on the stationary bikes.”

In my eight years of working out, I’ve been a member of three different gyms:

  1. The UCF Rec & Wellness Center (thanks to tuition, it was free!)
  2. L.A. Fitness (which ended because they cared more about the check clearing than fixing equipment)
  3. Planet Fitness (home of the “Lunk Alarm,” which I’ve yet to set off because I’m a quiet beast)

While the amenities, hours of attendance, clientele and machines have changed over the years, one thing has stayed constant; lazy-ass people are in abundance!  At UCF, it was more of the sorority girls going in tight Nike/Under Armor apparel and were there to be seen.  At L.A. Fitness and Planet Fitness, it was much more annoying.

You see…I look at the gym the same way I do with anything I purchase or do; as an investment.  When I go shopping, I have to debate whether or not a product I’m potentially purchasing will better my life and if the return on investment is worth the price.  Will this shirt REALLY be helpful when I go downtown tonight?  Do I REALLY need to buy these chicken breasts in bulk (answer to that one is always HELL YES).

With the gym, I go in there with a purpose.  I invest my time and effort so that I get a return on investment (overall health and wellness…and yes the eight-pack I currently possess).  If I ever walk out of the gym with the feeling of knowing I didn’t give 150%, I feel like total crap the rest of my day, thus making it a weak return on investment.  If anything, the stock dropped for that day.

When I see a person on a stationary bike, with a bottle of water in one hand and “Vogue” in the other, it drives me up an effin’ wall!  You’re there to WORK…OUT.  There are countless other places to bring your Kindle that don’t cost you an initiation fee on top of a monthly membership fee.  What you’re basically saying to the rest of the people at the gym is that you care enough to BUY the membership, but not enough to take advantage of it.  In my honest opinion, you might as well stay at home and save your money for another e-book.  Otherwise, get to sweatin’!

Whew that felt good…who else has a gym pet peeve to share?  Maybe yours will be the next one!


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Categories : Healthy Choices


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