Stupid Stuff

[Winder]

When you see really stupid stuff in the gym, what to do?

Do you notice it?
Do you try not to notice?
Mutter to yourself?
Say something sarcastic to the individual?
Say something constructive to the individual?
Laugh about it with buddies?
Laugh about it later?

For example, I saw someone using well-worn double-goldline wraps for his squats, but:
1) wrapped his knees loosely
2) with the legs bent
3) without the knee cap covered
4) and wasn't even squatting all that deep.

So wrap at all?
Why squat if squatting shallow?

The fact that they were double-goldline knee wraps seemed contrary to such poor wrapping technique and and the shallow squats seemed contrary to using a lifting accessory. When I see stuff like this, I expect to see an Ace bandage used.

Before that, another person was barely even squatting, that is barely even bending his knees, but was loading 255 on the bar. So his back got all the stress and his legs got none of the benefit of squatting.

I have to avoid being a jerk and and try not to either stare or shake my head in disbelief prior to putting my butt near the floor without knee wraps. Sure, I didn't load the bar up as they did, but they won't get down as I do. When I do wrap or do partials, I will have more on the bar while being at 2/3rds their bodyweight.

Sometimes it is inpsiring though, as I feel obligated to show the right way of doing things silently.

So what stupid stuff do people see and how do you deal with it, if at all?

[Cort]

I haven't seen many people doing squats in the gym I go to, and when they do its usually with poor form or not even to paralell. Only stupid thing I've seen lately is this crippled guy who comes in to bench press, throws on 135 lbs, and then can't move it at all by himself. The dumb part is people will encourage this behavior, one day the guy is going to try it alone and break his neck...or someone's going to take him seriously and lightly spot him...and he's going to drop the bar on his face and they'll get sued.

[Bronco]

When it comes to giving advice at the gym, sometimes you really need to choose who and how you do it wisely.

A friend or someone you really know , go for it and give advice.

Someone you don't know , you may get the wrong response and yoru effort of tryingto help will fallon deaf ears.....unless your ask or if you see a serious risk of injury i don't bother because I'm not looking for attitude and trust me there is plenty of it in the gym and usually from the people that don't take the time to learn technique

[Lift2Live]

I prefer to mutter to myself, make an odd look at it and then tell the lifting partner to look so he can do the same. lol Unless they ask for help, I don't bother telling them. If I was a trainer, then that'd be different.

[Winder]

Although not a powerlifting move, triceps kickbacks are useful...unless you are bringing the forearm so far in the arm flexed position that the wrist is near the shoulder and the pendulum-like momentum is carrying the dumbbell upwards on the extension rather than the triceps contraction. That one I see all too often. D'oh!

Another that I hear, rather than see, are references to muscles of the upper arm as "tricep" and "bicep". There are no such, they are "triceps" and "biceps", whether used in singluar or plural, noun or adjective. I wish everyone, especially NPC judges asking for "front double bicep" and "side tricep" poses could learn such and not sound like such muscleheads and teach poor anatomy to the audience. Yeesh.

And when trying not to sound like a musclehead, the same nitwits could avoid voicing support for a constitutional amendment to allow Arnold Schwarzenegger to run for president while on stage promoting a meet of any sort - mixing politics and sport is stupid.