Pt. 3

Probably the last of the biggies falls under both gym safety and gym etiquette… and is: Put away your weights.  Barring the safety aspect, there is really nothing more annoying than to finish up a set of 200 presses with 6000LB dumbbells (warm up of course) and picking them up so you can put them back in their spot, only to find that someone has kindly put incorrect weights there, which has inevitably thrown off the whole order of the rack.  Most people will follow suit and just put the weights wherever they can… me, I’m the opposite, I will fix all of the weights and put them into the right spot because it drives me nuts.

In regard to the safety aspect of putting weights away when you’re done with them, let’s borrow the afore mentioned scenario of finishing up a beastly set and wanting to put the weights back on the rack.  Person “X” picks up their dumbbells and starts to walk towards the rack and accidentally steps on some small 10 pounders that somebody left on the floor… barring the comedic acrobatics that would more than likely ensue, this person would face plant and inevitably throw up the weights they were carrying which would of course somehow ignite and burn the building down.

In other words, please put your weights (both dumbbells and plates) back in the correct spots.

Pt. 2

So last week I touched on gym safety, this week I’m going to brush the surface of gym etiquette.

Probably the most annoying thing for me at the gym are the grunts that are, in all likelihood, audible from space.  The expenditure of air from your lungs while you’re in the middle of a strenuous push/pull is very important.  Not only does breathing correctly help maintain your strength levels when involved in the movements, it also helps you keep a rhythm and zone out, in a manner of speaking.  All of that said, please don’t expel the air from your lungs in a way that makes babies cry.

Clamps and weights.  If you see a person or set of people either working out on or hovering around a particular machine, don’t just cruise up and take something from the racks.  There have been a couple of instances where I would finish up on a bench and help change the weight for my wife and someone would just roll up and take the clamps or the weights (I must confess that I almost went after someone once or twice – I blame the testosterone) that I had been using.  Unfortunately there’s nothing common about common courtesy… but it is still considered to be polite to ask if the items are being used, regardless of what the people are doing.

While this doesn’t really have to do with etiquette, I still find it annoying and funny at the same time.  At that gym that I frequent there are a couple of people who, in a given hour, spend about 15 minutes actually lifting weights, and spend the other 45 minutes strutting around the rooms as if they’re God’s go mankind.  I mean seriously, if you’re there to work out, then do it.  I’m ranting.  Whatever.

So Nick and I both agree that gym etiquette and safety need to be discussed just to lay down the best practice rules for those that are painfully misinformed.

First of all, please make sure that you’re using clamps to hold the weight on your barbells… I can’t say how many people I’ve seen up the weight after their warm ups without putting on the clamps, and then do ok for the first rep or two only to start struggling and have their stronger side push further.  Thereby angling the bar… and subsequently dumping weight off of one side.  While at times this is absolutely hilarious to watch (particularly if said person acts like they’re God’s gift to anything alive), it can also cause a lot of physical damage within the weight lifter (sudden torquing to one side because of no weight on one side of the barbell… not to mention potentially reducing a poor bystander’s feet to the depth of crepes.

The other biggy when it comes to weight room safety is something that is touted quite regularly but still doesn’t seem to click with people: spotters.  While the lack of a spotter can sometimes serve as motivation to pump out one last rep (you let the weight down and realize how stupid you’ll look if you get stuck underneath it), it can be very dangerous.  Weight can drop on your head/throat, you can dislocate bones by trying to force the move, etc.

In a nutshell, always use clamps to avoid making foot crepes, and always use a spotter.