A rant- feel free to contribute for lets say, a week and then lock it

Status
Not open for further replies.
I rarely if ever offer unsolicited advice and even when asked, I have to sort of qualify the person asking, ie. are they looking for real advice (rare) or are they looking for props/validation. Now I dont mind giving them the props if that is what they are seeking. When they do ask, I try to be as humble about it as possible, ie, instead of saying "Let me show you the proper way to do it" I would say something like "Let me show you another way of doing it" and I try to sandwich the advice between a compliment in some form or fashion. I never give advice to someone wearing flip flops, a backwards visor, a shell necklace or anyone wearing a string tank top covered by a sweat shirt that has the upper part of the neck cut out--never, never, never.
 
I hope you didn't over pay for those ballerina slippers you lift with.

lol. I realize there is going to be noise in the gym which revolves around weights hitting ground, and grunting. Those don't bother me. It's one thing to drop the weight, its another to slam the weight down clearly looking for attention. I mean, if you're deadlifting 600lb PR, by all means be pumped and slam it down in satisfactiion. But when I see guys deadlifting 135 at 200lb bw, and slamming the bar down between reps, come on. It's a cry for attention.
 
Well, if your goal was to give me a chuckle, it worked. It was quite clever haha.. and it got me thinking, ballerina shoes are hard at the toes right?
 
I've helped maybe a dozen people over the years with various exercises. Most of the time I just ignore them.

There are those rare times when I want to throw a 45lb plate at a trainer because they're making their client do something god awful with even worse form than you can imagine.

There was this one trainer, who I nicknamed Hippity Hop. She used to do random BB builshit, then throw in these hopping exercises, kinda like plyos but not really. Well, she'd make her clients do a lot of the same shit, including old dudes and out of shape women and they'd look terrible doing it. I fucking hated that! It drove me nuts.

Her one redeeming quality was that she had an amazing ass and nicely shaped faked boobs. Welcome to ShelleySmyth.com >> BodybyShelley
 
I only give out advice when asked, though I have been tempted to chime in many many times. I have been asked for help maybe 2 times in the past 6 months.
 
Yesterday the squat rack was taken, so I asked the guy if I could work in and he said yes. He was doing 1/4 squats with light weight and terrible form. He was a nice enough guy, but I had no inclinations of telling him what he was doing wrong. I felt that if he watched me and wanted to ask me about my form, I'd be happy to help him, but I wasn't going to offer unsolicited advice. Frankly, I don't have time to get into a long conversation since my time is limited and you're also dealing with people's pride.
 
I wish I worked out in a PL gym where I was the weakest person and I'd have tons of strong people around me to ask for advice. Unfortunately I work out at a select fitness or world fitness or one of those gay gyms because it's 24 hours and I've never seen anyone squat to depth except me and my workout buddy (Well sometimes he does lol). I don't feel like it's my place to correct people especially when their focus is bodybuilding and they wouldn't listen anyway, but rather I just feel more validated in my approach to strength training whenever I see people do dumb stuff.

On the other hand, if my form on something sucks and some knowledgeable person saw it I would hope they would come beat my ass and correct me.

Off-topic, Keith Wassung, do you ever work out at Sam's Gym? I know you're in the Navy from reading your articles. It would be awesome to have you shit on my squat. :icon_lol:
 
People generally do not like to be corrected. You're insulting their intelligence and hurting their pride. If you really want to help them, do it manipulatively by making them think it was their own idea.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top