What are the strangest exercises/strangest ways you have seen exercises performed?

Ongy

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Having gone to the gym for a few years now I have seen a few strange exercises/ strange ways to perform exercises in my time. I watched some of the videos in the other threads and it got me thinking about this subject. I am sure everyone has seen dumbbell/barbell curls done with lots of swing and momentum for example. I saw a guy once do deadlifts from the floor and then whilst standing up with the weight proceed to swing the weight up by a few inches up to his stomach. I had no idea what this was supposed to do (I assumed he was trying to work his lats?) and when I asked him he said he was doing it for his deltoids? Last year I also saw a few small guys in my gym walk over to the Smith machine and load the bar with four 20k plates (about 180k including the bar) each side. The whole gym stopped to look as one of the guys got under the bar to bench it. What he actually did was unhook the bar from the rack and hold it for about five seconds (his arms trembling) and then re rack it and then they proceeded to hi five each other! I guess they were trying to do some Bruce Lee isometric shit but from looking at them it didn't seem to be working and it was pretty hilarious! I also saw some sprinter doing one legged squats with 40kg on a box with disastrous results. He didn't hurt himself but it was obvious that he was going to fall and the deafening noise which accompanied his fall attracted everyone's attention.
 
About a year ago this big brolli that was a regular at our small gym had a very stupid moment. He decided to go over to the treadmill and turn it onto one of the high, running settings. Next to him were two dumbbells that were, I believe, 85 lbs and tried to perform a running farmer's walk. After about 3 steps he lost his footing and slammed down. He was so embarrassed that he up and left and I haven't seen him since. Poor guy.
 
I know I saw a thread like this somewhere, well it's always fun to talk about it.

Saw a guy do super intense looking barbell curls with 5lb plates on each side. Acutally thats a pretty common exercise at my gym.
 
Placebo's farmer walk story is going to be hard to beat.

I can't win the weirdest, but I may win the grossest...
At my "club" right in front of the door into the mens locker room is a sauna. There's this big old fat bastard who likes to sit right in front of the glass door so if you dare even look up you'll see him in his fatness. Thank God they passed a rule mandating that you have to wear shorts in that, before then it was a sight to dread. Anywise, this guy still does his sauna while reading a book, then sits on a bench for a half hour (naked... ewww) continuing to read. Then he leaves, his hard work at the gym done.
 
One arm hand stand push up, with no wall support.
 
this kid who used to go to my gym always used to do seated variations with the cables. he never had a accident or disaster like your stories. but i thought it was quite funny looking at the guy while he did his incline seated tricep extensions. he also used to make his own exercises up. they mainly included putting two movements together, ie a curl then a press overhead, but still seated on an incline. i asked him a few times what he was trying to achieve with this, but got the usual response of ' yeah, you know isolating the muscle, etc etc'. i guess he wasnt making much progress, he gave up soon after. lol
 
also 3 sets of 21's using a ez-curl bar with barely any weight on it. ' can you feel the pump, god, i can hardly move my arms'
 
I've seen a guy doing 10lb. dumbell shrugs for hours at a time.
 
Placebo_ said:
About a year ago this big brolli that was a regular at our small gym had a very stupid moment. He decided to go over to the treadmill and turn it onto one of the high, running settings. Next to him were two dumbbells that were, I believe, 85 lbs and tried to perform a running farmer's walk. After about 3 steps he lost his footing and slammed down. He was so embarrassed that he up and left and I haven't seen him since. Poor guy.
The image of this in my head had me laughing like crazy, superb.
 
Kaban said:
One arm hand stand push up, with no wall support.

Get the f#@k out of here! Is that for real or are you goofing? If, somehow, someway, this is true, whoever did it is my hero. I can't imagine it being possible, though.
 
fat_wilhelm said:
Get the f#@k out of here! Is that for real or are you goofing? If, somehow, someway, this is true, whoever did it is my hero. I can't imagine it being possible, though.

check out cirque de soliel.
 
Kaban said:
One arm hand stand push up, with no wall support.

That's intense.

I might be able to do a partial with wall support, but without not even close.
 
a kid told me that all the body builders say u dont touch ur chest on the bench press, and he would unrack it then bring it down an inch and call it a day
 
-dirtywhiteboy- said:
a kid told me that all the body builders say u dont touch ur chest on the bench press, and he would unrack it then bring it down an inch and call it a day

He's right in some circumstances. If you are working on your lockout or have a shoulder injury a lot of people will use floor or board presses.
 
i saw a guy with a biting machine, kind of like a plate loaded gripper.
 
People have laughed at me for doing speed bench with mini bands, smith bench throws, various rack lockouts, all types of olympic variations, pull throughs, good mornings, ab pull downs, deadlift holds, dimels e.t.c. Fucking ignorants....

One of the most stupid one I saw was a kid who asked me to spot him on the bench. He did three sets and only went down to three inches off his chest. No boards or anything, just a partial. I was like wtf. I tried to explain to him about range of motion but he just nodded vacantly and carried on. And no it definitely wasn't some shoulder injury, this kid was a complete clueless wonder.
 
Sonny said:
I've seen a guy doing 10lb. dumbell shrugs for hours at a time.

That sounds hilarious. It's weird seeing smaller guys in the gym prioritise their traps with shrugs when they should be seeking to build up the major muscle groups.
 
aries said:
People have laughed at me for doing speed bench with mini bands, smith bench throws, various rack lockouts, all types of olympic variations, pull throughs, good mornings, ab pull downs, deadlift holds, dimels e.t.c. Fucking ignorants....

One of the most stupid one I saw was a kid who asked me to spot him on the bench. He did three sets and only went down to three inches off his chest. No boards or anything, just a partial. I was like wtf. I tried to explain to him about range of motion but he just nodded vacantly and carried on. And no it definitely wasn't some shoulder injury, this kid was a complete clueless wonder.

I bench until the bar touches my chest although it's not uncommon for guys in my gym to do this. I have always thought that full range of motion is the key although I was reading a Flex magazine the other day about Jay Cutler's chest work out. He only lowers the bar to about 2 inches off his chest. He says that doing this lowers the risk of tearing your pecs. I guess it seems to be working for him?
 
i saw one guy doing benchpress without a spot, then he started having some trouble so he would tuck his knees in under the bar and help him asset the bar up, and he did it all the time on the benchpress, i was always like wtf?
 
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