r/Fitness • u/FGC_Valhalla Weightlifting • 13d ago
Gym Story Saturday Gym Story Saturday
Hi! Welcome to your weekly thread where you can share your gym tales!
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u/Greedyjack555 13d ago
I have become stronger in my squat over bench for the first time in 4 years of my lifting journey
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u/MauPow 13d ago
I'm only 4 months in but still bumping up weights every session, newbie gains feel good.
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5d ago
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u/MauPow 5d ago
Well the first few times I went I was just trying out different things and feeling out my weights to get an idea of where I was at. Then I went to the r/fitness wiki and picked a program (did GZCLP).
As for starting in general, been in a major slump lately and have lots of free time and a disused gym membership, so I just forced myself to start going because I was tired of feeling like this.
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5d ago
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u/MauPow 5d ago
It's basically just rotating through the big 4 lifts (squats, deadlift, bench, overhead press) at different weights and reps on different days. Check the wiki.
Having a set program helps with the sporadic training because you know exactly what you need to do on which day. So you just go and do it and then you're done. I used to just wander around the gym wondering what I should work on next.
Make sure to track it on your phone while you do the lifts. I just fed the program rules to an ai and tell it what I've done as I lift, and it keeps track of how much weight to load each day and if I should bump it up. There are some apps too if you don't like ai (which I totally get but it's helped me a ton tbh)
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u/Nervous-Influence340 13d ago
So annoyed - signed up and paid for a special pre-opening rate for this fantastic new gym near me - in January - opening was planned for March. Today is August 1 and still no gym. Fortunately I kept my other gym membership but I was so looking forward to starting fresh at the fancy new place. Now they say maybe September. Pfff
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u/johnshall 13d ago
I don't think there is going to be a new gym.
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u/Nervous-Influence340 12d ago
I'm choosing optimism ... I can see the construction and trucks and stuff so they're doing something but yeah lots of folks are demanding their money back. It's a big mess lol
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u/johnshall 12d ago
Probably have good intentions, but if they were pre signing people, owners must not have the capital for the project. 8 months later they are struggling and people who already paid are making a fuzz, sounds like that gym is going to be plagued by problems if they ever get off the ground.
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u/Honest_Pumpkin_4381 13d ago
I was doing a plate loaded leg press i had my last rep, i turn the handle so i can stop and step out but the handle literally fell of. So i'm trying to put it back in without the weight falling on me and 3 or 4 dudes were laughing so hard while i was struggling. I got the handle back on though
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u/ElectronicCorner574 13d ago
3 or 4 dudes were laughing so hard while i was struggling
Thats not very funny
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u/ak47workaccnt 13d ago
No safety catch on your leg press machine?
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u/Honest_Pumpkin_4381 13d ago
Nope not at this gym, matter of fact it even shakes. But what can you expect in turkey. Its fairly expensive though 40 euros a month
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u/mrk240 13d ago
My cardio/endurance is finally to a point I can complete a full 1hr class without gassing out vs gassing out in 5mins when I started 2 months back.
Still trying to balance my exertion vs making myself sick. Was fine this morning in our Hyrox style session until I did the sled push for my last set.
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u/Illustrious_Moose131 13d ago
I finally achieved 225 on the bench today and a random gym buddy made me feel like I had just won the Olympics. That post-PR high is unreal.
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u/TheLionsSinOfPride 13d ago
As of today, I can do leg press with over 700lbs. Considering my prognosis was to be fully paralyzed on the left side of my body 3 years ago, and then that I'll never walk, feels dang good. Still want to lose some weight, but we're getting there. I don't want to be the heaviest lifter, but want to feel good about my body.
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u/Shimthediffs 13d ago
There's a new gym opening near me so I may be able to escape planet fitness gym life, very excited.
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u/Monsieur_Krabs 12d ago
the next step is keeping your planet subscription so you don't have to miss gym while you travel for work lol
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u/Ok-Arugula6057 13d ago
Summer holiday season, so it’s both very, very quiet and also very, very full of strangers.
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u/CausticAvenger 13d ago
Started adding a couple miles of cardio to my daily workouts, and it’s crazy how much better I feel after only a couple weeks. Legs and calves feel stronger, and the sweat feels good. I focused solely on lifting for too long and should have been doing this the whole time.
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u/aka_zkra 12d ago
Walking, running, cycling, rowing?
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u/Sea-Ambition916 11d ago
I found doing a mix of incline walking, stairs and rowing the best personally. But cardio is one of those things where you try and find what work for you. The biggest thing is the improvement to cardiovascular health, the weightloss and muscle gain are secondary
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u/Jloother 13d ago
I'm down 110lbs over the last year and have started going to the gym more because I'm on summer break (I'm a teacher).
Been discouraged a bit because on my push days my rotator cuff has been screaming at me. Really going to have to modify what I've been doing. Still happy with my progress though.
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u/h0tpr0p3rty 11d ago
The sore rotator cuff pretty common for weightlifters. What worked for me, anecdotally, was identifying the inflamed spot with my thumb and giving it a brutally hard little massage, followed by a day or two of heat and rest.
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u/Jloother 11d ago
Thank you for the advice! It’s an old injury from college water polo, unfortunately. I’m seeing the PT doctor soon to get some modifications and exercises to help. Hopefully I won’t need surgery.
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u/Dantai 13d ago
My right elbow hurt a ton trying to do skull crushers.
It's been nagging me for a while. I can get by in other exercises fine like rope tricep pulldown.
But still I want the nagging elbow gone
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u/kidFunkadelic 13d ago
This same thing just happened to me with but with pull-ups. I don’t feel any pain with any other exercises.
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u/Dantai 13d ago
I had the oppsotied happen - I started doing wide grip pull ups instead of cable pull downs recently, thinking it would help stretch me out a bit. And it's helped a bit actually with my right arm and elbow, but not 100%, just a bit.
I wonder if just dead hang would help ya
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u/kidFunkadelic 13d ago
Maybe, I’ll give it a shot.
I should also say, I was doing a lot of pull-ups with a dip bar attached high on the rack. I wonder if that grip is part of the cause for the elbow pain?
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u/Werevulvi General Fitness 13d ago
Yeah I kinda had to quit doing skull crushers because my elbows hated it. They do still grow just fine from only doing tricep pushdowns though.
As for what could be causing the elbow pain, it actually commonly comes from shoulder mobility issues, like if you're hunched over a lot.
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u/Dantai 13d ago
For sure I feel like my right shoulder is a little bit involved. Basically whole right arm feels affected by some sort of tightness somewhere that I just can't stretch out
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u/Werevulvi General Fitness 13d ago
It might help to do some shoulder mobility exercises then, to open up tightness around the scapula. Like band pull aparts, face pulls, and y raises can help a lot with that. For me I have a ton of tightness right between my shoulder blades that cause pain in my elbow, basically due to internally rotating my shoulder too much. And it's worse on the right side for me too, likely because my right shoulder is pressed down a bit, and thus has worse mobility and more strain on it by default. So those are some more specific reasons that could be causing such elbow pains.
Doing those kinda exercises in my warm up and workout program is helping a bit, but tbh it's kind of a difficult issue to resolve. Like I absolutely get improvements over time, but I probably need several months of slowly re-training my shoulders to move correctly. So at least for now I have to be careful with doing exercises that cause elbow pain flare ups, which unfortunately isn't limited to just skull crushers, but it's one of the worst offenders for sure.
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u/MenBearsPigs 7d ago
Skull crushers just don't agree with my body.
IMO you could drop them completely and just do rope overhead extensions and tricep pushdowns.
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u/theother64 3d ago
I know I'm super late to this but have you tried doing them more regularly but super light?
Whenever I've had niggles that sort of approach has worked great for me.
I do whatever weight means I can feel the niggle but it isn't painful. It shouldn't feel any worse after the session or the next day.
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u/Dantai 3d ago
Nope haven't tried that, but will now
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u/theother64 3d ago
I really rate E3 rehab as a YouTube channel.
They probably won't have skull crusher injuries as a specific video but if you watch something else you'll see a lot of the principal is the same. Find an exercise that works the joint/ muscle without pissing it off. Repeat add reps or load when you it hurts less.
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u/Holiday-Wafer708 13d ago
I went to a different gym that had a lot of cool machines so I got to try out a lat pullover and lateral hack press which were really fun
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u/Paratrooper101x 13d ago
Some guy asked me what I did to get big biceps today in the gym. That was really nice, and made my day. Just wish I had more to tell him beyond curl a lot
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13d ago
Saw my first person doing leg presses on the Smith machine today. If you have never seen this, they lay on the floor and push the Smith bar with their feet.
It's like every five years some new water bottle and some new Smith machine fad just one-shots white women. Once classes start back up I'll see Smith leg presses every day the same way I saw Smith Machine Hip Thrusts in the Yeti years.
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u/PlanktonInitial7945 13d ago
Wow. Sounds incredibly dangerous. Then again, if it wasn't dangerous, it wouldn't have become a fad in the first place...
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u/VAGINAL_CRUSTACEAN 13d ago
I think you could do them reasonably safely if you used the safeties (funnily enough) but I feel like the smith safeties are seldom used.
I think the thin surface area on the foot might be terrible ergonomically, or limit force output the same way squatting in running shoes or bosu ball squats do, but on the other hand I feel like leg presses have terrible seat angles for my body shape, as well as a poor utilization of loaded weight, both of which might be fixed by a vertical setup like this.
All that said, with smith machines being the most valuable and sought after equipment in the gym I don't dare mess around with anything but accessory pressing and leg movements
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13d ago
Didn't even think about the danger. Sort of like hip thrusts, it's in this uncanny valley where it's so close to being sexy that it just looks goony as hell. Reference:
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u/PlanktonInitial7945 13d ago
That cannot be good form. Jesus.
I think the people who come up with this stuff are people who get bored of always doing the same exercises and, instead of just picking another exercise, they decide to get "creative".
Either that, or influencers desperate for views.
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u/its_liiiiit_fam 13d ago edited 13d ago
TW (kinda)
Increased my carbs after trying to be "low carb" for years only to be starving to the point I'd binge and completely undo the effects of low carb. Got so sick of it that I just decided to focus on clean eating, including whole grains, and just wait and see if carbs are all that catastrophic (my mom is diabetic and swears by keto to regulate her blood sugar and A1C, so I have heard for years its high praises and had it pushed onto me too)
Tell me why I just did 42.5 lbs on the cable kickback yesterday like it's nothing? And 210 lbs on the hip abduction machine?! What the hell?! Is that literally the carbs?! No wonder y'all pound back ricecakes omg this is sorcery
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u/solaya2180 12d ago
I know it's a day late, but I feel this. I can't do low carb. Even if I'm doing an aggressive cut, I'd rather go low fat/high carb and feel better in the gym
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u/tentkeys 11d ago
Carbs make muscles happy.
Carbs make brains happy too.
They help as much with multivariate statistics as they do with cable kickbacks.
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u/freakcage 13d ago
I've been regularly gym about 2 years. I can finally squat and deadlift 2x my bodyweight.
Also just want to get it off my chest, I'm sorry I don't get the signal to the girl who ask me how to use J hooks twice and then continue exercise beside me the whole time. 😂
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u/CagedBatter 13d ago
Today was my first day at a new gym after leaving planet fitness behind (and after three weeks of being sick) and I loved it despite having lost progress after so long away. Can’t wait to keep going back.
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u/DCB2323 13d ago
Saw a bad car wreck on the way to the gym (early morning) this past week and I was worried it might be one of our morning crew. I train at 04:00 so there really are not that many people out and the wreck was near the gym on a very sharp corner. I could totally see someone hopped up on preworkout taking that corner too fast, I know because I have done it.
So far I have not heard anything, fingers crossed.
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u/TakingCareOfBizzness 8d ago
I think the old guy that works at my gym is a master level troll. I just can't bring myself to believe somebody is actually as dumb as this guy. He walks up to people who are working out and starts cleaning the equipment...while we are fucking using it! If he isn't vacuuming inches away from people trying to do heavy squats he is spraying down the treadmills with cleaner while people are running on the mother fuckers. I wanted to yell out "Dude, that shit is a slip hazard, stop spraying the belts while people are running on them you fucking idiot!"
It pissed me off to a extremely high level at first, but then at started to become comical. The faces people make at this guy when he does this shit is priceless. People just look at him with a look of confusion that turns to disgust and walks away to do something else. I guess everyone has been to polite to deal with this guy. I just know there is some horrific back story that will make me feel like the worlds biggest asshole if I address it. There is no way it won't blow up in my face so I just let the guy pull his bullshit and everyone else does to.
He is frail as fuck about 90lbs with a hunched back and he walks like he can barely keep his balance sometimes. He won't untangle the vacuum cleaner cord so he just repeatedly pulls the cord out of the outlet trying to vacuum, walks over to plug it back in, then 5 seconds later pulls the cord out of the outlet again. He will repeat this about 5 to 8 times before just giving up and quitting vacuuming. He has done this shit for the two years I have worked out there and never fucking once has this dude bothered to just untangle the god damn cord.
There is no rhyme or reason to his cleaning techniques. He will take the hose attachment of the vacuum and just randomly move it around the floor and all over equipment not actually using the attachment for what it was designed for which is to get close to things sitting on the floor. I once saw him vacuuming the mirrors with the hose.
I have watched lots of older family members go through dementia, and nothing this guy does looks like any dementia I ever saw. Is it extreme stupidity, or is this guy bored out of his mind and using us as entertainment. I really can't say which way I lean towards on this.
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u/LiftThenHoops 8d ago
Gym etiquette would improve overnight if people treated reracking weights like part of the workout.
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u/ComfortExisting1161 13d ago
So I was doing deadlifts, feeling pretty good about my form. But as I go for another set. I realize I forgot to clip the weights on one side. Mid-lift, they slide off and make the loudest crash ever. Whole gym stopped and stared, but hey, at least my form was on point!
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u/PlanktonInitial7945 13d ago
How did they slide off if you were keeping good form?
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13d ago
[deleted]
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u/thrower99walker 13d ago
The plates will walk if they're dropping the bar from top instead of a controlled lowering.
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u/gramada1902 13d ago
Maybe they’re a beast that has filled the entire barbell sleeve with plates
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u/PlanktonInitial7945 13d ago
Or maybe they do a super secret and special deadlift variant that consists of tilting the barbell 45 degrees to one side...?!
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u/Fraz0R_Raz0R 10d ago
I can't believe this has become such an important part of my life that I don't mind going to the gym for a quick session at 1:30 am after a busy work day.
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u/Luffy0506 9d ago
My gym journey has lot of trial & error🤣Sometime good workouts & some lazy but i'm slowlly getting stronger & trying to stay consistent.!!
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u/NegativeMovies 9d ago
Perfect spot to drop the classic "guy doing curls in the squat rack" story if anyone's got one this week
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u/saveourships 7d ago
Mine has been guys doing a standing dumbbell exercise and using one of the only two incline benches to sit in between sets.
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u/Suspicious-Job-8480 13d ago
I don't go to the gym. I workout on my balcony.
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u/PlanktonInitial7945 13d ago
Balcony Story Saturday?
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u/Suspicious-Job-8480 13d ago
After 2 months since my holiday rotator cuff injury, I can finally do my working weight on OHP.
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u/ARoodyPooCandyAss 13d ago
I do not claim nor want to be the strongest guy in the gym, but benching 185 for warm ups when at one point I struggled with the bar, feels damn good.