I was in public gym training last night; a situation I don’t like to be in. I walked in and right past all the girls on the treadmills and stairclimbers. Immediately I was pissed off. Don’t these nitwits know that there are endless roads to walk on and plenty of stairs to run up?! Why would you possibly get in your car and drive 15 minutes across town to WALK ON A GODDAMN TREADMILL?! Why not just walk to the gym and back? Are people really this stupid? You’re gonna pay the gym 50 bucks a month so you can…walk? Either I am insane or there are a lot of dumb people in the world. And why not go run the stairs at your local high school football stadium and get some fresh air and sun? Do people really need to have this pointed out to them?
For the first time in years I had to squat in front of a mirror. For those that don’t know, you should never squat in front of a mirror. It throws off your form and is just all wrong on so many levels. Because of this my squat sucked and I tweaked my knee. When I moved onto deadlifts I noticed that everyone in the gym watched every set I did above 405. To be surrounded by so many weak people who were impressed with such an embarrassing weight infuriated me.
When I finished my deadlifts early because my grip failed due to a shitty bar and no chalk I was too pissed off to continue and decided to go home.
For all of those who have no other option but to train in a public gym, I feel for you. I really do. I honestly don’t know how you get by. Being surrounded by weak people with tank tops and spiked blowouts doing curls in the power rack is not conducive to getting stronger. And as much as I would love to have Shakira do that little ass shaker move on my lap, I do not want to see it on 17 TV’s while I’M TRYING TO DEADLIFT!!!
If you train with people who think a 455 deadlift is a big deadlift than you will be tricked into thinking a 455 deadlift IS a big deadlift and will always remain weak. If you train in a gym like mine where a 455 deadlift wouldn’t even get you on the high school board then you think differently and thus get far better results from your training.
If you can’t find a real gym I highly suggest you get a few friends who want to train hard and get strong and set up a garage or warehouse gym somewhere. Maybe your wife will be pissed that she now has to park in the driveway but the screaming you may have to endure will be well worth it in the end.
Call up Elite Fitness Systems (1-888-854-8806 )and tell them you are setting up a garage gym and need some good stuff. Tell them you can’t take watching Beyonce and her freshly waxed upper lip singing in your face while you are trying to squat. Tell them you need a power rack, barbells, dumbbells and a few other essentials because if you see another tanned, waxed, perfume wearing, blowout-connected-to-a-chin-strap having, 153 pound dude in a wife beater moaning his way through ten sets of concentration curls while you are trying to get fired up for a set of rack pulls that you are going to commit a serious crime. And tell them I sent you.
I promise you it will be the best thing you ever did.
And if your gym is gonna play videos while you train, tell them to at least play stuff like this.