What Are Your Gym/Fitness/Routine Moans?

[V8mate]

The gym I use on Sundays is st.

Occasionally, they'll buy something new, and you'll get excited until you realise that it's st too.

Yesterday, I noticed that they had a new (Olympic) bar, marked as 20kg. All their existing bars are crap, and impossible to tell what size they are (without weighing them, I guess?).

So - having hurt my knee a two or three weeks ago, I thought I'd grab it and do a few deadlifts to remind my legs that they're there.

The bar was such a cheap piece of crap, with such deep and roughly cut knurling, that even at a truly moderate 130kg, I could barely lift it twice before it felt like gripping two handfuls of razor blades.

I wonder what the price differential was between that and a decent one?

Or maybe I've just got girlie hands?

[lemmingjames]

you do realise the idea behind the knurling on a bar dont you?

[V8mate]

lemmingjames said:

you do realise the idea behind the knurling on a bar dont you?

Yes. But if sharp edges are cutting into your hands, it's doing it wrong.

[chris watton]

lemmingjames said:

you do realise the idea behind the knurling on a bar dont you?

The knurling can be pretty aggressive on the cheaper, lower quality bars. I bought a cheap EX Curl bar that managed to rip the skin off the palms of my hands. Threw is away and bought a better quality one. Same goes for the Oly bar, I ended up buying a decent 20kg that was exactly 20kg and not so aggressive knurling.

[tankplanker]

Barbells should be a reasonably standard weight based on the length if they have bought proper gym equipment, 20kg for the 7' bar, 15kg for the 6' bar, 10kg for the 5' bar, unless they have bought cheap home equipment?

A decent gym should be using the 2.5kg clamps for the 7' bar as well if its an Olympic bar.

If it'll rip a paper towel when you rub that over the knurling then its too rough IMO.

[ORD]

Some knurling is definitely over the top - I've had painful hands for days after using the trap bar at my gym (5 x 5 @ 145kg deads, so hardly huge weight or billions of reps). No need for something that aggressive.

[lemmingjames]

fking pussies, just chalk the knurls and job done

[ORD]

lemmingjames said:

fking pussies, just chalk the knurls and job done

Chalk in a commercial gym? Hmmmm. Banned.

[lemmingjames]

These the same gyms that ban people for not putting their weights away after?

TBF atleast at gymbox, people do put the dumbs back afterwards

[ORD]

lemmingjames said:

These the same gyms that ban people for not putting their weights away after?

TBF atleast at gymbox, people do put the dumbs back afterwards

Nah. No chalk. And they get upset about people dropping deadlifts. But they do literally nothing about people failing to put weights back (which really gets on my nerves).

[joshcowin]

I love sharp knurling, as has been said chalk?

I go to a commercial gym (DW) never had a problem with using liquid chalk!!

[Zod]

ORD said:

lemmingjames said:

fking pussies, just chalk the knurls and job done

Chalk in a commercial gym? Hmmmm. Banned.

I use it at Virgin Active in the City. Loads of people do.

My worst knurl injury was scraping the skin off the end of my nose doing military press.

[popeyewhite]

ORD said:

they get upset about people dropping deadlifts.

So do I. Over the years I've had many a chat with people who drop the deadlift bar because either a, It's too heavy for them or b, they're showing off. Winds me up hugely. If I'm in charge of the gym then I'm the one who gets the blame off some pimply council employee oik young enough to be my grandson for not stopping the dhead.

[V8mate]

Zod said:

I use it at Virgin Active in the City. Loads of people do.

My worst knurl injury was scraping the skin off the end of my nose doing military press.

(Sorry - not funny - I cringed as I read it)

[Burwood]

V8mate said:

Zod said:

I use it at Virgin Active in the City. Loads of people do.

My worst knurl injury was scraping the skin off the end of my nose doing military press.

(Sorry - not funny - I cringed as I read it)

seated DB shoulder press. Large dumbbells have a large footprint. Rested on upper thighs and you get quite some compression on the thigh/groin. Pinched a bit of ball sack against my thigh. Ouch!

[ORD]

popeyewhite said:

ORD said:

they get upset about people dropping deadlifts.

So do I. Over the years I've had many a chat with people who drop the deadlift bar because either a, It's too heavy for them or b, they're showing off. Winds me up hugely. If I'm in charge of the gym then I'm the one who gets the blame off some pimply council employee oik young enough to be my grandson for not stopping the dhead.

Not sure that's fair: some people drop deadlifts because they don't want to have any eccentric component to the lift and/or want to reduce injury risk at or near their 1RM.

No real excuse at lighter weights and higher reps, though.

[V8mate]

Burwood said:

V8mate said:

Zod said:

I use it at Virgin Active in the City. Loads of people do.

My worst knurl injury was scraping the skin off the end of my nose doing military press.

(Sorry - not funny - I cringed as I read it)

seated DB shoulder press. Large dumbbells have a large footprint. Rested on upper thighs and you get quite some compression on the thigh/groin. Pinched a bit of ball sack against my thigh. Ouch!

I rest them on my knees. But always have a number stamped on my lower thigh as I lift them off

[popeyewhite]

ORD said:

Not sure that's fair: some people drop deadlifts because they don't want to have any eccentric component to the lift and/or want to reduce injury risk at or near their 1RM.

I'm not talking about a powerlifting gym here. The people I'm describing couldn't spell 'eccentric' and wouldn't know what it meant if it bit them on the arse. Likewise 1RM. They're clueless young lads doing the lift because it looks heavy - and when they find out how heavy it is they drop the bar.

If they drop the bar consistently they'll get a warning, if the bar breaks (as has happened a couple of times in the last five years) they'll be asked not to use that station anymore. If they want to do 1RMs and showoff, throw weights about etc there's plenty of spit and sawdust places locally available where they can break old equipment and injure themselves.

The council only has a limited budget for leisure services and it's a fight just getting 4 replacement dumbbells off them, let alone O bars. tts.

[V8mate]

popeyewhite said:

I'm not talking about a powerlifting gym here. The people I'm describing couldn't spell 'eccentric' and wouldn't know what it meant if it bit them on the arse.

It's means that you're popular at parties, right?

[ambuletz]

I want to this as I feel its kind of apt in here.

is there anyone here that doesnt shower, does/doesn't do a change of clothes after a gym session?

reason I ask is now I have access to a gym at my workplace which I want to use, but I don't want to be bk-naked infront of other colleagues.

In the gym i currently use near me (a 15min cycle away) it's not an issue as I basically do my workout, leave and cycle stiraght home, so this affects nobody. However in this instance I'm going to be grabbing the DLR and another overground train home... so I don't imagine walking about covering in sweat is a great idea..

is there anyone in a similar position that does this? what do you do? i don't want to have to shower at the gym for the sake of other commuters. don't want to have to carry 3x the amount of clothes (work clothes, gym clothes, then post-gym clothes).