Body deadlift

January 22nd, 2013

91

9 Reasons Why You Should Say No To Fitness Gyms

By

By fitness gym I mean any gym that has a 50% female clientele and the yoga mats, aerobics classes, and exercise balls that go with it. Here’s why you shouldn’t bother with these establishments…

1. They are stocked with machines that prevent injury, not build muscle. Good luck finding a squat rack in a fitness gym. Instead you’ll have Smith machines which are designed to make you think you can lift more than you actually can.

2. People go to socialize, not lift heavy ass weight. People are on their iPhones more than they’re on the Cybex machines, which are already half useless. Everything is occupied by people who take forever because they have to send a text message between every set.


What the fack is this?

3. Signs that say “Don’t drop the weights.” If after your last deadlift rep your hands don’t feel like giving way and dropping that bar, you’re not doing enough. I’m not saying to be one of those guys who drops an overhead clean from the sky, but weights are meant to be dropped.

4. Neverending bicep curl. Hey man do you think I can cut into your 30 minute arm shredding workout with the 20 pound dumbbell so I can use them?

5. You have to witness guys spit horrible game. Hey look, there’s a guy with a pot belly trying to show a girl correct form, but his form is not correct and he’s not going to bang her.

6. You pay for classes and equipment you don’t need. A squat rack is cheap, but a treadmill is not, along with having to keep fitness classes stocked with trainers. You end up paying higher prices for equipment you don’t use.

7. The intended market is women who don’t know any better, not strong men. Today you even have gyms that don’t allow grunting. How am I going to push this 200 pound bar above my chest without making noise? Should I whisper?

8. People take up space doing crazy exercises that are the equivalent of  a minor stretch. My fitness gym (yes, I’m a sucker) has fat guys pulling on jump rope that’s wrapped around the pull up bar. How long is he going to take before I can do a real exercise on the thing?

9. The New Years resolutioners. You know you’re at a real gym when come January 1 you see no new faces. But at a fitness gym you have to put up with a horde of proles who you know don’t have the will to lift heavy weight like you do.


“I’m going to wait until January 1 to improve my body”

There’s an easy way to avoid all this nonsense: go to gyms that don’t have any women. They’re cheaper and guaranteed to have a squat rack.

Read Next: How To Workout Correctly



About the Author

has been blogging for several years over at RooshV.com about travel and women. He has also authored books on how to get laid in the United States, South America, and Eastern Europe. He launched Return Of Kings in October of 2012 to serve the needs of masculine men.

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  • http://twitter.com/Pavoneo_ Pavoneo

    But free pizza day.

  • lester_pole

    Yes best place to train is weight lifting clubs. Heavy heavy weights everything centered around deadlift and squat with at few dusty machines in the corner for the occasional wimp.
    And everybody is dropping weights violently on he floor.

  • http://www.twitter.com/dumasworld dumasworld

    what the fuck is that in the last picture? a feminist?

    • taterearl

      That “lady” does have some birthing hips.

    • Bronan The Barbarian!

      Seriously. That dude looks like he’s on an IV drip of soy milk.

    • wi30

      Looks like Rodger from American Dad.

    • Chicago REd

      The photo looks like it was altered in photoshop if not that dude is a fucking freak of nature.

      I’ve been trying to find a gym with no chicks for years now. I hate seeing them around me when I work-out, it’s just not natural. I wonder if the laws in my state would even allow an all-male gym which refused women members. Illinois is a lefty communist haven populated by feminist manbeast cunts and manboobs specially Chicago.

      • property

        pretty sure there’s some photoshop in this pic

    • le tigre MD

      Klinefelter’s Syndrome. It’s a medical condition when guys have an extra X chromosome (XXY) — phenotypically you get wide hips, lanky build and gynecomastia.

    • http://www.percyruxman.com Ruxman

      Made me feel sick

  • Phinn

    There’s a Planet Fitness near my house. Every time I drive by their “Judgement Free Zone” sign, I think of two things —

    (1) it’s spelled “judgment” and

    (2) what they really mean is that it’s a “masculinity-free zone.” Nothing but women and betas in there.

    By the way, the last photo in this post makes me want to vomit.

    • me

      Both spellings are actually correct.

      You guys spend an awful lot of time bitching about everyone. As long as you aren’t in any danger, who gives 2 shits what everyone else is doing in the gym? You don’t live there so do what you need to do and go home.

      • Ross

        AGREED! When I used to go to the gym there was a cougar lurking around with her new breast implants, always staring at me…made me uncomfortable, so I bought some weights, a chin up bar and worked out at home instead. :P

  • Big bird

    How did you faggots get a hold of my nudes?!!

  • Mage

    This is so wrong on many levels a true gym should give you the notion that you are strong already no matter what you do. After all raising your self-esteem is why people go there, right?

    A true gym should also give out free pizza and sugary drinks to fuel your workouts.

    Also any true gym should be gender neutral and ideally if women occupy at least 50% of clientelle. That is true empowerment!

    The most important ting in a gym is Wi-Fy, without it you couldn’t stay in touch. See!

    I am sorry but you should rethink your attitude, you sound almost like you are a masculine guy. And why would you want that?

  • http://realmikaelryan.blogspot.com Mikael

    This article is spot on. I use an anytime, mostly because it’s literally down the street from my apt, but in conversations with a few guys there we’ve all been complaining that we can’t find some gutter hole in the wall gym anywhere. i’ve also come to the conclusion that anything not written by Roosh immediately get flamed haha.

  • Ed

    To be fair there are some women who do train seriously with weights in the gym, I do realise they are a small, albeit steadily growing minority. Gyms over the last 6 years have become increasingly feminized, this has also seen the emergence of hardcore gyms like PTC gyms in Australia. I am not including Crossfit in that category as they are a different story altogether. The 24 hour gym chains have changed the gym environment around the world, and created a sanitized version of fitness that often is catered to the less motivated at the expense of those who are serious and dedicated. We are probably experiencing one of the biggest booms in the history of the industry and yet at the same time obesity continues to rises. I have been training since the late 80s and have seen the changes in the industry, gyms were full of people who actually trained, these days the minority of people who are seriously training is a much smaller percentage. Modern gyms are catered to the sedentary market, to go to the gym to be sedentary.

    • corvinus

      To be fair there are some women who do train seriously with weights in the gym, I do realise they are a small, albeit steadily growing minority.

      Far better than their becoming fatsos.

  • E

    My CrossFit box (cue the hate) consists of at least 40% women, but it’s still all business and squats, and I’ve not witnessed any wretched game. I am plus misogynist que Roosh but this particlar co-ed arrangement has my qualified and highly conditional approval.

    • CQ

      Don’t cue the hate. Crossfit is boosting interest in lifting real weights, even among that urbane beta and 20 something girl crowd. Good on Crossfit.

  • Uncle Elmer

    Haven’t been to a “gym” in 30 years and I could probably kick most of your asses. Back in the day men showed up in white shorts and converses and did manly exercises and there were no damn women. Pump some iron, work out on the body bag. Now gyms are big social scenes with atrocious music blasting and kids running around, not to mention the complete distraction of unapproachable women.

    Seriously though, I still “jog” every day and knock out some military-style pushups. During my dance sensation days I was in great shape from just dancing with hotties all the time.

    A few years ago I read “Convict Conditioning” by a guy who spent 20 years in prison perfecting his calisthenics, which is how your g-grand daddy stayed in shape. After reading his book you may never step into a gym again :

    http://convictconditioning.org

    • Phinn

      Eliminate the jogging and replace it with sprinting, ranging from 10 to 30 seconds each.

      You’ll spend a quarter of the time you would have spent jogging, and in 30 days you’ll be in far better shape.

      Just be sure to warm up well. Sprinting cold = increased risk of injuries.

      • Uncle Elmer

        Thanks. I run for the health benefits of course but also enjoy the fresh air and being outdoors. I am 6’3″ and have long legs which are well-suited to long-distance running. I have considered shorter, faster runs though.

    • anon1

      I’ve just started convict conditioning the other day, and i have to say i am more knackered than i have ever been in the gym. (also, shoulder squats= impossible if you have any kind of gut)

      There’s a reason why in the 19th and 20th century you had these freaky ass huge indian wrestlers going about the place, by practising thousands of calisthenics and shit.

      highly recommended.

      that said, i’m not giving up the gym, because in terms of stimulating muscle production, lifting hard and heavy, twice a week is still great

  • Dillon

    That last picture is the most fucking disgusting thing I have ever seen.

    Oh, and good article.

  • Takes 3 to Tango

    I fully agree with everything in this article, expect #6 (you pay for equipment and classes you don’t need). The large majority of their clientele that pays each month but never actually shows up pays for all that junk. The real gyms might have lower costs since they aren’t supporting all the bullshit equipment of fitness gyms, but they often have a much smaller base of paying members.

    I’ve found that I can generally get a much better price at the mainstream fitness gyms than I can at the hardcore real gyms. I’m currently paying $13.33/month for my 24 Hour Fitness membership. Oddly enough, I bought the deal from Costco, and it comes with no registration or initiation fees (only caveat: you have to pay up front for a 2 year membership…comes out to $320 for 24 months).

    On the other hand, I do have to deal with the other 8 complaints at my gym. Especially having to wait in line every day for the only squat rack in such a large fucking gym. They just did a $1M renovation, and instead of buying more squat racks, they bought all new cardio equipment (the old treadmills worked fine) and expanded the functional training space (read: the crazy ass exercise area).

  • taterearl

    I go to an Anytime. Three reasons why I chose it.

    Fairly cheap and I can go in there at anytime of the day.

    It has a squat rack (which I use almost everytime I’m in there)

    It’s close by.

    The best part is 90% of the time the squat rack is empty so I get my squats and deadlifts in. In fact when I saw the squat rack when I first went in that is what gave me the incentive to look into joining there.

    • http://thesoloist1.wordpress.com Solo

      yup I go to anytime as well it’s really convenient.I work out with a guy now who knows his stuff. However I think some of the bigger gyms are worse if you go to like a lifetime fitness I know guys that all they do is socialize for 3-4 hours and just try to Mack on girls I’m not paying 70 dollars miss me with that.

  • David

    Like everybody else, I also agree with this article.

    Quit the chronic cardio crap – which is often more harmful than helpful, suppresses your hormones over the long run, and takes a shitload of time – and, as Mark Sisson says, “Lift heavy things.”

    The great libertarian writer Karen De Coster wrote a HILARIOUS series of articles mocking the Planet Fitness trend for betas and infertile feminists. Here’s one article: http://karendecoster.com/a-planet-of-no-judgment.html

  • Umbra

    I agree with everything, except for the “weights are meant to be dropped” thing. Yeah, if their padded for competition. The ones in these pictures are not. When you through a barbell down like that you bend the bar up. You ever try to clean with a bent bar? Bet you haven’t, because it sucks. Dropping the weight like that is for people with no core strength and/or loud idiots looking for attention from those around.

    • Stuki Moi

      Or people who can clean and jerk lots of weight……

      Olympic lifters aren’t exactly short on core strength, after all. Trying to lower that kind of poundage slowly, is not particularly healthy for shoulders or other body parts.

      In general, many, many more accidents and injuries happen during the negative than the positive portions of a lift. And, controlled negatives tires you out as well. Leaving less energy for training the positive part, which is the important part in most sports, from throwing to oly lifting. I do agree those who want to drop weights from overhead should do it with equipment, and in a place, where other members expect it. Showing up at 24hr fitness to show off how string you are by doing oly lifts with iron plates is just childish. But not indicative of lacking “core strength.”

  • tyke

    Why should you pay to lift weights? Many people develop slow muscles doing that.

    Better do Brazilian Jiu-jitsu or kickbox. It’s technical and develops better muscles

    • http://realmikaelryan.blogspot.com Mikael

      Personally I think every man should try MMA.

    • E

      I had to get serious about lifting so I wouldn’t get routinely gorilla fucked in jiu jitsu.

    • CQ

      The “slow muscles” thing is a myth. Right now, if you don’t work out, your max squat would be low, like 185 or 225. And it would move slow. If you get your squat to 315, 405 or 500, guess what, that 185 and 225 is going to be moving real quick.

      I’m 6′. I’m over 200 pounds. Would I be better served in BJJ if I stared at 140 as I once was? I think not.

  • Brian

    While all of these points in this article are correct and humorous, I will point out one GARGANTUAN flaw. Under #5, you included a picture of a male showing a female how to box squat correctly.

    #5 states – You have to witness guys spit horrible game. Hey look, there’s a guy with a pot belly trying to show a girl correct form, but his form is not correct and he’s not going to bang her.

    The picture you used is a photo of Dave Tate. For those of you who are unaware of who that is, do a quick google search for him. He has forgotten more about training than anyone on this sight will ever know. Also, he is in better shape then 97% of the population. For those that don’t believe me, again I request you head over to google and do a search for “date tate ripped”. I don’t exactly see that “pot belly” you used to describe him.

    He is considered by many people to be a leader in the strength/conditioning field, runs an extremely successful strength training website, and has personally worked with literally thousands of athletes throughout his career.

    Show some respect.

    • E

      When someone types a neutral phrase into a Google Image search, the effect could be a technocratic levelling and demolishing of authentic hierarchy, i.e., a random image of Dave Tate could turn up and get tacked to a remark about gym guys spitting bad game. An effect of the internet on knowledge. Dave Tate on the level of some random douchebag, the Illiad on the level of Tucker Max and David Sedaris, etc.

      Point taken, though.

    • Roosh

      Relax, it came up in a Google Image search. It was actually pretty hard to find a picture of a guy showing a girl technique.

    • le tigre MD

      it’s well known that most strength coaches are not aesthetic. ie they are fat, because being fat allows them more leverage to lift more. see also Mark Rippetoe. Looks like fat slob with clothes on, but he can probably outsquat you.

    • http://totheslaughterofthegods.wordpress.com Tamburlaine

      Thank the fuck Christ somebody pointed this out. Dave Tate teaching someone how to box squat is not horrible game. That’s an education at the hands of a master in the iron game. Come on Roosh.

    • CQ

      Here’s a Dave Tate article you might like. 27 reasons to be big.

      4. I like the feeling of my belly on my upper thighs when I take a dump. Sometimes I even try to sit back further, fill my belly with air and blast away like I would a big squat.

      http://www.t-nation.com/free_online_article/sports_body_training_performance/27_reasons_to_be_big

  • Anonymous

    Let me let you guys in on a little secret: gyms for athletes. Find out the closest place to your house that does general sports performance for decently high level athletes, go there, and then marvel at the fact that you can workout cheaper and with way more knowledgable people than you could at a chain or a crossfit. And yes, they usually love taking on “regular” clients as well, because owning a gym is a hard business and you need all the revenue you can get.

    • E

      I did that, but my CrossFit box turned out to be greatly superior.

      That’s likely a case of particular places, though.

      • Anonymous

        There’s definitely a huge variance in quality, so it may take a while to get a good one. Ultimately worth it though.

        Personally I don’t like Crossfit but it is the best chain option out there.

  • Uncle Elmer
  • http://www.simple-workout-routines.com Simple Workout

    Some women would be proud to have those hips, that guys needs to do some shoulder pressing.

  • MS 43

    Another weightlifting noob who thinks he’s qualified to tell people how to work out because he skimmed through Starting Strength.

    I remember the author was bragging about how he can deadlift 225 lbs in a previous post, which is a weight that even women are capable of pulling.

    You can build muscle on machines perfectly fine. Anything that has you working against resistance is going to build muscle for you. People join fitness gyms often because they are extremely cheap ($10/month, no contract).

    The only thing you lose from using machines vs free weights is stability. Further, there’s no discussion about the downsides of the hardcore free-weights gyms (even though “serious” gyms have machines too), which is that they are chock-full of steroid users and narcissistic assholes.

    • Stuki Moi

      The most important thing you lose using machines is the ability to cheat :) Everyone has slightly different levers and muscular attachments. Towards the end of sets, exercises that allow for a controlled amount of “body English” to get past sticking points, are just soo much more productive than those that don’t. Most machine advocates implicitly recognize this, by including partner assisted forced negatives and cheat reps at the end of the last (or only HIT) set. With free weights, that effect comes naturally. If you haven’t already heard this, you read it here first :)

      • Le tigre MD

        You can still use momentum to cheat on machines though. But good point.

  • ronin

    You should say NO to any gym! Working out outdoors instead is much nicer and healthier, and it’s also free ;)

    • scooby

      enjoy no gains

  • Garth

    A “Men Only” gym does not exist due to discrimination laws despite the fact that there are plenty of women only gyms. its fucked up. And I also suspect that the same people that are at work to emasculate men are also trying to convert the gyms so the eqipment and routines don’t do shit for muscle gain because muscle gain is a “masculine” thing. i canot beleive just how fucked up things are becoming in fitness centers when one is not allowed to grunt. Whats next? perhaps limiting the amount of free weights in the place. No weight more than 20 lbs allowed.

  • What Now

    Honestly can’t wait until the online powerlifting craze fades. I have a theory that a lot of guys who are really amped up and IN YOUR FACE about squats and deadlifts tend to be comparatively deficient in their bench or dread the overhead press, or maybe they can’t even knock out 10 pull-ups in a row, let alone weighted pull-ups. They have blocky builds, shitty upper body strength and have to hype up the lower body emphasis to compensate. Not to mention the fact that the “sport” seems to now be the realm of fucking bloated neckbeard dorks in assistance gear.

    • Humpadorous Sex

      Yes, I suspect from looking at Roosh that he probably bench presses roughly around 150 lbs and probably think he’s a badass because of it.

      People really seem to believe squats are the end-all-be-all exercise when the upper body is probably even more important to a good physique since it’s what people tend to look at first.

      Not to mention there’s not discussion of nutrition here, which leads me to believe that Roosh is just another weightlifting nublet who thinks he’s awesome for deadlifting 225 lbs.

      • What Now

        I’m not actually bashing the guy who wrote the article and I don’t know how strong he is. Really just an observation in general.

      • Stuki Moi

        If the “online power lifting craze” is silly, the “online (and offline) nutrition craze” is so a few million times over. Talk about con men infested heap of insecure-dweeb exploiting madness. Doing pseudo squats on yoga balls have nothing on those guys.

  • Mike
  • http://thecaptainpower.blogspot.com thecaptainpower

    I just rejoined New York Sports Club, as much as I hate paying their prices, they have a location everywhere.

    I was in hardcore gyms for years, but they always end up going out of business. Partially the reason why I stopped powerlifting.

  • Western Cancer

    The gym I go to is usually pretty good, they have bumper plates, lifting platforms and lots of squat racks. However with all the january joiners they hired some new people. My pass ran out Jan 1st and the front desk people were dicks who wouldn’t let me through unless I bought a pass (the lineup for one was 30 minutes). Then one of the new “personal trainers” came up to me while I was clean and jerking his body weight, he said “are you power lifting here” I looked at him funny and said “I’m clean and jerking” then he told me I couldn’t do that unless I moved to the specific olympic platforms.

  • JM

    Are smith machines really that bad? If a “smith machine squat” of 200 is equivalent to a 150lb regular squat, doesn’t squatting with 200 on the smith machine have an equal effect as the 150lb would? If so, why is the psychological boost even a problem? As long as you’re pushing your body as hard as it can, won’t your gains be the same?

    I say this as someone who has hurt myself several time on a squat rack. Always in the form of pushing myself to limit, then missing one of the pegs upon putting the weights back. Since the 4th time doing that I’ve been scared of squat racks.

    • Stuki Moi

      When you progress through a set of squats, the bar motion on the first rep is different than later reps, due to the different muscles involved tiring at different rates; and the body compensates for that by changing muscular recruitment slightly. You will therefore, at the end of a set to failure, have exhausted a meaningfully greater number of fibers than you can when the motion is locked in throughout the whole set.

      In addition, a free weight squat also trains all the smaller muscles needed to stabilize the body with the feet and legs. In a Smith machine, you’re braced at both ends, which is a situation with little translation to most natural and athletic endeavors.

      For overhead presses, some bodybuilders do advocate doing SOME of them in a Smith machine, simply because you can position yourself to force yourself to use muscle fibers that are not advantageous, instead of allowing the body to find the best way fr you to move the weight. For functional training, it is completely pointless, but some claim the aesthetics of “round cannonball delts” are best achieved by forcing focus on fibers that would get little use by simply movig as much weight as possible overhead.

  • le tigre MD

    there is really no reason for the average guy to be doing squats and deadlifts, unless they are into powerlifting as a sport.

    if you want a good physique that appeals to women and gives you self-confidence just do functional training: swimming, pushups, pullups to build upper body, and cycling etc to build some mass in lower body. maybe some rowing to build back, and direct arm work like curls and tricep pulldowns if you have long arms that don’t beef up easily.

    and there is absolutely nothing wrong with machines. a smith machine unnatural? what is natural about bench press? how often do you find yourself lying flat on the ground pushing an object up and away from you? look at swimmers. they having amazing physiques and they don’t squat and deadlift on the regular.

    you’re also not gonna really get results quickly unless you use steroids + growth hormone. growth hormone is the shit, as it gives you dense, keepable muscle. whereas steroids just tend to bloat u up.

    • reaper23

      haha cycling to build leg mass?

      long distance cardio to build mass?

      sorry you got that all wrong

      squats and deadlifts work the most muscles at the same time of any lift. it triggers positive hormonal changes. it builds total body strength including core.

      if you’re going to do one exercise and one exercise only, it should be the squat.

      • What Now

        Squats and deadlifts to fuck-all for upper body strength and development. They’re hyped to death online by all the internet lifters because it’s a lot easier to have a deadlift or squat max that impresses people who don’t know any better than it is to develop the balance and strength necessary to put serious weight over your head or chest or. That’s why idiots built like fucking Grimace are flapping their penguin arms around wailing about “squats and oats”. A 165lb. guy holding an iron cross>>>>>>>A 260lb. guy deadlifting 700.

    • Stuki Moi

      Swimmers you see on TV have amazing physiques. As do college level ones for the most part. In isolation at least. Next to the average lineman, they don’t look so impressive anymore….

      Your average guy doing laps; not so much. Swimmers also need to worry about low bone density unless they also do some weight bearing exercise. AND, for your regular Joe with a life: swimmers spend an incredible amount of time in the pool getting that physique.

      Other than that, and if you have the time, a combination of swimming, cycling, running (sprinting), boxing and wrestling will certainly make you pretty darned fit. But man, unless you have the money to have a pool and a gym at home, will you spend time getting there.

      The beauty of weight lifting for building muscle, is that it is so direct, that it doesn’t have to take much time. 2 hrs a week, and you’ll probably pack on more mass in a year than someone shadowing Michael Phelps’ every move.

      If you’re in your teens and 20s and starting from scratch, you’ll pack on plenty of noticeable mass without drugs. Later as well, although you’ll plateau earlier. And Growth Hormone is shit, not the shit. I’m sure it has some positive effect for those already maxed out on androgens, but compared to even something s stone age as Dbol, it’s effect in isolation is hard to distinguish from none at all. Cool name, though. For most people, who want to look healthy and fit, not huge, lifting without drugs will get them there if they follow a decent program and stick with it. If for some reason you want to look like Jay Cutler or an NFL lineman, not so much. But why???

    • Alogon

      Your comment is full of nonsense.

      “a smith machine unnatural?” Yes, it locks one into an unnatural position and as someone earlier stated, muscles fatigue sequentially and alter the movement.

      “what is natural about bench press? how often do you find yourself lying flat on the ground pushing an object up and away from you? ”

      What? Do you really think an exercise like bench press can only be applicable to motion in the same plane it is done in? Obviously the pectoral muscles will work pushing something away from you standing up as well. In fact, the pecs have significant deltoid movement responsibility as well. Did you think the pecs only worked lying down? And pushups, which you advocate, are the same motion flipped around so how are they any more natural in your opinion? The body position in both exercises is to allow for the application of gravity to the weight being moved so as to be effective.

      “look at swimmers. they having amazing physiques and they don’t squat and deadlift on the regular.”

      Sure about that? – “Research from the March 2003 issue of the “Journal of Sports Science” found that an exercise routine featuring squats improved starting velocity and takeoff angle for swimmers.”

      “Your hamstrings are located on the back of your legs, and strengthening them can also benefit your swimming performance. An intense exercise for the hamstrings is the deadlift, which fitness expert Mark Mogavero calls the best overall exercise, incorporating your back, arms and abdominals as well.”

  • paper

    Planet Fitness is the best franchise concept since….I don’t know, Starbucks. A gym for pussies. It is a cash cow, fellas, believe me. Free pizza on fridays to compensate for the lack of any quality machines or qualified trainers, WIFI charged by the hour (I bet the “juice cafe” and overpriced swag store takes up half the space), no heavy equipment or machines (so your Insurance for operating is probly quite lower than other gyms), and a fat, pathetic clientele who will NEVER get in shape. Find some investors and open up your own girly-type gym. You should be a millionaire within the second year.

  • Magic Marker

    The fitness has definitely changed since the early 1990s when I was in college. Back then, no one really went to a gym to work out, and there were few franchises. In my old neighborhood, guys relied on playing bastketball on the park courts to stay in shape. I began to lift heavily on my college campus, so when I returned to NYC for the summer, I was usually the stockiest, muscled guy on the court (albeit short). Most of the other were fit, tall and wirery. In defense, I was like a brick wall and enjoyed either knocking them down and they tried to run a lay up, or running over them like a unstoppable tank when I did MY layups. People thought I either was just got out of jail or the military, back then. Now everyone lifts weights, though.

  • Ed

    I think the main difference between Smith Machine and regular squats is you use far more stabilising muscles doing regular squats, and the weight difference would probably be around 10kg or 22lb, I train on both and have a squat rack setup at home and go to a gym with a smith machine. As for doing powerlifting moves and not going in comps, there are severals reasons for training them, squats and deads give you really great posture and work your body allover, it also gives you unbelieveable core strength. Good advice about the January joiners, the Snap I go to is being invaded by them, it is already a gym full of teenagers, can’t really get any worse.

  • GymRat

    Guys, be careful with advice about lifting “heavy” weights. It is true that you could get more bang for your buck. But, if done incorrectly, they can wreak havoc on your joints and muscles – more than most realize. So many in the manosphere talk about going heavy, getting swole and all that shit. You gotta build up to it. I’ve been lifting for a good 15 years or so and I gotta say that all those times I went heavy, at the cost of losing technique, have devastated my shoulders, elbows, lower back and knees. The thing is, when you’re trying to push up that weight that you never imagined you could lift, you don’t think of your technique. The only thing you think is, “motherf**cker push that damn weight up to the sky!” That is a recipe for momentary satisfaction but longterm regret. Get solid technique first, even if you have to use light weights.

    • Stuki Moi

      In my opinion, every “self taught” lifter above 30, and younger ones who care as well, should read Stuart McRobert’s Beyond Brawn. Not everyone needs to take his advice as gospel, but it is a great counterpoint to the majority of lifting literature, which is written by superstar coaches of full time genetic freaks on gear. For the best of the latter, read anything by Charles Poliquin. Just don’t expect to be able to tolerate his programs, unless you are indeed a professional genetic freak on gear.

  • 20years later

    I spend $20/month on a gym that has a roof thats falling in, a boxing ring in the middle, old broken machines and treadmills from the 80s, a squat rack, 100 plus pound dumbells a fixed bench press and incline press and no changerooms. I love it.

  • corvinus

    When I got to the “lunk alarm” photo I grimaced.

  • http://www.percyruxman.com Ruxman

    I find the people who take their phones into the gym usually fat or scrawny, they hate the workout that much and that’s why they will fail.

    • http://www.facebook.com/aaron.ott.14 Aaron Ott

      Aren’t I supposed to rest a minute between sets?

  • fjod

    dont underestimate smith machine – its great for a work with shoulders.

  • http://www.aroundtheworldin80girls.com Neil Skywalker

    I hate when I have to listen to two girls talking when i’m doing my heavy workouts. I don’t want to hear about the price of peanut butter or how your niece is ill or bought a new dress. In the meanwhile they’re just sitting there doing nothing.

    Shut up!!!

    Luckily that doesn’t happen too much and I work out out at the cheapest gym in town. So lots of dudes doing some serious working out there.

  • DF

    I understand CrossFit has its detractors largely because of the inconsistency in programming but I’m a member of a Box run by Reebok that has excellent programming. Sure, there is socializing because its the nature of CrossFit and there are plenty of girls doing it but when the WOD begins everyone’s focused on getting it done. Every six weeks we get tested for our max reps on various Olympic lifts, deadlifts, squats, cleans, snatches and all the variations thereof but in the interim we continue to work on them in some fashion. Typically our workouts are divided into a strength portion where we focus on a lift and then the MetCon which is the WOD itself that usually has a lifting component too. In addition, fitness gyms don’t address nutrition that much but the Box places a heavy emphasis on Paleo. I have to say programming is what matters most at any Box, which is driven by good coaching. If you’re lucky enough to go to a good Box, it will address all of the complaints listed.

    I used to have memberships to three gyms, a boxing gym, bjj, and globo gym for lifting. Now that I’m in my late 30s, injuries from years of boxing and rolling in bjj have taken their toll. Strangely enough CrossFit has alleviated those injuries, made me stronger than I’ve ever been, put more muscle on my frame, while keeping my overall fitness level high in the six months since I began. Of course your mileage may vary.

    • Stuki Moi

      Sounds good.

      Crossfit is a very good recipe for those who can tolerate it, and have the mental focus required to get something out of it. It’s definitely fitness for type As. And man, have I seen lots of people who rave about crossfit, until one day they mess them self up bad, and have to lay off almost anything for weeks or months.

      Predominantly people who follow the programs in home gyms most days, but even watched by a competent coach, doing highly technical lifts while almost passed out from exhaustion, is always a fairly high risk way of packing on a few pounds.

  • GB

    I’m pretty sure that “guy with a pot belly trying to show a girl correct form” is Dave Tate, founder of Elitefs and a powerlifter that has an elite total in 3 weight classes. He definitely knows what he’s doing.

  • Pingback: The New Thin «

  • Mike

    I’m doing StrongLifts and I go to Planet Fitness, and it has everything I need, so it’s fine by me. We’ll see if I get busted for grunting or dropping weights, but I’ve never seen any indication that the folks who work there pay one bit of attention to anything going on anywhere. They just sit behind the desk.

  • Fran

    But my gym has a bowl of tootsie rolls I can sink my fist into after my exhausting workout.

  • Torsten

    Unfortunately for me, the only gym in town with a proper squat rack is a fitness gym. The free weights are well hidden from the aerobic classes and machines though, and I have never experienced trouble because of my noise. It’s fucking expensive though.

  • justin

    1 reason to avoid all gyms:

    You can do physical activities outside that are actually fun!

  • BOOOOMMM

    if you have to grunt to bench 200 lbs, then you certainly fit in line with fitness gym people

  • Virginia Chavarin

    haha this made me laugh… clearly someone completely unqualified and with no viable knowlegde about the subject whatsoever. “bro-science” haha BS for short. someone educated, experience and qualified in the fitness industry would never have such a limited point of view. thanks for the laugh i enjoyed it!

  • Popadom

    This maybe good advise for someone who is gay but anyone who isn’t likes something good to glance over at (women) GAYEST ADVISE EVER.

    • scooby

      yeah like you’d have a chance of picking them up anyway. they’re just sluts desperate for male attention.

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