Exercise log: very busy gym

[hawkwing_lb]

Cycling: 12.5km in 30:00. Benchpress: 3x10 @15kg +bar, 1x8 @17.5kg+bar. Attempted pathetic chinups: 3x3 (not much improvement but some). Deadlift: 3x10 @10kg. Lateral raise: 3x12 @5kg/arm. Bicep curl: 3x6 @10kg/arm. Back extensions: 3x8. Running, intervals: 2 miles in 26:30 (first mile in 12:30). Rowing: 550m in 3:00.

Mass: 103.4kg.

First time in the gym since... did I go last Wednesday? I can't recall. Very, very busy. Lots of waiting around for the thing I wanted. (There are only four non-spin-cycle bikes, for example, and I like being able to track my mileage.) The nice trainer bloke whose name I can never remember corrected my deadlift form, because I'd completely forgotten how to do it. He's a good guy.

Sadly, as always, the weights end of the gym was being hogged by lads showing off their muscles. Also, a pair of weedy guys messing around with the benchpress machine. (First they tried lifting 40kg...no go. They had to scale all the way down to ~17.5kg, which took them for-fucking-ever. Did no one ever tell them to go up, not down? And then they did bunches of sets of three-reps-only, resting on the bench in between. SERIOUSLY BOYS YOUR MANNERS.) And, honestly, some of the Muscle Boys side-eye me? (Mostly not, fortunately. Mostly they are polite lads. And the gym staff know me and have known me for years now, so I no longer have to deal with being talked down to lighter weights when I go to ask for advice on a new exercise. But tonight I am all THOSE BOYS. Alas.)

Brought library books back to college, overdue. Fines are annoying but my own fault. Should now do something productive, but don't really want to. Fie.

Comments

[britmandelo.livejournal.com]

Ah, Those Boys. I know of Those Boys.

[hawkwing-lb.livejournal.com]

They are the female weight-user's intermittent nemesis.

[britmandelo.livejournal.com]

Yes. Particularly in the case of Those Frat Boys.

[hawkwing-lb.livejournal.com]

I don't think I've encountered that particular subspecies. Are they native to the American continent?

[britmandelo.livejournal.com]

I believe they're unique to the ecosystem of the university campus gym, over here.

[hawkwing-lb.livejournal.com]

A highly-specialised mammal, no doubt. *does not desire to encounter one in the wild*

[tithenai.livejournal.com]

Sadly, as always, the weights end of the gym was being hogged by lads showing off their muscles.

Oh man I feel you on this! It's so intimidating when a bunch of guys turn up in a group and just camp out on the equipment.

That said -- have you tried approaching them and asked to work in? They really can't say no if they're just sitting down and shooting the breeze (unless they're assholes). I used to be terrified of doing this and it would seriously hamper my work-outs (I'd stay way longer than I wanted waiting for the squat rack to be free), but the difference in response to "can I work in" vs. "are you done with that" is measured in light years. I think every single time I've asked to work in I've been met with surprised deference and/or pleasure.

[hawkwing-lb.livejournal.com]

Oh, no, they're mostly nice boys. Very polite in the main. But there are always more of them than the weights space is really set up for (and no women in the space hardly at all) - to such an extent that I understand the gym management is thinking about cordoning the area off and running a ticket system for entry, if it continues busy past the end of February.

So I'm just a little annoyed at lads that rest on the equipment. *g*