Things that annoy me at LA Fitness

I got my hours cut as a bouncer so I had to join a cheaper gym and LA Fitness had some new year discounts. Well, I can see I've made a mistake already as nearly every day somebody who is less experienced than I am at working out does something to piss me off. I would like to crush these people using my physical superiority but I can't afford to lose my membership privileges right now. Instead I will talk about them in this thread.

1/4/2011--Naked old men walking around locker room, trying to stay naked for as long as possible. People sitting on exercise machines talking. One naked old man decides that clothes are too constraining to stretch his obsese, disgusting body in, so he decides to stretch naked in the middle of the locker room.

1/5/2011--Naked old men walking around locker room, trying to stay naked for as long as possible. People sitting on exercise machines talking. Older guy who still has some strength left decides to wear an 80s style tank top that is at least one size too small. the fact that it is an 80s style tanktop rather than a sleeveless shirt makes it the 2011 equivalent of being three sizes too small. Old 80s tank top guy decides to do situps so close to the pull-up bar that I can't do pull ups.

1/6/2011--Naked old men walking around locker room, trying to stay naked for as long as possible. People sitting on exercise machines talking. Go to get on a treadmill and a young, semi-obese girl puts a bottle in the cup holder and smiles. I apologize for taking her treadmill and step over to the empty one next to her. She tells me that one is taken as well and puts a bottle in it. I look around and find another treadmill. I notice that a few minutes pass and then another semi-obese woman takes the treadmill next to her and they proceed to walk at 1.0 miles per hour while talking for 20 minutes. Not only shouldn't you be allowed to "save" a treadmill during a busy time but there should be a requirement that you burn more than 50 calories every time you use one.

1/7/2011--Naked old men walking around locker room, trying to stay naked for as long as possible. People sitting on exercise machines talking. Went early to avoid the crowds and it seemed to work. Was warming up on a cardio machine with three machines in between. Middle-aged guy with shirt tucked into his shorts comes in and...takes the machine right next to me. Do you understand what he did? He could have taken a machine with no one next to him on either side. Or, if he needs to be next to someone, he could have left me room and taken the machine next to a fairly attractive woman. Men repel, women attract--or at least that's how it worked before we became such an androgenous and weak society. The open machines were taken in the next few minutes which covered this guy's crime, but I know that he fucked up.

1/8/2011--Rest day.

1/9/2011--Did not use locker room. People were sitting on exercise machiens talking. Guy next to me was benching, pyramiiding from 135 up to 245 and back down. Nothing remarkable about that, but this guy was wearing a weight belt the entire time and clipping his weights. Clipping the heavy (245) set...kind of weird. Clipping the warmup (135) set...very weird. Unless he had some kind of traumatic bench press accident during his childhood, this kind of overuse of protective equipment is unacceptable.

you should invest in a bowflex

seattlegluepiss wrote:you should invest in a bowflex

Completely useless for building functional strength.

1/10/2011--Naked old men walking around locker room, trying to stay naked for as long as possible. People sitting on exercise machines talking. Woman was practicing Zumba in the aerobics room by herself. It was well lit and everyone could see her swiveling her hips in what looked like an attempt to seduce her own image in the mirror. And I thought that Zumba as a group exercise was weird.

1/11/2011--Naked old men walking around locker room, trying to stay naked for as long as possible. People sitting on exercise machines talking. Pudgy guy was weaing a baseball cap turned backwards at 6:00 in the morning. OK, it's not light out and you're not going to a ballgame so there was no reason to have a baseball cap on in the first place. But do you really need to scream "meathead" any louder than you are already doing by wearing a high-school football shirt stretched over a beer belly, walking around with with ILS (invisible lat syndrome) and having a goatee? The only thing this guy was missing was a tool belt and a six pack of budweiser.

1/12/2011--Naked old men walking around locker room, trying to stay naked for as long as possible. Guy with a bunch of tats and a baseball hat turned backwards (what is up with that?) did his "cardio" by...well, I guess you'd call it shadowboxing. It was obvious just from his look taht he was giong to be an "ultimate fighter" instead of a real boxer but he was doing a really awkward combination of MMA techniques (looping overhand rights, knees to the face, etc.) in TMA style--walking forward throwing the same single technique over and over again in a straight line then turning around and walking back while doing another technique. Basically he was completely ineffective in getting a cardio workout or a fighting base, but he did a good job of identifying himself as a Tapout wearing douche.

I hate guys who throw punches in the aerobics room

1/13/2011--Naked old men walking around locker room, trying to stay naked for as long as possible. People sitting on exercise machines talking. Guy was wearing an Ed Hardy tee shirt and a gold chain while working out. No shit. If that isn't bad enough in every day life, if you're trying to waste several hundred dollars to cover your chest, shouldn't you at least make sure it's not rubbing up against other people's sweat and having weights dropped on it?

1/14--rest day

1/17/2011--Naked old men walking around locker room, trying to stay naked for as long as possible. People sitting on exercise machines talking. One naked old man in particular bothered me since I arrived at the gym at 5:25 in the morning--25 minutes after it opened--and his naked body was standing in front of the mirrors applying deoderant already. Am I supposed to believe that he arrived right at the opening and already worked out and showered in 20 minutes? Not too likely. Much more believable scenario is that he skips working out altogether and goes there only to walk around the locker room naked. Isn't there another venue for old men to do this?

1/18/2011--People playing racquetball. I guess I never paid much attention to this before, but I really don't like this type of "exercise" going on at the same time I'm lifting weights.

I'm glad I don't have to work out at commercial gyms. The amount of functional strength you can gain there is much lower than at a normal BoxFit setup. Speaking of which, I just bought a franchise with a guaranteed 30% ROI and that's not mention the self-satisfaction and lower bodyfat rewards that come from running the place. So far everything is going really well. Everyone seems to be taking to the Gym being better organized. This place comes alive at night, when all the kids come in. A good portion of them even have their parents, and sometimes grandparents with them. So 3 generations passing on Boxing. I've even seen Mothers come in and make their Sons sign up, 99% of them are Hispanic, and 97% of that are Mexican, of course, but it's still awesome.

We're also cleaning up the Gym functions. As of January, no trainer who DOESN'T have their book will be able to work with kids, because some guys in here make money off these kids, but they're not even qualified to corner an Amateur bout. The Gym's actually in the green as well, which is unusual for Boxing Gyms, unless they're run like L.A. Fitness.

1/18/2011--Naked old men walking around locker room, trying to stay naked for as long as possible. People sitting on exercise machines talking. Using the cable crossovers and took a break to do situps. A middle aged guy wearing one of those yuppy windbreaker type "workout" jackets comes over, adjusts the hell out of the machine and proceeds to do some type of golf swing exercise where he grabs one handle with both hands.

1/21/2011--Naked old men walking around locker room, trying to stay naked for as long as possible. People sitting on exercise machines talking. Two guys who were probably in high school were spotting each other on the hammer strength machines, including doing assisted reps.

1/25/2011--Naked old men walking around locker room, trying to stay naked for as long as possible. People sitting on exercise machines talking. Three obese women were taking up the entire open mats which are supposed to be used for stretching and ab work by sitting there and talking. They didn't do a single exercise for at least 10 minutes, and that's just the time I could verify since that was how long I was waiting for them to move so I could do my medicine ball swings. As if they didn't take up enough space on their own, two of them had the big inflatable bouncing ball things propped up behind them like bean bag chairs.

I froze my membership. I'm going to try to just do burpees for a few weeks and see what kind of core strength I can develop.

how much of this "core strength" is essential to your daily existence?

my biceps are 12 inches around. so far, i have not experienced any difficulties as a result of my smaller than average biceps.

thank you.

Saint Brute wrote:I froze my membership. I'm going to try to just do burpees for a few weeks and see what kind of core strength I can develop.

Sorry to hear you drop out, but I cannot blame you one bit. I've had similar problems and even my current Gym does not live up to my own, ultra-high standards. I just wish we had guys like you all in the Gym routinely. At times there's little more than a few attitudinal knuckleheads about ice-grillin' and flexin' up inappropriately. It kind of tickles me sometimes to see people start out that way, knowing what they're headed for once some of the Pros who circulate the Gyms show back up and put them in their place. I'll never get over how many people come to a Boxing Gym where there's already a climate of cooperation and respect, and deem to be the biggest baddest buck on the plain, questioning the integrity of people who are already familiar with each other. If only they'd learn that respect is not demanded, it's commanded.

seattlegluepiss wrote:how much of this "core strength" is essential to your daily existence?

my biceps are 12 inches around. so far, i have not experienced any difficulties as a result of my smaller than average biceps.

thank you.

People who doubt core strength typically don't have any. Anyone who has done the type of core building exercises that I have been exposed to will tell you that this is the key to being a successful fighter. I was speaking with Pernell Whitaker the other day, a fighter not known for his physical strength, and even he was commenting on how important core strength is to today's fighters. Without dropping too many names I can tell you that Chuck Liddell and Rich Franklin agree with him.

Assuming you are of average height, 12 inch biceps are a bit too small to generate real power, but that is not to say that severe hypertrophy is of any benefit. Large, muscular guys rarely have the speed or cardio to compete with faster, leaner fighters. I think a 13-14 inch bicep measurement is ideal, but that may vary based on genetics. My biceps measure 13.5 inches for what its worth.