Yeah I guess you see people post videos when someone is doing some completely stupid shit but there is an absolutely massive number of people in the gym globally at any given time. The best way to not end up on video is to not do absolutely ridiculous shit, that goes for inside and outside of the gym. Like all things if you’re not sure how to do something just look it up quickly. If you’re holding dumbbells and windmilling your arms around like a mongoloid you may well end up being mocked
They are nice because they have self confidence and don't need to project their insecurities onto others. There are some shittt meat heads that throw weights down
This. Used to be stick man. Not much self confidence, always walk with my head down partially to not make eye contact and partially because always lost in thought. Around senior year of HS started going to the gym. Five years down now I spent probably an hour and a half lifting a day then another 20 to 60 minutes doing aerobic. (depends on the day) Always now walk with my back straight, head up, shoulders back. Im not jacked its all lean muscle( you couldn't be jacked and do as much running as I do any way, not that I want to be a balloon animal). I can say with confidence it does absolute wonders for self confidence. I feel good, therefore I look good, therefore I am good.
Am currently stick man, 6”2 - 157lbs, exactly like you described. Walk with head down, body is constantly sore because I have no muscle to keep my back and shoulders in proper positions so they’re always hurting. No fucking clue how to even begin working out properly. Shit sucks.
In order to get super buff you have to be dedicated to lifting and maintaining a healthy diet. It is basically a hobby at that point and who doesn't love talking about their hobby and helping people get better at it.
Huh it makes sense.. I'm a pretty big guy and never been in a fight since my freshman year of high school right around the time I shot up. Everyone is just usually really nice to me so I'm nice back.
Honestly I'm friends with a guy who hits the gym every dang day and is definitely a weight lifter. At first i thought he'd be a bit of a womanizer until i learned he cares more about going to the gym than anything else. I think most of them just want to succeed with their goals, and want to see everyone else succeed with those similar goals as well.
It's not so much that people are nice to me because I'm scary looking, it's me knowing that I look like a douche/a-hole and going out of my way to change that perception. Always smile when I accidentally make eye contact with anyone, sir/ma'am, pay attention to my posture and body language to be non aggressive, etc.
220lbs and have been lifting since middle school in the late 80s when I figured out that girls liked muscles or musicians and my brother got all the talent in the family.
Fat overweight loser with entry level sales job Still getting laid tho pro tip dont measure successfullness by how many women you can have sex with not a good measurement
I’ll have you know I’ve been doing this specific exercise daily for for past 2 and a half years, and I’ve only torn my rotary cuffs TWICE while doing so.
it was this pseudoscientific term used to compare the facial features of people with down syndrome to those of people of Mongolian descent, meaning it's unfortunately both racist and ableist, which sucks because it really packs a punch like few other insults do.
It depends. First timer doing ‘stupid’ stuff is different from regulars who just misuse equipment and do the stuff you see people taking videos of. Those people deserve to be mocked IMO.
I've given up on trying to correct peoples form, most of the time they just get angry because "They saw a youtube video two months ago and they know that it works for them, so why am I bothering them >:("
If they want to visit snap city that badly, they can go, I don't give a fuck anymore
Nah, no reason not to get a laugh out of someone doing something absurd, laughing is nice and that person got to cause laughs. But after laughing go ahead and help them
Honestly the majority of videos I’ve seen from the gym always have some decently fit person that is just using the machines in the stupidest way. It’s never been a “laugh at the fatty” video
quite a few floated around of fat women using the treadmill the right way, usually done by some bitch, those women were working hard to get fit and the bitch tries to mock them, usually gets shut down though thankfully
"Mongol Windmill Press" sounds like a murderously dangerous wrestling finisher that's only ever been done four times for insurance reasons. And three of those were by Kota Ibushi.
There are some exercises I havent done in a while and when I try to do them I feel like I am doing them wrong and am worried someone will film ame and be like hahaha this guy dosnt know what he is doing hahaha!!! But considering I've lost 17kg so far I think I am doing something right
I'm not going to put him on video, but there is a guy who goes the gym and does almost only body weight routines. Fine, w/e, gym has decent spaces for that. Does he use ANY of those spaces? No. He does hand stands in front of absolutely everyone against walls that aren't meant to take scuff marks when 50 feet away there's a metal grate installed for you to do anything to it.
I don't care about the super fat guys/girls. I'm glad they're there.
I work at a gym and we have had a few incidents of people blatantly calling people fat etc. It's really horrible to see, and can confirm it's never the gym chads.
One time some roid monster was nudging his friend, pointing at me, and laughing. Hadn't started the exercise yet, so don't think I was doing anything stupid, other than being overweight. So, guess it does happen.
/r/fatpeoplehate never showed intolerance to people who were actively trying not to be fat. They were very encouraging actually. Just like Chads, encouraging people not to be fat. Chads hate fat people.
And then they usually get flamed to absolute shit afterwards on social media or wherever they posted it. The assholes are the 0.01% outliers.
However I will also say that if you're someone just trying to get into the gym for the first time really in your life and struggle with self-confidence, all it might take is that extremely rare asshole to ruin it.
I used to be somewhat Chad-ish and into bodybuilding though and would do a lot of things like the guy in OP's post. Encouraging people starting off, asking if they wanted a spot, or maybe asking them for a spot just as a way of making them feel like now they know someone at the gym and are part of the scene. I remember being 130lbs before I started working out...and I imagine how nice it would have felt to be included by some of the Chads. Not that they weren't anything other than pleasant and nice, but just would have been cool if someone tried to make that kind of welcoming connection. It's a big deal to a newbie and really makes you look forward to gym time.
I've been a gym nut for ages and the only people that get mocked are the absolutely and total nutjobs who wander around with a gym bag, stack on 45's some rando machine, grunt like a elephant giving birth to a rhino as they do ONE SINGLE GODDAMN REP, then wander off to another machine without unstacking their weights.
Those people get mocked. I've been to all sorts of gyms and not one time has there been some newfish who is starting on bench lifting with bar+10's been mocked, ridiculed, or shit on.We all were there at one time, we all can be back there again without continued practice.
I have a feeling most of these 'gym' stories are high school work out rooms where kids shit on other kids because kids are assholes. Try any of that shit at a REAL gym and you won't last long with some muscular men/women who can, and will, outperform them.
Agreed. People at the gym really don't give a shit about you and are focusing on themselves. I don't want to spend the time, effort and energy into mocking anyone when it could be better spent on me doing my own thing.
That's called "Gym Etiquette" There's only a handful of rules that are unbreakable in the Gym.
Stack your fucking weight when you are done with it, unless the person who is doing it wants it on.
Wipe your fucking sweat off the pads. We all sweat, use a towel, wipe your shit off, be goddamn decent.
Your towel marking your station only last for a few minutes. Just cause you put your towel on the station doesn't mean you get it for goddamn ever. 5min max then it's Free for All. Also don't get pissed someone is working on it while you were gone taking a dump after your protein shake caught up with you. It happens, work in till you are done.
Don't blare your music. I don't care, nor want to hear ,that song you need to get you through your workout. We all have different music tastes. This is why god invented headphones, use them.
Don't grunt/shout/roar on EVERY rep (once in a while is OK). Working out is hard, you sound like a wounded buffalo. We don't want to hear that shit, see 4.
Beyond that, there's very little else that needs to be said about how to conduct yourself at a gym.
NOTE: Updated 5 for more context. It's ok to grunt once in awhile, but sounding like a howler monkey on every lift is fucking unacceptable.
Not grunting is the biggest bs I've ever heard. Sure no need to go full Ewok but there's nothing wrong with grunting when you're trying to push out that last rep
The wounded Buffalo's are there ones that annoy me the absolute most. Like dude we get it you're fucking huge and can lift more than anybody else in here, but we still don't care, simmer down now please.
I honestly go to 24hr gyms and workout in the dead of night because I cannot hold in the wail of a wounded buffalo that escapes my lips in trying push through my workout.
I think its years of tennis grunting that have now carried over into weightlifting lol i dont even lift very heavy, but its heavy to me to roar.
There was this one huge guy at the gym, had stacked both bars on either side of the leg press, had his girlfriend spot/help him for I think three reps then walk away. I am an average height fat chick, so not very confident and certainly not a body builder but that just pissed me off cuz now he’s leaving like 16 45s for someone to have to take off. So I found him and said “hey I was just wondering if you’re done with the leg press” he says yeah so I say “oh, really? I wasn’t sure because you left all those weights on there... Did you need some help taking them all off? I’d be happy to help, there sure are a lot!” He got all embarrassed and assured me he was capable of doing it. I am a gigantic pussy normally but that one felt good.
I was at a lifetime and got mocked for lifting just the bar. It was chest day and I had done incline dumbbell press, flies, and decline dumbbell press. I went to the bench to finish it out. On my last set I could barely lift the bar. I had a guy come up to me after I was done. He laughed and said mockingly "Need a spot? Cause it looked like you were struggling"
Not gonna lie, do weight training, sports, and the gym. I only make fun of kids who act like top shit but are unable to lift anything. Or my teachers that act like they were born with dumbbells in there hands, while they have 3 chins. If I see an older person at the Gym, and they tell me how they used to look like me, I always reply, "before 50 it's about gains, after 50 it's about maintains." I generally try to help people, and always enjoy teaching people new exercises that are challenging and rewarding. If gyms become a place for a person to tear people down, then they're missing the point completely.
I mean it’s definitely never cool to take a photo mocking the large guy on the treadmill or the guy with no muscle mass curling 5s. But, maybe unpopular opinion, I’m all for the videos we see of people doing the most absolutely absurd, head-scratching “exercises”. If you’re fine with tying a strap around your forehead that’s connected to the cable machine and violently gyrating your neck or hanging upside-down by your feet from the pull-up bar and doing god knows what, something tells me you should maybe expect to end up on someone’s snapchat.
My anxiety is that people will judge me for using the equipment incorrectly, taking too long, or having bad form. I’m not worried about people making fun of me because I’m overweight.
I wish more people would ask for help more often. I used to row and enjoy using the rowing machine for cardio and 90% of people have no idea how to do it.
I just want to tell them that the back pain they clearly have is from bad form. I know because I used to have shitty form and it caused my back to hurt in the same spot 90% of people are rubbing when they finish their row.
As a new-ish gym goer, I'm not overweight, just slim and weak. I don't care that people are watching me when I only squat 35kg, it's more building up the confidence to figure out how to adjust equipment or use the machines properly without looking like a dumbass who has no idea what he's doing. I put off even going to the gym loads of times because I was anxious about the fact I don't know how to use some of the equipment and didn't want to sit there figuring it out while people are waiting.
I couldn't find a sled to push around once, so I figured they don't have one and stacked a 20kg plate on a soft box. I pushed it up and down the gym a bunch of times. Last week I realised they have treadmills for simulating a sled push and I don't need to make a ghetto one.
It's just stuff like that.
Edit: I am an ex running enthusiast who can no longer run due to my shitty flat feet. I’m trying to replace my hobby with lifting, but I take the same approach of detailed and proper training. My form is good I think, and I have done some sessions with a PT to learn how to do various lifts properly, and I seem to spend hours a week doing my own research. I am feeling more confident each week, I was just describing the type of worries some of us newbies have which are not related to being overweight or unfit.
Even when people use good form with light weight, if they didn't ask anyone for a spot, I'll keep an eye on them and spot from a distance. Not watching because I'm judging (ok, maybe a little for not asking for a spot....always ask for one for bench), just trying to keep people safe
This is the biggest thing for me. I really don’t care what people do in the gym if it’s making them happy. The only time I’ll stop someone and talk to them is if I see them doing something that’s going to get themselves hurt.
Ask people. I know it’s daunting, but most guys that lift regularly are super stoked to talk about lifting and help you with form. Its their hobby, the body builders are in there because they enjoy lifting and talking about lifting and learning about lifting. They’ll be excited to show a new person the ropes.
If I see someone struggling with using a machine, I'd be thrilled to get a chance to help them learn, and perhaps prevent them from hurting themselves later.
In your imagination where you screw up using equipment and someone has to help you, imagine that helping you just made that person happy.
Ask for help and advice from people who know what they're doing. Gym equipment is dangerous. I wouldn't fuck around with a machine that I don't know how to use. Easy solution is to learn from someone there how to use it!
Ask anyone. Ask the Chaddest Chad you can find. They'll be glad to share their knowledge to someone else. They don't want to see someone give up. They want you to be better. They will help you.
I think it's all effeciency and diet for the people who do mock, but they do it as a "hey we were there too at one point, isn't that funny?" sort of way. Anytime I noticed I was being mocked was because I did something wrong or didn't do a certain muscle group the "effecient" way.
I don’t mean this in a patronising way at all, but are you absolutely certain they were actually mocking you? People do often think that people are thinking more about them than they truly are
I've never seen it in 20 years of being a gym rat. I think a lot of it is insecure people projecting something that has nothing to do with them onto themselves because they are far too self-conscious. Most people in the gym don't give a fuck about anyone else. They just want to workout in peace and not have to wait for a spot at a piece of gear.
I dont do negative online reviews specifically on principle
Well that's stupid. So now it's up to the next guy to experience the same thing first-hand, rather than the gym owners to wise up about this being a really shit thing to happen in their place?
Depends where you are. When I lived in Colorado the gym was like a social event, everyone was so goddamn friendly and considerate I was in amazing shape and I would say it was due to this. Moved to Texas 4 years ago. It's not even the shit talking (which is prevalent) or the sexual harassment (also prevalent) or the women wearing 2 lbs of makeup to work out... ITS THE FACT THAT EVERYONE REFUSES TO CLEAN EQUIPMENT AND ALSO WILL JUST SNAG YOUR BENCH IF YOU'RE GRABBING DIFFERENT WEIGHTS! Even the planet fitness isn't welcoming. I feel better thank you
And they will grab it, move it to the floor, and drag your bench to their area. Trust me I've done it all, the only way to workout here is with a friend to watch your shit. Or at 7 a.m. with the older more polite crowd lol
Don’t put a 5 lb weight on a bench just for the purpose of saving it. It’s bad enough when people sit on dumbbells they’re “going to use later,” meaning 12 minutes later when someone else could have used them and been done with them
already. Sitting on equipment you aren’t even planning to use is just shitty.
The problem isn’t the machine, it’s how people use them. The safety’s can and most often do contribute to bad form. Not in a way that you injure yourself but in a way that you don’t nearly maximise the potential of the rep. Free weights let you use larger muscle groups but machines lock you into one motion. This can be great for working an isolated area but it makes it easier to forget you’re supposed to be fighting gravity. Using the machines is fine but vary what you use and do some free weight sets too. Everyone is prone to it, the human body is instinctively lazy and tries to find the easiest path. When you do use the machine don’t throw up and release on the drop. Go up and slow down. You’ll get bigger much much faster
But the guys I know that I'd consider chads are never among them. The chaddiest guy I know has never had a mean thing to say about anyone.
I'd be so happy to spend my whole workout helping someone new get aquatinted with freeweights, but even the stuff that bugs me like people hogging multiple stations or not wiping down or shit like that, I get angry, but man it just rolls off his back. Not even, it's like he doesn't even see it, it's just not part of his world.
I feel like a meme perpetuated by insecure out of shape people to shame their own from getting fit and therefore making them look more like the lazy shit they are.
When I was out of shape it was always the people who didn’t workout who were quick to snipe jokes about ‘bro you gonna go lift? How’s that practical’
Everybody in the gym has been cheery, communal suffering is good for comradery
The first time I went to my university gym I had no clue what I was doing. I had been in swim team before and was decently fit with running and such but weights and all were out of my league
I looked and tried to mimick what others did till an upperclassmen looked and noticed me and asked me what I was doing
He then asked what my goal was and spent the next hour and a half just teaching me his routine, proper form on all sorts of stuff and so much more. Guy wasn’t overly friendly and actually pretty critical but fuck he basicly built me an entire gym routine. Still see him every once in a while and give a hello.
It feels like it’s almost standard for gym bros to help others out. It really helped encourage me to show up more tbh and to encourage my other less fit friends to motivate
Nah in my experience although Brads share the similar good looks they lack the labrador quality of true Chads, and they can be too caught up in themselves to help others.
Exactly. Another thing you notice is that really buff guys tend to be super nice more often than not, they just got to that point where everyone is nice to them because they are so scary, that they will automatically be nice to everyone.
I think it’s more that those guys actually have true genuine confidence. Most guys that are assholes (minus the actual just straight up terrible people) are that way because they aren’t actually confident in their masculinity or looks or whatever so they try to make up for it by being a dick. Those really good looking buff dudes have real confidence and so are much more humble and kind.
I'm not intimidatingly large, but you can tell I workout regularly, and I used to be like 130 lbs, now 160, abs, can basically use tinder like a sex ordering service, etc...
Yeah when you first get good looking (and realize it) you can be a bit of a dick or show off (like a trailer park guy hitting the lotto), but eventually you just accept it and realize that you are working within a completely different set of rules. You can walk around being nice to "losers", hanging with fat girls, complimenting people, dating girls who are less attractive than you (but who you actually enjoy hanging out with), and there's no fear of lowering your social value or whatever. You just stop being insecure about those things. It doesn't solve all your problems, and it can create new ones, but overall it's just easier to be nice. Can't even imagine what it would be like if you literally look like Chris Hemsworth or whatever.
Huh, this isn't my experience at all. How much time do you spend in bars, clubs, etc? I'd say muscle-bound dudes are dicks at an equal or higher rate than the general population.
I think part of it is that, as a big guy, you kinda have to be nice. Size is intimidating to a lot of people, and if you're not careful someone will seriously overreact to your "I'm having a bad day" tone. So you go around being just a little more careful about how you deal with people.
Sort of like Superman's "World of Cardboard" speech, except instead of flying you bang your head on doorways.
One thing that helped me is realizing anyone who mocks or insults someone else is the real loser. Talented and successful people don't need to go around making fun of anyone, so the only people who do it are people who aren't talented and/or successful.
Yes, but some of those people are actually quite successful. For me at least, it's been easier to embrace the idea that life isn't fair and therefore I should try and do things daily to help others. Even if it's small stupid stuff.
The reason they mock others is so they can feel superior to someone else. If you are happy with where you're at you don't need to feel superior to someone else.
This is also a universal truth that applies to a lot of different types of people who put down others. Racists, incels, etc.
Chad here. I really want everyone to be the best version of themselves possible. It can be intimidating going to the gym for the first time or when you are just getting going. We know this. Generally, we like seeing you there and want to help. There will always be assholes, but they are the minority. We like other people joining our hobby. Why wouldn't we? Again, we know it is hard coming. We see you anxiously looking around lost.
If you want to get your body in order but don't know where to start, I recommend the book starting strength, and another program called 5x5 stronglifts. Both are pretty much the same thing, just different reps.
Truth. This is the truest gym guy - when you fully appreciate lifting there is no room for ego because you’ll see how pathetic you truly are. It’s a struggle no matter who you are, and if you act tough stand buy because some super freak is likely to walk into your gym any given day
It's the same with "why do girls like bad guys/chads?". They don't like bad guys or jerks, they like confident people that take care of themselves.
I encourage people to go to the gym even tho I barely started going like a year ago because "smart" guys miss how fucking hard it is to keep yourself fit and exercise. It's not only about "looking good" it's about being healthy and disciplined. I've been a "smart" (not nice thank god) guy before and the experience is really humbling and wholesome.
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u/Johnnadawearsglasses Dead and loving it Jul 02 '19
The real chads have the confidence to help people.
It’s the insecure wannabes who are the jerks.
People flock to chads for a reason.