A very special message

[vass]

To all the dudebros in my gym:
RACK YOUR FUCKING PLATES. AND DUMBBELLS. AND STABILITY BALLS. AND THE BAR ITSELF WHEN YOU'VE FINISHED DEADLIFTING.
I am sick of picking up after you like I'm your fucking maid just so I can do my own workout. I am sick of going for a fucking Easter egg hunt three days a week to find the plates I want, which turn out to be on the floor in some corner of the gym where there isn't even a bar. I am sick of someone else's fucking stability ball bouncing into me while I'm benching.

Is it a way of marking your territory? Of showing all us plebs how heavy you lift?

Yes, I get it, you're very strong. So strong you have to use ALL THOSE PLATES. And yet somehow not strong enough to put them back where they belong? No, wait, I apologise. You didn't leave them on the bar. You left them in a pile, propped up against the rack, so I have to lift them all, one by one, to re-rack them so I have space to rack my own plates so I can find the last solitary 1.25kg plate I need to increase my bench.

NOW FUCKING RACK THEM. Come on, I know you can do it. Here, I'll spot you. HoooURGH. That's right. It's all you, bro.

Comments

[rydra_wong]

I HEAR YOU.

Two possibly-consoling thoughts:

1) The reason they don't know about PUTTING THEIR SHIT AWAY as basic weight-room etiquette is that they do not in fact know shit about strength training. This is why they do so many back-arching bicep curls.

2) Racking those plates will do wonders for your grip strength and act as an impromptu farmer's walk. You will become able to subtly unnerve the dudebros by casually hefting a couple of large plates at a time and ambling over to the rack to put them away without breaking a sweat.

[vass]

It would probably sting less if they weren't so swole. It's hard to believe they don't know what they're doing when their biceps have biceps too. Whole packs of lean, tanned, twenty-something dudes spotting each other, and there's me trying to snatch enough mirror space to do my wussy bodyweight sumo squats (now with 100% more rikishi-like build!) in 4 pathetic sets of 6 reps.

This is a community gym, mind you, and lots of different types of people use the weight room. But I'm the only woman I see lifting heavy. The other women are doing demanding exercises, but usually Pilates or similar.

[rydra_wong]

Swole =/= strong. Hypertrophy =/= strength.

Okay, yeah, sometimes they're strong too, particularly when they've had the head-start of beginning young and being twentysomething dudes who happen to have body types that allow them to pack on muscle and build strength easily, no matter how cluelessly they train.

But still, if your gym is anything like mine, over time you will see an amazing number of hideously clueless acts being committed.

[resolute]

THIS.

LIKE.

+1.

WHATEVER, THIS THIS THIS.

Dudebros, man. Rack your damn plates. I mean, *I* can rack the big plates, but many people cannot! And I can't rack the dumbbells over sixty-five pounds!

And, what Rydra_wong says -- impromptu Farmer's Walk, and people stare at you will a weird disbelieving admiration.

[0jack]

Seriously, this should be framed and put up in every damn gym in the world. Tripping over other people's shit is a nightmare for me and my zero proprioception.

[lyorn]

I hear you.

:-(

[smackshack]

Preach it!

[buddleia]

I have literally never just been able to walk into the squat rack and set up the bar. There is always a godawful set of plates on the floor for my arthritic toes to stub; several plates on the bar that need to be removed; maybe the (loaded) bar itself is lying on the floor with the safety bars, just for jollies and, to add insult to injury, the only clips left are adorning a loaded bar laid out for Olympic lifts as if someone is coming back in a second. (HINT: THEY WON'T BE)