I was looking forward to my workout today. It's a holiday, which means I can go anytime and stay as long as I need to. I tried to time it so that the morning senior citizen crowd would be mostly gone when I got there.
Well, it seems that everyone else did the same thing. It wasn't quite as bad as a weekday evening, but still way more crowded than usual for 11:30 on a Monday. And I was already in a pissy mood because I got all the way to the Y and realized I'd forgotten my watch. Doing a timed metcon without a watch is pretty much pointless, so I went back home to get it. I made it into the fitness room and warmed up. I grabbed the first available cage to do my WOD.
Now, I'm not that knowledgeable about gym culture and etiquette. I figure if I have made an obvious claim to a piece of equipment - my towel hanging on the bar and my notebook, cell phone and bag on the footplates - then I should be able to walk away long enough to fill my water bottle and reasonably expect to be able to use the equipment I get back. But when I returned from the water fountain (time of absence <1:00)>I found that some guy had dumped all my shit in the floor and was busy loading plates onto the bar. When I told him that my stuff had been on the cage and that I had intended to work out there, he just said, "Too bad. You weren't here. You snooze, you lose."
We're not talking about some young guy. I would have cut a youngster some slack. I have a teenager, and I understand how incredibly self-centered they can be at times. No, we're talking about a dude in his mid-40s. And to add to the insult, he sneered "Anyway, shouldn't you be over by the dumbbells with the other ladies?"
I did not know until today that the expression "seeing red" was more than just an expression. My first inclination was to haul off and kick him in the balls. In fact, that urge was so strong that I had to back away from him. When he refused to move, I called him an asshole and went to see the trainer. The trainer, of course, wanted no part of any confrontation. He told that I would have to find another place or wait until Asshole was finished with the cage.
So I found an empty Smith machine next to Asshole's cage and improvised a setup for my WOD. And while I did a kick-ass metcon with GHD situps, back extensions and thrusters, Asshole proceeded to do 200# quarter squats followed by wimpy knee raises while hanging from the ab straps. When I walked by him on the way out, I said "If you're gonna be an asshole about the equipment, you could at least do a real fuckin' workout."
My Smith workout area
None of this was smart on my part. I'm a Y employee, and if management ever found out that I had cussed a patron, I'd lose my job (and my free membership). But it's only 3 weeks into January and already I'm so sick of the New Year's Resolution Noobs already that I could scream. The Y is a zoo, and after work it's so crowded that no one can really work out. They're mostly just standing around waiting for machines to become available. It's no wonder most of them give up after several weeks. I know the Y is supposed to be all about inclusion, but when you have trouble serving the 12,000 members you already have, does it really make sense to encourage hundreds more to join when you don't have the space for them?
Buy-in: 3:00 rowing (damper on 2 for easy pulling)
3 rounds of:
10 OHS w/dowel
10 dowel presses
10 incline situps
10 back extensions
WOD: GHD situps, back extensions and thrusters
10 GHD situps
10 back extensions
20 thrusters (35#)
20 GHD situps
20 back extensions
15 thrusters (45#)
30 GHD situps
30 back extensions
10 thrusters (45#)
Time: 7:29
Thoughts: Needed to go heavier on thrusters. I did 35# in the first round because I grabbed the wrong bar when I set up. Didn't realize it until I was doing the thrusters and thought "This seems awfully light." I had grabbed the 35# bar, so I added 10# to it for the last two sets. Still, I needed to do this with at least 55# on the thrusters.
Cash out: Thrusters 2 x 10 @ 45# (to make up for the too-light first set)
3 x hollow holds (:45/:30/:30)
3 comments:
Crowded gyms are always frustrating. At our gym there are two cages, and there is a small group of guys that are nearly ALWAYS at the gym when we're there. They're real powerlifters, and I don't really begrudge them the equipment - they're very nice, on good terms with the CrossFitters, and will help us out with lifting advice from time to time. That said, if one of them has a cage, it's a safe bet he'll be there for a couple hours.
I REALLY wish Ironworks would ditch one of the THREE leg-press machines that nobody uses and get another cage, but in the meantime we're fortunate in that Ironworks is part of a family of gyms, and the one in Oakland is only 10 minutes away and the weightroom is nearly always deserted, so we can escape there.
As for your plight, is a home gym an option? If you have the space, could you start setting aside money and cruising Craigstlist for equipment? Maybe find a couple other local Crossfitters and go in with them on a garage gym?
Oh man! I wish I were local. I could stalk him as a non-Y employee and make his workouts miserable. What an ass! Hang in there. As for lifting and tes...I dunno. I figure we like it because we have a little extra tes...good thing to look into. I could blame my bitchiness on that. LOL. Glad you got a non-lame workout in :)
yes he is a ballbag for telling you that. As an employee you don't want to call him an asshole but I completely understand why you did, and I have snapped on people for much, much less. :)
Goddamn quarter squats?!? That guy should be on the hip flexor machine with the rest of the pansies.
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