The decline of free weights

backbreaker

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Maybe this is just my gym but today while at the gym I noticed a startling phenomenon.


My gym is 2 stories, indoor court, indoor pool, indoor track, none of that is unusual but I say that to just say, I don't have a 1 room walk in gym. so when I say, today this morning on a saturday there might have been.. 6 guys under the age of 40 there in the entire gym complex, that's eyebrow raising.

And the few that are there, aren't lifting free weights. The few guys that are not just there trying to keep their doctor off their ass bull****ting on the exercise bike are all in the cardio women doing whatever it is the women are doing. you doing some treadmill I will do some treadmill too. you on this little ***** bike that you don't even stand up on I'm going to ***** bike as well. All these guys walking around the gym with no chest whatsoever, skinny fat, it's a shame.

**** at least "bench press guy" is doing something remotely difficult. Core exercises work best for me so I pretty much do full body workout squats, deads, bench, military, dips all on the same day then take the next day off, maybe throw in some planks or some more calf work or what not but that's how i roll after years of tinkering this is the workout plan that gets the most out of me. It's like guys today are petrifed of the sqat rack. I can count on one hand the amount of times the last year anyone besides myself while i've been there has tried to squat something, on an actual squat rack not using the smith machine and **** with the smith machine maybe 2 hands.

i mean when i first started giong to the gym seriously when i was 22 years old I mean, there woudl be guys in there esp on the weekends, even if they didn't have a clue what they were doing they were going to try. they'd mess around with the bench with the squat rack with the dumb bells. none of that now.

this morning there were probably 75-100 people in the gym total, probably more than that. 100 is a good est. just about 80% of them were women. women everywhere. for all the talk about women not wanting to get in shape, etc. that's half the women. the toher half of the women are working their ass off beucase they get it. they know what holds value and what doesn't.

but men, men don't get it. at all. the few men that half get it, listen to women when they go to the gym and dont' do the **** they need to be doing.

just thought that was an interesting note.
 

disgustipated

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What is the **** men need to be doing then? I.lift with about 5 guys from work...all of.them pretty much kill me at every lift. But when it comes to our actual jobs, which is super physical, and where we make our money...none of them can sniff my jockstrap. And I'm the oldest. So i gotta disagree that lifting heavy or even certain lifts are what men should be doing. If you're all about getting pu$$y, then yeah lifting for aesthetics will help. I try to explain to them that for work, you only need to be slightly stronger than your most taxxing duty...the rest is endurance. And that's where I have the edge. Years and years of lsd running has helped me hold off guys in their early 20s even now.
 

sharkbeat

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backbreaker said:
so when I say, today this morning on a saturday there might have been.. 6 guys under the age of 40 there in the entire gym complex, that's eyebrow raising.
I think the fact it's saturday morning had a lot to do with that.
 

betheman

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men should be able to lift heavy sh!t...at work or in the gym! Not everyone is an Arnold, we cant be without the juice but lifting weights should be part of any mans life. the end.
 

Who Dares Win

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sharkbeat said:
I think the fact it's saturday morning had a lot to do with that.
Exactly, going in the same gym midweek at 6pm would allow you to see mostly guys hitting weights....any man with a little amount of test is chasing pvssy on friday night,definitely not hitting the gym on sat morning.
 

zekko

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It's a fairly easy thing for guys to have a weight bench at home. It's not that expensive and doesn't take up much space. Maybe they just go to the gym to use the machines. Especially in the winter, maybe they go there specifically for the cardio and lift at home?
 

backbreaker

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you guys act like it's my first time ever going to the gym and i went on a saturday morning and i noticed that guys aren't there and ran to sosuave lol. i wouldn't have wrote this post if it was a one time thing. it just so happened to be Saturday morning this morning.

but the free weight area in my gym is a ghost town everyday nothing:kick: but old men lifting 5 pound dumb bells and a few guys struggling to bench 2 45 plates and that's a good day

there are days i can go through the entire set and not re rack **** the entire time there and no noe says anything beucase no one is there to say anything. which is great for me i get my workout done about 10 mins faster but still
 

twentee

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fvck the rest of the world. do what you can for you and yours, and let the chips fall, by the way, running, except perhaps on SOFT treadmill or the beach, is VERY hard on your joints, and of course, doesn't work your arms hardly at all. Swimming is much better than running. , so are stairstepping and rowing, if you cant get to a pool.
 

sageproduct

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Really? Not in my experience I see a good share of guys benching (a lot of benching) and some squats but hardly anyone deadlifts. Usually at least a few guys bigger than me.

My roommate two years ago though, was 6'2", supposedly an "athlete", and MAXED HIS BENCH at 115.
 

020204

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A lot has to do with where you train, it often even varies between areas for that mater. One of the 24 hour chains in Australia has almost done away with free weights, aside from having dumbells, fixed barbells and smith machines. There still are a lot of guys doing free weights particularly rugby union and league players. Anytime and Snap still has a pretty good range of free weights, overall I would say the overall work ethic in the gym of a good percentage of people in recent years is not that high unless you train at a more hardcore gym.
 

yyc12

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backbreaker said:
but the free weight area in my gym is a ghost town everyday nothing:kick: but old men lifting 5 pound dumb bells and a few guys struggling to bench 2 45 plates and that's a good day
I wish that was my gym. I will say though, that no matter how full my gym gets, I can almost always count on a squat rack being available, :cheer: . I have to admit that I don't do nearly as much upper body as I should.

Oh...and you've seriously done mostly full body workouts this whole time??? :confused: After a good squat session I hardly have much left for another compound movement.
 

backbreaker

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yyc12 said:
I wish that was my gym. I will say though, that no matter how full my gym gets, I can almost always count on a squat rack being available, :cheer: . I have to admit that I don't do nearly as much upper body as I should.

Oh...and you've seriously done mostly full body workouts this whole time??? :confused: After a good squat session I hardly have much left for another compound movement.
it's why i squat last. when i'm dnoe with my squats it's straight to the swimming pool

that's not what i have done the whole time but i keep coming back to that workout. everyone is different it's what works fo rme. I'm the definition of a hardgainer. that and i mean, there is a certain feeling i'm going for when i walk out hte gym. if i am playing around with rows and hyperextentions and stuff all day i will be in there for 2 hours trying to tire myself out. with my workout if i do it right i'm done and i mean "done" within 45-55 mins tops plus i'm pretty OCD and like i have to 'keep it simple" beucase then i make this super duper workout plan and then i want to keep tinkering and make it better and then like 2 weeks later i havea rocky 5 workout plan lol that's impossible to follow and i get frustrated. whatever i do has to be pretty simplistic. that's why i don't carb cycle. I know how to carb cycle i don't beucase i will over complicate it, frustrate myself and say **** it lol

it's just sad. it's like women have talked men into not lifting weights or convinced men that lifting weights is a bad thing. it's sad beucase even the most unathletic guy on earth can get in the weight room and like semi athletic after a few months of work
 

yyc12

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disgustipated said:
What is the **** men need to be doing then? I.lift with about 5 guys from work...all of.them pretty much kill me at every lift. But when it comes to our actual jobs, which is super physical, and where we make our money...none of them can sniff my jockstrap. And I'm the oldest. So i gotta disagree that lifting heavy or even certain lifts are what men should be doing. If you're all about getting pu$$y, then yeah lifting for aesthetics will help. I try to explain to them that for work, you only need to be slightly stronger than your most taxxing duty...the rest is endurance. And that's where I have the edge. Years and years of lsd running has helped me hold off guys in their early 20s even now.
yeah, lifting weights and lifting functionally in real life are two completely different worlds.
 

zekko

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backbreaker said:
it's just sad. it's like women have talked men into not lifting weights or convinced men that lifting weights is a bad thing. it's sad beucase even the most unathletic guy on earth can get in the weight room and like semi athletic after a few months of work
? Where does this idea come from? I've never heard of women telling guys that they shouldn't lift weights. What would they have to gain from this? That would be like a guy telling a woman that she should get fatter.
 

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betheman

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zekko said:
? Where does this idea come from? I've never heard of women telling guys that they shouldn't lift weights. What would they have to gain from this? That would be like a guy telling a woman that she should get fatter.
ive had women at work sneer sand try and take the p!ss, my theory is that as you improve and agin value, it devalues them, it more importantly devalues the men who they have in tow if they are out of shape while they secretly desire muscular men
 

Colossus

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BB, it's because you're going to a commercial gym. These are full of yuppies who like to break a mild sweat or get "toned", but God forbid they lift something really heavy and look like a man.


I go to a private weightlifting gym. It is not open to the public. As such, we only have guys who are into weights. We dont even have cardio machines, lol, just a stationary bike. I love it. I can use chalk, play my own music, and deadlift every single day if I want. We have tons of specialty bars and calibrated weights. The only drawback (or advantage) is there is ZERO eye candy. But I'm ok with it. I go to get strong, not stare at as$.
 

cordoncordon

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This is my present routine. I circuit train while doing this. In other words I do one set of lets say incline DB press, go right to bench press, then right to incline flies, and so and so on with maybe 10 seconds rest between each exercise. Then when I finish a circuit I start it over again. This not only gives you a cardio workout as well, but also I can get done in 45 minutes or less. Don't know how these guys who do one thing like lets say a bench press, wait 3 minutes to rest, do another bench press, wait 3 minutes, do another bench press, then move to another exercise do it. Takes hours for them to work out. Have added around 10 pounds the past 4 months doing this, up to around 205 now. I will start cutting in a week or so down to 190. I also add in one session of cardio a week with this, and one day with an hour of yoga.

Monday: Chest/Biceps

4 sets of Incline Dumbbell Press, 8-10 reps
3 sets of Bench Press, 8-10 reps
3 sets of Incline Flies, 8-10 reps
3 sets of Chest Dips until failure
3 sets of Barbell Curls, 8-10 reps
3 sets of Preacher Curls, 8-10 reps, then drop the weight to half, and push out another 8

Tuesday: Legs/Calves

4 sets of Squats 8-10 reps
3 sets of Lunges 8-10 reps
3 sets of Leg Press 8-10 reps
3 sets of Leg Extensions till failure
3 sets of Leg Curls 8-10 reps

Calves are self explanatory, just use some of the machines till failure, a lot of reps, feel the burn.

Wednesday: Back

3 sets of Lat Pulldowns 8-10 reps
4 sets of Deadlifts 8-10 reps
3 sets of Bent Over Rows 8-10 reps
3 sets of Dumbell Rows 8-10 reps
3 sets of Hyperextensions 8-10 reps

Thursday: Shoulders/Triceps

4 sets of Shoulder Press, alternate with Barbell & Dumbell every week 8-10 reps
3 sets of Upright Rows supersetted with Lateral Raises 8-10 reps
3 sets of front raises 8-10 reps
3 sets of Lying Rear Delt Raises 8-10 reps
3 sets of Close-Grip Bench Press 8-10 reps
4 sets of Pulldowns 8-10 reps
3 sets of Skullcrushers 8-10 reps

Saturday: Full Body

3 sets of Deadlifts 8-10 reps
3 sets of Squats 8-10 reps
3 sets of Clean and Jerk 8-10 reps
3 sets of Weighted Pull ups 8-10 reps
 

Victory Unlimited

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I think the decline of Free Weights at commercial gyms is also due to legal/insurance reasons. By reducing the amounts of free weights available, and instead steering their clientele towards using the machines, they accomplish two things:

1. They minimize their risks of being liable for any injuries that their gym members may suffer. And...

2. They increase their ability to advertise and appeal to a more gender-neutral client-base. As you know, the good part about weightlifting machines are that they can be more easily used by women as well as men.


V.U.
 

backbreaker

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Victory Unlimited said:
I think the decline of Free Weights at commercial gyms is also due to legal/insurance reasons. By reducing the amounts of free weights available, and instead steering their clientele towards using the machines, they accomplish two things:

1. They minimize their risks of being liable for any injuries that their gym members may suffer. And...

2. They increase their ability to advertise and appeal to a more gender-neutral client-base. As you know, the good part about weightlifting machines are that they can be more easily used by women as well as men.


V.U.
that's a good point

Colossus the only reason I don't go to a more "hardcore" gym is beucase I'm a swimming fanatic. the pool is a deal breaker for me. I swim just about every day.

I'm willing to give up the hard core gym to get convenient access to a pool. plus the gym i'm at has everything I need I'm not an amature bodybuilder or antyhing I like working ut and I'm in shape i just need a bench and a squat rack really everything else is overkill
 
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