Gym goers who have made me laugh (part 1)

If you spend enough time in the gym, you will see some funny things. Well, if you have my sense of humor anyway. Some people never seem to find anything funny happening in their gym, so I thought I would share a couple of the funnier things I’ve seen, while teaching some useful information at the same time.

A couple of years ago I was taking a breather after a couple of hard sets of calf raises. Right in front of me were a couple of young guys who hadn’t even started to shave yet. They were just normal kids in the gym, not news worthy at all.

Then I saw one of them grab a set of 35kg dumbbells and shuffle over to the decline bench. This got my attention. 35kg is a good weight for older, stronger guys to be using. These two were just a pair of skinny kids. Maybe these guys were freaks? Maybe they just didn’t look anything special. All these thoughts ran through my head.

Then as on guy got on the bench, the other helped him with the weights. He readied himself and began to move the weights upwards. Or should I say, they both moved the weights upwards. And then it happened. He managed to move the weights up a few inches away from a full extension, then both dumbbells came crashing down onto his face.

So the great mystery had been solved. These guys weren’t freaks. They weren’t a super strong pair of kids at all. They were just a pair of dumbasses. Which brings me to my point for this article. Know your limits. It’s easy to think you’re superman and use heavy weights, but it’s not going to help you much.

To get the most out of your workouts, you need to be pushing yourself, but there is a big difference between pushing just beyond yourself and pushing way beyond yourself. One is a key to muscle growth, the other will just result in laughter. Up to you which one you choose.

So next time you’re ready to choose how much weight to use on an exercise, think back to this article. Make sure it’s heavy enough to be a challenge, but light enough to not make you look like an idiot and potentially hurt yourself. The guy’s in my story were lucky enough to get out with only bruised egos, but I know of other people who have seriously hurt themselves by being stupid.

The Musclehead is a natural bodybuilder and the author of the brutally honest and revealing book "The Muscleheads Guide to a Godlike Physique". For more hard hitting information on how to get the body of your dreams, visit here