Paradigm Shift Podcast: Gym Edict

Rob & Jesse Dive Into How Poor Gym Edict is Today & simple ways to solve Gym Issues In 2026, Great Conversation about Training & Health

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

All right, guys, welcome back to the Paradigm Shift Podcast. I am, of course, Big Rob back with my partner in crime, Jesse. What's going on, man?

SPEAKER_02 0:10

Back again. I got double deuces. I'm ready to go today. I know we got a uh hot topic. Uh could royally be a hot topic. It is gym etiquette we're going to be covering today. This one should be a lot of fun.

SPEAKER_00 0:24

Yeah, it is uh it is getting to be a real problem. Now, I have been training, as you know, for 20 plus years, right? Probably closer to 25 years, uh, consistently, and I don't think I've ever seen the gym community as as poorly designed as it as it is now. To put it to put it politely, right?

SPEAKER_02 0:55

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 0:56

Um, there is a myriad of of topics I believe we could cover here. And um, let's let's just start with uh re-racking your weights, cleaning up like re-racking weights.

SPEAKER_02 1:10

Okay, okay, fair enough. So we're we're starting with the basics.

SPEAKER_00 1:15

Yeah, right. Now this is a real problem I've found. And some people are gonna be offended by this, but where I live uh and the gyms that I go to, I find that most, and I I this isn't now don't misunderstand me, this isn't a race thing, this is a culture thing, right? There's a difference. People need to understand the difference between a culture thing and a race thing. I find that um Middle Eastern, East Indians, however, whatever the politically correct term is, where I live in Canada here, um are terrible, terrible for cleaning up after themselves in the gym, terrible for putting their weights away. Uh it's a real problem, right? Uh, and I think when I say it's a culture thing, I think it's because I don't know if they're just used to someone else cleaning up after them. Maybe it's the the women clean up after them. I don't know, right? I I'm chalking it up to a cultural thing because uh it is like an en masse type situation, right? You never see them, they'll go they'll go to uh a squat rack, they'll put the weights on, they'll do a couple sets, and then they just walk away from it and expect somebody else to to clean it up, to put their weights away and everything. Okay, and it's the reason, and I know some people are at this point saying, Well, what's the big deal? Who cares? Just you know, well, the big deal is this one of the big deals, anyway. If I walk up to a squat rack and I don't see anybody there, but there's weights on the bar, I'm gonna stand there for 15 to 20 minutes looking at that rack, waiting for whomever is using it to come back because I'm assuming it's being used, right? Yep, yeah. So you're wasting my time. My I'm cooling, my body's cooling down from my workout, I'm losing my pump all while I'm sitting there waiting for this person who's not coming back to come back and put their weights away, right? Because am I not am I not right? Like if you walk up to any given machine and the weights are on it, your natural assumption is someone's using this. Could be, yeah. Somebody's called dibs, right?

SPEAKER_01 3:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 3:28

So what do you do? You stand there and you wait, right? You know? So that for me, that's a problem. Um, and it like to the point where some of the gyms that I go to here, I have multiple gym memberships. Some of them I go to. There's little signs on the mirrors and stuff that says if you're having difficulty re-racking your weights, let us know we can get one of the girls to come and put them away for you. Really? Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Oh wow, that's funny. It's hilarious. I mean, it's not a shot at women or anything, it's just it's just trying to attack the the masculinity, I suppose, of the lazy men who don't put their weights away, right? Not that women don't, but yeah, you know, I think it's plus it's funny. It's like a funny way to remind you to put your weights away, you know.

SPEAKER_02 4:13

This is pretty funny. You know, I don't, you know, uh I'm I'm thinking back. I haven't been in a a professional gym in years outside of like my garage, right? Like I have my own dumbbells and stuff at home now. But uh but back when I was going in, you know, I actually I don't I don't really I don't remember this particular issue sticking out to me as much as you know the guy that puts the weights on and doesn't put them back, but I can see that being annoying, especially like you said, if you're waiting to use the machine, somebody else's weights are on there and you're wondering if you can take them off or adjust it, but you don't know if they're coming back. That is that's annoying. You know what? Uh speaking of gym adiquetting, you know what one of my pet peeves has always been is the um it's kind of a combination of two things. One, it's the shouter, the guy that shouts in the gym where he goes, Oh are you a shouter?

SPEAKER_00 5:15

I don't do that, but yeah, I you know I I I do let out a grunt. I got my headphones on, I can't even hear myself.

SPEAKER_02 5:23

Right, right. Okay, so so it's a combination, right? So it's it's the shouter uh who who always has to pick up literally the heaviest dumbbells in the entire gym. They're like ridiculously heavy, and then he always drops them. And he dropped boom, like after the shout.

SPEAKER_00 5:44

I don't drop, yeah. No, I'm not a dropper. I uh I mean uh like you know, I'm do if I'm doing dumbbell, you know, press or whatever the case might be, you bring them back down to your knees and you place them down. I hate the guys that just go boom.

SPEAKER_02 6:01

They drop them, and you and you know what inherently happens when you drop the dumbbells enough times, they break, dumbbells break, you know, they're like wobbly and broke and then you only have one dumbbell, you know?

SPEAKER_00 6:14

Yeah, and it's it's disrespectful to equipment that doesn't belong, doesn't belong to you either, right? Yeah, it's it's community equipment really, and you know the the the fees like there's an usually there's an annual fee at a gym as well, on top of your membership fee. Yeah, and it's it's usually not much, maybe it's like 80 bucks, a hundred bucks, whatever the case might be on an annual, and that's primarily for repairs and stuff like that. And gyms have had to continually increase that fee every year because people misuse the equipment.

SPEAKER_01 6:45

Yeah.

unknown 6:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 6:47

Right. So if you don't want to pay as much money to work out at a gym, respect the equipment, right?

SPEAKER_02 6:52

That's what I'm saying. So, okay, so in the spirit of today's episode, let's talk about the lowlifes that attend the different gyms. Because you know as well as I do, certain gyms have certain clientele and others have other clientele. What what what are your thoughts there?

SPEAKER_00 7:13

Well, there's definitely, you know, there's definitely divisiveness when it comes to gym types, right? I mean, you've got power lifter gyms. Now I'm I'm as you know, retired. I used to compete in strongman, uh I used to be a professional bodybuilder on top of professional wrestling. So I've I've trained in just about every different kind of style of training that really you can train in, right? Um, and I don't necessarily think it's a bad thing, to be honest with you. Uh, I just one of the gyms I go to primarily for a lot of my cardio stuff, because it's close, is Planet Fitness. Okay, and I got a real problem with how they conduct themselves as a company.

SPEAKER_02 7:54

Well, hold on one second. So Planet Fitness is kind of like your budget brand of gyms, right? Yeah, but they they kind of got popular because they were cheap, right? Low, low barrier to entry.

SPEAKER_00 8:04

Well, it's cheap, but which is yes, that's part of it, but also they've designed their their gym to be more of like a beginner's gym, right? Like, come here, there's not a bunch of big bodybuilders that are going to judge you and make you feel insecure, whatever the case might be, right? Uh, that's kind of their thing. And I listen, I saw their commercials in the past, I don't know, like 10 years ago. There used to be all these dumb bodybuilders in their commercials, and um, you know, they were just complete idiots. I'll pick things up and put them down all the time stay and stuff like that, right? And they were funny, yeah. They weren't offensive, they were funny, right? And they were kind of making fun of it, kind of implying like we don't have these kind of people here, like, so you can come here as a beginner. My problems start to kick in where for one, most of their like a lot of their equipment is designed to keep you out of shape, like they're the and what I mean it is the the the variety or the selection of equipment and stuff like that, for the most part, it's designed so that you can't get into shape. You have three three core workouts that that you need, I believe, uh that everybody needs for real growth and real uh fitness, right? That's your your bench press, your squats, and your deadlifts, right? Now they don't have to be heavy, they don't have to be heavy, but those three workouts need to be incorporated into your routine. They don't have any flat bench press, they don't have any squat racks, and they don't have any deadlift racks. Okay, deadlift series, nothing, none of them. Yeah, three core fundamental workout workouts that you need in your routine, they don't have available to you. So you have to kind of make you know, kind of MacGyver it, so to speak, right? Uh, on top of that, you're not allowed to use weight over a certain degree. Like, I can't go throw three plates on bench press and and they'll they'll kick me out.

SPEAKER_02 10:06

Really? Right?

SPEAKER_00 10:07

Oh, yeah. I don't do that kind of stuff. Uh same thing with uh deadlifts. If you if you do manage to you know figure out a way to get some deadlifting going on, you can't go over a certain weight, they don't like that. If you're going too heavy, they'll kick you out.

SPEAKER_02 10:21

Hey, um you know what this reminds me of is do you remember? I I think it was the original Wayne's World movie where they go into the music store and you know he's like looking at the Stratocaster and he goes he goes to the stairway to heaven, he gets like one note in, and the and the guy that works there grabs the neck, he's like, Whoa, look at the sign. It's like no stairway, and he's like, Oh, no stairway denied. This is like you trying to put an extra plate on there, like you put the plate on, the guy walks up, nope, pulls the plate off.

SPEAKER_00 11:00

Um that's exactly it. And uh, they also have like I think I I think it's a different day of the week, probably for gyms, but for for their locations. But I'll use Monday as an example. They have like pizza Mondays where they have a bunch of pizza there, and people who are working out, you know, they get to eat free pizza, right? So, what they've strategically done is they've made you feel as someone who's exercising every day for a week, like you've earned this pizza now. So here you go. Not realizing people don't realize that one that like that meal, you have two, three, four slices of pizza, whatever the case might be, that meal just destroyed all your hard work that you put in all week, and this is a strategy that's employed to keep you paying for your membership, right? They want you to keep coming, they want you to, you know, see very, very limited progress, and that's another reason I say you don't want to hire personal trainers either, because and I used to be one, so I'm speaking from experience. Personal trainers generally don't want you to get in shape because then you don't need to pay them anymore, right? Think about it, right? So you don't want to use one of their personal trainers either, uh, because for that reason, they're they're not getting paid to make you healthy, they're getting paid to kind of make you feel like you're working towards getting healthy, get a little bit of a burn on, be a little bit sore, sweat a little bit, but nothing that's gonna impact your general physical conditioning, right?

SPEAKER_01 12:34

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 12:35

Uh, so I just I don't agree with their policies, the way that they operate as a business. And to call themselves the judgment free zone, how how do you call yourself the judgment free zone and have a big alarm on the wall called the lunk alert that you slam and like this whole siren goes off and these lights flash? Whenever there's somebody who's in shape, like you know, if I was, for example, if I was a you know in my prime again and I was deadlifting, you know, heavy, they'd hit that lunk alert. That's judgment, right?

SPEAKER_02 13:07

That's true, they would be judging you.

SPEAKER_00 13:10

So, how are you calling yourself the judgment free zone when you literally judge everyone who comes in your door, right? Yeah, so that being said, I think that they um they have predatory practices towards inexperienced people who just want to get into shape. Interesting. They're selling you the illusion that they want to help you get fit and they don't. Yeah, right. Yeah. Okay. So that's that's an issue for me. So you have that type of gym, bringing it back to your original question. You have that type of gym that's more of a beginner's gym, and then you have like a power lifter's bodybuilder gym where you're gonna have tons of equipment that you've never even seen before, right? Like that that that's phenomenal, that that helps you really isolate muscle groups and and you know, achieve something.

SPEAKER_02 14:08

Right is it really a beginner's gym, though? Because it almost seems like to me it would almost be more like uh it's like a gym for people who don't work out, right? In a way, like that's kind of what kind of what it is, I guess. Um, because you know, I'm thinking like if I was just starting to work out and I went into a gym that sort of pushed me away from you know, really stretching my, you know, as far as I can go, you know, pushing the limit on things, and then was feeding me like pizza and shit. Like, like I don't I don't even know if that's really a good entry level experience. You know what I mean? Like, I don't think I would do that and go, hey, now let's level it up to better. You know, I've I think I don't know, it just it's it sounds weird to me, you know. Maybe I'm just too old-fashioned.

SPEAKER_00 15:03

I agree with you, but I mean, you have to think about it from the mentality of someone who's completely inexperienced, I mean, has been for this up to this point, probably resistant to even going to the gym because you know they just don't want to, right? Laziness, whatever the case might be. They finally worked themselves up to start going to the gym, and you work hard, you work hard all week, and when the gym puts that pizza in front of you, right? It's it's it's reaffirming inside that person something deep down they know is wrong, but it's it's like, well, the gym is telling me that this isn't gonna be harmful to me and my progress because they're supplying it to me, so it must be okay, right? Well, they're giving me permission to eat like an asshole.

SPEAKER_02 15:57

I was gonna say, you know, like the thing with the gym is like you're building muscle, right? I mean, that's kind of the goal, right? Muscle, tone, etc. But when you're eating pizza, you're basically just eating a lot of high glucose blood sugar uh that's gonna like not give you tone. And like you said, I mean, it really does kind of erase what you're trying trying to do while you're there. I don't know, it seems weird. Like, you know, I can understand, I think it was The Rock that uh like if you ever follow The Rock on social media, he would he would post like once a month, like, hey, it's like it's like fucking pancake day, we're letting it rip, you know. And he's got like a he's got like a platter of like like 800 pancakes. He's like, I don't give a shit. Here we go. I'm done going through as many as possible, you know, and or it'd be like pizza day, right? And he's got some like like three large pepperoni greasy pizzas, and he's like, Yes, this is happening today. I'm going for as much as possible, but it would only be like one day a month, right? It's not like once a week or you know, every three days, you know.

SPEAKER_00 17:08

Here's my theory on that. Uh, and this is just a theory. I have nothing to back it up, it's not factual, right? I think he throws all that shit back up. You think so? I think he throws all that shit right back up again. When when you like when he's like when you see him, he's so cut still. Like he's yeah, he's massive and he's shredded too. There's no way he just processes, plus, on top of that, if you eat clean for an entire month as a bodybuilder, and then you eat three large pizzas or a mountain of pancakes, dude, your stomach is in knots when you do that. You can't you can't do that, right? It just it doesn't work that way. Your stomach is is used to all this healthy nutrition and you know uh healthy proteins and all this kind of stuff, and then you just shovel, it's like and then you could just shovel McDonald's down your throat and think that you're you're not gonna your stomach's just gonna be fine. No, yeah, no chance, right? You feel terrible. And I I have a theory, and again, it's just a theory. I think he just throws all that shit, he just gets his stomach pumped and gets all that shit taken right back out again.

SPEAKER_02 18:22

Okay, what what if what if he doesn't throw it up, but what if he doesn't retain anything? So hear me out. Um, I saw I I think it was on the history channel at some one of those channels at some point in time, and they were looking at the physiology of these competitive eaters, right? Like the Joey Chestnut, uh Kobeashi, you know, the little Japanese guy that used to down like like you know, 100 hot dogs in like 28 seconds. And in anyway, with them, it they looked at their physiology, and it was like over time they were able to like expand their stomach bigger. And so it's almost like like a trash bag that's crumpled up, and they could just expand it bigger and bigger and bigger, and that's why you know they can eat you know, like 75 burritos in 60 seconds or whatever it is. You know, this crazy amount of food, but the thing was is that they didn't retain anything, like literally nothing. So it's kind of like like, yeah, they're able to eat all that, but then they equally just crap it all immediately back out, like and they retain nothing, you know.

SPEAKER_00 19:33

I've never met anyone who could do that. I wish I wish I could do that. Sign me up for that. I'll just give me some cheesecake. I ain't gonna retain it.

SPEAKER_02 19:46

Hey, I'm just I'm just saying, you know, maybe the rock was taking like some L-Citrilline, some some supplements that are keeping everything lubed on the inside, and he's he's powering through the pizzas, and you know, I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 20:01

We're also talking about a guy that looks the way he looks and claims he's 100% natural, right? Yeah, yeah. So that's true. I kind of take what he says with a large tablespoon of salt, big old shovel full of salt.

unknown 20:19

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 20:20

It's funny when you see that on a side note. You know the guy who plays Reacher on the TV show? I think so, yeah. Just a mountain of a man. And I will I watched him recently. He was on uh I got one of the late night shows, and they're asking him about like how big he is and stuff. He's like, Oh yeah, I just started eating more protein. Um okay, sure you did. Did you eat like a cow? Like the whole thing? Like, I love when that those actors come on, like you know, or even like uh Jack Hugh Jackman or Tom Cruise, whatever, when they when they're in these movies and they're just they're they're small guys, but they're just shredded. That's steroids, right? People don't realize that, and they're like, oh, I've just I just trained hard and ate really good. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 21:08

Yeah, that's funny. Hey, so so let me ask you a different one. I don't I don't know if this is true of Planet Fitness or some of the others. Um, you know what's always been one of my pet peeves at the gym is this no phones in the gym. You know how irritating it is to see people on their phone at the fucking gym. It's like put the put the damn phone down, look, pay attention, you know, like everybody's always always got you know earbuds and stuff, and I get it, that's kind of the new way of of how everything is today. But I mean, going back in time, again, dating myself a little bit, but it wasn't always like that, right? And and yeah, like people had, you know, headphones or whatever, and that was fine. But I think you know, this thing of like people being distracted all the time is really irritating. Like when you're in the gym and you're trying to work out and the guy next to you is like on his phone, isn't paying attention that he's he's sort of like got he's called dibs on three three different areas and you're kind of waiting to to work into one of them, but you can't do anything because the guy's on his phone. That's annoying.

SPEAKER_00 22:17

Well, too, I got a lot to say about this. A lot. Literally last week I was uh I was at the gym. Uh true story, and uh I was I I'm using the uh lap pull-down machine, right? Wide grip lap pulldowns I was doing, and there's a wall about 15 feet in front of the machine, and there's a there's a big sign on the wall, and it says, Do not talk on the phone in the gym. Go to the entrance of the gym, there's a whole lobby area, go talk on your phone there. Big sign, yeah, right. This guy was literally leaning on that sign talking on his phone against the wall. You can't make this shit up, right? Like, really, dude, like yeah, is this is this i irony at its best, or are you being facetious? Like, I don't know what's going on here, but yeah, like wow, are you thick? Literally, bro, right? Like, so there's that, and another another uh another big issue is kids, kids, teenagers, high school students at the gym, right? Okay, and it that is it it leads into what you were just talking about. They go to machines and they sit on the machine for 45 minutes on their phone, yeah. Right? On TikTok, whatever the case might be. Yeah, and like it's at a point now where you know, over the years you'd walk up and you'd say, Hey man, you know how many more sets you got, and they'd say, you know, this, and they'd say one, two, whatever, and say, Okay, I'll come back, and then you know, then you go and you wait. Now, me when someone comes over and says, Hey, how many more sets you got? I got I got two more, but you can work in with me if you want to. Yeah, right. You can throw your set in between my sets, right? But I work out fast, so you be, you know, like don't be sitting there, don't say you're gonna work in, and then sit down and pull your phone out because I'll throw your ass off the machine, right? But now I'm at a point where I just walk up to the to the kids on the machines, these high school students. Uh, there's no point anymore. I I walk up and I say, Hey, get up, I'm working in. Right? That's it. Oh, yep, sure, no problem. I don't even ask how many sets you got, I don't care. Get up, I'm working in, right? You can have it back. My sets are fast. I come in there, right? Four or five sets, whatever. I do a set, I get up, uh, you know, 30 seconds, come back, do another set, 30 seconds, come back. I'm quick, I'm in and out of there in five minutes, right? And you can have the you can have your bench back, right? But for now, get up, right?

SPEAKER_02 25:07

Yeah, I I you know, I think I think you know, the the phone, again, like going back in time. I mean, you know, like cell phones really kind of came on when I was like in college. And prior to that, you didn't you didn't see them in the in the gym at all. They didn't exist, you know, and it was like there was no there was no music on them or internet on them.

SPEAKER_00 25:26

That's why.

SPEAKER_02 25:27

No, no. And and really you you the good gyms would have like a TV with like a music channel or something, you know, that that's what that's what everybody kind of listened to. But I I think it's just the idea of like, you know, there's something fundamentally there that pisses me off, that it's like you're in a place where you're supposed to be focusing, you're supposed to be dialed in and you're supposed to be dialed in on your workout and whatever sets and upping your you know your reps and and how much weight you're doing, and you're you're distracted. You're you're always distracted, you know.

SPEAKER_00 26:03

I don't think I I think the kids, like the high school students, I don't think they're there to work out, to be honest with you. It's especially bad in the winter. I think it's kind of like the gym has become like the the nightclub for high school students.

unknown 26:18

Right?

SPEAKER_00 26:18

It's where they can go, they can look at girls, they can they can hang out with the girls, they can hang out with each other, uh, and just kind of chill, right? Uh it's worse in the winter time because it's so cold outside.

SPEAKER_01 26:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 26:31

But I think it's become like the the high school version of a nightclub.

SPEAKER_02 26:35

Hmm. That's interesting.

SPEAKER_00 26:37

Yeah, because I mean a lot of times they're wearing jeans and you know, just like okay, wait a minute.

SPEAKER_02 26:42

Whoa, whoa, whoa. We got something to talk about here. So this was this was kind of one of my uh pet peeves. I used to uh when I was in the corporate world, the building we were at had its own gym, right? And our building is like 30 plus stories tall, has one gym that everybody, no matter what floor you're on, you could go in there, right? And so half the people probably that go in there are like real, real people really working out. They bring their gym bag, they change their clothes, you know, they got their gloves, their shoes, they're you know, they're all their stuff and they're dialed in and ready to go. And then there's the other half. They show up in their fucking work clothes, you know, and and they don't change. They don't change. Like I remember being in there, and there would be this guy that he would literally be sprinting on the treadmill, full-blown khakis, dress shoes, and he'd be doing it for like 25 minutes. And it's like, my god, man, like like you're you're going into a full sweat in the worst clothes possible, the worst shoes possible. You look ridiculous, and then you're gonna take that back to the office with your swast, your swast and your stank. You're you're just gonna stank that out in front of everybody else in the office.

SPEAKER_00 28:08

I mean, come on, you're not you do not bring Levi to the gym with you. Yeah, I don't know how people do it. I mean, there's jeans are so restrictive.

SPEAKER_02 28:21

I hate wearing jeans personally. I hate jeans. I agree with you, they're restrictive, they're heavy, they're uncomfortable, and they're hot. And that's the last thing you want at the gym, you know?

SPEAKER_00 28:32

Yeah, yeah. I don't know. I you know, sweats, I mean, some i I don't wear shorts often, but or shorts from time to time, uh, but mostly just sweats, you know. Yeah, yeah. I can't do jeans. Yeah. Um, but yeah, I don't know. There's the it's just another thing is people who don't wipe their benches down. Oh, yeah. Like I I honestly, I feel like every once in a while I'll look up when I'm wiping off a bench that I was using, and I'll see somebody, whether it's a kid or somebody else, somebody looking at me while I'm doing it. And I just I it's probably just me psychologically, but I I feel like this person, like this, look at this big guy just wiping down a bench. Like, what's he doing? Like, I'm being judged for cleaning the bench that I was using, right?

SPEAKER_02 29:25

Hey, it's you that's where you need to go. Hey, it's a judgment-free zone. Hit the local art, hit the local, it's judgment-free. Stop judging me.

SPEAKER_00 29:37

Yeah, it's a it is another problem. Um, I can't tell you how many times again, it goes back to the uh the Middle Easterns. Um I can't tell you how many times I've been in the gym in the evening, and it's just like me, uh, one or two of them, and maybe a woman on the stair mill or something like that, right? And like so many times I've been like, I'll walk up to like a uh leg press, and there'll be like five plates on each side because uh the Middle Eastern guy was using it, and then he just got up, left it, and went and did something else, right? He's over on the on the dumbbells now and some and then I'll I'll walk right over to the leg press because I I need to use it. Uh, or sometimes I don't need to use it, I'm just being a nosy prick, I guess. And I'll just walk over to it and I'll stand by it for a minute. I'll wait for him to kind of glance my way, and I'm just like you done? Clean up after yourself, bro, right? Like, what is this? Is this someone else's job?

SPEAKER_02 30:34

You know, yeah, it's well you you know what it is? It's the it's the consideration, right? Like, this is what it is, it's consideration. And you know, going back to that cor corporate gym I was telling you about, same deal where they had a couple of uh like mat squares that uh you could move around, right? And some people would move them here or there, you know, in front of this mirror or that mirror or whatever they were doing with them, you know, with like a kettlebell or something. And sometimes they just leave them. They just leave them, you know, and it's like, okay, this would literally take you like three seconds to pick these things up, put them back where they were, wipe, wipe them off for like I mean, come on now, you know, you couldn't wipe them off and just put stack them back up where they were, you just left them, just figured it was all good, you just leave them there.

SPEAKER_00 31:23

Some people are like that. I and that's what that's what I think about when I see that is what goes through your mind. Ah, somebody also cleaned it up. Yeah. Like, is that what you're thinking? Somebody somebody also follow me around and clean it, clean up my mess. Like, uh it must have just been raised wrong.

SPEAKER_02 31:40

It must be because it, you know, it it also follows them with like the equipment in terms of like like sometimes like the benches, you can roll them around, right? And like one side has wheels, you pick it up, you move it, or whatever. You get those people that move all the benches and shit around, and then they don't put it back, you know. It's all like wonky and weird, you know. And it's like, what? Like, couldn't you put that back?

SPEAKER_00 32:03

I'm a strong believer in how you who you are in the gym is a metaphor for how you live in your everyday life. I believe I really do believe that, right? You have hardworking people who are meticulous, who clean up after themselves, who are organized, who put the who don't put the 20-pound dumbbell on the 45 pound dumbbell, you know, slot, and you know, they're they're organized, they're meticulous, they're clean, uh, and and organized, and you know, uh, they and they work hard. You have those people. You have the people who don't bother cleaning up after themselves at all. I'd hate to see that person's apartment.

unknown 32:41

Right.

SPEAKER_00 32:42

Because if you, I'm sorry, but if you can't wipe down a bench, you can't put your dumbbells back or unrack your your plates and stuff like that. If you don't do that or wipe down the treadmill or the stair mill or whatever cardio machine you're using, if you can't do that, you will not convince me that you do that at home or anywhere else that you go. Your place is probably a unmitigated disaster, right? Yeah, 100% because that's just your lifestyle, that's just who you are, that's how you conduct yourself, right?

SPEAKER_02 33:17

You know, one of my uh good buddies, he used to have a line that people with dirty cars pissed him off, and he would say, he would say, You wipe your ass, well, wash your car. What are you doing? You know, and it's just it's kind of like the same thing, right? It's like you wipe your ass, wipe down the equipment. Come on, man. Like, don't just leave it there for the next person, you know.

SPEAKER_00 33:41

Yeah, well, I I can't stand it when my truck is dirty. Uh, it's right now it's been bothering me for about three days. There's just there's this little little round bird shit right on the on my roof, right above the curve where the windshield is, right in the center, and it's been driving me wall. Like, I need to go to the chamois and wash this damn thing. It's driving me nuts, but I haven't had the time. And every time I do have the time, oh, it's gonna thunderstorm tomorrow. Oh, well, jeez, now I'm not gonna go wash my truck, it's gonna thunderstorm tomorrow. So I'm I'm but that drive, I know what you mean. It drives me nuts. My truck has to be clean, you know, on a consistent someone gets in there and makes even the slightest bit of mess. Oh, I gotta go get a detailed, right? Yeah, that's it. Yeah, I got it.

SPEAKER_02 34:26

You know what bugs me is is when you when you get on uh something like a treadmill and you can see that somebody is just sweat all over it, and they just like let it dry.

SPEAKER_00 34:38

You know, you get the residue on the handle, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 34:40

You got the residue everywhere, and you know, it's all over like the mat, and you're looking at it, and you're like, come on, man. Really?

SPEAKER_00 34:50

Yeah, like even in my home, like I have uh just thought you can't see, but on the other side of uh my my computer desk and stuff, you know this. I've told you before, I have my um I have my Peloton treadmill, right? Yeah, and right on the side of my Peloton treadmill, I have a homemade concoction of like water, vinegar, and stuff, so that I can wipe down my own treadmill in my home that only I use, nobody else even uses it, right? Yeah, but I I have to clean it. I have to, you know, I can't just let sweat residue build up on it over time.

SPEAKER_02 35:24

Like Scott's sake. Even if you were single, right? And you have a toilet in your apartment or wherever you're at, you still have to clean it every once in a while. You know, you don't just leave it and then yeah, it's all good. No, it's not, you know.

SPEAKER_00 35:43

Uh another another topic that bothers me about uh Planet Fitness, and this is not a unique to Planet Fitness thing, but uh I I finally experienced this myself, right? I've never experienced it or anything like that, and it's never been a like a hot topic issue for me or anything, but the whole uh so let me I'll I'll tell you. I'm I'm walking towards the fountain. I started telling you this, and you said tell me now, so on camera. So I'm walking towards the water fountain, which is right by the men's locker room, right? So there's this uh overweight kind of burly type woman uh standing outside the men's locker room like she's waiting for someone, right? As I'm walking by. Right, which is why she was in there, okay. And that didn't bother me. What bothered me was when she came out, she looked at her friend and started making fun of the men who were naked inside the locker room with her female friend, right? And I was just like, What the fuck just happened? Like, are you serious? You know, I don't know. I just uh that that didn't sit right with me. I wasn't even in the locker room, didn't bother, like it didn't affect me, but that that kind of was like a microcasm of the problem. Why are you really going in that locker room? That's the question. What is your real motive? And I'm sure there are people who legitimately just want to use the men's locker room, even though you're biologically a woman or whatever the case might be, or vice versa, right? Yeah, but unfortunately, there's a lot of bad apples, man. There's a lot of bad apples, and you just can't have it, right? Because of behavior like that, right? So now all the men that were naked in that locker room when she was in there are now out in the gym working out, and they're looking, they're looking around snickering at these men while they're working out. And I'm just like, what's going on here? Like, you know, I don't know. Does that sound right to you? I don't know. That it bothered me.

SPEAKER_02 38:14

You know, I gotta admit that now now my only experience is in Florida in the US. I have never once seen like a woman that uh identifies as a man in the men's locker room. I haven't I haven't ever seen that, so this is just kind of funny hearing this.

SPEAKER_00 38:34

Yeah, normally it's men going into the women's locker room, right?

SPEAKER_02 38:37

I don't know now. I've never seen it uh either either either side of like who identifies as what. I've never really seen that in the gym. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 38:48

Planet Fitness supports it.

SPEAKER_02 38:50

And that could be part of it. I have never been to Planet Fitness. Never.

SPEAKER_00 38:57

Well, it's again, it's it's not that that it's not that they support that or that uh people want to use reverse, we'll call it reverse locker rooms. It's the abuse that has been coming along with it that's the problem, right? It's like let me in there, it's innocent, it's innocent. Oh, that guy over there and that guy over there, and ha ha ha ha ha. Like, what the fuck are you doing? Yeah, what are you doing? I thought it was innocent. I thought you just wanted you had no interest in anybody else in the locker room, and you're out here, you know, in a judgment-free zone, I might add, judging everybody. Again, judgment free. Yeah, I don't know. I just whatever. Make a make it make a make a trans locker room then. Right? Have a men's, have a woman's, have a trans locker room. Whatever.

SPEAKER_02 39:55

I was gonna say, was this was this woman's name Pat? Was that was that a Pat?

SPEAKER_01 40:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 40:01

Don't you remember that? That was on uh that was from SNL. They actually did a a spin-off movie about it called It's Pat, and you never knew if Pat was a woman. Oh yeah. He she was like ambiguous, and they never kind of knew, and like the whole movie, everyone was kind of like, is that was, huh?

SPEAKER_00 40:19

Like I remember that, yeah. That was the 90s, wasn't it?

SPEAKER_02 40:26

Yeah, yeah, that was that was a while ago. It's Pat. Um but anyway, yeah, you know, that's that's weird. I've I've never uh I've never seen that. But hey, here's another funny one for you. Speaking of gym etiquette, um so that that gym at work uh has locker rooms, right? And people would go in there into the locker room because it had a kind of a private-ish bathroom, right? Versus if you were on whatever floor that your company was on or whatever, you know, there's 10 million people in that bathroom, right? So often when whenever I worked out in this gym, you know, I would I would go in there full bore, really working out, right? Like I'm I'm there dialed in, I'm ready to go, you know, I'm doing my thing. You would see these people come in, they come into the gym straight to the locker room, and then they leave 10, 15 minutes later. It's like, okay. Like, when did the gym bathroom become the thing that you just show up to take a dump and then you leave, right? I mean, come on, yeah, and they at least get a couple reps in, or at least pretend that you're here to use the gym.

SPEAKER_00 41:46

Well, what a like Planet Fitness, for example, they have the uh they have a bunch of other stuff there that uh that you you have access to with the top uh membership, like the the water motion uh massage beds and chairs and tanning booths and all that kind of stuff too. So I but I mean that's not in the locker room.

SPEAKER_02 42:08

So yeah, yeah. Okay. So let's talk about some other gyms. So you said you got a couple other memberships there.

SPEAKER_00 42:16

Are they any of the like the big ones or um nothing that's like in the a lot of them are big ones, but big ones in Canada?

SPEAKER_02 42:25

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_00 42:26

Yeah, we we used to have a Golds gym here, but we don't anymore. They they left because there's just so much competition for for gyms here uh in in Winnipeg that um you know I I have Shapes membership. Uh do you guys have Good Life?

SPEAKER_02 42:43

No.

SPEAKER_00 42:43

Okay, so yeah, it's like uh a m he it's the biggest chain gym in in Canada.

SPEAKER_02 42:49

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 42:50

So Good Life and Shapes, um couple of uh bodybuilder gyms that I go to as well, mostly because they're like they're owned by friends and stuff like that. So I'll just I'm really just trying to support a friend and have a membership to help his business and stuff like that, right? I'll pop in from one from time to time, but sometimes I'll go months without popping in there, but you know, I keep paying the membership. But you gotta do that, you gotta you gotta support your friends when they run businesses, right?

SPEAKER_02 43:19

Yeah, yeah. So I think um with uh with Planet Fitness, though, you know, I can think back to a time that they were not the big gym, right? And I think I think they came about because at the time the other all the big gyms were kind of their fees were like getting higher and higher, and it was kind of like runaway fees. Yeah, and then Planet Fitness undercut like the whole market, and now you see them like all over the place, you know. But truthfully, I mean I like I said, I I never I never worked out at Planet Fitness, and the gyms that I always worked out at were more like dialogue. in towards actually working out as opposed to like some other reason you know well I yeah I think I have the I have the premium membership at uh at Planet Fitness and I think I pay like thirty bucks a month. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 44:15

Yeah other gyms are way more than that like it were talking like 75 80 bucks a month.

SPEAKER_02 44:21

Yeah yeah like like by us one of the one of the big more expensive ones is like LA Fitness you ever hear of them? Yes yeah I've heard of LA Fitness yeah LA Fitness uh they're one of the one of those ones where it was like it was going to cost you a lot if you're in there but you kind of get the impression like there's almost like a like a bit of a like a snobbery you know you know depending on on the level of the gym that you're at you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_00 44:48

Well you know what's funny is that like I said I I've been training for over 25 years now right and it started for me I can't remember how old I was but I was still a teenager and I I went into this like locally owned little gym that was owned by you could tell like a former either bodybuilder or power lifter or something right just a middle aged guy seemed like a good dude and the only reason I went there is because my mom had gone there years before and drugged me there to work out with her once or twice. And uh and anyway so I went there and it was also just a couple blocks from my apartment at the time and I signed up whatever and I started going every day I didn't know nothing about working out man nothing right in fact what I did know was actually wrong so I knew worse than nothing I was I was in the negative you were negative yeah that was negative information right I owed information you walked in the door and they're like no it's gonna be extra you're like what they're like you don't know you don't know shit dude and you're like oh fair enough fair enough all right here's my five dollars yeah so I go in and every day and I'm just I don't even remember why I started I was just I wanted to change my life and that seemed like a good enough place to start uh you know getting some sort of a routine in place uh where I could be productive and constructive right so I started doing that and that was a skinny little shit too let's be honest right so um and I remember one day like every day I would go in there and I would work the same muscles every day like I remember my biceps just from doing like standing preacher curls my biceps felt like they were shrinking they were so like like shriveled up and just destroyed from working them out every single day for like weeks right because I didn't know I didn't know I had to let it rest and grow and like nobody told me I was a kid um like we didn't have the excessive access to internet information like we do today as well right so it's not like I could just hop on Google and you know whatever the case might be um but one night I was I was on a standing preacher again and I'm so I'm I'm curling and my form was atrocious right but again don't know what the hell I'm doing right and there's this dude this like beast of a guy and I'm I'm in the looking in the mirror here and he's off to my right and in front of me by a bit so he's looking at me through the mirror right while I'm while I'm working out and he's standing there watching me and instead of giving me any kind of tips or guidance or advice or anything at all that would have been constructive right to my progress he looks in the mirror waits for me to make eye contact with him in here shakes his head and says fucking pathetic right that's it's just we're the only thing no I'll never forget it right I was a kid and uh we're the only two in the gym and uh I didn't I didn't say anything I just I remember going home that night and like I said I I've been I built a career out of my body as a professional athlete professional bodybuilding strong man professional wrestling and all of that could have been wiped away based on one decision that night right I had two choices at that point in time and I hope that people listening you know hear this I could have said alright I'm done I don't know what I'm doing this guy just destroyed any confidence I might have had at a glance just destroyed it right just buried me in the dirt and I could have just quit said screw this and went on went on my merry way or I could keep go I could say screw that guy double down and work my ass off right and I chose to not let that fucking guy make me quit I went back the next day and the owner was there because he's always just sitting there with his feet up behind the the till reading some I don't know muscle and fitness magazine or something right I said hey he's like he gets up he very very nice guy stands up he's like hey what's going on and I'm like I didn't tell on the guy who talked to me that way or anything like that I said can you help me right how do I work out my back I have no idea how to work out my back he's like yeah he took me around the gym and he showed me like five six different workouts that I could do for my back and showed me the proper form and you know and then every day I went back and I said how do I work this how do I work that like you know like what's like should I and he's the one who taught me like you know you don't work the same muscle groups every single day you got to let your muscles heal and and rest and blah blah blah blah blah and so everything that I learned it's it all started right there because instead of me quitting I went back and I talked to the guy at the counter who very clearly knew what he was doing and said you help me right you're just sitting there reading a magazine anyway I figured I'll ask him and turns out he was approachable and you know because of that I am I I lived through the career that I had because I didn't quit because of some asshole like who does that to a kid too at the gym this guy was probably late 30s or something like that early 40s right who does that to a kid well you you know what's amazing with it is obviously that it it stuck with you and you still think about it and and think about like the the legacy of that guy you know speaking of Jim etiquette it's like this is the the the a great example of a piss poor example of a person that he could have came over to you and said hey man I saw you were doing this you you know it'd really help you if you did it a little more like this like this way would really help because it works out you know these following muscles or yada yada yada and the way that you're doing it you know you're straining your lower back or your legs or whatever you're doing you know I mean like he he could have been constructive and then his legacy could have been a good legacy of like yeah remember that guy that helped me at the beginning man that set me on the path but instead you kind of had the opposite scenario where you had this this guy talking shit in the mirror it's like who does that you know right well I think honestly that who knows maybe I wouldn't be the person I am today because of that because now the way that I am in the gym all the old people love me in the gym yeah right I walk around the gym and you know I high five all the old people when I'm there we all know me right I walk by they put in a set I walk by boom fist bump whatever right and maybe it's because of how he treated me I have uh respect for everybody else around me when it comes to being in the gym right maybe that's maybe that's accredited to him being a douche I don't know right that could be that could be hey I got a I got a uh another one for you on the gym etiquette let's move this towards the locker room and the showers okay now I'm not gonna go to an obvious thing right away but I am gonna say you know what drives me crazy at a gym locker room is somebody that puts their shit in the locker and they don't put a lock on it.

SPEAKER_02 53:02

And then I'm going around trying to find 17 lockers your shit's in the damn locker and you don't even have a lock on it. How am I supposed to know it's yeah you're just nope nope nope and then I gotta find one that's available because all you guys got your shit in here and nobody has a lock like what what's behind door number two yeah that's a that's a risky game there's a lot of thieves out there so uh I definitely am not one of those people uh I'm always locked up I had to change my lock recently though because I have a key lock and I went into the gym into the locker room and I pull out my key and open I put it in and I open my locker and I open the door that's not my shit somebody else had the exact same lock my key opened his locker closed back up locked it went found my locker that's not my shit all right well so I was like well I'm getting a new lock because clearly if I can open his locker with my key he can open mine with his right like yeah yeah that's interesting okay let me ask you something else so this this is a this is a character defining question when you're at the gym you've just worked out heavy right you're in your gym clothes sweat your ass off or whatever shower or no shower I'm not allowed to shower at the gym my wife won't let me that's the leading just as that is the leading cause of foot fungus in men really is is showers in men's locker rooms in the gym so I'm he's like I'm like well I'll just wear tongs she's like no I'm like okay so most of my gyms are only two or three blocks away from my house so I just zip home and shower but uh I used to I used to be that way I used to I could never leave the gym without having a shower first but yeah since my wife's got it in my mind now that I'm gonna get foot fungus I'm like ah shit now I gotta go shower at home I don't want foot fungus yeah okay so I don't want that so you know when I uh when I was at the work gym so I would I would like go to work I'd do you know whatever for a couple hours and then I'd say okay it's like midday I'm going to the gym right like a little bit before lunchtime or whatever and I'd work out how hard be covered in sweat and I would I would shower there and I had shower shoes that I I bought them straight off Amazon for that sole purpose. I'd never used them for anything else other than that disgusting work shower. But I gotta admit there's something that's sort of uh I don't know it's it's it's sort of like this weird kind of relaxing thing that and maybe this is different because it was a work gym and not like a like a Planet Fitness or a Golds or something like that. But there's something kind of nice about showering getting all fresh post workout you feel great and then I go back into work and then I'm like ah the rest of this day who gives a shit you know like like I'm like all mellowed out feel great.

SPEAKER_00 56:34

I've already accomplished everything I'm going to accomplish today the rest is the breeze you know yeah it's funny I I used to work at a a security at a grain elevator in Ontario yeah right on Lake Superior and in the wintertime obviously the grain elevators are closed because ships can't come in the lake is frozen right yep but you still need to be there there still has to be a security guard on and I I would uh I'd be there all day and it'd be like a Sunday afternoon or something and I would all the time dude I would just leave I would just go because I'm the only one there I do my rounds and then I would just go to the gym for like three hours and then go back to work.

SPEAKER_02 57:19

Nobody even knows you're not there right like it's literally a ghost town and uh then you come back and do another round and let's I mean it's why am I even here really I'm here I mean to make sure there's no fires or anything I would assume no one no boats are coming in and loading up on grain on a frozen lake superior but oh yeah I would do that all the time I'm okay well I'm going to the gym go get in a solid workout come back to work like you said all showered up all right well this day's done I'm just gonna this day's done I know you know I I kind of had to rationalize with myself a few times because I was like especially on the days that I had nothing to do you know and I'm kind of irritated and I'm like why am I what why am why do I have to come down here there's nothing going on anyways and then it kind of hit me I'm like hey they're paying me to work out like all right I guess I'll come in you can pay me I'll work out for free and then I'll leave okay great you know 100% that was only the one of the only good things about being a personal trainer is yeah you get to work out right yeah at the gym guess I'll throw in some cardio well you know spe speaking of etiquette though I mean when you're a personal trainer and you're dealing with people that's got to be tough I mean you you're probably dealing with all kinds of different people and their issues well the biggest like for me I the only issue I really had was keeping people focused right people who are hiring a personal trainer are doing it because they're inexperienced and let's face it they don't really want to work out right yeah that's why you're there to make them work out so one of the one of the they all think they're sneaky right they'll sit down at a machine they'll start telling you a story and hopefully they're hoping you stand there for 20 minutes listening to their story right that's the whole thing right they don't have to work out they'll just sit there and tell you a story that does they'll start talking yeah yeah yeah come on come on it's not gonna kick its own ass let's come talk and lift talk and lift yeah that was the biggest obstacle they would always try to work the jaw and not the not the squats or whatever it is right that's funny yeah you know I guess like I've never had I've never paid for a personal trainer I'm never I've never just had one available but in my head I've always kind of envisioned having one that can sort of like shout at me and like push me further when I'm like I'm done and they'll be like no you're doing eight more reps you know it's like what like that's kind of like the version in my head but I guess that's not really how it works out.

SPEAKER_00 59:55

Well that I am like that's the wife won't go to the gym with me because I am that guy right I just I'm brutal and I I'll tell you this I've had dozens of friends over the years come to work out with me.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:10

Yeah they never come back for a second workout never no it's like you know what it's too and a little bit too much like I'll I'll work out on my own right like it's it's it's not dicking around because what they think it is is come in chit chat for five ten minutes between sets and you know dick around and nope it's you go I go you go I go you go I go headphones were on I had one yeah I had one work guy that I worked out with before and he wasn't really a friend I guess he was like a gym friend because we just started you know working out at the gym together and that's didn't even know his name really the best friend I ever had we'd go we both have our headphones on wouldn't say a word to each other till the workout was done it's you go I go you go I go you go I go spot okay you go I go it was that's all it was we would go through the whole workout without saying a word to each other interesting kind of kind of like a complimentary competition you know yeah yeah because it would be like you know he would add more weight I'm like son of a bitch I'm adding a little more weight yeah you you motherfuckers you know it's yeah you know when you were talking about Peloton earlier I have a couple friends that are on Peloton and I I did that when I first started cycling on there I'd see them on there and be like what what what did he do? What did he do over here? I'm like no no fuck that no I'm beating that here we go you know that would be like my goal to like you know go above and beyond you know so that was always kind of fun I'm sure it was probably equally annoying though speaking of gym etiquette I'm putting cases on all you bitches yeah yeah well I'm I'm sure with you too they probably got to the point that they're like yeah I'll match him I'll match him let's go let's go and then you're like stairmaster and they're like yeah and then like you know within two minutes they're like oh my god this is awful well there was there was a gym I was going to a few years ago it was right after COVID in the gym like we were able to go back to the gyms again and they had this one stair mill that I'd never seen before in this in this anytime fitness and it had kept records it had like the top five right for uh distance and time wow and I would go and I'd be like I'm so like you said no I'm gonna be number one on this yeah I'm just gonna say I'll make number one I'll go to number one and then it got to the point where it was just this one guy he kept outdoing me by like just just a smidget right so then the next time I go I would outdo him and it was just pretty soon it's like the two of us were one and two or like blew everybody else out of the water it was like that stubbornness never met the man never met the man that's really funny. Yeah but our name would be there is just like oh oh gotta beat him gotta beat him see you know let's let's be honest so in the spirit of of gym etiquette competition right yeah I mean that's what that is I mean it's competition and you're you're both getting better while while you're competing you know well yeah you wouldn't push I wouldn't push myself that far because I remember times being on there and I'm looking at I'm looking at where I'm at currently in the current stair mill session I'm in and I looked at where he's where his last one was at I'm like this guy's a fucking animal but I'm not letting him beat me right like I'm ready to quit now but nope I'm not doing it I'm gonna beat him well the the funny thing though I mean you you do level up over time and like I would say with uh with Peloton so like like your standard um Peloton ride like they have like an energy wattage output right for a half hour ride and it's usually somewhere around let's say like 450 maybe something like that and maybe 440 and my buddy he I remember he had a time on there it was like 478 and this is when I first started on it right and I was like my God I'm like 478 I'm like how the hell did he do that? You know like was was he just like like loaded up on like soda and brownies and he came on here and just crushed it like what is going on here and I asked him about it he's like man he's like I don't know he's like I don't know what happened he's like one day I just I just hit that record he's like I know I had one of my other friends ask me to and I was like crazy I'm like how did you do that and so uh what's funny though is like over time you know that was my goal and I was like all right you know I I start creeping up there right it's like 458 461 you know 465 and I'm like all right I'm going for it you know today's the day you know and and sure enough I I not only topped him at some point but my record on on a half an hour is left 581 on the output I I beat him by over a hundred points and what's in insane about that is that I only did it that one time. This isn't like a regular occurrence by any stretch and I have no idea how the hell I even pulled that off but I zone brief yeah I I was I was dialed in I was like you know what I don't care if I'm out of breath I don't care if it's the hardest workout I don't care like we're just going for half an hour you know and somehow crushed it but you know the funny thing is going back to like the spirit of competition even on Peloton the people that crush me are like in their 60s their 70s and they'll do like 200 more than that and I I don't even know how that's possible. I have no idea they're just gaming the bike somehow but it makes me want to like go even harder you know so I mean in in the spirit of like Gym etiquette, I mean, a good good competition's a good thing, you know. Healthy competition.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:06

I've always wished I could find a workout partner that could keep up because it's like they do push, right?

SPEAKER_01 1:06:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:12

Um, I had a guy I was training with before when I was bodybuilding, and we had the same coach, and uh similar body types and everything. So our routine was similar. So whenever on on days they would match up, we would go to work out together. And this guy, man, it was always like you know, I'd add I would add some more weight, for example, to his deadlift or something, right? And we go throw another 10 on each side. He would get mad at me. He would like have these like outbursts, like, dude, stop adding more weight. Like, I'm like, dude, okay. Um you want me to take some off for you, Princess?

SPEAKER_02 1:06:50

I just thought you were toughening up today. I guess not. We'll pull those plates off.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:55

Another guy, he was doing uh he was doing bent over uh uh barbell rows, and he would just stack way too much weight on, right? Yeah, to the point where you were doing you're doing shrugs, essentially, right? You're not yeah, you're not doing rows. And I I I remember one day I was telling him, I was like, dude, like your form is just so so bad that you're you're not getting a workout here. You gotta lessen the weight. He's like, Oh, I got it, I got my form's fine. So, okay, okay. So I went beside the the rack and I pulled my phone out when he was getting ready to go, and I recorded a video of him doing it, and I showed him the video. I said, This is you. He watches it for a minute. All right, let's take some weight off her. Yeah, your form is terrible, man.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:42

Yeah, gotta have good form. You know, one thing with the gym that I realized over all the time that I ever went to the gym is that you know, kind of how you were saying those three core workouts. Um, I always kind of found that really all you need is like a straight bench and different weights of dumbbells, maybe even like a kettlebell. And you can you can do just about anything with that, but form is extremely important, you know.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:12

Well, for form, my form has always been really, really good because right from when I first started not that first time, well, that first time was after that, but throughout generally throughout my entire uh career working out, it's always been really good because one of the things that that that business owner, that gym owner taught me was form was more important than how much weight you were lifting, and that always stuck with me. So when I for the first you know few years and just onward, I would always use a little bit less weight, but my form was so meticulous that I I was I was it was far easier for me, and this is the thing, guys. You have to learn to do this if you're listening and you're you're you want to be a bodybuilder or you know you want to focus on targeted areas of your body in terms of growing muscle, you have to learn that mind-muscle connection because it does exist. You have to be able to and the trick is to not have too much weight to make that impossible because when you have too much weight, other muscle groups join in to compensate for what that isolated muscle group can't handle, right? So when you're doing curls and you're using too much weight, your shoulders start to kick in to kind of compensate for the lack of strength your biceps have. So if you have less weight and you can really sound out everything around you and just focus on the form of that curl on your biceps, the squeeze and everything nice and slow, and you can really have, and it's it's a very unique thing when I learned how to do it to have that mind-muscle connection where I have the direct line to that muscle that I'm working, right? And that's what that's the only thing I'm really everything else, the rest of your body for the most part. That's like saying you can feel your toes touching each other. No, your mind whites that feeling out until I mentioned it to you. Now you're you can feel your toes touching each other, but before that you couldn't, right? That's what your mind does when you have mind muscle connection is your can your mind is connected to that one isolation, that's what an isolated workout is. So when I learned how to do that, and I learned that form was more important than the amount of weight I was lifting, because the amount of weight you're lifting will go up in time if your form is proper and you're isolating that because the muscle will naturally grow stronger, right? Yeah, but if you're just new in the gym and you're just trying to throw around heavy weights, it's not gonna get you anywhere, right?

SPEAKER_02 1:10:50

You know, on the uh Peloton, I I found this same thing to be true. I I yes, I found this true in like lifting weights and stuff like that. But on the Peloton, when I first started, I didn't have cycling shoes, and I'm just cycling with my regular shoes on top of the Peloton pedals, right? But those pedals are built cycling shoes. Yeah, you know I'm talking about. I have a uh so the so eventually I I leveled up, and that's how I viewed it, right? I always viewed it as leveling up, right? I'm like, all right, I'm gonna level up, I'm gonna get myself some cycling shoes. So I get the cycling shoes, and the form difference is massive. Like, yeah, I mean, if like if if you're doing one or the other, like if if you're just getting on there with regular shoes, you're not gonna get it, and you are overcompensating with all these other muscle groups, but the moment you have the shoes clipped in, like it is dialed into the exact muscles that you're gonna be using.

SPEAKER_00 1:11:50

Here's my problem with that. I get stuck on my bike all the time. I get stuck. I hate it. I get stuck, I can't get my feet off the pelt.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:01

You just gotta do the the chicken toe, man. You just bend it in, chicken toe, bend it in, and it'll pop right out. That's all you gotta do.

SPEAKER_00 1:12:08

Give it a try then.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:09

Yeah, because swing your heel outward. It's a weird motion, but you do that and it'll pop right off.

SPEAKER_00 1:12:17

I'll give it a shot. Because when we bought the the Peloton bike, I got it from my wife, and uh I ordered a pair of shoes for you for both of us with with it, so I came with it, and yeah, it's I put them on like I'm stuck, I can't get off this damn bike. Take the shoes off.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:35

Okay, back to etiquette. Learn how to use the equipment before you're on there and you look ridiculous. You don't know what we're doing.

SPEAKER_00 1:12:42

Apparently, yeah. Uh, speaking of which, yes, we are just about out of time, brother. It is already four o'clock my time. Wow, yeah, an hour and 15 minutes we've been going. So, uh any final thoughts on the whole exercise gym etiquette uh topic today?

SPEAKER_02 1:13:02

Gosh, there are so many things, so many funny examples. I didn't even talk about the guy that farts on the on the treadmill. There's so many things to cover.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:11

Routine farts.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:12

Yeah, it's a it's a never-ending well, you know, truthfully. But uh, but it's a lot of fun at the end of the day, and it's uh it's fun to work out in a real gym as well as work out at your house. So, you know, I I would just say for anybody going to the gym, um, it's good to ask questions and to do it the right way, if possible. That's it.

SPEAKER_00 1:13:35

Yeah, for sure. Most of the meanest looking big guys in gyms are usually the most approachable, I would find. If you if you go up and you ask uh, you know, just some big dude at the gym, uh, like I did coming up, you know, I'd see him working out, uh, some big guy doing a workout I've never seen before. I'll just walk right up and say, hey, what does that work? And how do you find it works for you? They'll they're I mean you're you're literally stroking their ego, they're more than happy to tell you all about how they figured out this great workout, and you know what I mean? So yeah, don't be shy to ask people for sure. Um but what I would say is try to be more encouraging uh to people and stuff like that. Uh like nobody likes a gym bully, right? Don't don't be that that you know that person. And uh let like Jesse said, try to have some fun with it, right? Because um you only live once and health matters. So get in there, you don't have to be a bodybuilder, but get in there and exercise. And and also, you know, especially you know, being Men's Mental Health Month, uh, it helps with that. It really does. Getting those endorphins released and stuff like that. And you know, if if you're if you're listening and you are you know having struggling with uh with mental issues and stuff like that. Well, I mean, it is men's mental health month, so just make sure you're talking to somebody and take care of yourself, right?

SPEAKER_02 1:15:01

Yeah, and I would say regarding the pizza, it's okay to cheat maybe once in a while, once a month. I don't know about every week, but not every Monday, not every Monday, come on now.

SPEAKER_00 1:15:15

Tuesday, maybe, man. Yeah, yeah. All right, guys. Well, this wraps up another episode. Make sure if you're watching over on YouTube, you like and subscribe, help the channel grow, cost you nothing at all. If you're listening on the podcast, whether it's Spotify, Apple, or anywhere else, make sure you give us a five star review. Let us know how you feel, let us know what you want us to talk about. We'll see you in the next one. God bless.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:40

Till next time, deuces shift out.