Gym Nuances. in The Napkin.

I tend to feel bad when someone asks me if they can have the squat rack after me, or asks how many sets I have left. I got to the gym around 7:30, entirely so I could hog the squat rack for half an hour. (No really, it was 30 minutes on the mark.) Takes a bit for me to warm-up, and after my top sets I tend to do multiple back-off sets. Kind of like a reverse pyramid, except I’m not looking to burn myself on each back-off set. I’m looking for form, not grinding.

So, I finish, and I put the bar with one plates aside on the floor to deadlift. I figure he could just grab one of the bars off the three benches. At exactly that moment, all three benches were in use. I think he got frustrated and left. I’d feel worse, except dude was hovering most of the time. Back-off, man. When I’m waiting on the squat rack, I either wait patiently on a treadmill, or I do deadlifts and/or bulgarian split squats.

Punch line is not ten minutes later, all three benches were free. Homie’s gotta learn to adapt to equipment availability. The entire time I was doing farmer’s walks, all four bars were free. Funny how things time up like that. Strong guys and girls know to ask to work in. With my rest periods, I would totally have been fine switching out the plates for someone.

Speaking of farmer’s walks, people people. Boys and girls. Don’t do your shit right in front of the dumbbell rack. You never know when someone is finishing their fifth set of farmer’s walks and literally can NOT hold their dumbbells while you do whatever the fuck you’re doing. For the uninitiated, farmer’s walks are when you pick up two dumbbells and walk with them. Fantastic exercise for grip strength; as a side effect, farmer’s walks teach you to walk with good posture under load. And they make your forearms feel like you’re Popeye.

That’s all for now. Carry on.