Utterly Confused by the "Gym Mentality"

I have been working out at the same Planet Fitness for over two years now. They boast that they don't judge, which in the case of my gym is true. I don't even think the "Lunk Alarm" actually works. I am actually okay with that. For grown adults to have to patrol grown adults seems immature to me.

The rub though is that in those two years, I have seen the need for such a device. Personally, I go to the gym to get fit. I want to put on a lot of muscle and shed my fat. Sounds about average right? My goals though are above average in my gym. I want to be able to leg press more than 1,000 lbs. I want a bench press over 350. I don't want to get huge, but I do want to be that freakish monster in the gym that is incredibly strong. But that is my journey.

The gym should be a personal journey with the support of a community. Everyday that I step through those doors I am making the statement that I am going to change. I want to be healthier. However for some, it seems their statement is "I am here to lift weights, posture and judge people like an elitist douchebag."

I started noticing this more after watching a video on YouTube that was a rant by a well known bodybuilder. I won't name names because I don't like to put negative on people. (If he reads this and has a change of heart, awesome. I doubt he will read this but who knows.) In his video he was going off about a guy who jumped in to do a set and didn't know what he was doing. Rant, rant, rant and it boiled down to him saying that if you don't know what you are doing you should get a trainer. I don't disagree there.

What I have issue with, is that this person, who has a wealth of knowledge made it sound like he allowed the person to do the exercise wrong and possibly get injured. That is not community to me and this unfortunately is not a localized event.

I have seen on numerous occasions boys who are younger (teens to early twenties) who openly mock other gym goers because they don't understand what the others are doing. They then turn around and do their set and end up doing their routine wrong. I have stepped in and helped a few fix what was wrong with their routines but most I try to stay away from. I have also been approached by an older gym goer and asked about my routine. I gave constructive advice on exercises because he said he suffered from lower back pains. I do this because I realize we are all in the gym for the same reason. Fitness.

When we start making people feel inadequate in the gym, that is the moment we start them down the road of giving up. Whether you do so in person or in an open public forum. So I put a challenge out to those who read my blog. If you are in the gym, and you see someone doing something that could potentially hurt them, help them don't mock them. Let that person know. Give them some tips and point them in the direction of good consultation if needed. Don't be the catalyst for someone's failure.

My Story on Cellucor C4 and NO3

*** Unsolicited review of Cellucor C4 and NO3 ***

I have been working out seriously for about two years. My first goal was to lose weight. I ended up dropping 70 lbs before our wedding in 2011 and put on about 9 right before we said our vows. At 219 I got a suit as a gift from my tuxedo rental company. After our honeymoon I came back 6 lbs fatter from the food and drink in New Orleans. This led me to say screw it to the gym and my training was very sporadic for a while. I never wore the suit from fear that it would not fit.

After a while I started messing around with supplements for the gym to try to shed the fat. I focused only on cardio and was getting nowhere. I then switched things up and focused on weight lifting and my weight went up and down quite a bit.  Frustrated I started investigating and I stumbled across Cellucor. I had seen their product at my local GNC but never gave it a shot. I tried C4 and I felt the surge in the gym. I was seeing gains in my strength and I was seeing my fat shed off.

After my first tub of C4 I felt that I needed something stronger and tried GNC’s Amp Muscle Igniter. I found the taste to be terrible and the results to be non-existent. In an effort to feel something from this pre-workout I tried their NO Maxertion as well and was left wanting. I cleansed my system and then tried again. I picked up C4 again and tried it.  This time I hit my tolerance at week 4. I stuck with it and when I got my second tub of C4 I also picked up their NO3. The gains and the pumps were incredible.

Around the middle of week 5, my wife and I had a benefit dinner to attend. I was back at 219 and ready to try the suit on. While I was the same weight as I had been when I got the suit, it turned out that I was now 219 with a lot more muscle and a lot less fat. The suit was a half size too big.

I am still using C4 with the NO3 stack and will be off it in 2 weeks to end my cycle on it to start a 4 week cleanse. When I go into my next hypertrophy session in 16 weeks after than, I will be welcoming C4 back into my routine with open arms. In the meantime I will be using Cellucor’s BCAAs and SuperHD for my strength and cutting session.

Changing Self Perception is One of the Most Difficult Challenges

You go to the gym, you step on the scale and the number doesn't change. You try on your clothes and they are getting bigger. You step on the scale and the number doesn't change. You start to think why am I trying so hard and seeing no results...

I am sure we have all faced this wall. Our doctors and society have placed so much emphasis on a number. The BMI. You are a certain height so you should be a certain weight or you are labeled obese. So you get hung up on a number, a arbitrary definition of what "healthy" is.

I hit this wall about five weeks ago. I was in a hypertrophy routine, getting my muscles bigger. I was seeing lines where my muscles were bulging and I was happy. Until I stepped on the scale and saw that I had gained ten pounds. I had worked so hard, how could I have gotten fat? This was my folly. I equated weight gain to fat gain. I have been obese most of my life. I hit 180 lbs at the age of 12, at the time it was a blessing and saved my life. As I got older the extra weight became a burden. The I had difficulty breathing while tying my shoes type of burden.

So when I got down to 215 and then bulked up to 225, I felt like I was backsliding. Everything else was telling me differently, I had to donate a pair of my pants because they were too big for me. I bought some thermals and the first was an XL, which was too big so I bought a large and I was shocked at how good it looked on me. But the scale, that piece of machinery that reported how "healthy" I was kept nagging at me. Betraying my training by giving me the perception that I was fat.

My turning point hit when I was watching a video on YouTube. I seriously suggest anyone who is having issues with this to watch StrengthCamp's video on this topic. In the video Elliott Hulse talks about change, how you have to make a decision in what you want to see. Do you want to be tiny and lean? Do you want to be bigger and a bodybuilder? What you want to be is up to you.

At this point I decided that the scale was no longer my enemy, instead I turned it on itself. I am currently in a hybrid strength/hypertrophy session. I am at week 6 of my training and I gain weight, I also lose weight but that is not what I judge my progress by. I step on the scale and will sometimes be frustrated, but not because I gained weight. The opposite effect has happened, I get frustrated because I haven't gained as much weight as I wanted. I have a new perception of what I am trying to do.

In 6 weeks my hybrid session will be over. (I took a picture at my second week so I can see my progress. I guess I will see if I will post the picture from week 12 along side week 2. Along with a start and end weight of what I put up on which exercises.) I will then be moving into a 12 week strength and cut mode and my number will drop on the scale, but that will no longer define my health. My health is completely defined on how I feel, how my clothes are fitting, how much weight I put up and the progression I make.

Don't let the scale define who you are. Don't let it become a roadblock to your goals.