Hey, Muscleheads!!
Hey Gang!! How’s it going today?
I felt like going to the gym the other day, just to change it up and get under a barbell (cuz I don’t have a barbell at home).
Man, when will I learn? Commercial gyms just aren’t for me.
What I experienced at the gym inspired this little rant.
After I calmed down and read it back to myself I thought it was pretty funny … so thinking you might enjoy the chuckle, too.
Trust me, this isn’t directed at you or anyone you know (I hope). But jeez, some guys in the gym can be such morons.
Here’s my little diatribe:
Open Letter to Men in the Gym
Hello sir.
You are hot.
You are fit.
You are muscular.
You like to lift weights, that’s sooo obvious.
You are big and burly and I’m sooo impressed!!
Can I please feel your bicep?
Oh, wait, scratch that last one.
Can we replace that last line with “Excuse me, may I work in?” and not have my request be met with a sniff of derision and a look down your nose at me like I just asked you to give me your last protein shake?
Yes, I’m a woman and I like to strength train, too.
No, I’m not big and burly like you.
Yes, the damn gym has a damn “Ladies Area” … but have you SEEN the Ladies Area, sir? It’s quite lacking. In fact, it’s downright ridiculous.
They give us pink plastic 5lb dumbbells. I can’t get ripped with those, sir. I can’t even feel a pump with those. My purse weighs more than those little things.
And, they give us “Hip Toner” machines but they don’t give us any barbells or squat racks. I can’t get ripped with that kind of equipment, sir.
So, please sir, may I work in, sir?
Okay, seriously now!!
Listen guys, yah yah yah, you’re there to be guys, you’re there to work hard and you’re not there for distractions or to flirt around looking for dates.
Yah, no kidding. Neither are we.
We are there to work out and get fit … just … like … YOU!!
We have as much right to be there as you do and we pay just as much in membership fees. So why the heck do you treat us like we’re in your way and a total bother to have us working in with you on your set when you’d be perfectly content to let some other ‘dude’ work in with you instead?
And YAH, I DID overhear you saying to your friends ‘effin’ broads, why can’t they go in their own area?”
Well, now you know why don’t go in our own “area”. Our area SUCKS!
So be nice to us, would ya please? If YOU were forced to work out with the equipment they put in “our” area, you’d bail out, too.
You probably wouldn’t even keep your membership to a gym that insulted you the way the “Ladies Area” insults us (and believe me, I’ve already told off the “Gym Owners of the World” about this very fact).
Although, I have to admit that since I started doing Squat Cleans, and other similar moves in the “Big Boy Weight Room” where you can all see me, not many of you treat me with derision anymore … most of you big buff boys don’t even do Squat Cleans, now, do you?
Heck, I’ll bet a bunch of you don’t even know what a Squat Clean is!! 
Don’t be afraid to look it up though.
And then feel free to come thank me once you’ve discovered them for yourselves.
But my point stands. We’re human. We’re there to get fit.
Stop being jerks to us and let us work in for crying out loud.
And for that, I thank you.
Sincerely,
Me
~~~ end of tirade ~~~
HA HA!!! Funny, eh? I just wasn’t in the mood to be treated like a “chick” in the gym today!
No wonder I don’t go often and prefer to workout at home! LOL
Anyway, thanks for letting me share that with you. A little vent feels good now and then, doesn’t it?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
BTW, There’s one guy I know that I’ll bet doesn’t treat women in the gym this way. This guy GETS IT when it comes to working out … for EVERYONE, not just guys. He knows the value that lifting heavy has … not only for guys but for women as well (and no ladies, you won’t “bulk up”) …
… and he’s a total sweetheart to boot. I know cuz I’ve interviewed him in a past blog post (Interview with Tom Venuto, author of Burn The Fat Feed The Muscle).
Yep, I’m talking about Tom Venuto, and his fitness and nutrition program Burn the Fat Body Transformation System is fantastic.
I should know. I’ve worked it (several times now) and I count it as one of my main fitness ‘go-to’ resources when I just want the FACTS with no fluff or ‘smoke and mirrors magic-tricks that don’t exist‘ (which is always).
I recommend this resource for ANYONE looking drop some fat fast, efficiently and effectively to get that lean, toned and fit look.
Get in on it now ==> The Burn the Fat Body Transformation System
Summer IS coming, after all!
Have a fit, fun and fantastic day (and long weekend!)
Girlwithnoname
5623
April 2nd, 2010 at 11:01 am
Yes! Loved every second of your rant! Thanks for verbalizing some of my thoughts. Getting a mirror to finally finish off my workout station in my house. My preference, too. Don’t they know that pink is for bunnies?
April 2nd, 2010 at 11:04 am
LOL!! I think most women feel this way in the gym. Some guys can be so rude. (and that completely negates the nice guys, which is truly unfortunate)
April 2nd, 2010 at 11:14 am
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April 3rd, 2010 at 1:32 am
Haven’t been to the club in a while. A long while, but the guys where I was going didn’t just treat women like that. Trying to get into the free weight room was often uncomfortable. Attitudes that would make their mothers proud. lol I think most of them were doing steroids. You probably know the type. Almost rabid, herd mentally, sneers, growls and posturing intended to intimidate.
They always gave me a hard time but I figured screw em. At first I asked if they minded if I joined in but I found I got less grief if I just jumped in with my own bite me attitude. Like working out with a bunch of junk yard dogs.
If people were nice I would wait if I thought it would mess up their timing between sets. There were a lot of nice people there but they were usually the ones using the machines. I like free weights better. If things got busy I would just use equipment that wasn’t in high demand. No big deal to me as long as I got to work the muscle group I was targeting that day.
One day I got the respect of the muscle heads in the free weight room. The machine least used was for doing preacher curls. Seat, padded arm rest but the bar connected to cable and flat weights. Maxed out at 150 lbs. I’d start at 90 lbs to warm up. Set of 12 and then do a set at 100 on up to 150 and work back down to 90 lbs. I wasn’t long I needed more weight so I’d lay dumbbells on top of the flat weights.
Even though the machine was right next to the free weight room none of those guys even saw what I was doing. Too busy looking at themselves. I was one of the invisible to them. I was strong but trained for strength and flexibility not for bulk. So one day for some reason unknown to me one of them sees me curling away and adding a couple 40 lb dumbbells to the stack.
Next thing I know I have about a dozen muscleheads standing around me watching curl. Saying, hey come check out this little guy. They stopped working out and watched. Then came my time to shine. After I was done they decided they could do it. Not one of those 500+ bench pressing muscleheads could start at 90 lbs and do all the sets to 230lbs let alone work there way back done to 90.
All of the sudden they think I’m worthy to hang with them. You know what? I didn’t, I stayed with the nice people. What a bunch of jerks.
I never did steroids but I was blending my own Amino Acids combinations. I was buying Amino Acids and Proteins in bulk. Load them in to protein drinks with s couple of tablespoons of oil and 2 to 3 raw eggs. Yum!
Got really good results from Arginine/Ornithine 2:1 ratio with some Lysine and Inositol and sometimes a few others. After you load on Argineine/Ornithine for a while it can start to make you more aggressive but taking some Triptofan gets rid of that.
I will use all of those Amino Acids I mentioned as I get into working out more again.
The Arginine/Ornithine/Lysine all make it to the brain and give the pituitary gland what it needs to increase it’s production of Human Growth Hormone and stimulates it’s release making it easy to build muscle. They also help you heal faster so you get a win win taking them.
Note: If a person has the Herpes Simplex Virus, it may become active with the increase of Arginine, but by taking the Lysine you can suppress the virus. Even if a person isn’t working out and taking Argineine, if they have a Herpes flare up, Lysine works wonders. Can be taken to prevent outbreaks and works better than prescription drugs claiming to help. Cheaper and safer too. This is excellent for cats that get infected with the Feline Herpes Virus. Lysine works fast.
Also, the body stores a good amount of Human Growth Hormone in the skin where it just sits there doing pretty much nothing. You can release that Growth Hormone into the blood stream by doing dry skin brushing. You can get a natural fiber brush made for this at many health stores.
Warning: they are not soft bristles. I have one that looks similar to a over sized vegetable brush. Twine rapped handle with a oval loop of bristles. Then I have one that’s about 3 ft long like a bristled rope with hand loops on the ends. When you first start to use these you may mistake them for a mid evil torture device.
You don’t to need to brush hard with these to the Growth Hormone. No need to draw blood. lol They are great to use right before a shower because they are excellent to help defoliate the skin. I have 2 sets. One I use one set dry and another to use wet.
April 3rd, 2010 at 7:19 am
Awesome post! We invite all of our meat head friends (said with love) to come run 8 miles with us every Saturday morning, but they never show. Great post!
April 3rd, 2010 at 10:57 am
WOW, John… I gotta say, now THAT’s a comment!! Fun story about the meatheads!! LOL!!
thanks for the info!
April 3rd, 2010 at 11:04 am
HAHA!!! as expected! LOL
April 10th, 2010 at 9:02 pm
PS Please do not grunt so loudly! It is possible to exhale while lifting weights and NOT sound like a hippo having sex!
May 3rd, 2010 at 7:41 pm
Here’s what I love: when some elderly, skinny male smoker and ex-hippie (you can tell a lot from appearance and body odor) comes over to give me “advice” on how to do hack squats. Or whatever.
I wish I were rude enough to just walk away. Usually I fix the advice-giver (it’s *always* a man) with a cool stare and say “Uh-huh. Is that right.”
Some of the men in my gym are downright gentlemanly, however. One 30-something guy actually asked for my advice the other day. I guess he was secure in his masculinity. :)
May 3rd, 2010 at 7:43 pm
HAHA Mary. Well said!! :-)