Side note: for the next three phases of this ongoing mild rant I want to bring up are similar to the IPod trio, but unlike the IPod trio they are much more annoying and bothersome to me and others around. These next three phases I will refer to as Three Amigos of Cell abuse. All three of these things bug me to no avail, almost a little more than any of the other “self proclaimed” offenses that I have mentioned in the past.
Phase Twelve of “appropriate behavior at the gym: the do’s and don’ts, according to a guy with an opinion about anything and everything.”
Don’t: talk on the phone and try to work out for extended periods of time
I see this one happen on a regular basis on so many different fronts with so many different levels.
Level one: the “What is happening tonight call.” This call at the gym always seems to come when others are waiting for your equipment. Rightfully so, you yourself might have waited for the equipment and that with that being said are in fact initialed to use it how you see fit. But that does not include making people wait an extra five to ten minutes because you want to find out what club your bro Chad is going to be at tonight. A lot of people are pressed for time at the gym, and while I know that is a personal issue there should be a medium. Now if I am in a hurry and I go to the gym and equipment is simply not readily available because others are diligently using it and I am not able to get a full work out in, then it is my own fault for trying to squeeze in a work out when I didn’t really have enough time to begin with. But if I am in a hurry and want to use a machine but the person on the machine tells me to hold off because they just have a few more sets, and then they answer there phone to talk for another 5 min and then do their sets then I am entitled to be a little pissed off. Why do I have to wait for you to wrap up your phone conversation so that I can use the equipment? Most people who answer the phone at the gym realize this and are at least decent enough to let you work in or move away form the equipment and let you use it. But there is that 25% in this category that instantly transform themselves into the power tool isle at Home Depot. And yes, I do mean the whole isle. By doing this you are going past being a singular tool, you are stepping into a whole new realm where your tool-ness is pissing others off and is no longer just something that other people laugh at your expense. I feel so bad for people that are actually nice and wait for these H.D.’s to not only finish up their sets but also their telephone conversations. I have no patience when it comes to crap like this, which probably makes me an ass and which probably puts me on someone else’s “gym offender’s type cast list.” But on this one I don’t care because I am not budging on my stance regarding this issue.
I have only had this happen to me personally once and at first I was cool about it. I said to myself “ok this guy told me to wait because he is almost done… for sure I will just wait for him to finish up.” But then I see him answer his cell, and again I think to myself “I will just wait for him to wrap up this call. He will probably tell whoever is on the other line that he is in the middle of working out and that he will call right back.” Wrong. I waited for about a minute until I realized that he was not about to end the conversation, and then I signaled the old “can work in with you.” And he so toolishly gave me the wait one sec gesture. At this point I was still patient, but yet another minute went by and he had yet to commence in doing a set or getting off of his phone. So I literally hopped on the machine and started doing my own sets. He looked at me like I wasn’t wearing pants, like he could not believe what he was seeing. He was like I am still on that…so I did what any normal person pushed to the brink of being an a-hole by someone else would do…I gave him a taste of his own medicine. I told him “hey man that’s cool you can work in if you want.” That irked him to no avail, but who the hell cares…I certainly don’t. And like I said, in some regards that makes me a hypocrite. But what is he going to do. Is he going to pick a fight with me? Is he going to just walk away still talking on his cell? Or is he going to hang up and finish his sets in between mine? And for that matter what m I supposed to do. Go tell on you like a little child? Sit their and wait another ten minutes? End my work out short? Or do what I did and then bitch about it three weeks later in some off the top blog? I am going with the last option on this one.
I am holding all of the does for the last phase of this second mini series because they will apply to all three of these. And like so many of these offences do… I don’t want to waste your time. Although I probably already do by posting this mess. Just kidding…but seriously. Once again this is simply my opinion, take it or leave it.
Posted in Lucas Hart, Real People | COMMENT ON THIS BLOG
First and foremost, by listening to your IPod way louder than you should be you are destroying your inner ear (75% of the parts included). The thumping kicks of drum beats, the “audiotisticle” rampage of harrowing guitars, the high thumping bass of digital audio and even the bongo drum in a acoustic college radio song all severely damage the ear and effect the proficiency of one’s personal hearing abilities, if amplified at loud volumes. This is especially prevalent and in many cases much worse when it happens with head phones, magnifying sound with a greater immediacy to the inner ear – according to several studies done by the Swedish. Ok, now that my attempt to make myself sound more academically profound has concluded – it’s bad for your hearing to listen to loud crap. But where this comes into play in our little realm of fitness is its invasive nature on the hearing of others around the “soon to be hearing-impaired” gym goer with his or her head phones turned up full blast. I don’t mean to sound crude (ok who am I kidding, that is why I write these rants) but me being able to hear your Tom Jones – over not only the music already playing at the gym, but the clinking sounds of the equipments, the ongoing conversations, and the loud grunts of our other offenders – is kind of ridiculous in it’s own right. I’m half and half on this situation. In some regards the invasive nature of me that sometimes likes to rear its head about from time to time, likes to be able to match a song to a face. Meaning that I find it interesting in some regards to see if the behemoth with the tattoo’s on his face is listening to an old slayer album or is in fact getting his Britney on or if the tiny little girl doing leg extensions is listening to an indie Conor Oberst track or in fact kicking it old school with Andre and Big Boi with an “Atliens” track. But the other half of me is like, what if it is “afternoon delight” set to repeat? Should I have to hear that all work out long because I forgot my IPod and I can’t focus on the gym’s music or my workout because I keep thinking of Ron Burgundy or the actual nature of the song itself? Of course I don’t typically run into people at the gym who bump afternoon delight, but I do run into people at the gym all of the time who have music that I hate blaring out of their head phones to a point that I am forced to listen if I want to use a machine. And then there is also the guy, who I see from time to time at the gym who forgot to bring his IPhone head phones and is just listening to his music from the speakers – wow that is annoying. I have only seen this happen four times but it has definitely happened four times too many.
   Now I thought that this was completely harmless (and damn it if I don’t catch myself doing it once in a blue moon) but I saw first hand what can happen when this gets out of control. Drumming and head banging ravenously or jumping around and flailing your arms about is just not meant for the gym – or for the public eye in general (but sometimes it’s hard to help). I personally think it makes you look like an idiot, but that alone should not matter to anyone – who cares if you look like an idiot, right? But it isn’t looking like an idiot that puts people out with this distraction; it is the actual physical disturbance that can derive from the air band performance itself. This one is actually funny because it happened to me for once, as opposed from me always seeing it occur to others – I got to experience first hands the ill effects of this lord of the dance “C. Diddy” air guitar uproar. I was in mid set of doing military pull-ups on the bar between the cable-cross over machine, when I felt someone strike me in the right leg, rather close to my groin. It immediately made me stop my set, let go of the bar and hit the ground with a rather pissed off look on my face. The guy to my right had this look on his face like when Smalls (from The Sandlot) realized that he hit his step dad’s “Sultan of Swat” autographed ball into The Beast’s lair. He instantly became apologetic, and exclaimed, “holy shift I am so sorry.” He then took the two little white head phones out of his ears and told me “dude I lost my balance…this song is incredible.” I was of course like, “no problem man” but I had no idea what the hell he was talking about. Then I saw him walk to the drinking fountain like two minutes later with his head phones back in, swinging those invisible drum sticks like he was Travis freakin’ Barker. I then realized that he had hit me in the midst of a, unaware of his proximity to me, rock out session. I wasn’t pissed off or hurt from this encounter, in fact I got a chuckle out of it, but I can’t say that it is not annoying to be sporadically perturbed mid set. I then saw the same thing happen the very next day to a guy doing some shadow boxing dance moves and definitely getting seven shades of hyphy to whatever song he was listening to. He was not aware of how close he was to a guy doing hammer curls and bumped into the back of him. The guy looked a little more pissed off than I did about having to interrupt his set. Meaning things: one that this can be hazardous to people around you if you are doing this, because in some rare occasion you can loose your balance from doing something moronic in a place you shouldn’t be doing it in, and bump into someone doing some strenuous activity and end up causing them extreme frustration or in some cases injury. And two that this can be hazardous to you if you continue to do it, because judging by the look on the dumbbell man’s face, he was about two seconds away from doing his own shadow box dance on that guy’s face.
I am facebook friends with a lot of the players past and present. It’s exciting reading the contestants postings, seeing their success and challenges. Oh, this Saturday Helen Philips 
I will rate according to my tastes. In 4th place is the Orange Mango… I thought too intense orange taste. Maybe like the taste of baby aspirin or very strong tang. Which I am not so fond of. But for you, you may love it. Probably those of us over 40 can not handle such intense flavor. To me, it was OK but not my favorite flavor of the protein water. In 3rd place is the Cranapple…the only reason it’s not my favorite is I am not an apple juice person. I do enjoy cranberry so for me it was tolerable. In 2nd place is the Pomegranate flavored Protein Water…I very much enjoyed the light fruitful flavor. Camille’s #1 pick is the Blue Raspberry… to me it is perfect! Light, yet flavorful, not too sweet and is very refreshing. My only problem is my 16 year old daughter DRANK all of my Blue Raspberry and Pomegranate Protein Water! UGH! I went to take a bottle with me to work and ALL GONE! Luckily, I found some at our local grocery store.
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