What the F#*K are You Doing?
This is the question I end up asking myself at least a dozen times every day I’m at the gym. I normally go about my business and don’t say much to anybody unless my good buddies are there. I listen to music or podcasts and just do my own thing.
Seriously...What the F#&K are you doing?!
As I’m resting between sets I scan the gym and just watch what other people are doing, and without fail, every single time, I see something that makes me ask this question.
From people doing full squats standing on a stability with a barbell across their back, to people trying to do one leg deadlifts standing on a bosu ball, to trainers making overweight seniors push a weighted sled back and forth across the gym…WHAT THE F#*K ARE YOU DOING!??!
Part of it is incompetent trainers trying to make their client feel like they’re getting their money’s worth buy coming up with ridiculous exercises and workouts.
Part of it is people who need to show off by doing strange workouts with wobble boards, and bosu balls, and standing on stability balls.
Part of it is people who just don’t know what they’re doing and unfortunately read a magazine to get workout advice or watch some other equally clueless person in the gym and copy what they’re doing.
The people doing the ridiculous thing that gets me to think “WHAT THE F#*K ARE YOU DOING” are almost never someone who has a body that I would consider to be in good shape…or more specifically at their respective Adonis Index or Venus Index.
In other words, they’re doing all of this weird stuff and it’s not doing anything to help them a better looking body…if anything it just makes them look even more foolish.
On the other hand most of the people I ever see who have a great physique just stick with the basics and put the necessary time and effort to get their body into a great shape.
The moral of the story is that no gimmick piece of equipment or bizarre technique is going to get you to your body any faster than hard work and a well designed workout program.
Leave the wobble boards, bosu ball, (and standing on a swiss ball for squats) to the other people who want to give the appearance that they know what they’re doing…In all likelihood they don’t (and they’d trade in the ridiculous workouts if they really knew how to build the body they want).
Dumbbells, a bench, a bar, and some serious effort is all it’s going to take to get to your ideal body.
John
12 Responses to “What the F#*K are You Doing?”
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March 8th, 2011 at 4:51 am
When I see these people, I just laugh inside and mind my own business. Because I know that what I’m doing is going to give me the results that I’m after.
March 8th, 2011 at 11:14 am
John,
Can incorporate both AGD and your Adonis system at the same time? The reason I ask is because i do not know if I need to focus on one goal at a time (fat loss) or try to accomplish both fat loss and an ideal adnois index. Thanks!
March 8th, 2011 at 12:16 pm
Yep you can do both, most of the adonis transformation winners did exactly that to get into shape.
March 8th, 2011 at 5:30 pm
I HAVE STOPPED WATCHING PEOPLE IN THE GYMS JUST BECAUSE OF THINGS LIKE THESE YOU MENTION IN YOUR ARTICLE . JUST THE OTHER DAY I HAD TO RESCUE A GUY STUCK UNDER THE BAR BENCHING 130 FOR TEN REPS.
March 8th, 2011 at 7:59 pm
LOL… could you kick ass any harder, JB?
that’s awesome. I have the same experiences every time I go to a commercial gym. hahahahaaaaa..!! So hard to keep my trap shut.
March 9th, 2011 at 11:28 am
I usually really enjoy your articles. This one, however, smacks of elitism and condescension.
I agree, shame on the trainers. They are the people who should be knowledgeable and reinforcing good gym practices.
As for the people working out, many of them had to screw up their courage just to walk in to the gym in the first place. At least they are there and not sitting on a couch watching TV and eating Cheetos.
Some showboats do deserve a roll of the eyes, but most of those people are just trying to make a change for the better and really don’t deserve your scorn.
March 9th, 2011 at 12:10 pm
Swong95, I guess I never see the ones who aren’t show boating (is it possible to do a squat standing on a swissball and not showboat?)…It could be an artifact of the pretentious nature of the gym I train at…but I’m sure this happens in most gyms.
It’s interesting that you perceived ‘elitism’ and ‘condescension’ from this post…because that is the same thing I perceive from the swiss ball squatters and wobble board riders and bosu ball deadlifters.
It’s a matter of perspective.
March 9th, 2011 at 2:07 pm
John,
My name is Sly and I have been following your blog for awhile now. My question is not in regards to this post but to your Adonis Effect Program, as I am becoming more intrigued looking at the transformations on your site.
I am a 5’5 lb male,and I weigh about 150lbs, and 34 yrs old. I have seen so many ideal body workout/programs and am wondering what seperates yours from the rest? I am heavily contemplating your program and just want to make sure its worth it. I have been doing Paleo diet and I feel like I am going crazy, not enough variety in foods for me, your approach seems logic. Do I need to purchase both the program and the “Anything Goes Diet” book or does the Adonis index book provide enough nutritional guidelines in itself? Soory for the long post but I guess I still need a little reassurance.
March 10th, 2011 at 2:19 am
Sure, that is all silly, but nothing, and I mean NOTHING, is as silly as watching someone jog on the treadmill for 30 minutes while eating a 200 calorie granola and then wonders why he/she is only getting fatter!
March 31st, 2011 at 5:04 pm
[...] The whole article is great. Check it out. JohnBarban.com [...]
October 3rd, 2011 at 9:19 pm
[...] First off, if you work out at a commercial gym, I advise you not use their trainers. Here is why: Most of them suck. Some have OK credentials, but a lot have only passed some crappy, 15-hour course topped off with a 50-question multiple-choice exam an orangutan with a hangover could pass. They don’t have a friggin’ clue about good technique and recently quit their job as a bartender or hairdresser because they thought being a personal trainer sounded “neat.”They are part of a system that revolves around making money. It’s all about sales and more sales, and this means teaching learned helplessness. They’ll tell you that you need to focus on a bunch of widely differing functional movements and get you whipping ropes and pushing sleds and balancing on BOSUs and a bunch of other crap that continuously keeps you off balance so that you never learn any independence. They don’t want you to be independent, because as soon as you are, then you don’t need them any longer. They work to convince you that you can’t work out without hiring them. They suck. I see this going on every day at the gym I work out at and I want to start punching trainers. I’m not the only person who feels this way. [...]
April 19th, 2012 at 4:35 pm
[...] Finn linked to a fabulous blog post the other day about the increasingly bizarre things poorly qualified personal trainers get folk [...]