Like all the people who just do things at the gym without a plan or intention
A couple years ago I was training, if you can call it that, at a chain commercial gym which is notorious for being the “low cost” option in town.
I got a free membership due to reasons, and I don’t look a gift horse in the mouth, but it quickly proved the saying that “free is worth every penny paid”.
If you enjoy twiddling your thumbs watching other people workout (that is, scrolling their phones for 10 minute rests between sets in the squat rack) then this place has you sorted.
I couldn’t understand how so many people tolerated it. But then, I’m the guy who sees gridlock traffic every day during commute times and wonder why people suffer through it day after day when there are plenty of other places to live. People, who can explain ’em.
What other people are doing is little interest of mine until it directly frustrates my plans. When I can’t so much as write down a workout and expect to do it when I show up at the gym, we’ve got a problem.
I often wonder how many people who turn up at the gym are following a real plan.
The real reason the overcrowded gym doesn’t bother these people showing up at peak hours (which felt like EVERY hour at this chain) is because they don’t have a plan to follow.
Why does this matter? For starters, there’s a good rule of thumb for ordering your exercise brackets:
Skill -> Speed -> Strength -> Endurance
Putting your highly technical clean & jerk practice after 30 circuits that left your muscles jellified is not the brightest idea. Likewise for doing peak squats after hitting the rest of your leg work… or if you only came to squat.
Put the stuff that demands focus and freshness first, and pack the exhausting stuff at the end.
Point is, there’s a whole bunch of people who don’t care about this because they’re just there to “do stuff”.
Any machine or gear that’s free is good enough for them.
I can almost admire that. It’s pretty liberating to need no systematic plan or any intentions whatever. You just do stuff. But if you have the slightest designs on making that effort convert into real results, that kind of flexibility has to be checked.
I’m a true disciple of the Mike Tyson Principle:
“Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.”
Reality loves punching folks in the mouth. Anything you want to do, no matter how careful the plans, is subject to Murphy’s Law.
But you gotta know where you’re heading while you’re losing teeth.
It’s a delicate balance with accepting chaos, and seeing your vision and setting the plan to get there.
Plan, but realize that too tightly-coiled a plan is going to blow itself to bits on contact with reality.
If you’re stuck training in a sub-par over-booked gym like I was, it may be that the best thing to do is learn to adapt yourself to that situation. You won’t be able to get nearly the juice from a well-made systematic approach… but, with resistance training, anything is better than nothing.
Better is better, but still.
That’s my old-man rant for today.
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Matt Perryman