If you don't re-rack your weights and wipe equipment after yourself you are not nice.

power pants

I always ask as I need to home at a certain time each night. However, I always let people work in with me too.

Last week, I was deadlifting and someone asked if he could, we were lifting completely different weights etc but Id never say no.

He proceeded to chat and chat. id end up pointing to the bar so he would remember what he had to do ffs

LuckyLloyd

bluewolf wrote: »

Where do you go

DoYouEvenLift wrote: »

A home gym with a decent lifting partner and music system would be the only step above that! Best part you described is that everyone encourages one another, in most gyms I'm sure it's full of mean muggers and posers

Crossfit Ireland. Lack of posers there tbh!!

Mellor

DoYouEvenLift wrote: »

Haha I couldn't chance it, if it fell over it'd make a massive bang, I always unload one plate at a time on each side because of that

It's easier to test when you are loading up.
Empty bar. Put 20th on, then another 20kg, and then add more weight until its about to tip.
Once it goes, your hands are there to take the load of the last plate back off.

40kg is fine.
60kg will tip

But if the weight is sitting right at the end of the sleeve it will tip early.

Gummy Panda

LuckyLloyd wrote: »

Crossfit Ireland. Lack of posers there tbh!!

It wannabe at 200e a month.

DoYouEvenLift

Why was my title and op edited?

Zombienosh

because you didn't re-rack your weights.

Alf Veedersane

Or wipe your mouse.

arayess

DoYouEvenLift wrote: »

If the gym is busy and other people need to ask for a simple favour from another member of the community it's just basic manners to help them out. How long does it take you to change plates? It only takes a few seconds. If you wanted you could easily tell them they could work in as long as they loaded and unloaded the plates for both of you, I'd have no problem if someone asked that. God forbid you actually end up liking one another and they help you out another time...but then again, pshhh, who needs to be nice to people in a place one goes to most days

I just hate it - I like to be on my own.
as i said I never refuse for the reasons you mentioned above - as in I don't really have a reason .

As I said I also - I'll spot somebody no bother but I like to workout alone.

UCDVet

I wish there were an agreed upon amount of weight to leave on the bar. I mean, it's awfully silly to take off all the weight yourself only too see some huge guy put all the same weights back on and then some.

DoYouEvenLift

UCDVet wrote: »

I wish there were an agreed upon amount of weight to leave on the bar. I mean, it's awfully silly to take off all the weight yourself only too see some huge guy put all the same weights back on and then some.

Leaving on one plate would be grand to most people I'd say, I was more talking about people who take dumbbells and leave them laying around when they're finished

Caliden

arayess wrote: »

I just hate it - I like to be on my own.
as i said I never refuse for the reasons you mentioned above - as in I don't really have a reason .

As I said I also - I'll spot somebody no bother but I like to workout alone.

Such is the downside to going to a public gym.

Unless you're taking no rest between sets there's very little reason not to let someone work in so long as they help load/deload the bar.

If they didn't then they fall into the category of people the OP doesn't like.

Mr. CooL ICE

Regarding the toppling over, I touched on that here. Calculations were done assuming the racks points were 25% and 75% across the bar and the weight of the bar was evenly distributed throughout.

UCDVet

arayess wrote: »

I just hate it - I like to be on my own.
as i said I never refuse for the reasons you mentioned above - as in I don't really have a reason .

As I said I also - I'll spot somebody no bother but I like to workout alone.

Just throwing this out there as a suggestion but....home gyms can be amazingly affordable if you've got a small space for it.

LuckyLloyd

Gummy Panda wrote: »

It wannabe at 200e a month.

Well, a thread like this affirms the value of it tbf!!

arayess

UCDVet wrote: »

Just throwing this out there as a suggestion but....home gyms can be amazingly affordable if you've got a small space for it.

thought had crossed my mind before alright but I'm afraid my fertility but paid to any free space I used to have.

Alf Veedersane

UCDVet wrote: »

I wish there were an agreed upon amount of weight to leave on the bar. I mean, it's awfully silly to take off all the weight yourself only too see some huge guy put all the same weights back on and then some.

No one goes and puts a load of plates on for their first set.

conzy

Even the biggest dudes start with the bar or 60kg. If I was squatting 120kg and the guy waiting on the rack was massive I wouldn't just leave it because "he will probably warm up with that"

UCDVet

Alf Veedersane wrote: »

No one goes and puts a load of plates on for their first set.

If someone deadlifts 180kg they're first set might be 80kg or 100kg. I don't deadlift very much, so my *last set* might be 80kg. If I unload the whole bar and lead it empty, then the next guy comes along and puts all the same plates back up + 20kg, well, it's kind of wasteful.

UCDVet

conzy wrote: »

Even the biggest dudes start with the bar or 60kg. If I was squatting 120kg and the guy waiting on the rack was massive I wouldn't just leave it because "he will probably warm up with that"

So if I'm finishing with 60kg - why not leave it?

brownej

UCDVet wrote: »

If someone deadlifts 180kg they're first set might be 80kg or 100kg. I don't deadlift very much, so my *last set* might be 80kg. If I unload the whole bar and lead it empty, then the next guy comes along and puts all the same plates back up + 20kg, well, it's kind of wasteful.

Thats assuming the next guy wants to deadlift in that space. He may want to do something else like curlzzzz or squats (if there's squatstands).

UCDVet

UCDVet wrote: »

So if I'm finishing with 60kg - why not leave it?

You don't know who's going to use it next
And if you do know you can ask hey will i leave this on or unload

UCDVet

brownej wrote: »

Thats assuming the next guy wants to deadlift in that space. He may want to do something else like curlzzzz or squats (if there's squatstands).

Sure.

My point isn't that I can read the mind of the next person to use the bar. I'm saying that I don't think the empty bar is most likely to be nearest to the weight they want to use.

It would make the most sense to leave the bar with the most likely weight. That would require the least amount of removing / adding weight. That target amount would probably vary a lot from gym to gym, I'm sure there are some more serious gyms where they average person is lifting a lot of weights, and more laid back gyms where maybe the empty bar would be optimal.

UCDVet

bluewolf wrote: »

You don't know who's going to use it next
And if you do know you can ask hey will i leave this on or unload

Exactly. We don't know who is going to use it next. Why do we assume that 0 weight is better for them than 5kg on each side? Or 10kg on each side?

I rarely ever see anyone using just the bar at the gym I go to. So it seems like, you'd have a higher chance of being closer to the ideal weight requirement of the next user by leaving *some* amount of weight on the bar.

I used to go to a small gym years back and the convention there was that everyone would empty the bars down to just one plate on each side. Except for the rack on the far left. The rack on the far left was meant for lighter weights. It also had more of the tiny plates near it, and the racks on the right side were left with one plate on each side.

It seemed like a good system, better than completely emptying it.

brownej

UCDVet wrote: »

Sure.

My point isn't that I can read the mind of the next person to use the bar. I'm saying that I don't think the empty bar is most likely to be nearest to the weight they want to use.

It would make the most sense to leave the bar with the most likely weight. That would require the least amount of removing / adding weight. That target amount would probably vary a lot from gym to gym, I'm sure there are some more serious gyms where they average person is lifting a lot of weights, and more laid back gyms where maybe the empty bar would be optimal.

Your point appears to be that you don't want to strip the bar.

At the gym I attend there is a rule that "all weights must be returned to the rack, failure to do so will result in you being asked to leave the gym". (as I started to type, the automated recording they have just played in my head and I typed it all out).
This is not strictly enforced so bars do get left loaded. This is annoying for 2 reasons.
1. It can appear that the euipment is still in use and it slows turnover.
2. I hate having to strip the damn bar.

From my observations in the gym I am not the only one who starts with an empty bar. 95% of my workout will be with a loaded bar but the start will always be an empty bar.

LuckyLloyd

Leaving aside all other questions, you're there to move and get stronger. Putting away your plates and dumbells and bars is only a positive. And at the end of the day, from a safety perspective unused equipment SHOULD be tidied away off the gym floor.

UCDVet

brownej wrote: »

Your point appears to be that you don't want to strip the bar.

At the gym I attend there is a rule that "all weights must be returned to the rack, failure to do so will result in you being asked to leave the gym". (as I started to type, the automated recording they have just played in my head and I typed it all out).
This is not strictly enforced so bars do get left loaded. This is annoying for 2 reasons.
1. It can appear that the euipment is still in use and it slows turnover.
2. I hate having to strip the damn bar.

From my observations in the gym I am not the only one who starts with an empty bar. 95% of my workout will be with a loaded bar but the start will always be an empty bar.

No, I'm not against stripping the bar completely. I just feel like it's probably not the optimal solution. Ideally we would want to minimize the amount of weight that is taken off / added to the bar, since nobody enjoys loading/unloading weight. If you are going to lift 3 sets of:

10 + bar + 10
20 + bar + 20
30 + bar + 30

and I'm going to do

0 + bar + 0
10 + bar + 10
10 + bar + 10

If you strip the bar when you are done - you are removing 60kg and I'm stripping 20kg when I finish. That's 80kg.

If you strip it down to 10 + bar + 10 - you'd remove 40kg and I'd remove 20kg to get to the empty bar when I start. And I'd leave 10 + bar + 10 for the next person. That's a total of 60kg.

We'd reduce the amount of weight added/removed by 20kg. This could be further improved by having 'light' and 'heavy' sections of the gym. And it would make it a lot easier for working in too, if had a general idea of where other people who use the amounts of weight you use are likely to be. Naturally this doesn't work in a small gym with one bar, but for a large gym it makes a lot of sense. Though, I doubt we'd see such a system in place any time soon.

Now, certainly, we can construct fictional examples all day long that would show anything we want. But if we were to sit at a particular gym and pay attention we could calculate what the optimal amount is. I'm pretty sure it's not an empty bar, but I'll admit I haven't done any such study, so I'm just guessing.

As for the 'equipment in use' - you can tell if it's in use or not by the clips. If you are using the equipment, the bar should have clips on it. When you are done, you remove the clips. So a bar with 15kg on each side and no clips means == open for business.

Zombienosh

UCDVet wrote: »

since nobody enjoys loading/unloading weight

But what if i dont want to remove the clips?!

Gummy Panda

I leave 60kg on the bar and walk off like a boss

UCDVet

Zombienosh wrote: »

I don't understand this post?
brownej said he hates to strip the bar and I've never once seen anyone at the gym just adding and removing weight for the sake of doing so. They do it to reach the weight they want, then exercise with it.

Are you implying that some people really like to put weight on and off of the bar?