Pointing out poor gym form - a no-no?

It depends. When I first started out going to gyms years ago the place was full of full on body builder dudes but they'd often correct my form or give me tips. I thought it was nice of them and they had the bodies to back up what they were talking about. If you were some out of shape gobsh*te I'd probably think otherwise.

You need to be sure what you're correcting.

I remember when me and my mates were starting out in the gym and were all skinny whippets, we were doing a tricep exercise with the EZ curl bar. Some big, bodybuilder bloke comes over and says don't do that, use this and hands my mate the tricep bar.

It makes it a totally different exercise.

Only offer advice in the gym if you're specifically asked, or if the person is clearly looking around for someone to ask for help, especially if you don't know 100% what you're talking about. If the gym employs staff, the staff should be keeping an eye out for people potentially injuring themselves and making suggestions so that they don't put in a claim and ruin the gym for the rest of us

Woke Hogan wrote: »

If a car that might run them over was coming I would say "watch out," yes. So would anyone else. So should everyone, I should think.

All this "I would only offer advice if I was asked" stuff is cowardice and pathetically non-confrontational. If someone is risking injury, and you're capable of preventing it, you have a responsibility to intervene.

I'm responsible for myself in the gym. If I see someone failing or who needs help getting out from under a barbell cos they've failed on a lift I'll help of course, but I'm not there to keep an eye out for other peoples form. That's what they pay staff to do. Additionally you should only really offer advice if you actually know what you're talking about, which the OP has said he doesn't.

Boom_Bap wrote: »

There isn't a rule book for any of this. Read the situation and make a judgement call.

Just don't have your hands down your shorts while doing it

This is sort of my take too. I'll point out to people I know in the gym when they're doing something wrong, but it's easy to come across as condescending, especially if it's someone you don't know.

A lot of people have pointed out that you should leave the staff point it out to them. A friend of a friend is a qualified personal trainer and apparently they're told that if they see someone with bad form, even if they're likely to injure themselves, to leave them off. They're only to intervene if the person asks for advice or if they're going to injure someone else.

I go to a coached gym session three or four times a week - been going to the same one for nearly 8 years. It's mostly regulars but of course there will be new people from time to time. More than once I've had to drop what I was doing and dart over to lift a bar off someone who tried to bench press or back squat more weight than they could handle. Sometimes I also see people getting some of the post-workout stretches wrong - it's clear that they haven't quite grasped what they were shown after their first session and are likely to hurt themselves as a result. I have no problem offering advice/assistance to either males or females in those circumstances, especially with free weights - e.g. someone attempting a back squat and tipping forward, or trying to bench press a weight they're able to lift off the rack but can't manage to push back up and then get stuck with it on their chest or even rolling towards their neck.

Sometimes people get the movement wrong because they've simply forgotten or misunderstood what they've just been told by the coach and he's gone for a moment to work with someone else. Sometimes it happens because the person has simply ignored the instructions they were given! For a myriad of social/cultural reasons, I think there's a higher proportion of women than men who've simply never been in a gym before, so there will be a greater likelihood of uncertainty/lack of confidence in those for whom this is the case. Some women can also find it a bit intimidating to be in a mixed gym, especially if there are a lot of Arnie lookalikes lumbering around the place. Obviously you don't want to exacerbate any sense of discomfort here, but if you're generally able to talk to women without coming across as condescending/arrogant/whatever, hopefully doing so in the gym will be no different.

If you're not sure how your unsolicited advice will be taken you can simply ask "how are you finding that?" or words to that effect, but IMO there's no harm in giving a gentle reminder along the lines of "Sorry, just in case you end up hurting yourself I think you might want to ask the coach to have a look at how you're doing that." Any time I say something like that (to either a male or a female), what invariably happens then is that the person will either say straight away that they're struggling with it, or will ask my advice on what I think they need to change, which I'm happy to give but which I always follow up with a reminder to check with the coach. I think it's generally pretty clear that I'm just trying to be helpful - if the person doesn't want my help, no problem.

Tell her to buy Starting Strength and leave it at that.

Can I ask how did you notice her bad form?

anewme wrote: »

As a woman, mind your own business.

Yea but women ain't got a hive mind. If it prevents a serious injury?

If you are an expert.

Bear in mind though men and women have different bodies and women are actually MEANT to do a lot of exercises very differently.

We are hip and quad dominant. We tend to overuse our quads a lot.