Frightening Encounters

Two years ago, I wrote a newsletter in the spirit of Halloween, sharing some of the scariest things I’ve seen and heard in the gym. I thought I’d share it again, and add to that list here. After all, I’ve had two more years of frightening encounters, and I love nothing more than a good scary story.

I share in no particular terrifying order. Beware! Debunks follow!

“Your knees should never pass your toes when you squat” Oooh. Starting off with a scary one indeed. You’ll hear this frequently in group fitness classes, or from people who have no business instructing others on how to squat, let alone move. In short, here’s why this is categorically untrue. If you place your focus on keeping your knees behind your toes as you lower into a squat, you will end up shifting your center of gravity forward, thus putting too much strain on your lumbar spine, which no one should do, ever.

Biceps curls in the squat rack. Please, please don’t do this, or everyone will hate you. You should never take up a squat rack to do something you can do LITERALLY ANYWHERE ELSE in the gym. It’s not cool and you will be the recipient of many dirty looks.

“I wasn’t sore at all after that [class/workout] so it didn’t work” AGHHHH. Just no. As your body gets stronger, something happens known as muscular adaptation. You will not, and SHOULD NOT, be sore every time you work out. The only reasonable explanation for being sore after every workout would be if you are someone who doesn’t work out enough and your body has not adapted to the stimulus. This just means you need to work out more. Plain and simple.

Ankle weights. These were a thing in the 80s, and they should have stayed there, along with stirrup pants and side ponytails. Show me an exercise you do with ankle weights and I will gladly show you what you should be doing instead.

“I don’t need to train legs because I run” Nope. That’s actually all the more reason you should train legs, so you can KEEP running. If you run, and you would like to continue doing so, please for the love of all that is good and strong, train lower body to strengthen your glutes/quads, etc.

“Walking is enough exercise to keep you fit as you age” Don’t get me wrong, I’m a huge advocate of getting my steps in, but walking is simply not enough to keep you fit. Starting in your 30s, muscle mass progressively declines, so there needs to be a focus on strength training. When people lose the strength, or muscular power, to do daily activities, they lose their independence. Start with at least two 30 minute strength sessions a week and build from there.