I was at a fitness facility a few weeks ago and (aside from people half squatting, which drives me insane), there was a guy making lots of noise. He was in his forties, and every single movement (whether he was picking something up off the ground or completing a rep) was accompanied by “Eeeeeeeeeeeeh, sahhhhhhhhh!”. When you say the “Eeeeh!” part, make it come from the depths of your throat without the guttural addition — kinda like when an umpire calls a strike (“Streeeeeeeeeh!”). The second part, the “sahhhhh”, is comparable to the noise you might make after taking a sip of delicious beer (mmm, beer). However, you add on the sharp “s” noise at the beginning which is comparable to the beginning of the word “sayonara” (the Japanese word that has become slang for “see you later, mother trucker”). Both of the sounds were done at a decibel level equal to that of an exuberant third-strike-umpire, and it was audible across the facility.
Only people with three arms are allowed to do front raises
I would consider this unacceptable even if he was doing a heavy set of squats, but the guy was doing…front dumbbell raises. This irrelevant exercise doesn’t garner enough energy to emit strange sounds, much less warranting the noise of an intense Karate fight. Making excessive noise in a fitness facility, “gym”, or gym is lame because it means you want attention. If you were wanting attention, you could roll your sleeves up and wear shirts with jewels, crosses, and skulls on them like everybody else.
Non-excessive noise is acceptable if and only if you are experiencing high intensity. This would require a high percentage of your max or lots of reps (i.e. > 10) with a significant percentage of your max. I’ve grunted when lifting before, but I think the only time I’ve ever screamed was when I hurt my back at the bottom of a rep and squatted it up so I didn’t kill Chris and the other spotter. If you’re in a public facility, yelling unnecessarily is annoying and stupid. If you’re in your own facility then yelling is not only acceptable, but encouraged. Excessive yelling should be accompanied by loud Led Zeppelin, round house kicks, and big weights. If you are yelling about a light day, then you are saying, “Look at me! I have a teeny peeny!”
Image from Little Britain, a British comedy show that is better than whatever you watch on TV.
First.
Also, three-armed dumbbell front raises are one of my favorite assistance exercises.
Except I do them with my wang.
I lol’d because you hit submit on the first comment, then thought about it, and then added this comment.
–Justin
And you’d better not grunt at Planet Fitness or the douche bag alarm will go off!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQ6OrO1f610
Notice how the guy demonstrates his 500-pound half squat and how typically out of shape the gym manager is.
I think there’s another video out there of a guy flipping out (and I think throwing something) when the grunting alarm goes off.
Also, there was a guy at my college gym who we called “The Screaming Panda.” He was this huge asian guy with lots of gray spots in his hair who would scream at the top of his lungs on every half rep on the bench. I once overheard him saying, “you know, people may not like it, but I can usually get out an extra two or three reps with my scream.” Too bad this guy never did an actual full motion rep in his life. Life lesson: people who scream in the gym for no reason never get laid.
Screaming should never be done on non-full reps. Ever.
–Justin
Oh how I laugh hysterically every time I see something regarding this matter.
A friend of mine works in the weight room at our college and both her and I make jokes about this guy who does preacher curls, seated cable bicep curls using a bench to isolate dem ‘ceps brah, and round backed belted rows with i dont even think 135 off a slight rise along with other hilarious stuff. the relevancy to this post is that the excessive noise he makes reminds me of a cat moaning in pain. seriously, wtf!?!? We call him “moaning guy”.
Nice post, I know it shouldn’t bother me and I should just focus on my own lifts, but 160 pounders strutting around and screaming during 3 plate Smith machine quarter squats pisses me off to no end.
If you are looking for ideas, how about the merits of strict reps vs. reps with a little english (e.g. a little hip drive during a press and a little lower back lift during a BBR)?
It is too bad that AC does not know the delicious joy that is beer.
And yelling, loud Zep, and roundhouse kicks?? If you added hatchet throwing and singlets to that list, I would think you were talking about my gym, Justin.
This guy I recently met in the gym informed me that his room-mates thought I was a fag for grunting during my lifts.
He mentioned that when they saw me squat they were vexed at my grunts. This, most likely coming from kids who can’t squat over 225 fyi, pisses me off beyond belief.
And KittenSmash, I continuously try new beers almost every time someone with me orders one. Give me a beer that doesn’t taste like garbage and I will surely drink one with you someday.
Dude you obviously have not tried natty light or busch yet, they are the Bayst. Brotonimo bay just come over tomorrow and we can party but don’t tell Justin, he does not know what that means…Rated R
–criley3434
@AC
I’m going to go ahead and say that guy is a fag for calling you a fag. I haven’t called someone a fag in like 8 years…
I’m going through and commenting on the PR Friday comments, so if you posted something with a question, you can go back to check your answers.
Also, let me clarify that when I say I don’t have anything to post, I’m not out of material to write about. It’s just that some nights I am not going to sit down for an hour or two and write out a detailed/informative and humorous post to entertain/educate because it takes too much time. It just means that I don’t have any pictures or videos to do a quick post with. A quick post is just something I show you and say “look at this” while saying a few words about it. It takes me between 5 and 20 minutes. I’m not going to write the longer posts every day because A) that takes a lot of time and B) I would use up a lot of material that could be spread out over a week or several weeks.
Anyway, videos/pictures of you lifting, cool lifting videos, or various things related to the concept of 70’s Big is where I’m hurting. The questions I get in comments and e-mail have fueled post ideas lately, but they take a while to type.
This is one of the main reasons i left my YMCA. The guy doing db bench 1/2 reps with 60 lb dbs is allowed to drop the weights and yell at the top of his lungs, but a little noise from a deadlift is not allowed. Im not letting go of the weight from the top, but slowly bringing it down. I was asked to stop my lift and put the weights away and move onto another exercise, while Mr. Halfreps kept dropping his dbs. I even put in a request to get a platform so that the noise will be minimized, but i got the response “We cant afford that with our current budget”. Their latest update was 8 new treadmills, a couple stationary bikes and the latest cardio fd machines. Im 100% sure a cheap platform would be cheaper than any 1 of these cardio machines.
Luckily, my new gym has bumper plates, hammer strength stuff(for the lulz.), GHR and 2 SQUAT RACKS and supplies its own chalk. Now thats what i call a training facility. It is a bit more expensive than the Young Molesters of Children in America, but its well worth the price.
I scream FUCK YEAH! at the absolute top of my lungs when I lock out a squat. Every time. Even warm-ups.
You suck, Justin. I fucking scream in the gym all the time, and I am awesome.
I train at a real facility and one of our powerlifting team likes to yell something that sounds like ‘PAPAYA’ before big attempts. we joke with him about it but, its cool especially because its alot of weight.
It seems to help him get ‘in the zone’ which might be something worth posting about Justin, like when you get super focused and ignore everything and just lift, like a 3rd party experience or not remembering an attempt that some people talk about
Grunting when you lift is a bad habit that you’ll want to break yourself of.
I let out a low grunt while I was carrying my girlfriend from the couch to the bedroom once. She scowled and said, “What? Are you trying to say I’m too fat to carry Mr. Weightlifter?”
I said “No”, but my face said “Actually, you’re about 80% of my front-squat max”. So in a last-ditch effort to prove she wasn’t fat and maintain “the mood”, I tried to lift her overhead. I failed miserably. I didn’t lock my arms out and I stuck her head right in the ceiling fan.
On another note, here is a video of a girl schooling some bro on squats. She’s using the same weight as the dude in the background.
Justin, you made this comment about alternating rack pulls and haltings
“If you have opted to alternate the two, 5kg jumps would be a minimum since you’re doing each exercise twice a month. I still think this is an advanced programming method, and every person I know that has done it hasn’t liked it (including me, Chris, AC, and maybe Brent). That isn’t to say that either exercise is bad — they are both good ones but it isn’t optimal for most people.
–Justin”
I wasn’t aware of this.
I was just advised to take this approach if my deadlift stalled. Which it did at around 170kg for 5.
What other options are there?
Ultimately i just want to get my deadlift up to 250kg, so my clean and jerk and snatch are less embaressing.
I e-mailed you.
–Justin
A guy once asked me and a friend to spot him on the bench, then proceeded to scream like he was giving birth as he ground out something like 60kg for a single. I’ve never felt so self-conscious in a gym, everybody was looking round at us with some seriout ‘wtf’ expressions.
My gym has lamaze guy and jizz guy, in particular. Lamaze guy does 185lb front squats for a billon sets of three and breathes like he’s giving birth. Jizz guy sounds like he’s blowing a massive load on every rep, and he uses every machine my gym has.
Justin,
I think it could be cool to see what sort of lifting setups people are rolling with. Especially but not limited to garage gyms, I’m sure there’s some pretty cool p/lifting, oly, etc gyms out there.
I’ve just made some improvements to my shed gym so it should be fine for 99% of what I need now. I’d be happy to send in some photos if that’d be an easy post for you.
Adam.
@MKingW-
Especially seeing how the “man” is wearing gloves and using a padded bar for his 1/4 squats.
throwing stuff gets another meaning:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cB_vlaP-3uo
don’t want to be too distracted by italian beauty then skip till 3.00, too be on topic there is some screaming/grunting
Justin-
I don’t scream, grunt or yell when I lift, but I do sometimes let out a hiss at about the 80% point of a dead lift until I finish the lift.
My question is — what is the deal with slapping the glutes/hams/quads before a ME squat or DL? Does it it really “help” anything?
Y’know, the rule that I’ve always tried to follow was you let your weights do the talking for you. That and if I lose deadlifts, it’s usually grip strength, so I’ve been guilty of dropping before.
The one exception to this is rep 15+ of 20RM squats… Because by that point you’re in so much pain you’ve stopped caring.
This is not directed at any one person, but just an irritation with certain aspects of writing on the topic.
I’m not going to go and look at every situation and give your or remove your permission to make noise in a gym. All I’m saying is that excessive noise makes you a prick, and if you’re making noise to make noise (because you think that you are cool with your unconventional workout methods), then that makes you a loser.
Of course there are reasons for making noise, and there is utility in certain noises amplifying mechanics. When a guy is forcefully exhaling on the reverse fly machine (for rear delts), that clearly shows the permeation of shitty fitness advice into the layman. Not to mention the guy I described in my opening paragraph was literally going, “EEEEEEEEEEH SAHHHHHHHHHHH”, and this could be heard 30 to 40 yards away.
In any case, a person can do whatever they want, but if they act like a jackass, I’m going to refer to them as such.
I love you, Justin. I really, really do. I never ever use a reverse fly machine. I don’t even know what the fuck that is. The fact is, I am an obnoxious attention whore. That doesn’t prevent most people from enjoying my company, especially when training. I get my shit done, even in my sequined booty shorts yelling about how awesome I am.
Here’s an apropos use of “yelling” to get that lift out.
BTW, I didn’t see this machine in Starting Strength’s assistance exercise…. third edition maybe?
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=81734562543978851#
I do a weird little almost involuntary grunt at the beginning of every rep i do. it helps me explode, probably just psychologically, but it does. i definitely make alot of noise pulling and squatting especially. i am also helping a buddy of mine get going, and i’ve noticed that when he’s more in the zone, he tends to make a noise like an elephant while pulling. it’s real loud and funny. i make fun of him for it, but if it’s just a side affect of him being in a certain mental zone that helps him lift better, i hope he never stops. i say if youre doing any real lift, yell all you want… do it naked for all i care.
Both of those things are examples of increasing the pressure in the trunk by expelling air through through a tight opening (glottis, tongue/teeth, lips, etc.). They are sometimes necessary in intense sets.
–Justin
i did not know there was an actual physical effect going on… but it makes total sense now that you say it. thanks!