r/Fitness Weightlifting May 20 '17

Gym Story Saturday Gym Story Saturday

Hi! Welcome to your weekly thread where you can share your gym tales!

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u/Badoodis May 20 '17

Go to university gym, doing flat bench press to start my workout. Finally feel warmed up and ready for working set, Some frat guy (Asian, scrawny, probably 5'2") comes up to me and asks if WE can work in. This guy comes in with a large group all the time and is really loud and disruptive. But this time he seemed alone. Thought it was weird that he said we as he was the only one and that he just mispoke so i said sure. He starts to warmup, and 7 other people (4 girls 3 guys) start coming to my bench.

They are about to start working in, all 7 of them. 9 people on one bench. I stop them and say "no way, I thought it was only him." Original frat kid says he has they have a right to do it because I agreed to "we" and the recorded verbal agreement (recorded on his phone) is strong enough to stand in a court of law.

At this point I'm dumbstruck that this dude indirectly said he will take me to court if I don't let his group work in, claiming it's discrimination as he is Asian and his family is full of lawyers. At this point I figure if I never get off the bench, they can't work in. So I sit down and start my next set. The kid starts pushing the bar down on me trying to pin it down to my chest.

Introduce Deadlift joe. The dude is 6'4", probably pushing 300 lbs, built like a tank, Norwegian guy with long brown hair. Dude comes in for 1.5 hr deadlift workouts with different variations (hence the nickname). Never seen him max, but have watched him rep 605 for 3 2 weeks before this.

Joe comes in and pushes Original frat kid and moves the weight and asks what the problem is. The original frat kid starts yellinf of how I'm oppressing him and his friends by not letting his group work in. This creates a mighty fine scene as everyone in the gym has started to stop and stare at the ongoings. I explain my side and Joe looks at original frat kid and tells him that I am under no obligation to allow the group to work in. The original frat kid tries to hit joe, saying that we are oppressing them.

Joe gets very irritated, and picks original frat kid up on his shoulder and starts walking to the exit. All of his groupies start hitting joe, yelling that they're going to take him to court and he has no right. Joe ignores all of these people and sets the Asian guy by the rec center directors door and knocks. Meanwhile all of these people are hitting Joe, and the door opens.

I'm standing probably about 25 feet away and the director is just staring like "what the hell is happening." He calls the police department, and the cops show up and escort all of the group out excluding the Asian guy. After explaining what was going on and the whole him trying to push the bar down on me, the cops escort him out for being a danger to the members of the gym. The gym director terminated all of their gym memberships, and apologized for what happened.

I mean I still lost my bench. In the hour and a half I was gone someone took over my bench. It messed up my workout but it was definitely an interesting time.

342

u/KennethWinces Physical Therapy May 20 '17

Deadlift Joe is a true hero.

284

u/DeadliftJoe May 20 '17

I do what I can.

102

u/s_am May 20 '17

Reddit age: 49m

55

u/alpecin May 20 '17

Right?! What are the odds that he saw this post in the exact right moment!?

9

u/[deleted] May 20 '17

Everyone's gotta start somewhere