More Gym Stories

Today a fellow powerlifter told me a fantastic story that I had to post before going into work.  We will call him Joe to protect his identity.  He was training last week and noticed a fairly muscular gentleman moving some weight on the bench.  The man completed his warm ups and started progressively getting heavier and heavier lifts as is the routine with the bench.  Joe didn't think much of it.  Then the man took a fairly large jump.  He went from 225lbs to 315lbs and asked a few of the kids in the room to spot him.  The kids were fairly new to the gym and walked to both sides of the bench.  They prepared to take the side each was on in case of a problem.  Joe stopped his workout for a moment to watch in silence.  More seasoned folks know how to spot the bench and it looked like there was going to be some hilarity in the room.  After a brief try with the two kids on each end, our bencher called it off and barely got the weight racked without blowing his rotator cuffs from the newbian spot.  He looked over and saw Joe training and asked, "Could you spot me"?

"I could", was the cool reply.

They set up and Joe gave the lift off.  Our bencher took the weight down and seemingly paused it perfectly.  Everyone , including Joe, was impressed ... until the bar didn't come back up. 

"a ... ah ... little ... help .... p", the bencher spit out.

Immediately everyone pulled the bar off of the man.  As he rose from the bench he stated, "Yeah!  I haven't done this weight for a couple of weeks."  

He said it in an "as a matter of fact" kind of tone and continued his workout on the cable crossovers.  Joe stifled the laugh in his throat and finished his training.

The moral of the story is this.  It's OK to get under weight that is too heavy for you from time to time.  It helps to get stronger.  There really isn't much need to go overboard with this though.  If you can only do a couple of plates then shoot for a quarter more.  Another friend of mine always says, "Ego grows faster than muscle."  I would add that ego heals faster too.