Please Scroll Down to See Forums Below 
uamaverick
New member
I had a funny experience today at the rec center on campus. There's a tiny side room with 2 squat racks and a DL area, all covered with rubber mats. The gym only has 2 rubber 45 lb plates and the rest is your standard plates. We're doing deads for the last thing today and one of the guys who works there walks over to us.
"Hey you can't be doing that in this room."
"What?"
"You need to be a little more careful going down if you're going to deadlift here."
"But we're not dropping the weights at all, it's just making some noise."
"It's going to damage the plates."
"I don't see any signs saying no deadlifting in this room."
"They're all over the place."
"No, they're not. I see no signs indicating a certain level of delicacy when DL'ing on these mats"
"I know the sign says 'Power Room', but if you want to lift heavy like that you need to go somewhere else."
"I've never heard anybody saying doing deads on this kind of mat will damage plates, even if you drop them from lock out position."
"I've been a strength and conditioning coach here for 10 years. I've had enough experience to know this isn't proper deadlifting equipment."
"I'm not trying to be a smartaleck, I'm just saying if you don't want deads here, there needs to be a specific sign saying so. Kinda silly to have a sign saying 'Power Room' when you can't do a power lift."
"You can do deadlifts, you just can't drop the weight like that on these mats, they're not made for this."
At this point I wanted to laugh at him. The mats aren't olympic mats, but they offer plenty of support to ensure that neither the floor nor plates are damaged. I've seen countless videos of people pulling on these exact types of mats, with the exact types of plates. We weren't dropping the weights from lock-out, either, but you know when you're lifting heavy it's kinda hard to worry about being quiet instead of trying to get all your reps.
If there was a sign indicating a certain level of care required for doing deads in that room, I would have no problem with it, but this guy was talking down to me like I had just started lifting last week. I didn't feel the need to tell him my 10+ years of experience in weight lifting and bodybuilding, but apparently he's a big man and is the premier source for strength training in the entire state.
I hope I wasn't out of line, and tried to be courteous, but I'll gladly pay $20 a month to go to a gym in town where throwing weights around is ok, and the rules are clearly stated.
"Hey you can't be doing that in this room."
"What?"
"You need to be a little more careful going down if you're going to deadlift here."
"But we're not dropping the weights at all, it's just making some noise."
"It's going to damage the plates."
"I don't see any signs saying no deadlifting in this room."
"They're all over the place."
"No, they're not. I see no signs indicating a certain level of delicacy when DL'ing on these mats"
"I know the sign says 'Power Room', but if you want to lift heavy like that you need to go somewhere else."
"I've never heard anybody saying doing deads on this kind of mat will damage plates, even if you drop them from lock out position."
"I've been a strength and conditioning coach here for 10 years. I've had enough experience to know this isn't proper deadlifting equipment."
"I'm not trying to be a smartaleck, I'm just saying if you don't want deads here, there needs to be a specific sign saying so. Kinda silly to have a sign saying 'Power Room' when you can't do a power lift."
"You can do deadlifts, you just can't drop the weight like that on these mats, they're not made for this."
At this point I wanted to laugh at him. The mats aren't olympic mats, but they offer plenty of support to ensure that neither the floor nor plates are damaged. I've seen countless videos of people pulling on these exact types of mats, with the exact types of plates. We weren't dropping the weights from lock-out, either, but you know when you're lifting heavy it's kinda hard to worry about being quiet instead of trying to get all your reps.
If there was a sign indicating a certain level of care required for doing deads in that room, I would have no problem with it, but this guy was talking down to me like I had just started lifting last week. I didn't feel the need to tell him my 10+ years of experience in weight lifting and bodybuilding, but apparently he's a big man and is the premier source for strength training in the entire state.
I hope I wasn't out of line, and tried to be courteous, but I'll gladly pay $20 a month to go to a gym in town where throwing weights around is ok, and the rules are clearly stated.
.
