Might as well do my first post here.
My roommate and I are about to finish our first 12 week 5 x 5 cycle, which has been tough, but a blast. Both he and I have been strength training off and on for years, but doing the usual splits and so on. Needless to say, we have been blown away by our progress and are quite looking forward to more advanced periodization schemes and such (our goal is to get into oly lifting). At any rate, we have been very serious about having our form correct from day one. We are constantly critiquing one another, making notes of weaknesses, and generally enjoying the fruits of our labor. However, a biproduct of all of this has been to become more acutely aware of what everyone else is doing in the gym than I think we ever have. It's almost like one of those magic eye posters from the nineties - out of all the chaos squat-rack-curl guy is now clearly visible, as is bench-press-and-bis-man, along with all of the other usual stereotypes. However, one guy takes the cake.
I call him Nipples because he always has on a muscle shirt with so little fabric over the shoulder that has somewhat flabby teets are constantly wandering from underneath their cotton confines. This is the guy who wears a weight belt and lifting straps on a night where he does nothing but inclines - and I mean A LOT of inclines. Inclines on smith, free, hammersmith, and finally dumbbells. When he can no longer lift anymore, he has a tendency to try to keep going for set after set, either giving some poor spotter quite a deadlift workout or simply relaxing on a bench whilst letting the weight rest on his lap, until, in a herculean roar, dumping the weight as loudly as possible.
The most obscene thing I have ever scene in a gym was Nipples deadlifting. After some unusually awful sets of 275 with a rounded upper back, Nipples decides it is time to tackle 365. What transpired there after wasn't really even funny; it was horrifying. I'll go ahead and say he didn't visibly injure himself; it was still painful to watch. Nipples gets his weight on the bar, then proceeds to LOOSEN his weight belt. I guess he didn't want that cumbersome belt getting in the way. Next he chalked his hands, which would be fine, if he didn't then put his lifting straps back on. He gets the straps affixed, gets down deep, and begins this monstrosity of a lift. It is clear that it is much too much weight for him. Though his starting position was fine, before the bar even gets to his knees his upper back is bowed. With his knees still bent and back rounded, he get on his tip toes on one foot and begind wratcheting the weight up, shrugging one shoulder at a time in an effort to raise the bar to his hips.
At this point, my roommate and I are whincing. I've never seen someone do EVERYTHING wrong in unision. We were actually getting ready to walk over there and do anything because it was clear he was about to rip his spine clear out of his back. Well, with a final yank and blood curddling scream, Nipples got it up. He then dropped it and limped, yes, limped around in celebration like the king of Siam for about 10 minutes.
About three days ago he made it a point to do squats in the middle of the gym. With 135 on the bar, he was power cleaning it, then pressing it behind his shoulders. He'd then do 4 ass-to-grass squats (I have to give him credit where it is due), then drop the bar, in the middle of 5 other people trying to do their own routines. Now, ithis would be somewhat understandable, besides the fact that he had to do it in the center of the room instead of safely off to the side, had there not been two squat racks and two power racks available. It was such a clear case of "look-at-me" that it was just stupid. After a couple of sets of squats he moved to regular cleans - with one problem. He can't front squat 135! After all of his ludicrous attention getting, I watch him nearly kill himself in the hole three times before I just died laughing. The deadlifts, strutting, and attention-getting antics all rushed through my head at once. (I should add that he also loves to put as much as 275 on a bar, never actually do anything with it, and then just wander off leaving all the weight on the equipment). I just cracked up. He saw me I guess because he threw the 135 across a bench and left. Class act. I try to never ridicule or laugh at anyone who is trying to learn because I know exactly what it is like to be the newbie in a gym, but when you make it a point to call attention to yourself, you are just asking for it.
Please Scroll Down to See Forums Below 
