Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Zulethe]

Any of you lifters out there get tired of the constant "help" you get from the personal trainer at your gym?

Not to brag but just to give you an idea of my stats. I'm 6'4" 260 pounds and I used to play college football albeit D-II.

I can bench press 350 on any given day and pretty much squat whatever I want.

Every day I go to my gym, there is this personal trainer who wants to "show" me how it's done. Not only don't I want nor need his help. It's just that my knowledge of weight lifting is pretty good and anybody who�s been lifting weights for years has already gone through the different routines so he/she knows what works and what doesn't.

I'm a don't touch the bar until it's crushing my chest kind of lifter. And if you do happen to spot me, please make me do the work. This one trainer constantly comes over and starts assisting me way before I even start to become fatigued.

I not only find it annoying but rather insulting. If this guy had superhuman strength, I might be inclined to listen to him but he is weak (relative to me).

Pretty much everything I do, whether it be the squat, bench, or what have you. He always rushes over to give me unwanted pointers.

An example of his annoying pointers. I sometimes do half reps with very heavy weight. He always insists that I go all the way down with the lift. So If Im doing preacher curls or benching. He'll come over and "assist" me with the lift.

I feel like telling him, when you can bench 350 lbs, come and talk to me. It's like having a Korean English teacher correcting your English.

I have two theories about this. 1) He does so to show the others in the gym how knowledgeable he is and that he knows more than the big bad foreigner. I never see him helping others in the gym unless it's a paid session.

2) He genuinely wants to help me with my lifting techniques. Remember everybody is different so only each individual knows what works and what doesn't for him/her.

On Saturday I got kind of pissed. I've been nice up until now but I was having a great bench day and on my last set I was just about to get my last rep up when guess what happened? The motivation sucker came along.

Anyway, just wondering if anyone else has experienced this and what have you done?

[Chet Wautlands]

Hey!

I've been in a similar situation before. This one Korean guy would try to correct my form on tricep pull downs... I think that's the name for it. Anyway, the method he was trying to show me was the textbook example, but I've never gotten much out of it. I was doing a slight variation that was a great finishing exercise. What I did was tell him that I like it this way and then quickly changed the subject.

He wasn't a bad guy, we actually got along pretty well. I was, however, the only foreigner at the gym in a city that doesn't have too many foreigners. So, I think it was just a way of being helpful and welcoming. While I'm not a strong as you, I was a lot stronger than the guy offering to help me. He was just being kind.

So, I guess you could tell him that you have your own techniques. I'm assuming either you speak Korean or he speaks some English. Let him know you like to do it a certain way, and then, to punctuate the point, flex that muscle to show him your results. He'll get the hint and won't be insulted.

BTW, 350 is awesome man. I've never gotten past 200 myself. Keep rocking it!

[afsjesse]

Two phrases might do you good. Albeit not the kindest things to say.

하지마 - hajima "stop it"

거저 - gojo (go-joe) "go away"

[Jeff's Cigarettes]

Does he pat you on the butt? That I find annoying.

[aka Dave]

Koreans don't seem to know how to spot properly.

Direct quote from Rippetoe's Starting Strength (original in bold):

No rep counts that is touched by anybody other than the lifter. No spotter touches a bar that is still moving up.

Occasionally I'll need a spot for my bench, and I'll ask one of the students at my Uni gym. Invariably they will try to "help" me with my reps (they do this with each other, for no good reason). Getting them to lay off the bar (politely, mind you, they are helping me) takes some effort.

Another time, a guy who said he worked at a gym watched me power clean and front squat. He then suggested I use the Smith machine (!) and did barely a half-squat.

I actually loaned Starting Strength to one of my students, and he enjoyed it, but said Koreans don't do a lot of barbell lifting. I imagine they'll come around, as barbells are gaining popularity back home.

[sojourner1]

I got babied around like this too when I 1st joined, but they left me alone after the 1st 2 weeks. I think they just wanted to make sure I knew how to use the Korean gym since only Koreans do this sort of thing. (It's western equipment)

[Zulethe]

I've never heard of Riptoe but that quote is spot on. The thing that really gets me also is that most of the Koreans in the gym are not getting anything out of their work-out. They are either lifting way too little or not going to muscle failure.

I'm not going to preach about lifting because the one irrefutable truth is: Every body's body is different.

I lifted for years before I finally met this guy who changed everything for me. He had me start lifting weights that I never imagined I would be able to lift. Eventually my body and mind got used to the heavy weight and I just kept getting stronger from there.

This worked for me. But I also know guys that I used to play football with would stick with 225 on the bar and just do massive reps and their strength went through the roof. This doesn't work for me.

If anything I feel like offering my services to help out some of the younger guys in the gym. I hate to see them miss out on the potential they have by not pushing themselves hard.

[Oreovictim]

You can always say, "남이사" - Mind your own business. I think that that's how you say it.

[nate2008]

I've been going to a gym near me for about 3 months and I haven't had any unwanted help, so that's nice. On the subject of Koreans getting nothing out of their workouts, I see this ALL the time. They love to do these silly machines that work muscles that would be much better worked by freeweights or barbells, and they do puny weights. I feel like I should be helping them but I'm not very big myself, and I don't speak Korean.

I do have a funny story though. My first day in the gym, I wanted to do an inclined bench press, and they had one off in some corner of the gym. It's a pretty ghetto gym mind you, but it serves my purposes and it's cheap. So I go to change the weights on the bench, and I take off the weight from one side, and as soon as I do this the entire bar goes crashing down to the other side. It turned out that the two supports that the bar was resting on weren't wide enough apart, so as soon as the weight got taken off the one side, the weight on the other side pulled the whole bar over.

Needless to say, the bar and weights on the end of it made a spectacular BOOM, and an equally spectacular hole in the wooden floor

I felt really bad about it but honest, what kind of horrible bench apparatus is designed in a way that would allow this to happen??? That's a dangerous machine! Whatever, needless to say I haven't attempted to use that machine again.

[Goku]

I think they feel nice enough to help us because we are "alone".

I go to the gym of a guy whos top lightweight in Korea. He is a great guy. And he always helps me because he knows I don't speak Korean and I'm the only foreigner who goes there.

Basically I'm by myself so he always gives me special pointers. I mean sometimes I feel like he really is babying me. But remember he doesn't know HOW knowledgeable about the subject I really am.

We have no way of conveying to these people subtly how well we know the subject already.

I think he's trying to be genuniely nice like you said OP. Maybe he's annoying and pushy, but he probably means well.

[jkelly80]

0r just '괜찮아요' "it's alright/i'm okay thanks/no thanks". It's more polite.

[Zulethe]

Well that's he thing Goku. If I were a 100 pound weakling that's one thing but I can't imagine going up to someone in a gym who is way stronger than me and start telling him how to lift weights.

I know he's a nice guy but part of me feels like he's trying to show off in front of the other gym members. Most of them are always watching me because most probably have never seen anyone put up the kind of weight that I do.

It almost feels like he's trying to take credit for my gains in strength. May sound conceited but anyway, I'll try the kwangchanaio. I'm just trying to be very polite about it. Just annoying as hell.

The phrase need to learn is "why don't you go over there and help that guy who is struggling with 100 lbs.

Alas, a solution, start training with someone else so he doesn't bother me!

[moosehead]

kinda makes you stop and think huh?

I remember back in the day - I loved lifting weights and my bf - who was a veterinarian and very attuned to fitness - taught me how to lift properly. We worked out together a lot but not always at the same time - it was rare then to see women in the weight room and invariably guys would come over and try and "help" me.

later on we went our separate ways but I continued to lift for many more years - gradually more women came in the weight room - but most attitudes remained the same.

one of the worst experiences would be when I'd do a set, take a pause to breathe before my next set and some dude would start in and rather than want to take turns and work between each other's set - which is standard protocol - he'd just take over alltogether and expect me to - ?what? disappear? and I've have to remind him I wasn't finished yet do you mind?

sometimes I'd be doing curls and a guy would come right up next to me almost bumping me right in the middle of a rep!! I'd glare at him and move away and sometimes they'd just do it again - clearly trying to provoke me and my presence in the weight room.

so OP - think about this - maybe you like women working out and all and aren't like the ones that treated us badly when we only wanted to feel strong too - but now the shoes on the other foot where you are - I hope it makes you realize discrimination is just that - discrimination - and for whatever reason, sometimes it can be very very subtle and very insidious the way it's acted out.

enjoy your workout tho - sigh - I miss those days!!

[bogey666]

I feel for you, but fortunately don't have these issues.

if anything, I help the Korean guys around me, because I get annoyed when I see them doing somethinng obviously wrong formwise or unconstructive.

the Korean guys who work the desk and are so called "trainers" are super cool in my gym and completely leave me alone, yet I am sure would be more than helpful if I asked for any assistance whatsoever.

shit.. I wish I were 6'4

[mountainous]