Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Yu_Bum_suk]

Can you believe this? After two years of having trainers and adjosshis coming up and telling me all manner of contradictory things about how to do various excercises, someone actually came along with something useful. I had always wondered why the arm-curl machine felt strange until a Korea pointed out that I was grabbing the handles the wrong way, as the first trainer had taught me. But what really blew me away was that it was a high school boy from Babo Technical High School down the road.

Can you believe that? Here I had completely written off Korean society when it comes to doing any form of excercise the right way.

[ysl]

[riley]

I have met a couple of useful trainers here in Korea and I had one of my fellow teachers give me some useful tips in volleyball.

[venus]

That is hillarious.

Used to exercise at a decent outdoors gym up the top of Jeongbalsan mountain in Ilsan. Drove me crazy when Koreans guys would stop me doing full squats and proceed to demonstrate how they do them by literally only just bending their knees and their butts going down about three inches... Now, why didn't they have muscular legs (aside from the geneticaly inherited HUGE BLOODY MONSTER CALVES, of which I am jealous, though a lot of the girls have them too which I find unbecoming...)

Or the guys on the lat pull down machine who would either only pull it down an inch or two and repeat a hundred reps or the guys who rock back and forth like crazy, only using their arms lower backs - again for about a hundred reps... or actually do it STANDING UP....

What else, oh the bench press, the most easiest exercise out there and they would load up the bar like crazy but only move it up and down for a few inches really fast... not even bring it down to within a few inches of their chests....

And why do they feel the need to do twenty sets of arm curls everyday... don't they wonder why their biceps don't grow....?

Grrr, in my gym the guy who works there told me I was doing deadlifts wrong (I use pretty good form) and then proceeded to demonstrate Straight leg deadlifts.... Doesn't he know that the two are very different exercises...?

Come on people, let's hear your amusing gym / exercise stories, can be about Koreans and waygooks alike
Okay, I'll start with the three obvious and ubiquitous adjuma exrcises

1. Walking backwards, whilst performing what looks like one arm shoulder presses... hey I'm not ayaing it doesn;t do anything, just looks funny

2. Throwing yourself obliques first into a tree trunk repeatedly. Guess it toughens up the abs...?

3. Standing on those weird circular thingies in the parks and twisting from side to side, again funny and seemingly pointless - though I'd warrant a guess and say they would be good for old folks wanting to stay flexible...

Oh and I want to add the ammount of times I've seen adjoishi's at the sauna do tons of standing push ups and then go to the smoking room (at a sauna for christs sakes, these guys LOVE smoking) and smoke after their healthy sauna....

[ysl]

punching your own stomach is a good one... ive seen this done by both men and women.

[519forlife]

I see it every time, they( many of them) have no idea how to lift properly and safely. What a joke. I just laugh.

[rawiri]

Some of their techniques may be a little wacky but koreansmust be doing something right, last time i checked it wasn't korea that was number 1 in obesity stats.

I started at a new gym recently. It's expensive but worth it as all the trainers know what they are doing as opposed to guessing which i think a lot of ajosshi do.

"They" or "many of them" I've been working out in this country for nearly three years, i'm yet to see any lifting that looks overtly dangerous.

[thursdays child]

I've been told numerous times to stop running on the treadmill by the gym guy. I finally got a reason from him the other day - 'you might sweat'.

[rawiri]

You guys are going to the wrong gyms. Don't be a cheap charlie and fork over some cash for a good place with people who know what they are doing. I'm not averse to a bit of korea bashing from time to time, but only if it's warranted. Koreans in the gym are not that different to waygooks iv'e seen back home. Need i repeat the fat stats?

[khyber]

1) The pounding in the stomach thing may be linked to the "Dahm Centre" exercises.... It has something to do with "brain breathing" and yes it is as fruity as it sounds.

2) I don't consider the twisty things in the park exercise but damn, after i've been sleeping on the floor (a few times in the summer) it's nice to get on those things and crack the *beep* outta your back...chiropractor/medical training be damned!

[ajgeddes]

[Qinella]

A lot of people laugh at the walking backwards thing, but if you search Google there are many web sites saying things such as:

Walking backwards or jogging backwards on the treadmill works muscles in an entirely different way than walking forwards. from walking.com

If you are looking to refine some of the muscular development in your legs, rehabilitate from an injury, bust some plateaus, or improve your athletic coordination, backwards running and walking should be included in your training regime. from bodybuilding.com

[rawiri]

That has absolutely nothing to do with the way people work out. The reason people are so damn fat is because they [b]DON'T[/b] exercise.
[quote][/quote]

Yeah no kidding, well even if koreans are screwing themselves at least they are having a go.

[venus]

Look, it's not a Korea bash, I said Koreans or waygooks.

Just things you see that look funny, that's all. Doesn't have to be a poiltical debate... doesn't matter if the US is obese or if you go to an expensive gym or not

JUST POST FUNNY STORIES OR THINGS YOU'VE SEEN - not do the whole pedantic minded pick people apart to boost your own lagging self esteem thing - PLEASE....

Think 'candid camera'

[Jarome_Turner]

The "adjosshi clap" while speed walking on the treadmill always makes me chuckle (and no, I'm not talking about the clap he may or may not picked up at the local brothel the night before).
The whole speed-walking thing in general seems kinda funny to me. I've had adjoshi's come up to me and tell me not to run on the treadmill, and to instead walk briskly while flailing my arms back and forth. I know there are some benefits of this, but it in no way is better than a good 5K run.