The “Are you Effin Kidding Me? Honors……..

Posted on 27. Oct, 2008 by Keith Scott in Fitness

This is the first installment of the “Are your Effin Kidding me” Honors.

Each week I am going to try and spotlight things in the fitness world (and just maybe, things that have no relation to fitness, but I think you should know about) that just make me say, “Are you effin kidding me?”

Criteria can be almost anything, however, things that I see that:

Surprise or shock me

Make me mad

Make me shake my head in a disapproving way

Cause me to say “you cannot be that stupid?”

-I will add more as I go

Stupid Things done in the gym……

I was in the gym the other day when I spotted an older man training with his wife. Although they were both fairly “active” people and had decent strength and fitness, they were both in their late 60s and moved slower and more deliberate than most people. I watched them do basic machine work and some low level exercises.

I then noticed this man take the BOSU ball that was collecting dust in the corner and set it up in the middle of the floor. He proceeded to flip it over on the round side, and then step on it and balance with both feet.

His wife watched with nervous excitement as he struggled to balance on the ball. After about 30 seconds of this, he fell off the ball. Now, he didn’t get hurt and he landed safely on the floor. What he did next, surprised me. He proceeded to mount the ball again and “add” another exercise to his balancing. He started doing squats with both legs, and then try doing them with one leg. Well, he fell again, and this time a little harder.

The “Are you Effing Kidding Me” moment came next. After falling twice from doing this asinine “workout” he convinced his wife to get on the ball and do the same thing!

It was obvious that she did not want any part of this, but he proceeded to push her to try it. Needless to say, I watched with fear as she mounted the BOSU and started shaking all over the place. She fell, and he caught her. He made her get back on, and she fell again. This time he barely caught her. Instead of realizing that this is stupid and someone is going to get injured badly, he pushed her back on to the ball. She took one last stab at it, and legs came flying up in the air and she hit the floor pretty hard.

Why the hell would someone, especially with obvious restrictions and balance issues get on an unstable surface and attempt to perform an advanced exercise like a squat or worse, a one legged squat. Further more, why on earth would you force your wife, who is in worse condition than you to do the same thing.

“Are you effing kidding me!?”