A few weeks ago, I wrote an article that went over the experience of returning to the gym after a long hiatus. Unfortunately, that article was entirely derived from my personal experience, but thankfully it has been almost a month and those awful first week pains are gone! However, something new has caught my attention recently, and as a Psychology major, it is nearly impossible to ignore. People who go to the gym tend to fit in nice and neat categories, which I will outline for you here.
1. The Guy Who Missed Leg Day
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Via Distractify
This is the most stereotypical of the gym-goers, the man who decided to skip leg day for a couple of extra upper-body workouts. My dad refers to these guys as "bulbs" because they look like a light bulb, small on bottom, big on top. These guys put in a ton of effort to make sure half of their body is well built, and forgot that there's a second half. I have to assume this is because they can't turn their necks enough to look down at their legs.
Via YouTube
2. The Bicep Bros
Via Quickmeme
These guys are really a subset of the Bulbs, but they put an extra amount of effort into making sure they have huge biceps. I have personally seen some Bicep Bros at the campus gym, and they amaze me. These guys can do a full workout of only biceps. Preacher curls, incline curls, concentration curls, these guys do it all. Their dedication to the one muscle group that serves no purpose other than to train itself is humbling to say the least3. The Guy Who Got the Leg Day Memo.
Via Hdnux
The antithesis to the Bulbs in the gym, this guy heard you were supposed to do leg day, so he did. All of it. I did not even know this guy existed until about two weeks ago when I was in the gym. The guy strolls in, sets up a squat bar, and proceeds to do literally 10 sets of squats, all at varying weights and rep ranges. He then proceeded to the leg press, and did at least five sets of leg press. He then went back to the squat rack, and did more squats, this time using a box to sit on at the bottom of the lift. This was a man who knew leg day was serious. The best part-- not four days later, he was in there again, doing only leg exercises. Generally speaking, you should have a leg DAY not a leg WEEK; I guess this guy was the exception.
Via Weknowmemes
4. The Bros
Via Fitandstrongdads
These are the guys who work out in packs. They always stay in packs of three or more and they rarely do much more than two or three exercises before leaving for the day. They tend to make a lot of noise and not a lot of progress. Usually they spot the hell out of each other (see above) and are rarely ever seen in a free-weights area, unless biceps can be done there. Not to be confused with Bicep Bros, who have actually developed strength, even if it was only a single muscle group, these guys generally are not large or strong. They go to the gym simply to say that they were in the gym, but they never do exercises that will help them get anywhere.
5. Cardio Queens
Via Leanitup
This category summarizes the majority of women in the gym. They hop on a treadmill, elliptical, or bike, and go. and go. and go. Now, it is important to note that cardio is an incredibly important part of fitness, without a strong heart the rest of your body tends to not work well. But, these ladies never do anything except cardio. Why? From what I have heard it is two-fold. First, a misunderstanding of how losing weight works, and second, a fear of getting "big." These girls are running, biking, or stair-climbing because there is a common misconception that cardio=weight loss. You can lose weight doing cardio, but diet is what determines weight loss. As long as your body is using more calories than you are eating you will lose weight. Cardio does not magically burn the fat off of your body-- it spends calories. If you happen to be eating less than you spend in a day you will lose weight, regardless of exercise. Exercise only facilitates that weight loss by increasing the amount of calories you burn during the day. As to the second point, there is a misconception among a lot of women that weight lifting instantly makes you huge.
Via T-nation
The fact of the matter is it takes years of work to build up a massive amount of size, and you have to choose to continue building. Cardio girls seem to think that the minute your hand touches anything heavier than a 10 pound dumbbell you will balloon up like the kid from Willy Wonka. That simply isn't true. Besides, the above picture is most likely not naturally possible for most women, due to lower levels of testosterone (AKA why men tend to be larger on average.) Here's what a woman who lifts actually looks like:
Via Twitter
Pictured above is Erin Parker, a national-level weight lifter. She is firmly seated at the high end of female lifters, and as you can see, not huge. Most of the time when women have talked to me about their fitness goals, the picture on the left is what they are looking for. That was achieved through weight lifting, not cardio. Which brings us to number 6.
6. The Weightlifting Woman
Via Pinterest
This is the rarest of gym-goers in my experience. Every day I am in the gym I see maybe 1 or 2 women actually lifting weights. I don't mean bicep curls with 5 pound dumbbells, I mean squats, deadlift, bench, and so on. These ladies know exactly what they're in the gym for, and they do not mess around.7. The Freak Beast
Via Twitter
Referring to Dom Mazetti's "Evolution of the Lifting Man," pictured above, the Freak Beast is the final stage of gymbro evolution. This is the burliest, strongest, manliest guy at the gym, and everyone knows it. Everyone else at the gym gives the Freak Beast a wide berth, because unlike the Bicep Bros who came down with a severe case of ILS (Invisible Lat Syndrome, pictured below) the Freak Beast is actually wider than he is tall.
Via Sweatlikeapig
Most regular gym-goers will never attain Freak Beast status, and most probably don't want to. But for some, the Freak Beast is the ultimate goal.
Via YouTube
8. The Regulars
The regulars are the rest of the gym-goers. All of the people who blend in and form the crowd that the other seven categories stand out from. The regulars are just people interested in staying in shape and enjoying fitness. Most people would fit in the regulars category and that is perfectly fine because the regulars just want to be healthy. Happy lifting!
