“He’s Not Like You”

6/24/11 @ CrossFit Oakland

Squats

345x5x5

6/25/11

Press

150x5x5

RDLs

220x5x3

Chin-ups

15x5x3

6/26/11

Squats

260x5x2

So there I am, in the gym, teaching a guy I know how to lift. I’m showing him the low-bar back squat while banging out my volume press sets. In between a set a personal trainer calls me over. I’ve seen this dude around. He’s fairly skinny and trains dudes with a fairly brotastic routine. He’s also told Ashley, my training partner, that she should breathe in on the way down and out on the way up during squats. This, if you’ve ever done heavy squats, you’ll know to be ludicrous. So obviously the dude’s never gotten under a heavy barbell in his life. There’s the setup.

He calls me over and asks if I’m certified. I say no and just explain that my friend asked me to teach him how to lift. He then goes on to explain that he’s “a certified personal trainer” what I’m doing “goes against everything he believes in”. That if he “squats that way he’s going to hurt himself”. And then he drops it… “He’s not like you”. I just fucking walk away at that point.

That is so fucking disrespectful and ignorant of the way the body works and it’s fucking pissing all over my hard work. He thinks just because I’m squatting and deadlifting in the neighborhood of 400 pounds that I’m somehow genetically gifted? Clearly he’s never heard the words “progressive overload” without thinking about the car insurance company. The guy’s gotta be butthurt that someone who’s bigger than him is teaching others in the same gym to get just as big. Clearly I’m just bigger because genetics. Fucking bro