Productive Exercises in Canada

I’m back in action after a several week hiatus. In case, you’re wondering the tour was hugely successful and a lot of fun the entire time.

Perhaps I’ll tell you more about that later but right now I gotta tell you about a visit to a gym I had in Vancouver. We were staying at a nice hotel and it was attached to a gym. Not one of the small rooms with only a handful pieces of equipment like most hotels have, but a full-on commercial gym.

Now I personally have not set foot in a gym for a long time. So I knew I’d be in for a treat.

I set out to do some heavy exercises. One arm presses with dumbbells, weighted chin-ups, barbell squats and a handful of other exercises.

I was in a squat rack doing doubles and singles in the chin. It was nice to be able to fully hang as the bar was high off the ground. I hung the dumbbell from my feet to do the exercise.

A man came over and asked, “Hey, can I work in with you?”

“Okay,” I replied as I moved the dumbbell out of the area.

Then he said, “Don’t worry about that, I don’t need to get in there.”

I was a little perplexed but I just went back to the dumbbell rack to do my next exercise.

The next time I looked over I had to stop myself from laughing. The man was kneeling on top of a swiss ball and doing a tricep extension with what couldn’t have been more than 20 lbs. He need the squat rack so he could balance himself with his free arm.

The entire gym was full of people who wouldn’t know what productive training was if it was staring them in the face. The funny thing is this guy probably thought he was doing some cutting-edge training (and yes he did more than one set of this exercise!)

There are tons of possible exercises you can do whether they be with dumbbells, barbells, kettlebells or just your bodyweight.  You do not have to waste your time with odd-ball exercises. The simplest exercises, the ones that have stood the test of time are usually your best bet.

And if you think this was bad, wait til you hear what my friend saw in the same gym. That story coming at you later this week.

In strength,
Logan Christopher

P.S. If you have commercial gym horror stories, I’d love to hear them so send them in.