The Men's Health Blog

As a general rule of thumb, I have a strict rule about offering advice at the gym. Before offering any type of training tips, there are two questions you need to ask the person before imparting your divine wisdom:

1. What are you training for? (i.e. appearance, rehab, lose weight, gain weight, specific activity, hobby, competition, etc.)

2. What are your limitations? (i.e. medical, physical, mental, scheduling, etc.)

Allow me to elaborate on each of these with two short anecdotes.

The Airborne Sit-up
I'm a United States Marine -- and proud of it. But in order to become a parachutist, I had to attend the U.S. Army Airborne School at Fort Benning, Georgia. And needless to say, Marines and soldiers do things a bit differently.

In order to pass the airborne physical fitness test, I had to train to do sit-ups like the Army does sit-ups. Makes sense, right?

As Marines, we do crunches. But the Army does old school, hand-behind-your-head sit-ups. They may not be the best kind of sit-up, but if that's what I have to do, so be it.

It doesn't make much sense to critique my ugly Army sit-ups without knowing exactly what I'm training for, does it? How does giving advice on the superiority of crunches over full-blown, neck-wrenching, back-bending sit-ups help me without knowing why I'm doing them?

Answer: it doesn't.

The Shoulder Injury
I grew up in the Midwest and wrestled for a high school in Minnesota -- home to one of the nation's greatest collegiate wrestling teams, the Minnesota Gophers.

During a varsity tournament match my junior year, my opponent (seeded 1st in the tournament, I was seeded 2nd) obtained an illegal hold of my head and snapped my neck to the side -- inflicting paralysis and nerve root damage in my left shoulder (C5).

Long story short, my season was over, but I learned to compensate and found a way to wrestle my senior year (with personal coaching from Jim Mastro, recipient of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame Medal of Courage).

It took years for my shoulder to fully recover, but in the interim, I was able to perform a modified shoulder press and some other strange looking shoulder exercises.

It wouldn't have made much sense to give me shoulder exercise advice without knowing the extent of my limitations, would it?

Now, I'm not trying to be a complete jerk on the subject. It could very well be that you see a gym newbie doing sit-ups or shoulder presses all wrong, and wish to be a gentleman (or lady) and offer a little innocent advice. It could very well be that someone is simply doing an exercise wrong and needs to be corrected.

I'm not saying don't give advice.

My point is that you should at least discover the purpose behind that person's training, and any limitations they may have. Even when folks come to me with a specific question, I respond first with those two questions.

1. What are you training for?
2. What are your limitations?

After obtaining the answers, I fully believe much more proper advice can be given.

Agreed?

I'm off to Vegas this weekend for a cousin's wedding, but luckily my gym membership is good there too.

An honest man has to admit, one of the distinct benefits of "big-box" gyms is multi-location accessibility -- provided you have the "all-club" membership.

I've been a member of 24 Hour Fitness since returning from my 2005/2006 tour of duty in Iraq. While I certainly get annoyed with the social atmosphere members at chain gyms like 24 produce, I've come to accept that the pros generally outweigh the cons.

Do I miss the "sweatbox" gym atmosphere? Sure. But were I still training exclusively at my local sweat box, I wouldn't be training this weekend.

Some people love chains. Others swear by their local house of pain. I suppose one day I would ideally like to have memberships to both. Right now I can't justify the cost of an additional membership, but wouldn't it be nice to have the option?

My 24 Hour membership has been there for me through three different jobs and countless travel excursions. However, sometimes I just can't stand the sight and sounds of some dork attempting to pick up on a woman next to me during my workout.

But I guess that's where focus and a trusty iPod come into play.

One also can't deny that the perk of big-box amenities is hard to refuse. Depending on the gym type, chains like 24 Hour offer weights, cardio rooms, aerobics, basketball courts, pools, spas, free classes, etc.

But on the flip side, I rarely take advantage of these perks. So there you go.

Again, both big-box and sweatbox gyms have their pros and cons. I guess my membership at 24 Hour is an indication that I prefer big-box at this point in my life. However, I do think the ideal situation is to take advantage and have access to both.

Your thoughts?