Reader Email:
Dear Tony,
As a college student, I recently have been noticing an increasingly large amount of people in my weight room using bounce plates for their deadlifts. Apparently these people are doing this to cut down on noise when performing the lift. What’s your opinion on this? I feel it is completely contradictory to the idea of lifting in college. Personally I believe ones goal should be to go in, rack the gym, and bring as much attention to yourself. Loud deadlifting and hard grunts should be expected and encouraged. why do you think someone would go out of their way to not bring attention the themselves in the gym?
Keep up the great work!
-Ogre [Temple University]
Spot on Ogre. Spot on. When you go into the gym, you rack it, and you let people know you are racking it. Bounce plates are fine in my book, just make sure you test their bounce. If you are deadlifting, always - ALWAYS drop the bar on your last set. If you can, give it a good downward shove to make it really pop off. Do not go quietly.
YOU HEAR ME TEMPLE UNIVERSITY MEATHEADS? Sack the fuck up, and make some noise. When the football team comes into the weight room, do they put on sleeves and fruity little finger shoes and tip toe down to the squat racks before whispering words of encouragement at their teammates doing bosu ball balance exercises? NO THEY FUCKING DO NOT. They wear no sleeves, or if they are wearing sleeves, it is cause they are spray painted on Under Armor. They do not wear ditsy little barefoot shoes. When they enter the gym, they are getting hyphy with it - shouting and punching walls and shit. And when they deadlift, they put on all the fucking plates, pick up the bar, slam it down, and repeat until everybody in the gym is staring is respectful awe. The football team does not have to be the biggest bunch of meatheads at your, or any, school, YOU can be the biggest meathead at your school. Each and every one of you.
So rip your sleeves off, drop your weights, grunt, and set off every lunk alarm you can. You got that shit Temple?
Tony. Out.
