When it comes to having the authority to rearrange layout and/or change out equipment, I can only speak for my particular gym and say that yes we do, but that we are still subject to some influence on overall theme, both from the local board of directors, and also in compliance with the national mission/brand image…

Everything you’ve said is accurate, and I would only add to that a certain perspective to consider. I’ve worked for a particular well known gym for 7 years, and as we’ve changed facilities, we’ve gradually improved our selection of free weight and plate-loader equipment, although never quite enough to match my ideal…

After nearly a decade working for a gym, the clock-work reliability of “resolutioners” that come streaming in from mid December through mid January never ceases to amaze me. They’re kith & kin to same psychological demographic that mob big-box retail stores every Black Friday simply out of cultural compliance. One of…

I’m not a scientist or doctor, have not studied the science of vaccines first hand, and I don’t have kids. I was vaccinated as a child, and (seemingly) had no negative health problems as a result. That said, my only experience of life, as a child of the 80's, is that of living in a country where the majority of people…

Ah, the holiday season, a time of giving...but just not with a discerning selection. Netflix has seriously got to stop recycling the same old movies into its “New” and “Recently Added” sections - there’s too damn much content on there to find the few films worth watching. Makes me feel like I’m walking the back aisles…

I’m sure the stats on water use are technically accurate, but I’d venture to say that’s based on running the faucet full-force when handwashing. Like others have commented below, I live alone, use only a few dishes a day - never enough to fill a dishwasher - and also don’t like leaving dirty dishes sitting for days at…

Hate to say this, but you’ll never see statistics of that nature for any kind of social phenomenon, because we only have the ability to gather data reactively upon reflecting on an incident and basically reverse engineering the events/actions leading to the crime. Otherwise, you’d have to expect some kind of global…

Big emphasis on the value (and results) from plain old pushups to supplement your chest routine/bench press goals. The strongest guy in my gym on upper body is 5'7, weighs about 265 (basically looks like solid iron brick), benches over 500lbs with whisper-quiet control, and consistently does pushups between his bench…

I would agree, and say that only in the most robust cases is it worth making note/taking action. General BO doesn’t phase me at all. I have an extremely acute sense of smell, but am also not bothered by most stink in predictable situations (6 years as a landscaper, I’ve literally shoveled shit, etc). But every once in…

Was it a dick move by Pete Davidson - sure. Again, this is not a defense of “mocking people with disabilities”, or anything close. Comedians, by trade, exist in a kind of suspended reality, and say horrible things- I mean, really, really fucked up - as part of their work. See every episode of South Park, or nearly any…

Seriously, the enshrinement of veterans is not genuine respect, and treating them like fragile gods that are beyond humor or reproach is as much a dishonor to them as anything. I’m not sitting here saying, “make fun of people with injuries or disabilities” - far from it. But the fucking POTUS holds rallies in which he…

A society in which the military is off limits for satire is one in which they are treated as trophies, and will be unnecessarily put in harm’s way by those in power who pretend to honor them with maudlin sentimentality, while gladly sending them into battle for unjust causes and profit-driven motives. 

Congratulations, you’ve managed to completely misconstrue something incredibly simple, and equate two unrelated issues in order to feel butthurt for your own sake. The inability to take a joke from SNL without crying foul only signals how ignorant of our American freedoms someone is at heart. And if joking that a vet “…

Aww, how sweet, is everyone sporting a star spangled patriotism boner? Or can we maybe stop apotheosizing military service - which, let us remember, is a CHOICE - as it does not, in fact, entitle one to any superior treatment, particularly in the realm of satire. The travesty here is that liberals are the ones who…

Old age. I know that sounds shitty and ungrateful, but after more than three decades of depression, crappy life choices, and a fairly unpromising trajectory for success, the idea of 40, even 50 more years of mediocrity dragged out while living in moderate poverty, always scraping by - that’s what gets to me.

I’d love to think that this actually happens with some kind of precision, but like most other commenters, my experience has been that of a 3-second cursory glance, and a swipe of the sharpie pen across the receipt. I don’t care how long someone has worked there, I don’t think they’d catch anything but the most blatant…

My initial reaction to this idea is to condemn it, as plugging into yet another source of distraction (even one aimed at sleep) seems like the wrong move. Wearing headphones of any kind to bed isn’t ideal, either. Of course, then I think about being 3 years old and having bedtime stories read to me by my dad - a…

My feeling on the issue of trolls, whether Russian via Facebook or domestic on Twitter, is that while it’s clearly a nefarious and loathsome act, our susceptibility to their influence merely shows what a gullible and lazy society we’ve become. I just don’t understand being swayed by inflammatory rhetoric from a total…

As a broke dude who loves to lift, I’m all about the home gym DIY. Bought a cheap bench press from craigslist that was too narrow at the bar rests (it was the non-Olympic variety), forcing me to either go too wide or too narrow on my grip. So I took a couple of 2" thick wood blocks cut to the same width as the bench…

When DIY’ing anything that will involve you being beneath weights, be safe and over-build the ever-loving-hell out of it. Sure, there’s a certain amount of inherent stability to a flat bench, but if you’re actually going to use this for bench pressing any significant weight, the last thing you want is to find out the…