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first, as this leaves the bar unbalanced and creates the potential for tipping out of the rack. Even if you’re a world class physicist and are convinced that the relative weights and the positions of the rack supporting the bar prohibit such tipping, it’s still possible when, for example, you bump the unloaded or less-loaded end with your shoulder or a plate, and suddenly your safely balanced system is flying through the air. The whip- ping end of a 6-7-foot long barbell will do very serious damage to whatever it comes into contact with, especially human tissue. I’ve seen someone nearly lose an eye from this—instead he got lucky with just a lot stitches to seal up a 2-inch wide gash just below his eye.


Don’t Throw Plates into Plate Racks Set your plates into the racks they belong in—don’t throw them or drop them. Even if those racks are made of metal and you think they’re the toughest things on Earth, it’s just being lazy and will likely bounce the rack around on the floor, shifting it from where it’s supposed to be and pissing off the person who put it where it belongs and has to con- tinue putting it back there. If you can’t lower a plate to the ground, roll it in from the side or don’t lift it in the first place.


Don’t Drop Bars into Vertical Racks If your gym stores barbells in vertical stor- age racks, slide them in gently. Don’t stick the end of the bar into the top of the hole and then drop it—slamming a bar on its end damages the snap rings, the bearings and the end cap. How hard is it to hold onto the bar and lower it under your control until it’s all the way down into the rack? I promise it’s a lot easier than whatever you were do- ing with the barbell before, so don’t make excuses.


Don’t Throw Your Stuff Against Walls Unless you train in an unpainted, cement- walled facility (especially one that you own yourself), use some common sense and don’t slam heavy, hard items like bumper plates or squat racks into sheetrock walls. Set


them down where they belong like


someone who cares about the place he/she trains in.


Don’t Drop Dumbbells Rubber hex head dumbbells are great, but they’re not indestructible, and every time


you throw or drop them because you don’t have enough energy to lean down and set them on the floor (but you somehow still have enough energy to start doing burpees immediately), you’re bringing that dumbbell one step closer to breaking. The heads of these dumbbells will eventually shake loose on the handles with enough trauma. If you can’t be bothered to concern yourself with taking care of the equipment in the gym, then consider the safety of yourself and those around you—these things will bounce unpredictably and people can get injured, whether from the actual collision, by sud- denly encountering a trip hazard or through the course of their trying to avoid a collision or tripping.


Clean up Your Blood Sharing can be great, but not when it comes to blood borne pathogens. If you bleed on a bar from a torn callus, accidentally hook- ing your shin or in any other way get your disgusting internal fluids on any other pub- lic surface, clean it up properly, such as with Clorox, Lysol or a similar cleaning agent. If it’s a bar or another metal surface, dry it off immediately after using any cleaning solu- tion and put some chalk on the cleaned area to help prevent it from oxidizing.


Clean up Your Spills Accidentally kicked your water or coffee or favorite pre-workout muscle-swelling bever- age? Clean it up—this isn’t astrophysics. If you don’t know how to clean it up or what to clean it up with, find a responsible adult and ask. Don’t pretend it didn’t happen and leave it for that responsible adult to find later when it’s sticky, nasty and staining.


Put Away Whatever You Use You went over this


in kindergarten—put


your stuff away. You got it from somewhere. If the person who used it before you was not a slob, that place was where it belongs, and that’s exactly—I mean EXACTLY—where and how you should be returning it when you’re finished. It doesn’t mean nearby, it doesn’t mean in a different way and it cer- tainly doesn’t mean you choose a new place to store it that you like better for some rea- son. If you want to decide where things go, you can build your own gym and go wild. If the person before you didn’t put it away where it belongs, be the better person and do it right because it’s the right thing to do,


WEIGHTLIFTING.TEAMUSA.ORG << 11


then tell the offender to do it right next time when you get the chance.


Every single time you do something in the gym, you’re a model for other members. Set a good example and help others follow it. Be a contributor, not a drain; be safe and re- spectful and courteous. Take a moment and think about what your actions tell everyone around you, and if you like your gym and re- spect its owners, staff and members, prove it with the way you treat the facility.


Greg Everett is the owner of Catalyst Athlet- ics, head coach of the national-medalist Cat- alyst Athletics weightlifting team, publisher of The Performance Menu, author of the books Olympic Weightlifting: A Complete Guide for Athletes & Coaches and Olympic Weightlifting for Sports and director/writer/ producer/editor/everything of the documen- tary American Weightlifting. Follow him on Facebook here and and sign up for his free newsletter here.


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