A lesson learned...

I was in Houston this past week and on Thursday I went to the YMCA, where my parents workout. I was surprised to find that both of the ergs were being used - albeit incorrectly, but I held my tongue. I mean, just imagine having the resistance all the way up to a 10 and holding on to the handle underhanded and rushing up the slide. I knew this one woman especially was going to be sore the next day and not in a good way. Although I desperately wanted to correct both people, I tend to be shy around people I don't know. Anyway, I got on a treadmill behind the ergs so I could see when one opened up. It wasn't long before the guy on the left gave up. I settled into some 15 minute pieces. Meanwhile the lady on my right with the awful underhand grip gets up and leaves and this other woman takes her erg. Now this lady has probably the most promising technique although she still has the resistance all the way and occasionally switches to underhand grip. During one of my rests I build up the courage and politely ask her if it would be ok if a made a suggestion. She says, "sure" so I recommend that she let the handle pass over her knees before she comes up the slide. She decides to give me some attitude and seeing that my resistance is only around 4 or so says, "Well I'm all the way at a ten so it's much harder." And she gives me some look like "how dare she be giving me advice! what does she know anyway?" (she didn't actually say that, I just imagined her saying that in her head). Anyway, I finished up my pieces and cleaned my erg and learned my lesson that people in Houston are not very receptive to recommendations.

At the end of my workout, when I was doing my pullups, this guy was impressed by the fact that I could actually do one and he gave me a suggestion to build up my pullups by doing negatives.