how do I deal with gym bullshit and not be affected by it?

[tarun]

Here, its easier for me to just copy/paste the whole email than re-write the whole story. I sent the email to the supervisor of the gym. I got his email address from the two "supervising attendants" who sit at a desk in the weight room:

"Hi Mr. Ashley,

I'm a sophmore at the university. I had an incident today in the IM building weight room , and I asked the employee with which I had an issue for your email address. Let me start by saying that I used the NCRB all last year, and have used the CCRB once or twice. I have never had any issues with staff or policies. However, what occurred today has disturbed me enough to write you an email. I am a member of the powerlifting club team, which is a recognized club by the university. When I joined, I was not told of any restrictions to our lifting. We do heavy squats, heavy benching, heavy deadlifts, heavy cleans, etc.

Today, I was minding my own business and doing standing shoulder presses when one of your employees walked over and told me that I was not allowed to do overhead lifts and pointed to the list of rules on the wall. I've seen these rules before and was told that only dangerous dynamic overhead lifts such as the olympic snatch were not allowed. I told this employee that if I can't do a standing shoulder press (which by the way is safer than a seated in my opinion, I support the weight with my whole body and if needed, I can dump the weight since I am inside a squat rack with high safety pins.), then the seated press shouldn't be allowed. She replied to me that according to "our rules" which apparently weren't written on the wall, seated overhead lifts are allowed but standing ones are not. Since she couldn't provide proof of this, I continued with a set. Right after, the other assistant who was watching the weight room (who was on duty the same time as her) walked over and told me the same thing. I asked him for proof, and he said the same excuse as the previous girl that seated overhead lifts are allowed, and said that "our boss" (referring to you) told us that. He also threatened to call DPS on me if I did not stop. At this point, I was extremely unsatisifed with my service here. I am an out-of-state student paying a lot of money every year, and the least I ask is that I should be allowed to lift at my own free will as long as I do not endanger other people.

After I stopped the standing shoulder press, I put more weight on, took the bar off the rack, placed it on the floor, and started doing power cleans. The same previous male assistant walked over again and told me that no olympic lifts are allowed. At this time, I became extremely angry. Nowhere does it say that olympic lifts are not allowed. Furthermore, I've powercleaned the whole year so far, as well as last year. I don't drop the weights on the floor, I set them down. I also do them in a pretty spacious area where it will not hurt anyone. I've also seen PLENTY of people doing cleans and standing shoulder presses and never been stopped. I've even seen a couple snatches. None of these people have ever been stopped. I really did not appreciate being harassed and pestered today nor do I understand why I was singled out, when I have seen many many people before me do it with no issues.

I would also appreciate if you could clear this issue with your attendants who are set to supervise the IM building. They do not seem to be knowledgeable about lifting, which makes me question how they can be put in charge of supervising. I hope you understand my frustration and can clear this issue. If this happens again, I would like to file a formal complaint if there is a way to do so.

Thanks again"

I'm still pissed off about this lol

[Love_Deadlifts]

If they are trying to stop you from doing lifts that are central to your program and there is no evidence supporting that it's "against the rules" then i'm not really sure what to recommend on that.
Wait for the email back and hopefully the supervisor can help you. If the supervisor won't help, see if your student club committee (or whatever it is called, the group of all the student run clubs) might be able to lend some assistance. The Professors/staff members that are involved with those organizations tend to have been involved with sports/clubs themselves when they were students and would be more inclined to help.

[WhiteGorilla]

That seems like an extremely well-written email, but if they are retarded enough to not allow OHPs and email you back saying that they can't do anything about the rules, then just complain as much as you can to them and try to see if you can find somewhere else to workout. I wouldn't give them any service unless the guy emails you saying that you can do the lifts.

[NotNowChief]

wow, frustrating but I guess you just have to wait and see how they respond.

In my experience, the "but other people break the rules too" defence is seldom a winner, often being countered by the "but you're the guy we caught" riposte.

The onus is on them to have any rules they decide upon clearly displayed and available, after all how could anyone possibly know or follow a rule as wacky as "no overhead lifts" without reading it first.

If they claim it is their responsibility for your safety preventing them from letting you do certain lifts ask if you and the rest of the powerlifting club, presumed to be relatively experienced, responsible lifters could sign a waiver indemnifying the gym from any liability to allow you to proceed with your lifts.

Or perhaps designate a certain time and place where you could do them so as to differentiate from the regular gym goers?

[tarun]

It's not a gym I pay for, its part of my university's rec centers. On the walls, they have some rules like "rack the weights" and "don't drop the weights" and one of them is "no overhead lifts allowed" but from freshman year, I was under the impression this only applied to like snatches and stuff. Because if I can't do an overhead press because its an "overhead lift," then seated presses shouldn't be allowed, neither should just about ANY dumbbell press. In that case, a bench press is also theoretically overhead (and more people die a year from benching than overhead pressing, if anything over like 1% of the population even overhead pressed in the first place lol)... but its bullshit what the guy said, that only the "standing shoulder press is not allowed but the seated ones are." I'm awaiting the reply of the supervisor. Today was my birthday too and my day was going really well till this hickup, and it annoyed me so much I didn't get any studying done for like the past 6 hours for my exam tomorrow night lol.

NotNotChief, they SEE other people doing dumbbell presses, they don't stop them. Apparently only the overhead press counts as an overhead lift which is BS. Furthermore, I've done them plenty of times and the supervising students usually don't give a shit. However, some of them, like the ones today (and one from last week) apparently take their jobs too seriously.