u/Ahnarcho

5’10, 105kg. Running Jeff Nippard’s five day a week program.

Over the last two weeks, I’ve been focusing on my overhead press. My knee is a little bit fucked up right now so while I can stand stable under the load of a stranding strict press, squatting is currently a little uncomfortable. My goal is 100kg press for a solid single, my press is currently at 95kg.

Not elite, but half decent for a commercial gym.

Problem is, I’ve recently been accosted by the world’s most annoying dude. He’s in his mid to late 30’s, really into rock climbing, and loves to talk my ear off about bullshit on account of his undergrad in philosophy. He gotten way more hostile with me when he learned I’ve been accepted into law school.

I occasionally lift with a friend of mine, “C.” C is big and dumb and friendly and strong as fuck, despite lifting at most like two days a week. He’s proof that you can get big and strong off sunlight and the power of friendship alone. C will talk to anyone, anywhere, about anything, to a fault. He’s also highly suggestible. You have to be careful how you explain things to C, less he accidentally begin to believe that he is a communist, liberal, or a fucking salmon.

Yesterday, C and I are lifting, I’m pushing my press, and it seemed like it would finally be the day I get the press I’ve been chasing. Unfortunately, gym dude found it to be a great time to give us a survey that, should we say yes to all seven questions, we will apparently have to accept that “there is no ethical grounds to stop your partner from perusing someone else.” I’m like “look man, I don’t have fucking time for this-“ but my buddy C was gung-ho, both feet in before I could shut it down. I put in my headphones to try and ignore it, but unfortunately, I did allow my attention to be drawn to the questionnaire.

I won’t go over all seven questions (I do have the survey if anyone is interested), but I found many of the questions leading and imprecise, and we argued all the way through it. For instance, gym dude asked us “do you agree that any freedom taken from someone must be properly justified?”

I answered “No, I don’t think so. I think by matter of existing, we take away at a minimum very minuscule rights from others, and we see no need to justify it.” He asked me for examples and I listed the shoes that I’m wearing, the space I’m taking up in the squat cage, and virtually every minute of every day I spend living my life. I don’t justify every moment of my life despite the fact that my existence could stop someone else from doing exactly what I’m doing.

Gym dude argued that there’s a difference between freedom and opportunity. I asked him to define it. He told me we have certain inalienable human rights that allow us to exist without justification, and that means we’re not taking away freedoms by simply existing. I’m like “alright, so we’re making a political argument then, that’s a liberal-democratic position.” Idk what the fuck pissed him off so bad about that, but he actually raised his voice at me while disagreeing, which I thought was super out of line.

After the questionnaire (which took forever because I kept asking for definitions), my buddy C started to think that he was a “relationship anarchist.” Gym dude is supporting it, I’m like “no the fuck you aren’t, you loath non-monogamy” (that’s its own story). We stand there arguing in the gym until gym dude gets a text from his girlfriend, telling him that shes been waiting forever, and he was supposed to be home.

So he takes off, not before telling me that I have a bunch of baggage I need to work on. I don’t hit my 100kg press (kept missing it at the top of the range of motion, I think I was throwing it too far out front) and for the rest of the day, I have to explain to my buddy C that he has no idea what relationship anarchy is, and he shouldn’t just accept whatever political position he’s offered just because it sounds nice (not the first time we’ve had this conversation).

I’m just gonna fucking switch gyms.

I’m 5’10, 105 KG. Running Jeff Nippard’s five day a week full body program (with some modifications, I’ve added front squats to the 3rd day of the program, and Jeff programs bench too heavy).

I have an undergraduate degree in poli sci and my minor is in philosophy. I *immensely regret* my minor, as I don’t believe that it gave me strong research methods or rigor, and sociology probably would’ve been closer to what I was looking for. A couple weeks back, I was training with a friend of mine, and we were discussing Marx’s notion of false consciousness. I was making the point that it isn’t exactly clear what Marx actually meant by false consciousness. Suddenly, this random dude interjected himself into the conversation, and went on a tirade against Marx. From what I gather, he’s some sort of anarchist/democratic socialist, and I wasn’t particularly impressed with his views on Marx.

Now it’s every day, I show up, and there’s buddy and he wants to discuss whatever video essay he’s seen that day. Today, I was trying to bench 115kg for 3 sets of 5, and I couldn’t because this dude wanted to explain at length the abortion/violinist analogy. When he wrongfully attributed the argument to Singer and not Judith Jarvis Thompson, I missed my last two reps. He then argued with me and insisted it was Singer (it’s fucking not).

Yesterday, I was attempting a 200kg beltless back squat for a single, and missed it because this dude wouldn’t shut up about Lenin’s “What is to be Done?” He didn’t like Lenin’s harping on anarchism. I missed the lift out of the hole and had to dump the weight on the rails of the cage. As I stood up, I told him that Lenin mentions anarchists for maybe half a page in the work, and even Lenin calls the critiquing of anarchism exhausted. I asked him if he had ever actually read “What is to be Done?” He told me no.

He somehow found my instagram, and he’s been sending me snippiets of philosophy tube and contra points. *I don’t mind these creators,* but I do think philosophy tube in particular plays fast and loose with the facts, and I don’t appreciate her recent more centralist approach. Again, I mentioned this, and he accused me of being parasocial?

I’m at my wits end. I don’t even like philosophy anymore, but I feel like I’m being forced to constantly defend philosophers to someone who seemingly only comes to the gym to argue with me. I’m very close to changing gyms, which sucks because my gym is so close to home. Any suggestions?