The World’s Funniest Case Of Getting A Spotter Ever :
This happened on 10/16/18, two years back, I was in Cali taking care of my grandma.
For context here’s the log of the bench portion that day :
Bench :
1×275
Failx315
1×315
6×275
15×225
27×185
The 40yo stereotypical blonde haired surfer dude who had been spotting me for the sets at 315 and the 275lb back off set had to leave to go pick up his kids.
I had done 15 at 225 without a spot. With a spot it could have been more, and for 185 I wanted a reps PR, I wanted 30 reps, and figured a spot would be useful there, a big part being so I could zone out and still know the rep count at the end without having counted myself.
There weren’t many people around.
Three. One guy, two girls.
The Colombian? :
I’d already interacted with one of the girls, a late 20s 5’8″ or 5’9″ nicely curved t&a thick fit, with 4 pack, light/pale skinned jet black haired latina with a nice smile and a tattoo on the back of her left shoulder. I’d guess rich colombian, but the tattoo was strange for an immigrant latina.
When I had wanted to strip the bar from either 275 to 225 or 225 to 185 she was walking to the leg machines directly behind the bench I was at, literally stopping and texting 3″ away from the end of the barbell sleeve, blocking me from changing plates, oblivious to her surroundings.
I let my rest period run till her being there was slowing down my workout, easily 90 seconds or longer of me letting it be, tapped her on the shoulder and asked her “what is that the arbitrary texting spot”.
She looked at me confused “I no understand”.
I told her she was in my way, that I can’t change my plates with her standing there, and she took a step away from the barbell – mission accomplished.
She walked two or three steps away, and returned to me “what is arbitrary texting spot”.
I look her right in the eyes figuring that with no comprende barrier that I’ll simplify things I’ll tell her exactly what I was doing.
I’m looking her in the eyes, and I flat out tell her “I was teasing you about
texting right next to my bar”.
THAT, that she understood! The look in her eyes, the body language, you could tell she’s now interested.
Reacting to me telling her that initially, a minute or so back, I’d been teasing her, and her instantly reacting like she got that I was teasing her then. That dynamic cracked me up.
She goes to a leg curl machine probably 8′ from me.
The Double Bodyweight Benching Banshee Gangbanger :
15′ to my left is a decline bench.
The work weights on the bar were 225, 235, 245 for sets of 8 by a get this – short probably 125lb hispanic dude with teardrop tats spending his short rest periods fists clenched, staring at the barbell, and SCREAMING at the top of his lungs for 15 seconds at a time. I was impressed with him going practically double bodyweight for 8.
Having had a hispanic gangbanger visibly working himself up to take off on me in some manner over my having accidentally personally affronted him by asking to work in on some equipment a few years earlier – I decided to let the double bodyweight banshee emulating dude do his thing without me interacting.
That left one option. The other girl.
Now this gym floor had tons of immigrants, I remember hearing not only english and spanish, but german, arabic, and portuguese, among other languages there.
The Third Option :
I can tell this girls a foreigner. Looking at her she has a bit of a mediterranean look, a friendly euro vibe, initially I think french.
The colombian? had walked off, I hadn’t stopped her for a spot, as I didn’t want her thinking I had interest in her. I didn’t.
The benching banshee is stripping his plates, and this girl starts to walk off.
“Hey, before you leave. Can I get a spot?”
She stops, looks at me, doesn’t say a word.
I go kinda stupid looking back, nearly repeating myself verbatim
“Look, there’s no one else around. Can I get a spot before you walk off?”
…crickets…
For a split second I’m thinking “really I stopped someone that much of a bitch to just give me the silent treatment and stare”, but before I said anything, the thought had been only split second in my mind, I realized :
1. She’s still here.
2. The look isn’t bitchy, it’s… confusion.
Now I’m thinking “I’d thought this girl for a european, french. All europeans speak english. What are the odds, first a light skinned latina, now a white latina, both probably rich girls, but both no habla inglés – twice in a row”.
Thinking out loud moreso than talking to her, I shake my head then I look her in the eyes, “you don’t speak english do you?”
Her body language stiffens instantaneously, and a lighty accented voice in a tone of horror
“I speak good.” weird pause “English!”
Half playing along, half giving her the benefit of the doubt, “ok you speak good english. What are you not understanding?”
She shrugs, visibly thinks, “you’re asking me for something. I don’t know what”.
“A spot.”
“I don’t know what spot. Where?You’re asking me for something?”
I’m basically just laughing at this point, and motion to the spotter’s spot while saying “you here”.
Her face just lights up “Oh, help. You mean help. You want me to help.” weird pause “You.”
I may have done a real face palm.
And now I’m curious. Her english seems to have everything but the gym slang term “spot”. There’s a clear accent, she has a peculiar pause in a lot of her sentences where it’s an incomplete sentence, a pause, then finishing the sentence. I can tell she’s foreign.
We get to talking. I explain to her that “in gym parlance, it’s called a spot”. She tells me I’m actually the first time anyone has asked her for one, I was shocked that she legit didn’t know the term despite years in america, and based on her build probably always going to the gym but never even being spoken to.
Guys, there are attractive women who go for years with the impression that all guys in the gym are mutes. This girl was a brunette, 5’7″, had a thin but curvy build that’d be called petite curvy if she was short, and looked taller than she was due to proportions, she had the upper two abs showing though that seemed like just how skinny she naturally was. Her build really was a contrast of thin and curvy. Late 20s, really girly, nice vibe…years without any guy saying a word to her at the gym.
The whole not understanding thing had me curious as to where she was from. I told her that I knew she was foreign, and had thought european – all of whom in my experience speak english. The not understanding me thing though made me think white south american. She told me she was brazilian I told her that “my guess would’ve been french”, looked her up and down “no italian”, and she lit up “you’re good at this, all four of my grandparents are italian, all four immigrated to brazil”.
And while this conversation is going I get the feeling we’re being looked at.
That colombian? had walked away just before I stopped this brazilian chick. In my peripherals I see that she’s on the other side of the gym floor staring daggers, death glaring at little miss brazil.
“Huh, I just made this girl an enemy. They’re now rivals.” I think to myself, laughing at the social dynamics
She joked that she’s “too tiny to spot this” as she did the corniest of thin chick awkward looking crab poses, I laughed, then reassured her that it’d be fine and said I’d appreciate her keeping track of the reps.
She counted out loud in english, maybe to prove a point. I didn’t specifically say for her to count out loud. And would’ve expected it to be in portuguese anyway.
After 20 I took a breath, and on 21 she tried to grab it as I was near chest, her thinking I’d just had a catastrophic failure out of nowhere, “I’m still going” I say.
I brought it to failure, telling her now she can help me rerack the bar.
“Thank you”, and she told me the rep count “I helped you on 28”.
“So I did 27”.
She went to a different leg machine after offering her spotting services in the future while smiling, very much proud to use the term spot correctly.
Word of the day “spot” was.
We would speak again a few days later, but that’s not this story. However this from the next conversation is notable :
She had a lot of emotions tied up in speaking english well. In undergrad she was housed with other foreign exchange girls, a couple eastern europeans, and they were very mean to her about being better than her at english. She went from no english to fluent in record time, DROPPING the esl classes entirely within a year. She no longer needed them.
I unintentionally pinged that insecurity stumping her with “spot” the one slang term she didn’t know, and because of that lack of comprehension and the prior interaction assumed ella no habla ingles to her horror.
alternate title :
When Brazilian Chicks Spot You @ The SoCal Bodybuilding Gym