If you've read any of my articles on weightlifting before, you know that I am by turns amused and horrified by the dunderheads that I see in the gym. I am what you might politely call an older gentleman and I've been lifting weights for a very long time. But I saw something this last week that I've never seen before.

When this guy first walked in I was on the stairmaster getting in some minimal training. All of the aerobics equipment in my gymnasium is situated on a platform above the free weight area, sometimes I find this inspirational. This time, I found it horrifying.

First, was talk about the creature itself. He was in his early 20s maybe 5 foot 11 or 6 feet tall. I would say that he weighed approximately 195 pounds.

You could tell that he worked out, but you could also tell immediately that he didn't do it correctly. His shoulders seem to be permanently hunched forward and inward. He didn't have any leg development to speak of, and there was definitely no back or chest development.

What he did have was arms. Huge arms. The sky was not fat, and I would guess that his upper arms would measure out at about 16 1/2 inches cold. Too bad the rest of his body was not keeping pace with his arm development. It didn't take me long to see why.

The first part of his biceps workout looked like pretty much anyone else's set of arm exercises. He did multiple sets of curls -- albeit with extremely bad form. But that is all that he did. Really. His entire workout was biceps curls. He ran the rack, he did 21s with the easy curl bar, he did see the concentration curls. I watched this guy do curls for a solid 40 minutes.

At this point, I'm no longer wondering what the rest of his body is so underdeveloped in comparison. I also now understood why he had great arm development despite his poor technique. Just like in the old Johnny Cash song, where he talks about his father naming him Sue. Well a boy named Sue has no choice: either he has to get tough or die. I guess this idiots arms either had to grow or fall off.

But it was his workout finisher that really made my jaw drop. After all of this, endless sets of curls and apparently endless variety, he unveiled his masterpiece.

He reached into his gym bag and pulled out an arm blaster. But this was not just any arm blaster. He had the strap shortened on this thing so much that when he hung the strap around his neck, the metal was practically in his armpits. Now those of you that have used our best blaster before know that you want it in place to support the backs of your arms just above the elbow and just into the beginning of the meaty part of the triceps.

This guy had this thing hyped up so high that I'm sure he was getting his secret antiperspirant all over it. On top of that, it looked almost like a sort of mini arm blaster as if it were made for 100 pounds sixth-graders. I couldn't tell if it came that way or if you just cut the last four or 5 inches off of each and in an attempt to make some sort of custom equipment.

Anyway, he hangs this thing around his neck and walks over to the dumbbell racks. He then proceeds to grab a pair of 55 pound dumbbells -- well above the amount of weight that he could do in good form even if he was fresh, let alone at the end of a grueling 40 minute bicep curl only workout.

I don't think I have to tell you what he did then. Of course! He started swinging back and forth in an attempt to get enough momentum so that he could curl the dumbbells. After three or four rocks back and forth, he actually got a rap. Another three or four rocks and another rep. And so on and so forth I think he got six reps total and apparently figured that that was finally enough for one arm workout.

It was interesting to watch the reactions of the other people at the gym. There were a couple of skinny high school kids watching in awe, because they had no idea how screwed up this guy was. All they could see was that he had big arms, and it made me wonder if he had done the same thing five years before, and if this was what started them down his misshapen and symmetrical road.

Also at the gym that morning was a couple that I'd seen there many times before. The woman is obviously a bodybuilding competitor, and her partner is not far behind. A couple of times they literally stop their workout and stared at the sky openly while discussing him. I'm sure they were trying to figure out just exactly what he thought he was doing. It sure wasn't an actual biceps workout.

In the days since that morning I have thought about this guy a fair amount, and wondered exactly how good he could look if someone had taken the time to speak to him when he was younger and put him on the right track. I'll be back in the gym tomorrow morning, and I've decided that if he's there to my will with all possible kindness tried to explain to them what is oh so very wrong with his arm workouts.