i hate that stupid, childish, annoying disco/house music they play. [supposedly catering to the “female” clientel] how in the world can anyone concentrate at the bottom position of a 365lb squat with britney spears or snoop doggy dog… gee, i guess some good old motley crue or white zombie would be totally out of the question for some gym owners to consider.
Gimme a gym with a bunch of heavy rocks and kegs of beer to lift. Who needs fancy shmancy weights when you can can toss full kegs of beer back and forth with your friends? Hey, if you wanna do drop sets you can always drink the beer between toss’s.
- either no music or rock music no other exceptions.
- anyone who works there should no what they are talking about or should keep their mouth shut.
- if an employee is on the thin side he better be ripped or be able to lift an awesome amount of weight.
- if an employee is on the hefty side he should still have a ton of muscle and better be able to outlift 90% of the members.
- noone should be allowed to drop weights or dumbells, slam weight stacks down, or make a ton of noise. people who do this have low testosterone and a low IQ and are doing these things to make up for it.
- when putting a gym together start with the basics like free weights then add machines that are of quality and don’t by crap like swiss balls.
- keep the place clean, well priced, and don’t allow members to piss the women off. looking is one thing but don’t let them harass the women. without women in your gym not only won’t other women come but most men won’t either.
Complaint ? where are the strippers?
Seriously, Mike had a good point. Gotta get the women in there. Get the women and the men will follow. (oh, little tip. lotsa strippers like to stay in shape and are probably in your gym already unless it’s one of those rat holes.)
“The Group”,
I need to thank everyone who has replied to this post. Thanks. OK now a slight change to this question. Say we seperate the gym into three different areas. 1) Dinosaur style rock lifting no machines. 2) Powerlifting/Olympic Lifting style platforms and benches with free weights. 3) Bodybuilding style machines and blend. Ok a fourth area called other. I need to know what area you want most! Or should I say where would you spend most of your time? Oh yeah what about a co op style gym where there isn’t a staff and you, the members, were responsible for the cleaning and keep neat.???
I hate a few things. One thing is a lack of personnel to keep the place orderly. lb plates with 5 Lb plates, etc. Anther thing is not having an owner or manger who has someone there to ENFORCE gym etiquette. I couldn’t squat last week for 25 minutes because there were 2 groups of sociallites performing barbell curls.
Don’t try to over diversify the type of clientelle you want. One extreme will scare away the other.
Spend time on the layout. ab crunch machines next to squat rack, NOOOOOO!
Could add so much more. In the interest of time, I won’t. only one more point.
Whatever you do, and nearly 100% of the gyms, fitness facilities, studios, whatever, has them. Insist that there is a strict policy against ballbusters. Anyone that aggressively chastises another member about whatever for their own ballbusting, need for attention manner should be handled up on immediately. Perhaps a sign in front that states, “Every member is expected to act in a manner that is not disruptive to others. Continued occurrance will result in termination of membership.”
Obscenities, body odor, dominating equipment for unreasonable amounts of time, soliciting business from strangers, etc.
I wish there was a device that would indicate that an area, whether it be a machine, a bench, is being used(sort of like a do not disturb sign on a motel door). With a hard and fast rule such as 10 minutes (to an extreme) of non use, the area is open. With a floor manager, (not a club manager, a floor manager that keeps the place moving, reminds people to rerack the weights, keeps the floor rules enforced, etc).
This is a hard thing to control it seems, since it is also evident, although not to as much extent in Gold’s/Venice as in other gyms I’ve been in: Some people have a total lack of gym etiquitte when it comes to stripping the weights off bars or machines. They also do not re-rack dumbbells. This leaves other members either hunting for weights or having to unload 10 wheels per side off a leg press when, like me, the only need a 35 on each side. My other pet peeve is people who drop weights or DB’s on the floor.
YES!!! We need gym police to make sure all the rules are enforced and woe to the ones that break the gym law. By the way, who would be the gym police in a co-op gym? Would it be like a soviet style co-op? Or more like a hippy commune co-op? All rude gym people will be the first put to the wall when the revolution comes!!!