Everyone here seems to hate the gym they have to use (apart from those arseholes with great home set ups).
I actually have a great gym set up, and it’s a university gym. Costs less than $400 a year (Fitness First costs $1200 a year). It’s less than 5 minutes walk from my house, there is a cafe right next to it that is often open late that sells great food.
3 squat racks (never seen anyone curl in them)
2 olympic lifting platforms with no shortage of weights and equipment
Chains, bands etc…
A large supply of dumbells (though only going up to 50kg)
3-4 benches
Always a constant supply of hotties on the bikes upstairs
So this thread is to show your love for your gym. I’ll try and take photos (or see if they are any online).
I enjoy my gym. Lots of space. Good mix of people. Been there 3 1/2 years now so I know all the good times to go. Not that it matters, it’s me, my ipod and the iron. Everything else is an obstacle.
I paid about $300 for the year. It’s crowded with kids at night but during the day it’s pretty empty. I’ve never had to wait for a piece of equipment. My only qualms are: no power rack and no adjustable pulleys (only high and low). I’d also complain that all the barbells are thick, but my forearms have grown an inch from that alone.
[quote]wfifer wrote:
I paid about $300 for the year. It’s crowded with kids at night but during the day it’s pretty empty. I’ve never had to wait for a piece of equipment. My only qualms are: no power rack and no adjustable pulleys (only high and low). I’d also complain that all the barbells are thick, but my forearms have grown an inch from that alone. [/quote]
We have a huge variety of barbells, but reasonably recently all the dumbells got changed to rubber ones, and the handle thickness increases with the weight. They are much more comfortable than the old ones.
I currently dont like my gym very much, very much a health club and strongly machine based. The only good thing is the fact very few use to power cage!
My university gym on the other hand is arguably the best gym in the uk.
10 ol platforms
5 power cages
plyometric area with throwing utensils
indoor sprint area with hurdle etc…
rehab/prehab area with all the tools
its got reverse hyper and GHR stations too which is not something many gyms here have!
I don’t mind my gym for the majority but a few things annoy me
can’t do t bar rows, leg extensions or curls
the kids that weigh 60kg trying to talk themselves up
I’m the biggest one there by a good margin
dumbbells only go up too 40kg
apart from those things my gym is pretty good, you have some pretty decent girls go, always enough cardio equipment, people rarely curl in the squat rack, majority of people over the age of 18 aren’t little smart asses and let you work in and willing to give a spot when asked, also the owner and me get along pretty well aswell
Love mine even though it’s a Golds Gym. it’s about $350 a year but they’ve got every piece of equipment you can think of (sans power rack but I make due with the few squat racks they have). Swimming pool, sauna, kettlebells, it’s never packed (there is a pretty huge Life Fitness next door everyone has flocked to).
the gym i go to is also quite cool. it has virtually no machines (just one leg press machine which nobody uses, and leg curls/extensions one), 5 platforms, on each one squat stands, one old school power rack (really thin, only allows the bar to go up and down), about 5 tons of bumper plates, shitload of bars… and monthly fee is like half as much as in regular gyms.
I’ve got a nice home gym now, but best one I ever worked out in was when I worked on an Air-Force base. It was the same base that housed Air-Force Materiel Command so there were tons of Generals and Colonels around and the equipment was top-notch and spotlees. Plus military folk actually put weights back when they’re done!
-dumbbells up to 120 pounds
-multiple power racks
-just about every machine you could think of
-two full court basketball courts
-indoor track
-boxing ring
-6 racquetball courts
-free water immersion bf% testing
-hour long massages for $30
-FREE!
As long as you could avoid lunchtime and between 4-5pm for the two weeks before the AF PT testing, there was plenty of capacity. The rest of the year you could go any time.
I have two I go to. One is the free gym for people that live in my apartment complex. Not bad, small, but with a rarely used power rack and enough plates to do just about anything. No one cares if you dead, clean, whatever. The down sides are it has weird hours and the DB’s only go up to 70 lbs.
The other is the UCF gym. Nicer equipment (except the dip bars suck - adjustable ones that I feel will snap with my 275+45 lbs on 'em). No power racks, just squat racks, and it’s often full of frat lifters. The DB’s do go up to 150 though, so that’s nice.
Both are free, so I really have no reason to bitch.
I love my gym. Actually I have money that I wanted to spend on an home gym but I found that I’d rather keep driving (8 minutes) to my gym. It’s small as fuck, with mostly old platforms, benches and machines but it’s clean. Actually the gym is clean but the lockers are so-so. I don’t use them anyway.
The staff (2-3 girls) is awesome but the music sucks ass. I think I just like the people alot actually lol. I train at 7-8PM and there’s always just me with 2-5 hardcore friends in there. 2 of them compete, they all have a good attitude and it’s motivating to train with them. The guys push hard, alot of them deadlift and squat and they all go out of their way to spot you or give you advice. I guess the kids and soccer moms train in the evening.
Obviously sometimes there are clowns in the gym but overall I think I’m gonna be using it for as long as I live in the area.
Edit: The hours suck though since it closes at 3Pm on weekends. I only train monday/wednesday/friday but sometimes if I miss a workout I’d like to be able to catch up on saturday night. Good gym nonetheless.
Go to three gyms. Two for free and one for $300 a year. All are well equipped and one is 24/7. Good mix of people at all. Lot of bodybuilders and powerlifters. Only complaint is no Oly set up or bumper plates.