Mines a university gym. It’s got three power racks, two deadlifting platforms, six bench stations, and dumbbells that go up to 110.
The power rack is used for squatting, mostly. I even see people going to parallel sometimes.
I like the spacious layout and the extra bars I can use to snatch and C&J.
On the whole my gym is pretty good. College gym/student rec center. Dumbbells go to 140lbs, one Olympic platform with a complete set of bumper plates, plenty of benches and adjustable cable machines. No chains, but there are weight belts that work fine for weighted pull-ups and dips.
It also has 2 swimming pools, one is Olympic length with a full dive well, an indoor track, a couple of hot tubs, 16 or so racquetball courts, 4 full length basketball courts, all of the random assorted cardio equipment, and massage therapy stuff. All of it is very well organized and planned out with the one exception being the random 100lb leather heavy bag that got strung up from a point in the second floor ceiling. Its a good bag, but a bit worn.
My only real complaints are that there are only 5 acceptable squat racks, 2 more could be fit in there easily if the damn smith machines would get tossed, or another Olympic platform could be added. Given that this is a student rec center, there is a fair amount of frat boy jackassery, but its tolerable on the whole.
I LOVE my gym. Westside fitness in Grand Rapids MI. Plenty of serious people lifting there, people who know their shit. Trainers who compete in bodybuilding shows. And also it’s fairly cheap, I paid less than $400 for a year membership.
The equipment IS kinda old, but it’s got most things you would want and its all in working condition, nothing insane or super-expensive but everything most people would ever want. There’s nothing like a pool or basketball courts, just resistance training stuff and a few treadmills and ellipticals, and an empty room for classes.
There are a lot of pretty huge people who train at my gym - lots of bouncers for the clubs downtown. Most casual annoying people get scared away and I always see the same crowd who don’t fuck around when they lift, which is pretty inspiring.
They have chalk available and encourage it’s use too! Only 1 lifting platform + 3 squat racks but generally it’s not busy enough that I have to wait for anything. They play good hard rock lifting music. DBs go up to 140lbs.
I like my gym. There is alot of floor space and it is split into two areas.
One is for the machines & treadmills, not sure what it even looks like over there.
the other area is the free weights.
Only 2 squat racks, no power cages, and a shit ton of SRCs. But i’ve been lucky and haven’t had to wait on any idiots. Well one guy moved when I set up camp behind him doing BW squats & stretching.
They allow chalk and don’t enforce the ‘2 inch pads under the weight on deadlifts’ bullshit.
Most of the dumbells are bent to shit, because retards can’t stand up with them, but they have two sets of everything up to 85lbs.
Full set of plates (3 of each size) at every bench and squat rack, plus two trees.
It is the best gym i’ve been to outside of college thou.
I’m a gym whore. I go to 2 at home, one is a 24/7 place and one is a hole in the wall powerlifting place. If I’m doing speed or rep stuff, I’ll go to 24/7.
Otherwise, It’s the PL gym. My gyms here at school are pretty cool. They have 2 weight rooms accessible to all students for free. One is very much “fitness” related, but has DB’s up to 150 or 160 I believe. The other is more old school with a few benches, a rack, and a monolift.
I use my high school gym, but I might as well give the specs:
8 power racks
8 Olympic platforms
Dumbbells up to 100lbs
8 Hammer Strength Machines (4 for back, 2 for neck, one incline bench, and one shoulder press)
4 Jammers (also from Hammer Strength)
A big cable set-up
My gym back home kicks ass.
1 Monolift with Safety Pins
2 Power Racks
1 Squat Rack
1 Deadlift Platform set up for Bands
2 Benches with Band Pegs
4 Flat Benches
2 Incline Benches
1 Decline Bench
Reverse Hyper
2 Glute-Ham Raises
45" Back Raise
Normal Back Raise
A Bunch of various Benches for Dumbbells + Abs
Dumbbells from 5-150
SSB Squat Bar
Cambered Squat Bad
Cambered Bench Bar
50 Pound Texas Squat Bar
3" Thick Bar
Trap-Bar
Rickshaw for Shrugs
All the other Barbells are Texas Power Bars
All of the Hammer Strength Machines you Need
Every Plate Stack Machine you Want
A Concept 2 Rower
A Bunch of other Cardio Stuff
3 Flipping Tires
A Chalk Bowl
Platforms for Platform Deadlifts
Several Squat Boxes
1, 2, 3, and 4 Boards
Medicine Balls
A Dance Studio for whatever reason
An Big MMA/Boxing Room with padded floors
Heavy Bags, and those goofy ground and pound dummies.
And of course a supplement shoppe.
My college gym is OK, but the music sucks, most of the machines suck, and it’s not very motivational. Hard to get in the right frame of mind when Akon is singing and everyone is curling.
I love my gym but it is a little small. They let me use chalk and whatnot. I can bring in random pieces of wood and they don’t bat an eye. I do wish they had a platform tho, there isn’t much room to DL outside the cage.
My other gyms are a hard core PL gym I go to once a week with a friend of mine, which is a great place, and my coach’s gym in his garage, which is also a great place. I just wish I lived closer to either one of those gyms.
A new Powerhouse Gym is opening about 1/2 mile from my house. 24 hour access. If they have a good setup, and it isn’t too expensive (I pay under $20 a month for my current gym) I might switch.
[quote]pushmepullme wrote:
They let me use chalk and whatnot. [/quote]
It would totally suck if they banned chalk. My hand sweat a lot, but thankfully we have a big communal tub of chalk at the back of mine. It makes a huge difference.
[quote]jtg987 wrote:
OP which part of australia do you come from?
[/quote]
Sydney
Most Australian gyms don’t have olympic lifting sections because:
We almost never have weightlifting teams. I go to the major Australian university, no weightlifting team.
We also don’t have much power lifting here.
One machine my high school gym did have was a scrum machine (because Rugby is the main physical sport people play here).
I liked my gym at my undergraduate school. It was the same weight room the athletes used. So…tons of oly platform/rack combos. No cardio machines. Any DB weight one would need. Bands/chains, boxes, could use chalk, etc.
The gym where I am now sucks a bit. One rack. A few shitty benches. That said, it’s less busy, and I’ve only had to change my plan once. Lots of bench and curls guys, but that’s to be expected. No chalk allowed. (sigh)
[quote]boyscout wrote:
No chalk allowed. (sigh)
[/quote]
You poor bastard
My gym’s pretty cool.
It’s the rec center at my university.
The powerlifitng team (club) at school has a little side room that I always use. Padded floors and as many 45’s as I’ll ever use with some nice old bars with sharp knurling.
LA Fitness in Atlanta is nice. The crowds are thin with the exception of Monday-Thursday 5-8 pm which is fine for me since I go during offpeak hours. There’s a squat cage, a couple power racks, and dumbbells up to 125lbs. No one says anything about chalk or deadlifting either.
(This is based on three locations on the northside of town. I’ve heard less than stellar stories about locations in the city.)
I like my Gold’s Gym that I go to right now. There is a good group of powerlifters there which is nice to know I’m not the only one ‘training’ there instead of ‘working out’
I’m able to use chalk, make noise (myself and with weights), sweat, deadlift and overhead press (problems I’ve ran into at other places). The music typically sucks but that’s why I have my headphones.
There are bands, foam rollers and kettlebells. The DB’s go up to 140lbs too; rare out my way.
The cardio section isn’t near the real workout area either.
All for $35/mo. I can’t complain; but I do like to make fun of the random d-bags that show up…as long as they don’t get in my way I’m ok with them being there. They are amusing.
[quote]BARBUDA wrote:
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.
Loughborough, powerbase?
I love my gym. 4 OLY platforms. Plenty of dbs and it is generally empty at 6am. It also has a big fieldhouse for throwing medicine balls. I only pay $36 a year.
jnd
[quote]countingbeans wrote:
boyscout wrote:
No chalk allowed. (sigh)
You poor bastard[/quote]
It’s okay, one of the ladies that wanders around “working” there told me a lot of people use gloves instead.
…
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This is my old gym, a grotty powerlifting place, i loved it
now i train at a fitness first, no squat rack, no bench press bench, a smith machines and one olympic barbell. I have to be very inventive to get the most out of it.