Hey all, I’m going to be in the Bala Cynwyd/Wynnefield Heights area of West Philadelphia and I am looking for a TNation caliber gym to train at. Anybody know anything in the area?
IronSport in Glenolden PA is the best gym Ive ever trained at. Greta selection of PL and strongman stuff
Iron Sport!
Iron Sport.
Thanks guys! There is a huge LA Fitness but I feel my T levels drop just looking at the place
I’ll check out Iron Sport!
Trispeter, Iron Sport will be quite out of the way for you, but if you don’t mind 45 min drives go for it. I train at the LA fitness near you occassionally, but mostly at the LA fitness in Roxborough, as I live in Manayunk. I’ve been looking for a serious training partner (although I do more bodybuilding type work, as I’m currently doing Big Beyond Belief), so shoot me a PM if interested.
I’ll drop you a PM, I’m not going to be down there - how is the LA Fitness?
It’s your normal commercial gym. A few big guys, really shitty form squats when you see people squatting, never see anyone deadlifting except me and a decent amount of bros doing bicep curls. The good things about LA fitness are that the DBs go up to 125, there are 3 squat racks so you never have to wait to get into a cage or rack, and there are generally some good looking women strewn about (gotta look at something between heavy squats).
IronSport is the best gym in the area but is a solid 35 minute ride with no traffic. Don’t even bother during rush hour. Check it out on a weekend.
The LA Fitness in Bala is very crowded and not as well maintained as the one in Roxborough. Roxborough is crowded too during peak hours but that’s what you get in an area with so many young people. I’ve seen members bring in chalk, bands, and chains without a problem at both LA Fitnesses.
Thats good to hear that they let you bring in things like that, really I don’t care if the people around me are into powerlifting/strongman stuff as long as they don’t get in the way of me doing it (aka Planet Fitness)
Do they have an olympic pad or prowler? I’m assuming no
ironsport has platform prowle and a full selection of strongman implements. make the drive
[quote]Trispeter wrote:
Thats good to hear that they let you bring in things like that, really I don’t care if the people around me are into powerlifting/strongman stuff as long as they don’t get in the way of me doing it (aka Planet Fitness)
Do they have an olympic pad or prowler? I’m assuming no[/quote]
They don’t have either. Never seen these in any commercial gym I’ve been too.
Ironsport has them and more.
So I went to visit the LA Fitness, I really can never see myself working out there, ever, the atmosphere and stuff aside, they tried to sign me into a contract against my consent off the info I gave them for my waiver…
During the tour the trainer kept trying to get me to try out pieces of equipment, i.e. he wanted me to get on an elliptical machine and told me about how it gives him a good burn on his quads… I don’t think this guy knows what a burn is
One of the questions he asked me - Is your goal coming here to get more toned and firm? NO I’M NOT TRYING TO GET TONED AND FIRM, I’m no Thib but you can tell that I am pretty decent at picking up heavy stuff just looking at me
I asked him if he had a Olympic pad or power cage and he said “I don’t think we have any of those”
But hey on the other side, they had a wrist curl machine and a flat screen TV in the locker room… glad they have their priorities straight
worked out at iron sport for a couple days a few years ago…best gym Ive ever been to out of 30+ different gyms Ive trained at
has every piece of equipment u can think of
wish i had a gym like that to train at everyday
[quote]Trispeter wrote:
So I went to visit the LA Fitness, I really can never see myself working out there, ever, the atmosphere and stuff aside, they tried to sign me into a contract against my consent off the info I gave them for my waiver…
During the tour the trainer kept trying to get me to try out pieces of equipment, i.e. he wanted me to get on an elliptical machine and told me about how it gives him a good burn on his quads… I don’t think this guy knows what a burn is
One of the questions he asked me - Is your goal coming here to get more toned and firm? NO I’M NOT TRYING TO GET TONED AND FIRM, I’m no Thib but you can tell that I am pretty decent at picking up heavy stuff just looking at me
I asked him if he had a Olympic pad or power cage and he said “I don’t think we have any of those”
But hey on the other side, they had a wrist curl machine and a flat screen TV in the locker room… glad they have their priorities straight [/quote]
The LA Fitness trainers are idiots. I was just doing my thing one day and one wandered up to ask me whether I was happy with my chest workout. I said yes and he said well it’s probably getting a little stale right? And I said not really, I’m about to bench more than I ever have before so I’m ok with what I’m doing. Then he rambled about other exercises and medicine balls and muscle confusion for a few minutes until he finally went away and let me lift.
god damnit it wish i knew about iron sport when lived in west philly.
I’ve been to the Roxboro LA fitness and it has decent equipment, but all of the stereotypical negatives of chain gyms. I keep saying that one of these days I’m going to move to the other side of the city so I can go to Ironsport…sigh.
Not to be totally redundant, but Iron Sport is quite possibly the best gym I’ve ever trained at. When I am visiting family in NJ I will commute 30 minutes each way to train there instead of going someplace local.