Okay I’m planning on opening a gym so I wanted to ask everyone what they thought about the gym extra’s. Of course the important thing is the equipment and the atmosphere…What I want to know is what about the little things. Do you need a locker room and shower or can a gym go without? What about places to rest or even an area specifically for stretching? Any thing else you can think of would be a great help.
So you know I’m not talking about opening a franchise gym like Golds…I mean a warehouse or hell closet with heavy shit to move around and get strong with!
A steam room is great although kind of extravagant if you’re building a hard core facility. Even then, I would consider a shower and some lockers essential. I work out during my work day and have to change and wash at my gym.
I suspect sipping a frosty, fresh fruit protein drink served by a big breasted fitness bunny and watching sports on a high-def big screen would be out of the question? If not, I’ll consider re-locating to S.C. Especially if you also put in the steam room. 8^)
I second the idea of a steam room/sauna. I read somewhere that after you work out, going into a sauna actually helps you recover. My dad also holds true to that belief, as do I.
Also, I’m gonna second the shower, too. I regularly use the showers at my gym, so they’re almost a must-have nowadays.
Might I suggest selling supplements also? I know a guy who owns a nutrition/supplement shop, but he’s looking into building a gym to go along with it. Why not do the opposite? Build the gym, then add the nutrition and supplements?
[quote]Professor X wrote:
Be afraid of the man who claims the first thing a gym should have is a steam room.[/quote]
Yes! Be VERY afraid… We’re all Hotheads!
Of course the first and most important thing you should buy is a good power rack but the OP was asking specifically about EXTRAS. I assume he already knows that bars, weights and benches are also required.
Sipping your iced Surge in a steam room is great way to achieve a quick recovery. My last gym had one and I used to go back and forth between it and a cold shower. Good Times.
[quote]Tex Ag wrote:
I consider AC to be an extra.[/quote]
Until you find yourself training in August in Arizona and you get so hot and nauseous you can’t finish lifting. Then you wonder why the guys who run the gym are too cheap to turn the air on and you actually long for the chilly atmosphere of a 24 hr fitness.
[quote]sic wrote:
Depends on your clientele. Do you expect only hardcore dudes or do you need soccer moms, cardio bunnies, and teenagers to meet your monthly income?
How big is your facility and what do you already consider to be essential as far as equipment goes?[/quote]
If you are running a hell closet, you don’t really need “extras”. Although cleaning up the chalk and blood off the floor every so often would be nice.
[quote]sic wrote:
Tex Ag wrote:
I consider AC to be an extra.
Until you find yourself training in August in Arizona and you get so hot and nauseous you can’t finish lifting. Then you wonder why the guys who run the gym are too cheap to turn the air on and you actually long for the chilly atmosphere of a 24 hr fitness.[/quote]
At college, Texas A&M, I worked in and lifted at a sunken (below ground level) basement gym without air conditioning. It is not the dry heat of Arizona, but the wet humid “open the doors at 7 in the morning to see steam come out” 100 plus heat of southeast Texas. We would not turn on the fans because the moving heat felt worse. I would work a six to eight hour shift, then workout. When it rained hard the gym would flood. We would lock the doors and workout anyway, sometimes with water nearly reaching our knees.
The university built a new recreation center. They condemned the building our gym was in a tore it down. The new gym, while nice, was always too cold.
[quote]Tex Ag wrote:
sic wrote:
Tex Ag wrote:
I consider AC to be an extra.
Until you find yourself training in August in Arizona and you get so hot and nauseous you can’t finish lifting. Then you wonder why the guys who run the gym are too cheap to turn the air on and you actually long for the chilly atmosphere of a 24 hr fitness.
At college, Texas A&M, I worked in and lifted at a sunken (below ground level) basement gym without air conditioning. It is not the dry heat of Arizona, but the wet humid “open the doors at 7 in the morning to see steam come out” 100 plus heat of southeast Texas. We would not turn on the fans because the moving heat felt worse. I would work a six to eight hour shift, then workout. When it rained hard the gym would flood. We would lock the doors and workout anyway, sometimes with water nearly reaching our knees.
The university built a new recreation center. They condemned the building our gym was in a tore it down. The new gym, while nice, was always too cold.[/quote]
In your “plenty of plates”, skip the 35s. It will free up storage for other plates. Plus, it might discourage the “I use 35s because it looks like I am using a real plate and therefore hides my ever-present weakness” members. If people need 35 lbs, they can use a quarter and a dime.
[quote]usmccds423 wrote:
Right now I am doing a lot of research on equipment, location, etc…
This is a future endeavour over the next couple of years with primarily athletes and meatheads as my clients.
I would say the essentials are:
Power racks
Plenty of plates
plenty of bars (thick and regular)
DB’s to at least 150lbs.
A couple bench’s
and various other equipment
Extra’s I’d like to have
A Prowler
Squat box’s
Chains and bands
Bumper Plates
I’d consider AC an extra just because it doesn’t get to hot and who wants to be freezing while hitting the weights.
[/quote]
I really commend anyone who opens up a privately owned gym. Although it is not easy to do ,I really wish you the best of luck. Depending on who your opening the gym up for , I think if you had all the essentials and your extras it would be near perfect.
some additional ideas though
a couple of mini 100M tracks to do sprints and athletic work in
lockers and showers are a must in a commercial gym
you say your in a warehouse, don’t they get real hot in the summer?
a cardio room could be useful to rake in more cash
a supplement store/ food store to make even more cash.
[quote]Yo Momma wrote:
Tex Ag wrote:
If people need 35 lbs, they can use a quarter and a dime.
Takes up too much space on the bar
[/quote]
That cannot be a problem. The squat rack curlers always end up with 3 dimes on their final cheat set of one. Thats three whole plates! Much bigger than just two plates of a quarter and dime.
Hell, sometimes they use five! nickels. That’s even more.
