Gym Options

Bigger Stronger Leaner Competitive Bodybuilding
1

I wasn’t sure where to post this, cause it’s related with choosing the right gym, so i just posted it here.

Few weeks ago i moved back home from the city, where i attended college. That city had an awesome and quite well equipped oly lifting club, with a few lifting platforms. People didn’t know about that place, so whenever i went to the gym i had the whole platform for myself and i could do which ever program i’ve chosen. Needless to say i loved that gym.

The city, i currently reside in has REALLY shitty gyms. In all the gyms DB mostly only go up to 70 lbs, and the thing that bothers me the most-gyms don’t allow deadlifts. Well, you could do them, but you can’t drop the weights. I consider myself to be on the really low end of intermediate stage relative to T-Nation standards, but where i live people don’t usually lift heavy (few exceptions), which makes those gyms useless for me. There is just one gym with oly barbells and plates, where i could do deadlifts (again-without the weight crashing), but it has only like 500 lbs of plates total, so if i train and also another serious lifter trains, neither of us can do a proper workout.

On the other side i’m quite lucky, because i have a makeshift gym at home. Father works in the steel industry and he provided me with makeshift bars, plates (around 380 lbs total), shitty rack and bench. Weights of these plates is just random, like 27,8 lbs, which makes it impossible to follow a percentage based program like 531, or other powerlifting program. I also have a pull ups bar, home made TRX, and i improvise a lot (weighted dips between tho chars, …).

So i’m asking you, what would you choose - really shitty commercial gym or slightly less shitty home gym (at home i have no machines). My goal is to gain a couple more lbs, but ultimately to get a lot stronger. If i choose the home gym my only option is to do dinosaur training like workouts (i don’t live in a city, but in village, so i could get some odd objects to train with). An also, building a home gym with proper equipment is currently not an option.

Any suggestions?

2

get better stuff for your home gym

if you’re patient you can find plates REALLY cheap on craigslist

invest in a decent bar/bench/rack

check this thread for some heavy db suggestions: Adjustable dumbbells - Competitive Bodybuilding - Forums - T Nation

3

Thanks for your reply.

[quote]Anus Bleach wrote:
if you’re patient you can find plates REALLY cheap on craigslist
[/quote]

I know craigslist is great for this kind of stuff, but i’m from Europe so i don’t think (craigslist) would be helpful. Also similar site from my country has no useful fitness equipment (only used elliptics, ab roller, ab rockets → shit).

4

Check out the railway. I don’t know where you live, but it should be everywhere. Where I live there are massive plates pinned to the poles that hold catenary web. Some are secured some aren’t. If they aren’t secured all you have to do is to climb the pole and draw out the plates from the bar. Unfortunately for me they are welded to each other in my region.

5

Knowing what country you live in, your goals and how strong you are would help.

I think both options look pretty ok.

6

Save up and buy a rack, bar, and plates.

In the meantime, find a big stone to run around with.

7

[quote]kakno wrote:
Knowing what country you live in, your goals and how strong you are would help.[/quote]
I’m from Slovenia. I’m 187 cm tall (6’1") and weigh 95 kg (210 lbs). When i was weighing few lbs more (around 220 lbs) my PBs were:
125 kg (275 lbs) bench press
90 kg (198 lbs) military press
162.5 kg (357 lbs) back squat
212.5 kg (467 lbs) deadlift.

All in all nothing special. Even though i’m from Europe and we use kgs i want to finally break 300/400/400 lbs barrier, so basically that’s my goal. As far as BW goes, i plan to gain around 15 lbs and get as strong as i can at that weight. I’ve been lifting for quite some years now, competed in oly lifting when i was in high school (i did a few meets) but haven’t been consistent enough, hence my numbers.

[quote]kakno wrote:
I think both options look pretty ok. [/quote]
I guess they’re not really that bad. Only thing that bothers me is that i can’t do max effort deadlifts and can’t follow a percentage based programs. I would love to run a few cycles of 531 again (i had mixed results in the past).