No shit?? Those old clubs. The Police played at Stagez waaaaay back.
St Louis is now a cesspool. And surrounding areas are getting there. Wash U is a gorgeous campus and university but gets a lot of robberies / carjackings. Ate dinner in Chesterfield last night. Stoney River steak house. CWE got bad after the riots but is calm again. Been going there for over 30 years.
Thanks for the kind words
Its awful… Broccoli headed teens hovering around equipment playing on phones, Tripod losers thinking they’re influencers, women have the “don’t you dare look at me” face on, lousy music like mumble rap, phone zombie cunts, etc…
I came up in the 90’s when we had a blast training. Now it’s just annoying af
Yeah…im a little older then you, i think. I know after i step away from lifting for a while. When i started back up and notice the atmosphere was different. Apparently things have gone down hill even more.
I’ve been at a specialized, limited membership gym for a few years but was going to a Gold’s prior.
Gym culture has definitely changed. Working in is taboo, people use phone apps to manage routines but then get lost on the internet for days between sets (while not allowing a work in), and basically every other old school tenet creating a mutually respectful shared space is out the window.
I don’t remember women being passive aggressive in their second skin pants like you see online but they were pretty notorious for using benches and equipment as personal storage spaces and having shitty attitudes when you ask them to move their shit so you can use it. But I think this is a function of females in general more so than gym culture. There are just more of them in the weight section now than in the past.
I’ve seen a few people trying to film themselves on a tripod and they’re very obviously posing for their Instagram profile vs. checking squat depth and form or something. They’ll act a little perturbed if you walk by but it’s easy enough to do it anyways so who cares.
Basically don’t expect a group of people mutually chasing similar goals and working with each other to do it. It’s an every man for himself experience to commandeer equipment and get through your routine while ignoring shitty attitudes.
47 in July. Atmosphere is such an underrated aspect of gym culture. Like going to concerts too… most idiots are just staring at a phone.
Their excuses are always " But I use it to track numbers, etc…" Sure, Jan. You also use it to fiddle fuck for 15 minutes between garbage sets.
Got 5 on you… yeah atmosphere imo is everything. Ill take a old dungeon gym with the bare minimum of stuff and the right crowd.
Post biceps reattachment surgery I stumbled on a gym that could cater to all types. It was a former racket ball gym with 10 courts. As the racket ball craze began to subside, the owners began converting the courts in the back as weight rooms and made them two-story with cardio equipment upstairs. By the time I joined there were only two racket ball courts remaining, with eight courts dedicated to weights. The far back courts were made double wide, with one double wide court solely for free weights. The remaining courts were weight machines (Cybex and Hammer, plus some other makes).
Charles Bailey was one of the trainers there, who later turned to a 275lb powerlifter with a 2500+lb total. That corner of the gym, was the old hard core. Vince Urbank began training there for a few years. The remaining “courts” of the gym were enjoyed by your typical clients. They didn’t have to be exposed to the hard core group. And the hard core group could be as hard core as they wished. It was not a “wide open” weight room, but had a more private feel with different “courts” as small weight room, body part segregated for the most part.
Charles was given free range to arrange the free weight room as he saw fit. He had his squat bar and deadlift bars locked up along with his 6 100lb plates, and a box of 310lbs of chains and a multitude of bands. He would give out keys as he saw fit. He had a contraption made that could be added to one of the power racks that perfectly functioned as a monolift.
Regrettably, that gym closed in 2015, due to poor management of the new owners. But rumor had it that the previous owner was using the gym to laundry money. It was definitely a different gym for its time.
Dungeon with Van Halen and Slayer cranking
Sounds like i great place…
Old Ymca was like that. Had one room full of a full Nautilus circuit set up. Another
dark and dank room with the bare bones for us regenerates.
Lol…yep that works.
All seriousness seemed like everyone was all on the same page… felt more communal.
100%… now its like there’s a tension in the air.
My gym will have a zero phone policy. Only old school metal and brutality
You don’t happen to know a Josh McAfee out there that runs the McAfee Institute (LE and Intelligence training) do you?
That’s who I was staying with when I was out - he’s a good friend of my best friend and a car nut.
Don’t believe so… whereabouts is he ?
His office is in Chesterfield - not sure if he does the training locally or nationwide, though. He’s our age (mid-late 40s), but I think his background is more private security/fraud/loss prevention than LE, so might not have run in the same circles. Good dude, nonetheless.
Chesterfield is 15 minutes from me but not familiar. Will check him out though I retired from police work.
Speaking of Planet Fitness, took this photo on my way back from jiu-jitsu training yesterday. Annoyed at having re-injured my knee, I have to admit that this put a smile on my face.
Sums up that dump perfectly
I absolutely love the irony.
