The selection of machines, weights, rules and regulations, aesthetics… let your imagination run wild (within reason. Or not, whatever.)
I’ll start off:
*Chalk is allowed if you clean up after yourself
*Is modern-looking, spacious, with big windows
*Well air-conditioned
*Has a swimming pool
*Has numerous good-quality squat racks and bench press… benches, prioritized over all the other stuff
*Has an entire section for strongman stuff
*Has heavybags
Dear santa…
Has:
Oh, and temperature control.
Chalk in chalk boxes is supplied and you can clean it up if you don’t like the mess.
No barbell curls allowed in power racks
Every weight is a smiley face and the hole in the middle is the nose. Therefore, it would sort of look like Pinocchio. The larger the plates, the bigger the happy face!
I’m kind of disappointed with myself with how small my dream gym looks in my head. If I were to talk about all this glamorous stuff you other guys are, I’d literally be lying.
Dream gym would have animals everywhere. Mostly just dogs and cats. So I could pet them between sets.
How much monthly subscription on your basement gym? 
Haha, it would be free if you were in the area. It sucks not having a lifting partner.
Speaking of spacious gyms with big windows… this one opened recently in my hometown, went there today:
It was fucking majestic during sunrise
They also have grade S deadlift platforms, lots of benches and squat racks, dumbbells up to 135 lbs and a huge area for calisthenics stuff with olympic rings and whatnot. Just no strongman stuff…
I’d have more squats racks than you can shake a stick at, so many in fact that you’d have to curl in one!!!
Your basement reminds me of the garage gym that Charles Bailey had in his garage. When the gym went belly up from poor management, he low balled the owner for cherrie picked equipment.
Charles had designed a “monolift” apparatus that hooked onto his power rack. I loved that for doing sumo squats.
Since he died, his girlfriend has the best equipped female owned home gym in north Florida, if not the entire southeast.
I like “dungeon” gyms. Basements, garages, musty old warehouses. No windows. Power racks, benches, dumbbells and a couple heavy bags. No AC, just a big fan in the corner to circulate the hot air. Chalk everywhere.
Are you serious about all this? Especially the “no windows” part, why?
I mean, you do you, and I can see the appeal of a hardcore bare-bones type of gym like this, but personally i’d just die from heat exhaustion and get depressed training like that
Totally serious. Those gyms mean business. Concrete and sweat and no distractions. I love it. I’ve trained in a ton of different places over the years, but the best are always dungeon style. Stale, damp air and a mix of pantera and wutang.
Packed full of insta-chicks all rolling around like cats in heat.
And probably some benches or something.
There’s something to be said about the selection process of such a location.
I echo @Alrightmiami19c 's sentiment. I don’t want my gym to be comfortable. My life is comfortable. I intentionally subject myself to discomfort in order to become better.
As far as climate control in my ideal gym, I will most likely be the total odd ball.
When working arms, especially for a pump, I like the gym just shy of uncomfortably warm.
When squatting I want the gym cool with very cool wind blowing in my face.
For all other body parts I want the humidity and temperature low enough that I don’t sweat.
Yeah, I remember having a similar conversation with you before about suffering, lol
I agree with that (to an extent), but I just feel like the balance between comfort/discomfort is already good enough in my life to make me stronger without making me feel miserable all the time.
And, I mean, even if you live the kind of lifestyle for a while where you try to make your life as difficult as possible in order to become stronger, you still gotta take nice, long breaks every once in a while and enjoy the easy life, no? Because isn’t the whole point of this to make you immune to the minor, insignificant troubles of life and whatever else is thrown at you? If you constantly keep going out of your way to punish yourself, aren’t you just constantly miserable and never get to reap the rewards of your strengthened mental fortitude?
Like working out every single day and never taking a day off to actually feel fresh and feel your new strength.
I mean, if I did something like this, i’d probably do it for a year max, living a spartan lifestyle and whatnot, and then stop for good, not ever noticing any minor inconveniences because I always think back to what I went through. So i’d go to your kind of gym for a year, then for the rest of my life, go to Equinox or something and enjoy life. Because ultimately I would suffer so that I could enjoy more later, not just to suffer for the sake of suffering.
Maybe that’s what you’re doing and in that case i’m sorry, but it seems to me like this is a lifestyle, not just a temporary challenge to bring you way the fuck out of your comfort zone.
Either way, sorry for the long philosophical essay, and best of luck to you in any of your endeavours.
I only feel miserable for the short duration of time I spend training.
If training was making me feel miserable ALL the time, I’d be INCREDIBLE concerned. My training does the exact opposite: by being so miserable during that very short duration of time, my time outside of training is immensely enjoyable.
2+ years deep so far, no issues, still feeling pretty strong.
