It’s interesting to read all the different training, diet and supplement routines that everyone has. It’s motivating to see the fitness goals and achievements of you all
I would be interested to see in what setting everyone works out:
home gym (basement, garage, other)
school weight room
commercial gym (chain or local)
As for myself, I belong to a local gym. But, it is a yuppy setting that only has 2 squat racks (you guessed it…most of the time inhabited by some dork doing curls). I was thinking about starting a weight room in my unfinished basement.
Local gym here. Very friendly to all kinds of people, but they’ve got all the powerlifter-friendly stuff (monolift, GHR, Reverse Hyper, bands, chains, etc.). There’s also a bunch of sleds out back along with strongman equipment (tires, frankenlog (or whatever it’s called), Atlas stones, etc.). They’ve made their own wheelbarrow apparatus which works real well. They’re also friendly to bodybuilders along with the common folk. A couple of elite lifters to keep us motivated.
I have a rack and bench at home, along with a dip stand that I built myself. I have it in the family room that can be closed off from the rest of the house, and I workout in silence (usually because every one else in the house – my wife and daughter – are still asleep).
I have a rack at home here. It is is the bedroom of my 1 bedroom appt. So I crash in the living room. Luckily I am on the bottom floor so I dont piss the neighbors off to much banging weights on the floor at 6:00 am.
I work out in a gym that’s part of a large “Raquet Club” (Tennis, Raquetball, etc.). It’s got all the yuppie amenities like two indoor pools, health food cafe with big screen T.V., massage therapists, tanning beds, saunas, steamrooms, basketball court, indoor track (hell, I should be a salesman for this place).
Actually joined it so the family could swim in the winter, participate in health related activities, etc.
But it’s kind of unique in that the weight training area is like an island of clanging, sweat, and comraderie in this sea of the pampered wannabes.
Plenty of machines like Nautilus, Cybex, and Hammer Strength, but lots of free weights, squat racks, and all the other type of equipment you’d see in the good ole’ Barbell Club down the street.
I workout and train clients at my local YMCA. While we don?t have platforms and bumper plates for Oly lifts, we do have a decent free weight area and a good group of serious lifters.
Hardcore local gym. No A/C in the back room, rusty plates and machines, plenty of barbells, plates, dumbbells, squat racks, power racks, benches, and very few machines and cardio equipment. And many of the machines they do have are broken. So you might as well stick to the free weights.
It is inhabitated mainly by men (very few women will go here), it smells, it’s dirty, and I highly recommend a Tetnus shot before joining. But it’s cheap, has everything I need and keeps me away from the Fitness Centers and other places that make me puke (or be asked to leave because what I’m doing is dangerous or too different).
I workout and train clients at a 24 Hour Fitness. Pretty nice club, as we just opened a year ago, but of course, no ‘hardcore’ equipment. Just started training Westside for my personal workouts, so it should be interesting.
Already am known around the gym (and among my managers) for crashing weights around on deadlifts, doing Good mornings (which we technically aren’t allowed to do), and laying across the leg raise station crosswise with a DB between my legs to do Reverse Hypers.
Now that I’m doing Westside I’ll be doing all of those things more often.
By the way, any other 24 Hour Fitness trainers out there (I know there are a few from previous threads)? To all the haters, we actually get paid pretty well, and not all trainers are stupid (i.e. exclusively training clients on the FreeMotion machine and Swiss balls).
Also, anyone know of any gyms in SoCal that have Westside equipment and/or Strongman equipment?
Working on putting together a home gym but don’t really have the room for a squat rack so I go to a local gym for that. They don’t like me doing OLY lifts so I bought my own 300lb set and do them outside on a homemade platform. I just got that a month ago and I have no way of getting proper instructions so I still suck at OLY lifts. CT mentioned the possibility of making a video at one time but I haven’t heard about it in awhile. Everything else I have set up in the house along with a heavy bag in the back yard. It all works out pretty well, but I can’t wait until I move into a house with enough room for a Squat Rack so I can say goodbye to the prissy local gym scene for good.
I also work out at a “Fitness & Raquetball” center. There’s one room with freeweights & some Hammer Strength and a few other machines. That’s where you’ll find me. They have another room that has nothing but machines, including some scary looking old Nautilus machines. And then there’s cardio stuff everywhere. They also have dozens of TV’s. They usually play music videos and commercials for the Fitness Center.
I work out at a sports stadium that has pools, hockey rink, curling rink, multipurpose rooms etc. They have a really decent free weight section but they also have a lot of machines. I also work out at military gyms sometimes because they are free. Some military gyms are great and some are horrible. When going on course you just have to pray that the gym will be a good one.
I usually go to a pretty urban 24 Hour Fitness. It’s big, but it could have more free weights. Some of the other sites in town do. Definitely not hardcore, but I do see people deadlifting pretty often. Women even. I’ve never seen anyone at that site squat ass to grass, but I have at other sites. You really have to pick your time of day or supersets are pretty much out of the question.
Swiss Ball
Jump Rope
10lb Medicine Ball
18,25,36 and 53lb KettleBells
AB Slings
Dip Belt
1-Green Jump Stretch Band
1- Red Jump Stretch Band
1- 1lb Weighted Jump Rope
2 sets Muscle Clamps
120 lb Fairtex Heavy Bag
18 Oz Fairtex Gloves
20" Plyo Box
4’x8’ Folding Mat
Treadmill
Air Stationary Bike
Wish List:
Concept II Rowing Machine
Spin Bike
Incline Treadmill
60-110 lb Power Blocks Dumbell Adder
20 and 40lb Medicine Ball
77 and 88lb Kettlebells
Rings
This is the home gym I have slowly Built it cost about $ 2,500.00 and takes up a 20 x 20 room.
I work-out at a well-equipted corprate fitness facility. Dumbbells go up to 110lbs and we have 2 sets of them. 2 power racks. We also have a 2 floor rock wall which I have yet to use. Maybe I should tommorow.
Every, 3rd month I go to this gym in Maplewood, NJ called Diamond GYM run by John Kemper (this is a true hardcore gym)Although, you won’t catch a lot of olympic lifts here but, you’ll see a lot of big guys throwing around Big weights! Mostly Pro bodybuilders from NJ. Like Jason Arts Jonny Morhant just to name a few. And its real cheap to work-out for the day $5. Its a true at lifting atmospher.
Oh, I forgot I also work-out at a gym by my house in NJ too I use to work there and the owner threw me a freebee for life. Or how ever long the gym is open. The great thing about it is that it has dumbbells that go up to 220 and its open 24hrs, and a lot of strippers, from the area work-out there.
Like Fitone, I work at a Corporate fitness center…so I have my choosing of 3 fitness centers to workout at. For the mostpart they are nice, but I can’t stand the fact that they all have the tv’s going 24/7 and they keep the air conditioning on constantly! Nice equipment though.
I also workout at my local gym on the weekends which is small, but it has everything you need, albeit it has only 1 squat rack. But I am the only one who uses it on a regular basis. The owner is actually thinking about expanding so that there is a seperate “cardio” area and weight lifting area which will be a god send!! As of right now, the two are in the same place.
Good to hear all of the forms of gyms everyone is using.
KraigY: Where did you generally buy all your equipment (ebay, classifieds, company, etc…) Looks like you got some good deals to get all of that for $2500. I had a “dream” budget to start a home gym of around $2000, but didn’t plan to get near that amount of stuff. Also, I just had a baby boy, so my dream budget is further than ever of becoming a reality.
That whole cost thing got me to thinking about how much I’ve spent on mine… I think the only thing I’ve gotten new are the dip belt and one pair of 25s (I use the “standard” bars and plates – when I redo the whole thing I’ll go Olympic). Oh yeah, and the mats and gloves. I’ve gotten virtually all of it used form various classified ads.
Let’s see…
Cage, bench, 7 ft bar, db handles, and a set of 4x10s – $150
Materials (pipes and fittings) for the dip stand – $60 (turned out in the end I could’ve gotten a new one for that)
Various plates – $200 (guestimate – I have about 600 lbs of iron in 50s, 25s, 10s, 5s, 2.5s and 1.25s)
Dip belt – $32
Leather lifting belt (which I rarely use) – $5
Gloves – $30 (two pair)
100 lb heavy bag, speed bag, stand and bag gloves – $150
Other items (EZ curl bar, spring collars, Ivanko 5 ft bar) were gifts or included in above prices when I bought iron.
In total I don’t think I’ve spent $750 for the equipment I have. The only thing I’d like to add is a low-pulley for rows.
from the area work-out there.