That my “3 Thumbs Up!!!” Signature gesture of approval.
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And a shirt that says - Respect the Royal Toe
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I want to join your cult. I’ll just be so weird that people start being afraid that if you’re staring at them instead of me, there’s something wrong with them.
I’ll walk around setting up bowling lanes with weight plates and medicine balls, challenging people to tug of war contests with resistance bands, fight clubbing myself on a bosu ball - all while vaping and rocking Johnny Knoxville prosthetic balls and Birkenstocks.
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Gyms would be great if it wasn’t for the people. But the gyms I have enjoyed were less about male or female and more about intent. Cold in the winter, hot in the summer, basements, chalk hanging in the stagnant air, free weights, metal, shouting. If you train there, don’t care what chromosomes you have I’ll train with you.
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Perfect accessory for kipping partials.
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Perfect treadmill dance track.
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In general I find co-ed gyms much more social and motivating. However, I learned to weight lift in military gyms. In practice, at that time, this often meant there were very few women. The equipment was amazing - one room still had one of most of the nautilus machines ever made- which are both awesome and very difficult to find elsewhere. I’d go back there.
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All I know about the current status of gym culture is what i garnish online.
Im finding amusing you have women who will wear something like this and will complain online that they are being looked at and are being made to feel uncomfortable.
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The gym I go to is defacto male only and it’s awesome.
It’s a powerlifting gym in a business park down a county road though, so even the male clientele have to intentionally seek it out, which contributes to culture.
We have, on occasion, had a few women stumble in. Sometimes a competitive powerlifter, which is great, but usually a “gym bunny”.
There is almost always ensuing drama.
Two examples:
- The radio is open. First come, first serve on Bluetooth. It has always been this way. A woman joined and would just glare at everybody about the radio, then threatened to call the owner of we didn’t make it “equitable”. But it’s the owners rule and he’s “one of the guys” anyways. He cancelled her membership when she did, lol. So she started a local social media smear campaign.
- Similar, but a group of women signed up together. They would come in the morning when I train and I was directly part of the drama. The drama, though, is that i was doing heavy deadlifts….. in dedicated deadlift stations, and they didn’t like it while they were trying to run a circuit and do yoga in a space they cleared out directly in front of it. Lots of sideways sneers, and then they escalated to putting gym bags and purses in the station, even hanging a purse on the jack. Group girl power attitude stuff. I moved it and they all quit. Another social media campaign.
So anyways, in typical form they show up every time and try to change everything to their liking from a place of victimhood. Ironically there is a Curves like 2 miles back up the road anyways, and it’s not like they were even using the monoliths and specialized stuff. Categorically just wanted to take a culture existing for years and make it suit them.
Hard pass. As far as eye candy goes, it’s always nice but I’m beyond it being my motivating factor these days. Plus, I live in a summer tourist town with a multitude of water activities and get an eyeful of what essentially amounts to stripper stage wear just running errands from spring break to Labor Day. Bathing suits have really shrunk. Like string bikinis from a couple decades ago are modest. And it’s nice, but not nice enough to bring it to the gym.
The gym is a great spot for dudes to be dudes. Literally our element.
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There is no drama or issues in my gym (24 hour fitness) at all when I get there at about 4:45 in the morning. It’s probably about a 60/40 split between men and women, from teens to 70s.
I think to get up that early you have to be pretty motivated to self-improvement. I don’t think anyone is there for attention or drama. I’ve seen a few couples filming themselves at around 8:00 in the morning on the weekends, but that is it.
Honestly, I’d rather lift with the women at my gym than the packs of young guys with no muscle and tank tops hogging equipment for hours.
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My preferred gym is tired, worn, stanky, loud, heavy metal - the kind of place most women would avoid. My last gym like that was coed but the ratio was way off, skewed towards dudes. The females that were there were more broskis than influencer types.
Stuck at the Purple Place these days. It’s aight.
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When I lived in Houston I went to some 24 hour fitness gyms, and LA Fitness. They weren’t bad for what they were as big box commercial gyms. Classes, cardio sections, weights, basketball courts, pools et cetera. A little bit of something for everyone.
I suppose context matters. The powerlifting and black iron gyms are a different animal. I see a “Male only” scenario here, sort of like Curves are specifically for women to cultivate a very specific culture and environment vs a catch all “mall” of activities so to speak.
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I almost lost my sanity “working out” at Planet Fitness. My favorite gym was also like the ones you described. It was also my first gym, though, and I made many amazing memories there. It eventually closed down because the owner started a newer, bigger one a few towns over and gave up on it after disputes with the town.
I have been to a few bro gyms. Usually when traveling. As a general statement the Meatheads there have always been quite nice and helpful to me. Even had a guy who was probably benching 3 plates offer to spot me on my whopping 60 lb bench press. But then I suppose I have a tendency to keep quiet, use available equipment and keep to myself. I would assume that my presence didn’t disturb the man vibe too much.
How much traffic does your gym get typically?
This is key. It’s one of the most knowledgeable and helpful gyms you can find. But trying to change the vibe doesn’t work. When the aforementioned female powerlifters come in, or women in general who go with the flow it’s fine. The problem is trying to turn the gym in to something it isn’t, which so far has been female driven every time. Not all females, but always females. And it wouldn’t hurt my feelings to just make it male only. Hell we already gave up “Boy” Scouts. I see no problem preserving some spaces.
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I don’t disagree. But at the same time, you couldn’t pay me to got to a Curves. Or a Planet Fitness for that matter.
At various gyms i have been to, the women seem to workout harder than most men
non serious men are just hanging out
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It averages somewhere around 200 members. Membership is $75 monthly. Sole-proprietor ownership, relatively low overhead.
with training and paid events (PL meets) in the mix, I’d guess he’s grossing ~ $350k and netting about $250k from it.