Our Gyms

[EnglishBeef]

Since we are all here for the same thing, we love our obsession, and we love to talk about it.

I'm wondering, especially you Yanks, what your Gyms are like (I have this mental picture of an American Gym. Gold's in the 80's that won't budge from my mind.)

I train at the gym at our local college. There are probably 3 other hard core bodybuilders we time are sessions so that there are atleast two of us in at the same time to help spot etc.

There are loads of machines I avoid, but the free weights section is excellent.

It doesn't get that busy, And the little college boys that come in never take up the heavy weights, they are always avalible, as is the squat rack, funny that.

College girls come in all the time to use the treadmill for 5 mintues then they stand around talking to each other giggling and pulling their thongs from up there bums.

I've tried to have the college turn the piped local radio station music off, in favour of a hi-fi i even told them that i'd supply the cd's...purely selfish.

The water fountain usually gathers a crowd of wanna be bodybuilders in the evenings, that train there biceps for 3 hours and then walk to the fountain with their (minimal) lats spread out.

nice gym good atmosphere, need music.

 

[cheesecake]

I'm wondering, especially you Yanks, what your Gyms are like (I have this mental picture of an American Gym. Gold's in the 80's that won't budge from my mind.)

I always get a kick when people across the pond refer to us as Yanks, especially considering that I live in the heart of the South.

My gym is nothing at all like any Gold's gym, regardless of the decade. Very small. Free weights and power rack on the left side as you walk in. Machines (that I never use) on the right side. Cardio equipment immediately to your right as you walk in the door. Aerobics room, locker rooms, tanning beds, and steam rooms in the back.

My wife and I are the only people in the gym that train as powerlifters. Everyone else is too busy doing curls and bench. The owner of the gym is pretty cool. He's real interested in what we are doing.

We get a lot of strange looks from doing the West Side exercises. My wife is the only woman I have ever seen in there doing anything other than cardio or tanning.
...chad...

 

[jerkbox]

i go to a yuppie gym....

it's pretty huge...

i'd say 50 or so pieces of cardio equip

lots of machines

full line of hammer strength stuff

decent sized free weights area

one power rack, one squat rack...

huge cardio area downstairs w/ heavy bags and other boxing stuff.

lot's of mirrors...everything is white

bunch of TVs by the cardio stuff....

 

[MsBeverlyHills]

when I was in London- Itrained at LA fitness (near Piccadilly) & that gym was so funny-- like barely any weight equipment (of course I was the ONLY girl in the 10x10 weight room) & the olympic bar sat on the floor cause they didint have a rack.. LOL!!

it was mostly a "fitness" gym-- with a pool/ bikes/ treadmill....Golds Venice (where I train at home) is a big on free weights & state-of-the-art machines...thats the biggest difference w/your gyms.

but it was def challenging-- esp w/all your dbs being in kilos!!! hahha

 

[jerkbox]

hehe...yeah when I was in England for a semester in college, the gym at the school was so small....

one bar, one bench, no dumbells....some cardio, and a like 10 in one machine station....


all crammed into a little space....good thing not too many people ever used it

 

[gettinlarger]

Yuppie gym for me, but with good free weight section.

Walk in, on your left and right are raises levels full of treadmills, ellipticals, etc.

A sea of machines awaits your arrival as you walk forward.

Finally, towards the back, are the free weights. Dumbbells up to 125s. 3 flat benches, 1 incline, 1 decline. 3 squat racks. Military press station. There's even an area for deads!!

 

[needsleep]

I'm a member of Fitness First in the UK, most of the space is taken up by cardio machines, secondly by machines and finally by free weights. I am pretty certain that the small area of free weights puts a lot of people off using them as they are monopolised by "big mean guys" who look as though they hang around in one big crowd. The reality being that the space is so small anything over 10 people in the area make it look like one big crowd.

There's a single squat rack which if you go early evening you wont get a chance to use (hence why I train usually at 8:30pm) and 3 adjustable flat + incline benches for use with dumbbells. A single smith machine (standing calf raises =p) and a flat bench for barbell benching. Also a decline bench.

For deadlifts I have to do them in the last 15 minutes before closing when there's only 2-5 people left in the gym, I have to take either the bar from the squat rack or the flat bench and take up the space in the middle of the free weights area.

The staff are nice and it was a trainer there who helped me with my deadlift when i started it.

There's a steam room and sauna i think also.

 

[tuc biscuit]

I train at a David Lloyd gym, which for all It's bad points has a very large (bigger than a tennis court) and well equiped free weights area. Also the sweetest reception girls I have ever seen! They make me have unnatural thoughts.

 

[witkowsd]

I train at Parisi's in Fair Lawn - arobics gym mostly, my girlfriend and I are the only heavy lifting girls but the guys lift heavy. Only 5 minutes from my house and everyone is friendly.

 

[Mike_Rojas]

I work out at home now, but when I went to a gym:

The guys worked on bench and machine preacher curls. Some did cardio and crunches.

The girls worked on cardio machines... they also did lots of leg curls. That's nice to watch.