Describe your Gym and it's users

[vongSTAA]

I have a few gyms that I have going to, depending on where I am beforehand, who I am with and how much time I have.

- World Gym
Good gym equipment-wise.

A lot of space with one area for dumbbells (they go up to well over 100 pounds per dumbbell), benches and fixed barbells. There are some plate machines (all kinds) surrounding this area as well.
There are two squat racks, one with adjustable side spotters which I see most people using for "bent over" rows, one smith machine, two bench presses, two incline bench presses and one decline bench press.
There are several weight racks around since most machines use plates and there is one large cable crossover machine that has two lat bar pull-downs, two seated rows and two cables attached to it on the sides. In an adjacent area there are mostly pin & stack (is that what they're called?) machines such as leg extensions, pec decs/butterflies and leg curls.
Assisted dip/chin up machine which you can remove the pad so you can do normal dips and pull-ups, also a captains chair.

Treadmills and other cardio machines (I haven't been there so I don't know exactly) upstairs, swimming pool, other rooms for fitness classes.

I have seen some pretty big guys, a few "ripped" guys and your average joes trying to get stronger/fitter. I have yet to see anyone impress me though in terms of their lifting and the only squatting I have seen is 1/4 squat and a full squat on the smitch machine.

- New Dimensions
Smaller than World Gym yet it seems like there's more equipment since it's more crowded. Some of the equipment seems old since there's all kinds of different plates and some of the dumbbells and plates were just lying around the few times I have been there. There's only one squat rack, two bench presses, one incline bench and a smith machine (it has 2 planes of motion, not that I'll use it but I do use the bar for chin ups haha). The dumbbell area is a little more compact due to lack of space but they seem to go pretty high up in terms of the weight.

Treadmills and other cardio machines.

Half the guys there seemed pretty strong, I saw (what looked like) a few pretty impressive dumbbell presses.

Definitely decent gym but it's a little messy and "dirty" (not literally, just I dunno the feel lol) but good atmosphere.

[coroho]

My gym's a local gym. I'd say the amount of free weights outweighs the machines in 3 of the 4 rooms. There are machines scattered about in each room, but the vital stats are 4 power racks and 2 olympic lifting platforms in one room, 3 flat benches in one, 2 incline benches in one, and lots of dumbbells and posts to use them in another. The racks room has two rows of rubber bumper plates and a big bowl of chalk. The racks are rarely abused by curlers and such, just people using them for stretching with bands mostly but they don't really get in the way. There are a decent amount of oly lifters. Two of the trainers seem to specialize in this and there are probably 8-10 people I've seen besides their clients. Lots of people also squat and deadlift to where sometimes all 6 racks will be taken up (though this happens pretty rarely). They keep a "raw leaderboard" on the wall of gym members' records in squats, deadlifts, bench press, clean & jerk, snatch, pullups/min, and pushups/min. I think I'm starting to gain on the girls, maybe I don't think I really knew what I was looking for when I signed up here, but I'm definitely glad I did.

[rere]

My gym is amazing, well in my opinion anyway. Machines outweigh everything else, which is good since the freeweight section is all alone in another room of the gym and it's mostly empty. one sole power rack and a small platform. It really is simple. Most gym goers use machines so anytime i go there squat rack is free 90% of the time. They even allow chalk usage. Manager has a good attitude, gym also does boxing on some nights as well. Pefrect set-up for gains and all in a lovely atmosphere.

[langknow]

Extreme Fitness

My gym is one of the "upper commercial gyms", basically , they have lots of Personal Trainers, around training people.

The have one squat rack, one smith machine, which are beside each other.

Lots of weird machines, that you add weight on to do it. Lots of dumbells in one section, a stretching section, a bike room for bicycling classes, a nice cardio group work out room , and a bunch of heavy bags, and boxing equipment in one room.

The people are very nice, very cool people.

Everybody just keeps to themselves, and does their own thing.

ONce in a while, I'll get a Personal Trainer come over to me, and say how I should have a closed grip on my squat , and that I'm squating too low, and it will cause me knee pain. I usually just politely say "oh ok . ", and continue what I do .

I've seen some guys do partial "squats" in the smith machine with two plates of 45 lbs on each side. I've also seen guys do partial squats in the squat rack with two plates of 45 lbs on each side.

Since I'm seeing a lot of this, would there be any reason at all , to be squating only partially? (would an injury be a good excuse? Are they're any benefits to partial squats? "

I'm new to the 5x5 strong lifts, thing and it' seems that I'm the only one doing pass parallel squats.

[Portillo]

^ Dont worry what the personal trainer and other gym goers say. Its become quite common to believe that squatting to parallel is bad, but its not true. Fortunately.

[rpaulson7]

I go to a Fitness 19, which is a growing national chain of smaller strip-mall gyms in the US. They're low on perks, but great on price.

They have no showers or changing rooms, only bathrooms. No climbing walls, no track, no pool, child care can be had for $3/hour on a limited schedule. They do have a lot of cardio equipment (50% of floor space), a lot of machines, an area for the personal training, and a free-weight area (15% of floor space).

HOWEVER, given it's limitations, I pay $9 per month, and that freaking kicks ass. Flash back four years. I went to the mega-gym Lifetime Fitness, which is based here in the Minneapolis area. I hated the corporate feel and philosophies, and really hated it more when the millionaire-owner of the club punched a high school kid in the face while the kid was sitting in his car in the high school parking lot. I digress. My wife and I cancelled our $95 per month membership and slowly built a home-gym in the basement. I discovered Stronglifts and didn't have the ability to do Squats or Bench with a barbell. Then, the $9 /month offer showed up in the mailbox.

They have one squat rack that's almost always open. I never feel guilty doing my 5x5 Squats with 3 minute breaks, then moving on to Overhead Press in the same rack. Two benches, one incline and one decline, one Smith machine, two places to do Pulls/Chins, dumbbells from 5 lbs to 100 lbs. It's low on open space, but I find a way to do my Deadlifts.

The clientele is the standard type of people you'd find in a gym, but on a smaller scale. You have the people doing hours of cardio, those pumping the bicep and tricep isos endlessly, those making up lifts as they go (one-armed bench presses in the Smith), and there are a few built guys in there, but they aren't doing a pre-made routine.

There are always personal trainers around, and they push the training a lot through specials and printed materials. Nobody has ever asked me personally about buying sessions, which is nice. However, the trainers also pretty much never acknowledge me. They probably think that I'm undermining their training by actually lifting big and showing progress. I find it hard to believe that every customer came in saying "I want a really strong core." Because that's all the trainers seem to do is have people doing this and that for core, bosu balls and the whole works. I've never seen a trainer have someone bench, or even step into the squat rack. (NOTE - I'm not ripping on people, just commenting on the practices I see).

Anyway, it's fun to be out of my home gym and seeing other people, whether they're succeeding or not.

[mjh]

I lift at my university rec centre. The weight room is quite small and can get crowded, but my training partner and I tend to chose the quieter periods to go. The wonderful irony about this weight room is that it is located in the building that used to be the student pub, and is the place where I first went out and got smashed ($2 jugs of beer, FTW). I got ejected from that pub twice! So from dedicated drinking, to dedicated lifting, 12 years apart but under the same roof.

• I think it was something like $260 for a 12 month membership. This was a student special at the beginning of the uni year.
• 3 squat racks with oly bars and abundant metal plates. Two of the racks kind of suck, they have very small pegs. We usually have no trouble getting to use our favourite rack, which we've nicknamed 'Rackardo'.
• 2 smith machines, for our IRs and my smith push ups. Interestingly, far more people do free weight squats than smith squats, which is great.
• 2 bench presses, 1 incline, heaps of machines (cable and plate loaded), free benches, dumbbells up to 65kg, rowers/bikes/elipticals/treadmills, foam rollers, and swiss balls!!!

Chalk is allowed. There is a trainer there who pushes the big three and advocates deep squats and heavy deadlifts. Chalk is allowed. Music sucks.

The clientelle is varied. Athletes, older guys (professors and the like), vain young dick heads... but mostly ordinary dudes (and some women) trying to get strong and sexy. No one gives anyone else any shit, most people are focused on their own shit. Jason and I have our nemesis, a pretty boy who walks around the gym with a carefully cultivated nonchalance, but it's clear he thinks all eyes are on him.

The worst time to visit is 3-6pm, when the place is full of high school boys gathered around the bench or preacher curl. Now the uni year is finished, and students are leaving town, Jason and I hope that we'll have the run of the weights room.

[lucx]

I go to the weight room at a City rec centre and it works out surprisingly well. It’s small and the closest one with a power rack is 20 minutes away, but it’s half the price of a commercial gym. It comes with access to a pool, hot tub and steam room.

There’s the typical stuff: cardio, machines, dumbbells etc. There’s one power rack – it’s everyone else’s bench and shrug station, but I’ve claimed it as my squat rack. Mine - when you can out squat me, then I'll share. (And shrugs, seriously? There's an extra olympic bar 2 steps away - learn to deadlift it from the floor)

For a small gym, it’s surprisingly roomy for deadlifts and powercleans (and shrugs I guess) without plowing someone in the face. There's enough 45# plates so I can (one day) squat with 6 plates and another guy can still deadlift with 6. But this is a community gym, so let’s not kid ourselves.

Sometimes one of the sleeves on the Oly bar comes loose and gets taken away for repair. When that happens and someone is shrugging in the rack – great, there goes 3/4 of my routine - time to dumbell bench and work on those stabilizers.

Because this is a community centre, I’ve only seen one other person “power clean” (ie. reverse curl). I tend to keep to myself, but when you’re a small guy pushing “heavy” weights, the big dogs do tend to notice.

[atypical1]

There’s one power rack – it’s everyone else’s bench and shrug station, but I’ve claimed it as my squat rack. Mine - when you can out squat me, then I'll share. (And shrugs, seriously? There's an extra olympic bar 2 steps away - learn to deadlift it from the floor)

I bench in the power rack all the time. It's great because it's adjustable to my height therefore I can set the pins high enough to allow me to be able to simply slide the bar off without losing my form. I can't do that in a traditional bench set up and my lifts suffer because of it.

I also share the squat rack. We all have to start somewhere and I'm more than happy to share any of the equipment there. I'll even let people work in with me if they really want to.

Being strong does not mean that you have to be rude or cocky because there is always (and I mean always) someone much stronger than you are out there or someone who's going to become stronger than you are.

james

[lucx]

You miss interpreted my sarcasm, but that's the danger in this style of writing. If someone else wants to bench or squat with me, all they have to do is ask. But I won't feel bad for taking 5 minute rests between squats and denying someone from their shrugs.

[atypical1]

You miss interpreted my sarcasm, but that's the danger in this style of writing.

Indeed it is. My apologies.

james

[luco]

My gym is pretty much like the first post described, except 50% of the gym patrons are huge roid monkeys that I've only ever seen bench press, curl and do lat pulldowns.. 40% cardio/machines 'I wanna lose my manboobs/cellulite'-folk, about 5% like-minded people that strength train as a hobby/sport and another 5% professional athletes/pro bodybuilders. Though I rarely run into the like-minded people since I try to work out when the gym's close to empty.

The people that train for strength are easy to talk to and quite knowledgeable. Saw someone do band deadlifts yesterday. First time I ever seen anyone in the gym use an aid other than a belt and straps.

There's 6 oly bars and alot of plates, though half the bars are so crappy I can't use them properly (random very soft knurling and the bar is close to being a 'fat' bar).

Major disadvantage: the squat/powerrack area is stuffed into the same tiny area as two leg presses, a leg extension and a leg curl machine, so doing powercleans I do have to watch out not to kill anyone.
Also a big nuisance is the fact the mat is used for hourly '15 minutes of abs' classes what seems like everytime I have to do TGU's.
I want a home gym..

[Shoke]

College small rec centre. Lower floor - 3/4 of it filled with machines and cables. the remainder has free weights, 8 bench presses, 2 power racks, 1 smith, 1 sitting military press, 2 preacher curls and a bunch of seated benches. Lots of plates and olympic bars, but not much room to do powercleans/snatches without smashing someone in the face. Upper level all filled with cardio equipment, girls and other cardio junkies.

There is a stretching/mat room, and another room for the power lifters/athletes where chalk is available (with another 2 power racks, several benches, kettlebells, free weights, 2 olympic platforms, glute ham raise and another hamstring machine which I don't know the name of). I started out in the powerlifting room where i learned how to squat and deadlift properly.

Members are mainly students, some regulars (mostly just curling and benching, so far i've only counted about 10 ppl in total squatting for the entire year I've been there). I was power cleaning and box jumping the other day and got strange stares. Most people in the rec room (including me, to a certain degree=) just looking to get sexy. Only a handful of big "roid" monkeys. Music is just the regular top 40 stuff, though I usually have my ipod on. I don't chat with anyone, except for one of the receptionist girls, and unfortunately I don't have a training partner either.

Membership (which all students pay for in their fees) is about 100 CAD a year. Busiest time is from 12-6pm. After that (when I usually go), it is much less crowded.

[saukkis]

The owners are a couple - he is Iceland's Strongest Man and holds several world records in weight lifting, she is Britain's Strongest Woman. The other gym goers are mainly powerlifters, body builders, about 10-15 girls who do strongwoman training and other strength training and some "normal people" who mainly use machines and the lighter weights on dumbbells/barbells.

Eh, that sounds like Benedict and Gemma Magnússon

Anyway, my gym is really just an old bomb shelter in my university. There aren't that many machines due to the gyms small size so many are forced to do barbell exercises instead of machine-monkeying. My only complaint that there are only three Olympic barbells and they are the 15 kg ones. I guess that can work out since the barbell locks weight 5 kg per pair.

Most of the other gym-goers are your basic non informed individuals that don't know anything about compound exercises or proper technique. There are a couple of guys who know what they are doing who I usually work out with when we happen to be at the gym at the same time.

The equipment is as follows:

Plates: 6 x 25, 6 x 20, 4 x 15, 4 x 10, 6 x 5, other smaller plates
3 Olympic barbells
1 10 kg barbell
1 curl bar
1 bench press
1 barbell stand (for squats and whatnot)
1 free bench
dumbells from 2 kg to 27,5 kg

Peck deck, leg curl, lat pulldown, 45° leg press, dip station, hyperextension machine, two pull-up bars, cable criss-cross machine(?), ab bench and the two weird machines that I haven't figured out. Then there are one or two (broken) stationary bikes. No air conditioning.

It's a little concrete room of fun and pain.

[Ghost]

That sounds frighteningly similar to the gym I go to. I don't suppose you're going to university in East-Finland?