Journey, Not A Destination

One of my gyms in college had weights for BBs that had places to grab that were completely smooth on both sides... it was awesome. That was also the gym with the grip roller thingy... Essentially a fatbar with a rope hanging off of the middle of it that you attatch a weight to the end of, then just roll up the rope around the bar...

Alas, my current golds has ZERO gripper machines, so I gotta resort to all of the old tricks. I haven't pulled out the sand bucket grip workout since highschool... maybe it's time to...
 
Yea James, most gyms today aren't going to be too strength oriented. They're too busy accommodating to what the people *think* they need... even though they don't have a clue.

The old school gyms are a rarity now. My old gym, which I trained at for 10 years, closed this year. It had all the good stuff.

Now I lift in a yuppy club.... but it's still better quality than half the shit I see out there.
 
yeah... Even Golds is now catering to the general populous, not meatheads. There is no real place to go, unless I find a mini-gym that hasn't been shut down by the monsters yet.

Maybe I'll just save up a couple K, and buy my own stuff, and get buddies to pitch in. Squat Rack, DB's from 25 - 120, and BB and weights.
 
James said:
yeah... Even Golds is now catering to the general populous, not meatheads. There is no real place to go, unless I find a mini-gym that hasn't been shut down by the monsters yet.

Maybe I'll just save up a couple K, and buy my own stuff, and get buddies to pitch in. Squat Rack, DB's from 25 - 120, and BB and weights.
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I forget if I told you this or not....

A new gym opened in my town about 2 months ago. I'll see if still have the circular ad they mailed to me. I'll scan this shit and post it here.

It literally said, "No meatheads and no grunting."

What the fuck!?

I actually called them. I told them a bit about myself, made it apparent that I knew what the hell I'm talking about, and then asked how it's possible to preclude a bit of grunting when people are really pushing weight?

Or, does your gym not promote serious exercise... you only want money. Not results.

The guy hung up on me....

I was so irritated that I almost drove down there.... but realized that it was probably enough to make me grab a dumbbell and smack this guy upside the head with it.... so I didn't go.

That's the condition of the gym industry now.... so fucking pitiful.

I also went to another gym when mine closed down to trial it. After one day there, it was very evident that they staffed every boob-trainer they could find and couldn't care less about weight training. Read this thread when you have the time as it highlights the conversation between the owner and myself via email. He is also the head trainer:

http://weight-loss.fitness.com/topic/13579-conversation-b-t-me-gym-owner.html

Before I found my current gym and when I was losing hope in finding something suitable.... I seriously considered buying all my own equipment. I even priced out a storage unit... heated of course. I was going to go in on it with 5 or so guys and put a serious 'station' in there with serious weights. I still think about doing it every now and again.
 
Steve said:
I
Before I found my current gym and when I was losing hope in finding something suitable.... I seriously considered buying all my own equipment. I even priced out a storage unit... heated of course. I was going to go in on it with 5 or so guys and put a serious 'station' in there with serious weights. I still think about doing it every now and again.
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You'd be a great gym owner, Steve...bring back the real gyms...it will all come round again...and you will be established and ready to meet the masses!
 
bethann1156 said:
You'd be a great gym owner, Steve...bring back the real gyms...it will all come round again...and you will be established and ready to meet the masses!
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If only it were that simple.

For starters, the cost to entry is astronomical relative to what I have at this stage in my life. I'd have to find backers, and while I'm sure I could persuade a pretty penny or two out of some wealthy individuals, I'm not so sure I'm willing to take on that kind of risk right now. I don't like the idea of owing someone money.

Part of me says, if I truly believe in myself, I shouldn't worry about said things.... but I do.

Then, suppose I do create this gym that has all the old school parameters that work coupled with all the new school parameters.....

You'd still be looking at having to sell conceptual truths to people who believe something completely different. Basically it would be much harder for me to obtain a member than Ghey Gym down the street simply b/c Ghey Gym caters to it's members while I'd be catering to what's right.

All this coupled with the fact that Pennsylvania isn't a state geared toward health promotion. This is a double edged sword though..... while people aren't as interested in fitness in general as say, residents of California..... the flip-side is this means there is a lot less competition here. So if I did it right, things could really go well.

Trust me, it's something I've thought about time and time again. I've talked to numerous people who I know would love to back me and even do it with me. It's just not very feasible; by that, I mean the risk is too grand. I'm at a stage in my life where I'd have to give up a good paying career with very high monetary potential and cross my fingers that I could make the gym work. With a family on the horizon..... it's just not something I can do right now.

Down the road, maybe.

I'd like to think I'll be doing something like that. If not that, than potentially a small studio with Gordy, my soon to be partner, where we work more hands on than what you find in your typical gym.

We'll see.
 
You'd have to push shitty ass supplements that you know don't work, but that have flashy advertisement, and you'd have to do all sorts of shady crap along those lines just to keep yourself afloat. That would be the worst part.
 
James said:
You'd have to push shitty ass supplements that you know don't work, but that have flashy advertisement, and you'd have to do all sorts of shady crap along those lines just to keep yourself afloat. That would be the worst part.
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Yup... the list is long of things you'd have to do.

And that's why it would be a lot less riskier for someone like me to enter that industry. Because I wouldn't do those things and hope for the best; that being that people would see the truth.

Unfortunately, that's highly unlikely.
 
:)

Hi ya Steve.

Have A Great Monday!

*****

I've been meaning to ask ya:

Do you think the work-out clothes you can buy that help make you sweat really help to make you burn more cals?

I have noticed the ones I bought from Academy do make me sweat more.

I wear them of course when working out, but also when I'm running around the house cleaning like a mad woman. lol

Am I wasting money, or do you know of any real benefits?

-Thanks! ;)
 
Increase body temp and you'll burn more cals.

Would I worry about such a negligible factor? No.

Wear whatever you want.
 
I was reading your posts with James about the gyms with no meatheads and no grunting. How sad is that? lol Well, this is said by a girl who goes to a gym where there are no grunting meatheads..lol. But honestly, I agree with you both. It kills me when women especially refuse to see the importance of weight training in losing weight and keeping fit. My circuit training may not be optimum, but at least it's something. My membership expires in late Jan, and I am going to look into this other gym in town and see what they offer and what their rates are.

Hope your Monday is going well. :)
 
I'm glad you see things our way, Kimberly. If not I'd have to beat that ass!!

:p

Let me know what you find in terms of gyms once you start 'shopping.'
 
Uhg!

People in the gym have been irritating the hell out of me. I can't help but pay attention too.... that's what is really annoying. I tell myself to focus on what I came to do.... and that's whoop some ass in the weights. But in between sets, I find myself watching people do totally stupid things, trainers give piss-poor advice, etc. Nothing wrong with watching, if I say so myself. But the kicker is I let these things get to me. They irritate me. And lifting with a flared temper is not always a good thing. At least not for me.

There is no excuse for the trainers doing stupid things..... they totally deserve to be called out.

I do have tolerance for ordinary members who are doing things incorrectly. How are they to know what's right and what's wrong when even most media outlets pitch ridiculous advice. They don't have access to the 'quality goods.'

I feel more sorry than disgust for said individuals.

However, every now and then, a guy comes along who you can tell thinks his shit doesn't stink. I saw said guy yesterday. He's strutting around the gym the entire time making sure his hair is in place. You could see the gel pasted onto his hair. He was wearing designer sweat pants, if there is such a thing, and an extremely uber-tight t-shirt. The sleeves had ribbing? on the end so they were tight. He kept making sure they were pushed up exposing his massive arms too. Plus he had his shirt tucked in. I don't always have a problem with this, although he looked fucking ridiculous.

By massive, I mean his biceps were the size of my wrists, which aren't very big.

So he's confident or cocky or whatever..... that's fine by me. I mean don't get me wrong, I'd love to set him straight, but I don't let that bother me.

What drove me insane is, he started talking to one of the female trainers asking about her training philosophies. It was very evident that neither knew what the hell they were talking about, but she definitely knew more than him, thankfully, seeing as how that's her job. It was also painfully evident that he wanted to impress her with his program.

He tells her that he does 3 sets of 10 reps for every single exercise. Then he finishes each exercise off with a set of 50 reps.

Fucking idiot.

She asks "why?"

His response, "Well, ya see, I'm big enough already but I'd like to add a few more pounds of muscle while cutting. I've already added 15 pounds of muscle on this routine."

Yea, I wanted to fucking strangle the dipshit at this point.

So your scrawny ass thinks you are big enough already, huh? You also think you are going to "cut" your muscles by pounding out 50 reps sets, huh? You believe the routine in itself is what caused you to gain 15 lbs of muscle, huh? You were actually skinnier before, huh? That's impressive.

Mind you, this guy was there when I got there and he was still there when I left. And I didn't see him do anything besides biceps.

Those guys..... they're the ones I have zero tolerance for.

And what blows my mind is how skewed of a perception they have of themselves. I mean, I hate when people have poor self images of themselves. I feel for that. But how does a scrawny little man get it so twisted in his mind that he looks big? WTF?

And why the hell am I infatuated with focusing on said morons. I'm certain if affects my training bout negatively.

/rant
 
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