Which Gym do you go to?

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liftingbro
liftingbro Posts: 2,029 Member
Just curious where my fellow lifters go.

I'm currently going to a SNAP but I've sort of out-grown the gym. The lifting equipement is subpar for my purposes now. So I'm looking for a new gym. I have a choice between Bally's, LA Fitness, and Life Time for gyms with resonable lifting rooms. I'm leaning toward LA Fitness because it would be $15/ moth through work. Anyone have opinions on any of these gyms?
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Replies

  • joejccva71
    joejccva71 Posts: 2,985 Member
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    Gold's Gym
    Washington DC - Capitol Hill

    I pay $50/mo. Never been to any other gym.
  • taso42
    taso42 Posts: 8,980 Member
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    "that room off the kitchen" gym
  • liftingbro
    liftingbro Posts: 2,029 Member
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    Gold's Gym
    Washington DC - Capitol Hill

    I pay $50/mo. Never been to any other gym.

    Yeah, I wanted to go to a Gold's but the closest one is 15 miles out of the way.
  • liftingbro
    liftingbro Posts: 2,029 Member
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    "that room off the kitchen" gym

    I wish I had a garage gym but no space in the garage for it or in the basement.
  • questionablemethods
    questionablemethods Posts: 2,174 Member
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    Right now it is the gym of "whatever bodyweight exercises I can do in my tiny apartment." I want to start lifting heavy again but man! Gyms with squat racks and barbells are surprisingly difficult to come by in San Francisco--at least ones that aren't incredibly out of the way for me. Pilates and yoga studios galore though....
  • Rae6503
    Rae6503 Posts: 6,294 Member
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    I use my college gym which is pretty nice, but there are only two squat racks. It's a good think 20-year-old boys never work their legs....
  • liftingbro
    liftingbro Posts: 2,029 Member
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    Right now it is the gym of "whatever bodyweight exercises I can do in my tiny apartment." I want to start lifting heavy again but man! Gyms with squat racks and barbells are surprisingly difficult to come by in San Francisco--at least ones that aren't incredibly out of the way for me. Pilates and yoga studios galore though....

    Yup, there are probably 20 yoga places to 1 gym with good lifting equipement in Minneapolis. There is a yoga/pilates place on every corner here. And what isn't a yoga/pilates place is micro gym chain like SNAP, Anytime...ect. Not that there is anything wrong with the micro gyms or yoga/pilates but it's not what I'm looking for.
  • questionablemethods
    questionablemethods Posts: 2,174 Member
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    Right now it is the gym of "whatever bodyweight exercises I can do in my tiny apartment." I want to start lifting heavy again but man! Gyms with squat racks and barbells are surprisingly difficult to come by in San Francisco--at least ones that aren't incredibly out of the way for me. Pilates and yoga studios galore though....

    Yup, there are probably 20 yoga places to 1 gym with good lifting equipement in Minneapolis. There is a yoga/pilates place on every corner here. And what isn't a yoga/pilates place is micro gym chain like SNAP, Anytime...ect. Not that there is anything wrong with the micro gyms or yoga/pilates but it's not what I'm looking for.
    See, when I lived in Minneapolis I had access to the U of M's gym. :happy:
  • liftingbro
    liftingbro Posts: 2,029 Member
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    Right now it is the gym of "whatever bodyweight exercises I can do in my tiny apartment." I want to start lifting heavy again but man! Gyms with squat racks and barbells are surprisingly difficult to come by in San Francisco--at least ones that aren't incredibly out of the way for me. Pilates and yoga studios galore though....

    Yup, there are probably 20 yoga places to 1 gym with good lifting equipement in Minneapolis. There is a yoga/pilates place on every corner here. And what isn't a yoga/pilates place is micro gym chain like SNAP, Anytime...ect. Not that there is anything wrong with the micro gyms or yoga/pilates but it's not what I'm looking for.
    See, when I lived in Minneapolis I had access to the U of M's gym. :happy:

    The U of M has a very nice gym, too. Been there and lifted there in my younger days. That's where I got to get my Bodpods done too.
  • liftingbro
    liftingbro Posts: 2,029 Member
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    Went to check out a LA Fitness. Pretty nice gym, lots of free weights. 6 flat benches, 6 squat racks, 5 inclined benches and bunch of other free weight stuff. Turns out I'd actually be paying $10 per month. They said for $80 per month I can get a trainer for and hour and a half per week (two 45 minute session and they only count time on weights). I've never worked with a trainer so I figured I'd try it out for a few months. I'll probably drop it after a few months but the trainer I'm setup with is one of the local competing powerlifters so hopefully he'll be a good resource for checking my lifts.
  • questionablemethods
    questionablemethods Posts: 2,174 Member
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    Went to check out a LA Fitness. Pretty nice gym, lots of free weights. 6 flat benches, 6 squat racks, 5 inclined benches and bunch of other free weight stuff. Turns out I'd actually be paying $10 per month. They said for $80 per month I can get a trainer for and hour and a half per week (two 45 minute session and they only count time on weights). I've never worked with a trainer so I figured I'd try it out for a few months. I'll probably drop it after a few months but the trainer I'm setup with is one of the local competing powerlifters so hopefully he'll be a good resource for checking my lifts.
    Dang! $10/month sounds like a great deal. The trainer stuff sounds good, too. Sounds like he might know a thing or two about powerlifting and not just run you through a generic circuit on the machines and call it a day.
  • liftingbro
    liftingbro Posts: 2,029 Member
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    Went to check out a LA Fitness. Pretty nice gym, lots of free weights. 6 flat benches, 6 squat racks, 5 inclined benches and bunch of other free weight stuff. Turns out I'd actually be paying $10 per month. They said for $80 per month I can get a trainer for and hour and a half per week (two 45 minute session and they only count time on weights). I've never worked with a trainer so I figured I'd try it out for a few months. I'll probably drop it after a few months but the trainer I'm setup with is one of the local competing powerlifters so hopefully he'll be a good resource for checking my lifts.
    Dang! $10/month sounds like a great deal. The trainer stuff sounds good, too. Sounds like he might know a thing or two about powerlifting and not just run you through a generic circuit on the machines and call it a day.

    Yeah, they charge $30 per month buy my work pays $20. The trainer says we'll use mostly free weights but might mix in machines to help prevent adaptation once in a while.
  • Ebbykins
    Ebbykins Posts: 420 Member
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    Not sure if you guys have them in the states, but I go to GoodLife, my friend teaches spin there and got us a $200.00 per year membership. :O I couldn't pass it up, but worked out at local rec centers/YMCA's until now. I'm not picky about where I am as long as there is a chin up bar and a good bench press. However I'm very pleased with this new gym because they have a stair climber and it's so much more fun than the elliptical!
  • ilovedeadlifts
    ilovedeadlifts Posts: 2,923 Member
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    I did planet fitness for over a year @ 20.00 a month.
    It sucked though.

    Now I lift in my home gym. Invested about 400 bucks so far and have the essentials. (Craigslist rules)
  • AlsDonkBoxSquat
    AlsDonkBoxSquat Posts: 6,128 Member
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    I work a few hours a week as a group fit instructor at an aquatics center, with a little weight room. Because I work there I can use the facility for free, so the price is right. The weight room is actually well equipped for its size except for a squat rack. When I was more into group classes than weights that was fine, but more recently it’s becoming obvious that I’m going to have to figure something else out. There’s a Gold’s 24 hour express 1 mile from my house. So, it only has spin classes and no child watch which were issues before but with my current schedule and my tendency away from other group classes this is becoming less of an issue. They’ve been talking about putting a full service Gold’s close to my house, which would be awesome (not to mention that when they do they’ve been talking about using the group program that I teach so I could do the employee thing there too), so fingers crossed!
  • cbear017
    cbear017 Posts: 345 Member
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    Like Ebbykins I have a GoodLife membership, but I just recently joined another gym because the GoodLife locations in Toronto are jam packed at any given hour and their weight sections mostly consist of circuit machines. At GL I pay $30/month because of a deal they have through my work.

    My new gym is GREAT! For the simple fact that the weight section is awesome. We have five squat racks and an entire floor dedicated to free weights (think around 8,000 sq ft). They also have 8 squash courts and I've signed up for lessons which start next week. The only drawback is that there are a ton of personal trainers and no dedicated personal training area like my old gym. I pay 75$/month.
  • Ebbykins
    Ebbykins Posts: 420 Member
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    Like Ebbykins I have a GoodLife membership, but I just recently joined another gym because the GoodLife locations in Toronto are jam packed at any given hour and their weight sections mostly consist of circuit machines. At GL I pay $30/month because of a deal they have through my work.

    My new gym is GREAT! For the simple fact that the weight section is awesome. We have five squat racks and an entire floor dedicated to free weights (think around 8,000 sq ft). They also have 8 squash courts and I've signed up for lessons which start next week. The only drawback is that there are a ton of personal trainers and no dedicated personal training area like my old gym. I pay 75$/month.

    Does your goodlife have a women's section, I went in there and the most they had for DB's was up to 30 lbs -.- LOL. :D
  • liftingbro
    liftingbro Posts: 2,029 Member
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    Like Ebbykins I have a GoodLife membership, but I just recently joined another gym because the GoodLife locations in Toronto are jam packed at any given hour and their weight sections mostly consist of circuit machines. At GL I pay $30/month because of a deal they have through my work.

    My new gym is GREAT! For the simple fact that the weight section is awesome. We have five squat racks and an entire floor dedicated to free weights (think around 8,000 sq ft). They also have 8 squash courts and I've signed up for lessons which start next week. The only drawback is that there are a ton of personal trainers and no dedicated personal training area like my old gym. I pay 75$/month.

    Does your goodlife have a women's section, I went in there and the most they had for DB's was up to 30 lbs -.- LOL. :D

    Apparently you don't know women are not suppose to curl more than the weight of a curling iron. :laugh:
  • AlsDonkBoxSquat
    AlsDonkBoxSquat Posts: 6,128 Member
    Options
    Like Ebbykins I have a GoodLife membership, but I just recently joined another gym because the GoodLife locations in Toronto are jam packed at any given hour and their weight sections mostly consist of circuit machines. At GL I pay $30/month because of a deal they have through my work.

    My new gym is GREAT! For the simple fact that the weight section is awesome. We have five squat racks and an entire floor dedicated to free weights (think around 8,000 sq ft). They also have 8 squash courts and I've signed up for lessons which start next week. The only drawback is that there are a ton of personal trainers and no dedicated personal training area like my old gym. I pay 75$/month.

    Does your goodlife have a women's section, I went in there and the most they had for DB's was up to 30 lbs -.- LOL. :D

    Apparently you don't know women are not suppose to curl more than the weight of a curling iron. :laugh:

    or overhead press more weight than a baby
  • liftingbro
    liftingbro Posts: 2,029 Member
    Options
    Like Ebbykins I have a GoodLife membership, but I just recently joined another gym because the GoodLife locations in Toronto are jam packed at any given hour and their weight sections mostly consist of circuit machines. At GL I pay $30/month because of a deal they have through my work.

    My new gym is GREAT! For the simple fact that the weight section is awesome. We have five squat racks and an entire floor dedicated to free weights (think around 8,000 sq ft). They also have 8 squash courts and I've signed up for lessons which start next week. The only drawback is that there are a ton of personal trainers and no dedicated personal training area like my old gym. I pay 75$/month.

    Does your goodlife have a women's section, I went in there and the most they had for DB's was up to 30 lbs -.- LOL. :D

    Apparently you don't know women are not suppose to curl more than the weight of a curling iron. :laugh:

    or overhead press more weight than a baby

    I bet you can probably hold 50 pounds on each hip though. :tongue: