I finally found a gym!!!

[RedLefty]

In the words of Mahler, I am "stoked". Since I quit my job in June (and the cushy gym membership that came with the job), the search was on for another great place to lift. Since I immediately started a new job and had another baby this summer, it was very important to stay at my best physically.

My family already had a local YMCA membership, so we expanded it to a city-wide membership (Houston, which has over 30 YMCA branches). That gave me 3 branches close to my office that I could use during the week. Here's the total breakdown on equipment for those 3 locations:

• 264 treadmills/ellipticals (this is approximate -- the range is from 212 to 475)
  48 benches for bench press
  21 nautilus stations
  12 leg sled/press machines
  6 Smith machines
  3 pullup bars / dip stations
  2.2 square feet of floor space for olympic and explosive lifts
  1 glute-ham raise apparatus
  1 power rack (yes, one power rack total across three YMCA branches, serving over 25,000 members)

So today, I drive a few miles farther to a branch I haven't tried. This place looked so nasty, and was in such a bad part of town, I almost gave up before going inside. But sure enough, since this place can't afford the latest and greatest equipment, they've got the old school stuff I love. Multiple power racks, pullup stations, and plenty of floor space. Today I did sumo deadlifts and power cleans on the same day, just because I was so excited to finally do them again!

ps -- I know I screwed up the bulletpoints in the list, but my hands and forearms are too tired to mess with it.

[MacSob]

Red,

I know where you are coming from. I have a membership to Balley's with three in my area. I have a total of ONE power rack and ONE squat rack between the three. I guess it's a good thing I'm the only one that uses them [img]smile.gif[/img] Most people fight over the stairmaster [img]smile.gif[/img]

Take it easy.

Mac

[castufari]

I was a Y member when I lived in Virginia (Newport News). The gym I joined was 12.00/mo for 2 of us. I walked in, it was old and needed some work. The showers were sketchy, there was no pool/sauna/etc and only a few mirrors. It was great, all free weights, NO machines. After a year they decided to redo it and the price went way up.

[Deserve]

I love the Y facilities. I drool over the weight room every time I take my son to soccer practive. The problem I have is the gym hours don't meet my needs.

Good job finding a gym!

[Cynic]

Yeah, the Y. The only one worth a dime in my neighborhood is the downtown Y, which is a little too downtown for my tastes.

I ended up joining a Bally's, on a single club membership that gave me a very good rate. From this place I have one squat rack, one squat cage, several incline benches, one or two sit-up slants, an incline bench, a decline bench, a flat bench press station, a cable crossover, a dip/pull-up assist machine (unfortunately on the opposite end of the building ). That's pretty much all I use. Oh, I also use the steam room and hot tub. [img]tongue.gif[/img]

Now I have two gyms, my U grants free access to students and now the bally's. I've got no excuses now. [img]smile.gif[/img]