Your First or Favorite Gym

**bouncer** · May 19th, 2008, 03:23 PM

I was reading atrains post about his gym going under. I don't know why, but I thought about every gym, I have ever trained at. I also thought it might be fun to read post from members here about either their first gym, or their favorite gym, and what made it cool. Here's mine.

In 1973, the iron bug had already bit me. I was 14 and had been lifting in my basement for a while already, but all we had were the vinyl covered concrete weights. We combined three sets of them and were putting the heaviest plates on the bar-all the way out to the ends with just room for those cheap collars you needed a wrench for. All our bars were bent from bench pressing and deadlifting like that, and we could barely get 180lbs on the bar.

I heard about a place where the real bad-asses lifted. It was Artie Dillon's Gym. Artie was a football coach at one of the high schools, and he owned this dungeon. No sign up fees, just monthly dues. Reminders were posted for people who worked out there without paying, that doing such could result in a ass-kicking from Artie himself.

There was no spandex. There were no women-at least that I saw. Women usually went to the Jack LaLane Gym in the nice part of town. There was however the largest amount of weights I have ever seen in one place. Many of the pulley apparatus were built by Artie. There were old flywheels off of cars to use for pulldowns and rows, along with 50 and 100 lb standard plates. There were 4 pairs of 200 lb dumbells. There was lots of duct tape holding various pads together, but nothing squeaked, and everything worked. The place was ugly, but it had a certain energy about it.

Then there were the powerlifters and olympic style lifters. Meaty chalked hands wrapped around olympic bars, moving weights that I had only seen moved on ABC's Wild World of Sports. You knew not to mess with these guys. At 14, they looks absolutely huge to me. You felt lucky to be able to work out in the same place without pissing one of them off. Luckily, They saw me bustin' tater night after night and minding my own business, and they started offering me tips, and then they showed me how to properly squat and deadlift. I mowed lawns so I could afford to pay for a year in advance come school time. I got all that for $80 bucks a year!

**tooncesthecat** · May 19th, 2008, 03:48 PM

I used to work out at this gym called "OJ's" after the old guy that ran it. He was totally gray haired and must have been in his mid to late 50s but still competed! The place was full of guys who were powerlifters, Olympic lifters and bodybuilders. I saw guys regularly deadlift over 700 pounds and squat about the same. I used to love hanging out with these guys at the gym because I was in my early 20s and used all that inspiration to really hit the weights hard. They had DBs up to 200, an area full of chalk and other necessities to do Olympic and powerlifts. A few women but not too many. The ones I saw knew what they were doing. I don't recall much cardio equipment but tons of freeweights and machines welded out of some dungeon. Those were the days!

**wil** · May 19th, 2008, 04:33 PM

Those are awesome stories. Nothing so cool for me.

I started lifting in college and used the school gym.

After graduating, I started gathering my own weights while I still lived with my parents. Then when I got married I had to sell everything off because our first apartment didn't have room for anything. I joined a local YMCA where I lifted and became addicted to the Cocept II Rowing Machine (wish I had one of those now). When my wife and I bought our first house closer to where I work, I dropped the Y membership and started re-building my personal gym.

**wildstang** · May 19th, 2008, 04:47 PM

unfortunately 4 me it was millitary gyms one base after the other. one nice thing about it the atmosphere never changed much from one base to the next. the little small gyms such as on camp foster over on the rock all had proper equipment provided complements of uncle sam. one regret was not much for women in them but some every so often. now i have my own home gym that i put together from auctions to yard sales. i have a decent amount even ranging into 200lb dumbells wich make great conversation pieces when visited. i have a few high school kids that recently started coming out here at the ranch to use the gym with my son. i sometimes wonder if the whole football team was using my gym by the amount of cars parked out here.

**theatrain** · May 19th, 2008, 04:50 PM

Power house 2007 to 2008 and it was like losing a gf watching it go out of business lol!!

Seriously tho, these past few days doing trial memberships and free passes at different gyms just doesn't feel the same

**bouncer** · May 21st, 2008, 12:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wildstang

unfortunately 4 me it was millitary gyms one base after the other. one nice thing about it the atmosphere never changed much from one base to the next. the little small gyms such as on camp foster over on the rock all had proper equipment provided complements of uncle sam. one regret was not much for women in them but some every so often. now i have my own home gym that i put together from auctions to yard sales. i have a decent amount even ranging into 200lb dumbells wich make great conversation pieces when visited. i have a few high school kids that recently started coming out here at the ranch to use the gym with my son. i sometimes wonder if the whole football team was using my gym by the amount of cars parked out here.

I'll be house-hunting toward the fall, and I hope to have the space to do the same thing!!!

J-RoC · May 23rd, 2008, 08:47 PM

My first and only gym is called Bodyshop. Its pretty small with only one squat rack and such but its a homely place if you get what i mean, the same people are there day in and day out so you know them and they know you its an awesome enviroment to work out in, for me personally.

**theatrain** · May 23rd, 2008, 11:05 PM

As of right now its my plan in the future to own a gym, I'd love to merge the serious training, at home feeling with a nice setup. Around here its a tradeoff. If the place is nice, the people are there to socialize and find dates and you usually never see the same person on a regular basis.

At the serious places the equipment is beat up and outdated, no air conditioning but I guess if it gets the job done.

I sort of found an in between which I will be signing up at monday. Noone I've seen there so far is huge kind, of seems like they're there just to keep the lbs off not looking to really bulk up, but guess what? The place is called extreme fitness lol. Well.. Xtreme fitness.. No e.