Well mates, i'm back stateside, and i've let the lifting slip a little bit. I think I'll transition from the gym in my back yard to a traditional gym with all the bells and whistles. My son's gym membership is up for renewal, so we both decided to do a little shopping around and find us the best gym in town. Unfortunately, we live in a small town with only 68k people, and only three gyms in town that I'm aware of.
1) In Shape
2) California Total Fitness
3) 24 Hour Fitness
In Shape is the most "expensive" and required an annual membership when my woman and daughter signed up. So my son and I decided to try there first, as it is only 3 miles from the house.
(Keep in mind, my whole life, I've always had my gym equipment at the house, and worked out solo)
My son and I walk into In Shape and are greated by a youthful, energetic sales pitch when I mentioned i wanted a visitors pass. I got the pass, and had to cut the guy off when he started into his sales speech about the benefits of prepaying a year in advance (remember, good chance of my going to pakistan in october). We walk in and there are two main rooms. to the right is primarily a room filled with rows and rows of cardio machines, with a few iso machines thrown in for good measure. After runnning on the treadmill for about 5 minutes (dam! i brought my denim shorts and they kept trying to fall down!!) i did a few light reps on some of the basic movements i felt i would be doing. i did notice that there were two squat machines, one was a inverted leg press, the other a modified squat with the weight pads on the shoulders and verticle was 45% off center. each machine was monopolized by a group of kids that looked like they were just fukking around, so we went in the other room.
And guess what? more iso machines. there was a single bench employing free weights, which was being used. dumbells on the far wall. so we did some dumbell presses, and then waited for the bench to open up. Here's the thing though. the place was more or less empty, as we went during an off time. but the machines most important to me, the inverted leg press, the free weight bench press (and there was no free weight area for deads, only a machine) were being used. imagine how long it would take waiting in line if the place were busy?
So we said "Good bye" to In Shape. My son said he didn't think we'd like the place, since serious weight lifters don't usually go there, but it was worth a try. And it would have been cool since so close to the house.
In shape also had an indoor pool, which i didn't bother to inspect, since i wouldn't go there to swim. it also has various types of aerobic classes, which seems to be more inlined with the target clientele.
One down... two to go
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Originally Posted by Times Roman
