Worst/Best Dungeon of a Gym You Worked Out in ?

[triathloncoach]

New Jersey list by Universal

**broken link removed**

Universal's Best Gyms of NJ: 2013 Edition
Here they are, Universal's selection of the top twelve best "bodybuilding" gyms in the state of New Jersey for 2013 (listed in alphabetical order). These are the "Terrific Twelve"...

- Apollon Gym (Edison)
- Atilis Gym (Wildwood)
- Body Worx Hardcore Gym(Paterson)
- Brigantine Fitness (Brigantine)
- Chiseled Health (Plainfield)
- Diamond Gym (Maplewood)
- Diesel Fitness (North Brunswick)
- Dummbbells Health & Fitness (North Bergen)
- Fitness City (Matawan)
- Pearl Street Gym (Long Branch)
- Pure Focus (Brick)
- Strong & Shapely (East Rutherford)

Congrats. These gyms truly represent the best of wut Jersey is all about.

I have been to the first 2. I don't know Pearl Street and I grew up the next town over. I went to a true dump on Rt 46 in NJ in the mid 80s. It was upstairs over a dry cleaner or something. It looked like a garage sale.

My basement gym is sorta a dungeon.

The coolest was a gym in Seoul that was on about the 30th floor with 15 foot glass walls. Nice. We aren't counting the gyms with the best female clientele right? I went to the original Equinox on the West Side of Manhattan when it first opened. Geez. I once stepped on the back of an in use treadmill because I was staring so badly. Luckily I'm the only one who hit the ground.

 

[meterman5]

I worked out at a planet fitness in Vegas while working there last year. I didn't care for it. I am not super hardcore but I can't stand the purple/pastel color scheme in most gyms today. It's like working out in a Starbucks.

I used to have a pretty nice setup in my garage with a power rack. I hated the weather extremes where I live though in Northern NV the winters it was to cold and summer it was hot as shit. Plus I could never get into the atmosphere because even with the door down my dumbass neighbors would come knock and want to talk.

A basement gym sounds pretty nice though. I have found I need the space and just the drive form home makes me work out harder.

There was a scene in pumping iron where the gym that Ferrigno worked out at. That place looked like a walk in closet. The wood paneling was ok but it seriously looked like a 12X50 rectangle. I worked out at a YMCA in town once and the atmosphere was cool but the equipment was garbage.

 

[IronManRep]

My basement gym is sorta a dungeon.

The lockers in pic #1 are a nice touch

 

[360]

Anybody ever been to Hyde Park Gym in Austin Texas? It's old school and has good equipment.

I visit the Austin area annually and always make sure to hit the gym for a week.

 

[JJBones]

Doug's gym ... downtown Dallas, Texas. The equipment is old and plates are hardly even. Its a second floor facility with no a/c. Great work out place, however, the owner Doug plays 1940's music. He loves it but it gets tough lifting heavy with the Andrews sisters singing mister sandman.

 

[triathloncoach]

Doug's gym ... downtown Dallas, Texas. The equipment is old and plates are hardly even. Its a second floor facility with no a/c. Great work out place, however, the owner Doug plays 1940's music. He loves it but it gets tough lifting heavy with the Andrews sisters singing mister sandman.

Dallas, 2nd floor, no AC. Can you say Death?

 

[Ehren]

When I lived in the US, "Iron Island" near Oakland, California. I wouldn't say the worst, but the most hardcore by far. I remember, one guy was using an Oxygen mask between HEAVY (500+ lb) sets of bench. Not because he was ahead of his time, but because he had emphysema. LOL

And one of the BEST ever had to be World Gym in Campbell, Ca, run by Scott Wilson, a great guy former Mr. Universe, I think. They had a PL/Oly lifting room in the back with a platform and bumper plates. I met Milos Sarcev there once. Signed a photo for my friend.

 

[Smiesk]

The one I'm using now is by far the best!
Small, underground, holes in the windows, just great! When you enter there's just machines and bikes and it looks like a tiny bad replica of a big fitness chain. But when you enter the next room it turns underground as f***! Two loose benches, two benches bolted to the press racks, a squat rack that looks like it was put together in a shed in an afternoon, a legpress and dumbbells from 13 to 120 lbs. The plates also come from a tonne of different places and are pretty beat up. It is also in here that the windows have holes so it gets crazy cold in the winter and super hot in the summer. The best thing about this place though is the people! Just like #Hollow wrote, everyone is more than willing to help or let you work in on the specific equipment. Just today this new guy came in while I was working out and we just gave a single sentence or so when we passed each other. Reminded me how great that place is!

 

[Gaintrain]

Central Weight Lifting - Peoria,IL

 

[bobby c]

Physiques Unlimited, Pompano FL.

 

[upeccmi]

Wynn,
That list brings back memories. My first gym was a 5000 sq ft gym called Hawthorne Fitness World, bunch of bodybuilders some national level. I remember going in there at 19 in 1985 and doing 1/2 squats with 365 and practically getting trown out by the meanest mothers. Leared to do proper form and bacame a pretty good bodybuilder.
Trathalocoach, I think the gym on Rt 46 was called the fitness factory, now that was hardcore.

 

[Turbo85]

I work on the border of Mexico and Texas on a drilling rig I have a good set up outside but when I'm working nights I wake up and due to the temp of 117 sometimes the bar will burn a fucking hole in you hand so I've been going to a gym in Carrizo Springs, TX a lil boom town down here there is a place called Jims Gym and it prolly the worst managed and poorly equipped gym and because it's in a boom town it's like 20/ed to lift there and has got to be one of the hottest gyms on planet earth I would love to see people do cardio in this place haven't yet lol, on the up side the bars aren't 200°

 

[maldorf]

Larry Pacifico used to have a nice hardcore gym with just cement floors etc. Later on he opened one a bit more fancy but it was ok, not sure if he still has it open. He opened one for just personal training, think he was catering to the masses there.

The Power Station in Ohio is a great gym, voted the best in Ohio one year I recall.

 

[Elvia1023]

I can't remember the name but it was my fav gym of all time. It was in the city centre in a back alley and you would never know what it was. A giant concrete shed with holes in the roof. The equipment was old but great and there was no cardio equipment at all. It did have punch bags etc though. It was a complete shithole and I loved it. It even had a sauna downstairs that the owner had made himself. It had 200kg (440 pounds) db's in there. I guess for shrugs cos there was no room to do farmers walk or similar. I love gyms like that and it paved the way for my training and well injuries :banghead: I moved and one day decided to travel and go in for a workout and they had knocked it down

 

[Ruhlfreak55]

I tore my bicep at Metroflex....fuckin tire....

 

[bbg420]

worst def planet fitness bunch of pussies

 

[mookie9920]

New Jersey list by Universal

**broken link removed**

Universal's Best Gyms of NJ: 2013 Edition
Here they are, Universal's selection of the top twelve best "bodybuilding" gyms in the state of New Jersey for 2013 (listed in alphabetical order). These are the "Terrific Twelve"...

- Apollon Gym (Edison)
- Atilis Gym (Wildwood)
- Body Worx Hardcore Gym(Paterson)
- Brigantine Fitness (Brigantine)
- Chiseled Health (Plainfield)
- Diamond Gym (Maplewood)
- Diesel Fitness (North Brunswick)
- Dummbbells Health & Fitness (North Bergen)
- Fitness City (Matawan)
- Pearl Street Gym (Long Branch)
- Pure Focus (Brick)
- Strong & Shapely (East Rutherford)

Congrats. These gyms truly represent the best of wut Jersey is all about.

I like hardcore gyms, I've been to Brigantine Fitness (Brigantine) but it just didn't feel right. Oceanside it EHT isn't excatly hardcore but it's better than Brigantine Fitness.

 

[Jelet]

used to go to a gym that was open 24/7 with no staff. It was a house like 50 feet away from the owners home. He gave each gym member a key to go in. and we would have to sign in on a paper when we entered the gym and there would be cameras everywhere.. He would watch us through that.. it was a very old school gym. very hot and humid. dirty... but it got the job done... but then it ended up getting closed down because of a hurricane that whiped it out... so he sold the equipment.
wasnt a bad gym... i liked... was only 199 a year. chalk powder was all over the floor. very old school. dumbbells had holes in them but they gone up to 200lbs....


my new gym golds, is pretty nice for the most part. the only thing that gets to me is the bathrooms... i usually go to the gym right before work and sometimes i will find actual shit in one of the shower stalls.. im trying to understand what kind of animal shits in the shower and leaves it there... it pisses me off! another time in the bathroom toilet there was shit smeared on the wall... its really disgusting. I dont understand how hard is it to pin the person down. They just need to record the date of the bathroom incidents and pin down who checked into the gym that day and surely they can figure it out... unless its multiple people but i doubt it, probably just one pycho.

but other than the bathrooms, the gym has nice equipment to use and its air conditioned and not that busy. they have belts for back support, foam rollers, chains, bandds, cables, all available to use...

 

[Hugesomeday]

About 30 yrs ago (yes I'm old) I trained at a place called Wolf's Gym. There was a hot tub and the water in it was brown with algae growing in it. The floors actually would bow under your feet if you had anything over 400 on your back. If equipment broke a member usually fixed it after a couple months so they could use it. But it was THE hardcore gym! If you weren't hardcore you were free to shut up and leave. Everyone was big and strong. People would help you with spots, advice, pretty much anything they could and best of all Jules Bacon worked there and he was a tremendous wealth of knowledge! GOD I MISS THAT PLACE!!!!!!! Dungeon yes, one of the best gyms I ever trained at.

 

[maldorf]

used to go to a gym that was open 24/7 with no staff. It was a house like 50 feet away from the owners home. He gave each gym member a key to go in. and we would have to sign in on a paper when we entered the gym and there would be cameras everywhere.. He would watch us through that.. it was a very old school gym. very hot and humid. dirty... but it got the job done... but then it ended up getting closed down because of a hurricane that whiped it out... so he sold the equipment.
wasnt a bad gym... i liked... was only 199 a year. chalk powder was all over the floor. very old school. dumbbells had holes in them but they gone up to 200lbs....


my new gym golds, is pretty nice for the most part. the only thing that gets to me is the bathrooms... i usually go to the gym right before work and sometimes i will find actual shit in one of the shower stalls.. im trying to understand what kind of animal shits in the shower and leaves it there... it pisses me off! another time in the bathroom toilet there was shit smeared on the wall... its really disgusting. I dont understand how hard is it to pin the person down. They just need to record the date of the bathroom incidents and pin down who checked into the gym that day and surely they can figure it out... unless its multiple people but i doubt it, probably just one pycho.

but other than the bathrooms, the gym has nice equipment to use and its air conditioned and not that busy. they have belts for back support, foam rollers, chains, bandds, cables, all available to use...

Speaking of Gold's and their bathroom, the one I used to go to it seemed that at least one of the toilets was always broken down because it was stopped up with needles! Idiots would flush their needles down there and eventually it would stop up. I talked to the janitor about it and he said he had to be really carful working on it too to avoid getting stuck with dirty needles.