I have trained at so many different gyms, I could not even begin to list them, I think there were three where I lived in Germany, and probably twenty to thirty, maybe more, here in Texas, and two in Tampa Florida, needless to say, I am an Iron Head, I believe in heavy weights, and sadly, many gyms no longer offer such a thing and have replaced iron with treadmills and stair steppers and such, which are all useful, but way down on the scale of importance to me, I would rather have 150-200 pound dumbbells!
I am now training (working out) at Gold's Gym, College Station, Texas, and I have to say, in today's world of "Fitness Centers", Gold's is right at the top, they have dumbbells up to 120 pounds, I think, It will be a while before I am using the heavy ones any way, probably six months or so. Gold's in College Station, does not have a pool or racquet ball or any of that stuff, and I have no use for that anyway, and it keeps the kids off of my squat rack! Really, those "Fitness Centers" have so many people just going there to play, get a date, or kill time hanging out with friends, they are a distraction, when I am in the Gym, it is me and the iron, nothing else matters.
When it comes to my favorite gym, I would have to say Costa's, in Houston, before they closed the location where I was training and I had to go to the main one. That gym was tiny, but, had plenty of weight, in racks all over the place, and very few of the "girly" machines that are no good for anything but taking up space, and dumbbells up to 200 pounds. I also trained at a ruthlessly brutal gym in Germany, where almost everybody was so "roided out" it was scary, but I loved it.
I have to drive 45 minutes just to get to a town that has a Gym of any kind, and there are but two choices, Gold's and Aerofit, and about ten years ago, I got kicked out of Aerofit for breaking the ancient leg press they had then, and probably still do now, by putting too much weight on it, all I did was load it up with maybe 800 pounds and it derailed! Golds has an awesome leg press, back in the day, it was a "Neptune 2000", I think it is the same machine, but the sticker is gone, anyway, it has four spindles on the sides for weight and in a year or so, I will see if it can still hold 2000 pounds. All of the people who I have talked to there seem very nice and helpful, and the way they have the workout areas set up, it is divided into sections, "girly" machines, circuit training, some kind of aerobics class room (or whatever they call it now), then dumbbells along one wall, with the heavy ones on the end, which is also the area where the good stuff is located, like the squat racks, deadlift platform and leg press and such. I am very happy there, and, they just opened a "Smoothie Bar", if you like that kind of stuff.
If you are in my area, and need a training partner, let me know, and I will be glad to share what I know and love, Iron!
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