Finding The Right Balance

Weighing up the pros and cons of potential new gyms close to my first home...

So any of you who follow me and read my posts regularly would know that me and my partner have bought our first home, and we are due to move into that home by the end of this month or the start of next month. So exciting, right?

You may have figured this out by now, but in case you have not, I am guilty. I am indeed a huge gym fanatic. I live and breathe in the gym, love it, and could not imagine my life without it.

I have been going to multiple different gyms that are relatively close to the area I and my partner are going to live in. I have been using free trials to get a feel for the right place for me.

So far, I have one contender called Jett’s Gym. The gym is fairly modern. It has 6 adjustable squat racks, free-weight sections, and various machines. The cardio section is located upstairs and looks like a nice little area to do cardio, even though, admittedly, I rarely do cardio.

They also have an outside training facility, a little jungle gym set up, where you can squat, do pull-ups, dips, take barbells, and various other bits of equipment outside, such as battle ropes, sleds, weights, barbells, dumbbells, and kettlebells. You can also jump rope outside, which is where I would probably do cardio if I decided to add a little more. However, at the moment, I am focusing on becoming as strong as possible in the main compound movements. My current focused movements are barbell back squats, deadlifts, bench presses, weighted dips, weighted chin-ups, and heavy barbells bent over rows.

For my current training goals, I see some setbacks with this new gym, but they can be worked around.

Let's look at my selected exercises and discuss the limitations of the gym and the benefits it can offer.

Squat: I am currently training squats, looking to improve my strength. I am currently experimenting with a training method of 5,4,3,2,1. This means that I do a set of 5 reps at high intensity, then 4 reps, 3 reps, 2 reps, and 1 rep, increasing the weight as the reps decrease. You get the idea.

The squat racks at the gym and the safety bars are a little short for my liking. I find it gives me a slightly uncomfortable psychological feeling. I mean, they are fine, and they do the job. I just normally like a little more wiggle room. I'm sure with time this will become normal for me, and with a bit of practice, I will feel right at home. The weight plates are bumper plates, and the squat bars are 20kg powerlifting bars, which are good for the purpose I am using them for. They have hard floors to stand on when squatting, and where the bumper plates sit on the bar, the floor turns into a dampening material like tarmac, which is useful if you have to dump the bar or fail a lift. The squat racks are adjustable, which is useful, and I like the visual aesthetics of the set-up of the squat room.

Deadlift: The squat station and deadlift station are in the same place; we have the same benefits with the hard floor and dampening floor where the plates sit on the bar. I like deadlifting here. The only setback I can see is that I only saw bumper plates when I was in the gym.

This is disadvantageous to me as I can only fit 5 x 20 plates per side, which totals 220kg on a deadlift, of which I could probably do 15 reps. They also have 25kg plates, so there would be enough space on the bar to take me up to a 250kg deadlift.

However, this is still a fair way off my max. The gym may actually have normal-standard plates as well. I did not see that at that time. It's likely they probably do; however, even if they do not, I can either squat really heavy and rep deadlifts at 250kg, or I can do paused deadlifts to increase the intensity of the exercise, or I can do a deficit deadlift by standing on a plate and increasing the range of motion.

I can also add bands to the deadlift bar, which would make the lift a lot harder as I extend into the full lockout position. I can also practice explosive reps, so, as you can see, there are a lot of options here. Power cleans are also another option or accessory to help increase explosive power from the floor, which would be a good carryover to my deadlift.

Bench presses: The setup in the gym for this is great; all benches are really good quality; they have a variety of inclines, flats, and declines. You can also set up in the squat and deadlift areas. The dumbbells only go up to 50 kg unfortunately, but I can go heavier on the barbell and use the dumbbells to do 15–20 reps on a low incline as a finisher or something, so that's not too sad.

Weighted dips: I can see this being an issue; they do have a few dip bars, but the dip bars are thin and flimsy; they attach to the sides of the squat racks, and they are not a good fit, which means they flex, they wobble, and they are not very secure. This is not optimal for going as heavy as possible on weighted dips; really, you want a station as rigid as possible. Having thicker handles will also help protect your wrists and recruit more muscle activation.

I will ask the gym if they are able to invest in better dip stations, as frankly, the dip station is shit and the dip is like the upper body squat. You need to be doing it if you are serious about developing a muscular upper body along with power.

Weighted chin-ups: There are loads of pull-up stations in this gym. I have no concerns at all about being able to get the most out of this movement. There will always be an area free, and the stations are sold and have a comfortable grip.

Barbell bent over rows: The set-up for this is good; again, this would be in the squat room, with plenty of bumper plates available. You can even set up the squat racks to pick the row up from a high start position. I personally prefer to deadlift it from the floor. My glutes just engage more that way and protect my back. At the moment, I can only barbell row 200kg for 6–8 reps, and I cannot see working that up to over 250kg total bumper plate max anytime soon, so I think this will be fine.

Therefore, I think I have found my gym. There are a few limitations, but with some smart programming, they can be overcome. There is probably some way I can make the dip stations a little more stable. I can also add some fat grips to the handle to help with the tiny handles. It's a bit shit, but I can go with it for now. I still have another month of trying out alternative gyms, so if I find a better alternative, I will be sure to inform you all.

Thank you for taking the time to read my article on finding the right gym close to home. I hope this has offered you some entertainment or some form of value. Please feel free to comment. I would love to hear your thoughts on your gym or this gym. I would also love to hear about your goals related to training.

Have a fantastic day, everyone.

Until next time...