Finding a Gym to Call Home

It's the first step of course. To actually lift, you need a place to lift at. You would think that after over 15 years of working out, training, lifting etc... that I would know what I was doing. Well, it was apparent that I was just like any of the other untrained and ignorant masses. We did our thing at this huge commercial gym for a couple years. Standard big box store kind of place. Indoor pools, basketball courts, racquetball courts, a bazillion cardio machines, weight machines as far as the eye could see. Hell, you could blast your calves on 4 different contraptions. Oh, I almost forgot, here is the less important stuff that commercial gyms all seem to have. Music that was set on 94.7 the river, no chalk, no tolerance for those who would bring chalk, dumbbells that went all the way up to 80, rubber coated 45's that were actually only the diameter of normal 35's, ONE squat rack that was filled with dude's hitting their broceps all the time, no Olympic platforms, no deadlift bars, or squat bars, or Olympic bars. If you grunt nailing that sweet 205 bench press, people would look at you funny and tell you that if you had to make noise it was too heavy. Same with deadlifts or powercleans. Sounds like Planet Fitness doesn't it? It wasn't...... it was just a normal, everyday, commercial gym. The gym most of you probably go to. It's not your fault though, for not knowing any better. We didn't either. There was a trainer there named David Allen. He would bring chains, and strongman implements to help train his clients with. One day after about a year of lifting there, he says to us, "Hey guys, I'm opening my own facility soon, you should come check it out." He went on to explain what kind of place this was going to be. Metal playing at high volumes, chalk everywhere, people yelling at each other, weights dropping and noise being made, dumbbells up to like 150. Chains, bands, implements, specialty bars. This wasn't a gym, it was a meat head training facility. More on the gym later, the point is, you have options. There are smaller privately held gyms out there where monsters are bred. Take a look at every powerlifter, strongman, bodybuilder out there. Almost NONE of them are at a commercial gym unless they are making some sort of celebrity guest appearance. The fact is, even with all that equipment, a commercial gym just can't accommodate the truly bad ass. Use GOOGLE. Find a facility near you that is a specialty gym. They are out there. They are intimidating as shit at first, but the folks in there are so much nicer than you would expect. There is much less ego, because these folks know what they are doing, and they like showing other people how to do it right if asked. There is no better motivation than being around people that are intense. Don't waste your time training at a gym where you are one of the strongest and most knowledgeable people. You have to be chasing someone, and someone has to be chasing you. Our facility is called NBS Fitness in Memphis, TN, and it will melt your face.