A Gym to call my own....

I travel a lot. There is no telling where I may find myself. However, no matter where I go, I have to get it in. Be it a hotel gym or the local gym where they kindly "allow" me to pay for a month long membership even though I will only be thee for 10 days a gym rat has gotta do what he's gotta do. That being said, I wonder what everyone else thinks of the different gyms they workout in and why the go there. One gym I was in recently in has had the same equipment for the last four years at a minimum. Now when I say the same equipment, I mean the same benches, lockers, dumbbells, and machines. NOTHING in there has be re-upolstered, painted, tightened, or even moved. If you decide to use the showers you will see rusty shower heads and the "trenches" filled with band-aids and paper towels. Need to use the lockers? You better check the one above or below it and to each side to make sure they aren't bent in so much that someone can stick their hand in your locker. 

I asked a guy there why he goes. He said it is only $15 per month and he has been there forever. I then asked him would he be willing to pay $5 more dollars to per month to have better quality equipment and a cleaner facility. He said enthusiastically, "Five dollars and you could make all of this brand new? Yeah I would pay it!" Go figure. 

This type of thing is way to common in many of the gyms I have been in. Everything from leaky roofs to rusty dumbbells to sticky cables have almost ruined workouts for me. Now I definitely do not need a red carpert. Hell, I don't even need a gym with a shower. I just want quality equipment and a "non-disgusting" place to train. The make-shift gym my unit built in Iraq with weights they managed to sneak in vehicles, 2 x 4's and plywood allowed me to get into some of the best shape of my life. It was as neat as it could be for an outside dirt and sand covered area and was just fine by me. Of course, leave it to Soldiers to make the most out of nothing but that is another post for another day...

After all of this, it makes me think I should open my own gym. I don't need to be a millionaire or even have a large profit margin. I would like to have a quality facility where people can train and be comfortable. Some place I am proud to show people, the employees and trainers are proud to work in, and you don't wonder if you might get ring worm or a staff infection from sitting on something in the facility. 

So you may ask yourself why do I go to the first gym I am speaking of? My "excuse" is that I have very little time when I am in this area so I can't go exploring looking for a new one. I think that is going to change in the near future. 

DO YOU

-SideMeat