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Last month the gym I’d been working out at since February closed temporarily for remodeling. This wasn’t a big inconvenience since there was another gym about an equal distance away that I could visit. Besides the gym I had been going to had a lot of old equipment and I was looking forward to using some newer stuff.
This week the gym reopened. And while there were a lot of needed improvements, there were a few things I thought the gym overlooked.
First the good.
Most of the new equipment is a huge improvement over the old stuff. For example, they have this news machine the works my triceps better than anything I’ve used before. I love it.
The gym seems more open feel to it. It doesn’t feel like there’s tons of equipment smashed against each other and the equipment is laid out in a more orderly fashion.
They put television screens throughout the gym instead of just the cardio section. This serves as a nice distraction between weight reps.
They improved that heating/air conditioning system so now there aren't hot and cold spots in the gym.
Finally, they somehow managed to eliminate that ever-present stank that seems to be part of locker rooms. I have no idea how they did or if the smell went away simply because the locker room went unused for six weeks
Now the bad.
Since the gym I frequent tends to be near a high school and a major university, there's a lot of want-to-be or ex-football players that visit the gym on a regular basis. By far the most popular piece of equipment in that gym is a standard weightlifting bench. Before they remolded everything there were five benches that could be used at anytime. Now there are only two. Yep, that's right, two weight benches. This has created some problems as instead of people using their own bench, they now have to share it with others. I prefer not to share, if possible.
Then the old benches that were used for more dumbbell-type exercises were adjustable so you could sit, if you wanted, at different angles to work your muscles differently. The new benches just lay flat. No option to raise parts of them at all.
Finally the old gym had plenty of those places where you could get a paper towel and wipe down the equipment after you're finished. Now, there's one location that located on the far end of the gym. This means that most people won't bother walking that distance just to wipe down the equipment. That new equipment is going to look nice very long at this rate. Yuck!
Overall, I'm glad the for the improvements but would have thought they'd put a little more effort into making it a little more friendly for those who spend a lot of time using free weights. The other lifters on see on a regular basis feel the same way. Complaints from me and other weightlifters have been taken at the front desk.
And, yes, I did thank them for getting rid of the stank!