DCU Gym

OFDM

Does anyone have any experience of the Dublin City University gym? What's the weights section like?

Amaru

Its a very basic gym, as in it has the bare essentials. Theres a bench, smith machine, cable tower and a dumbbell selection. Then theres bikes, treadmills, and 3 elliptical machines. As far as machines, theres a lat pulldown, shoulder press, butterfly, cable pulldown, bench press, quad extension, hamstring, leg press/calf press, and thats it. Theres swiss balls and ab rollers too.

If you want a gym without any of the frills then DCU gym is for you. It has everything you need and nothing more. The 2 things it is lacking though are a squat rack and slant board.

With the new pool and sauna opening and all that, i don't know what they're plans are, if they're going to extend the weight room and get new equipment in or anything, you'll have to wait and see.

OFDM

Do you know if chalk is available?

jank

Is there a membership or do students get to use it for free!?

Mantel

It's membership, students and staff of DCU get a discounted rate. It's €1.50 everytime ya go after you join.

I think its about €80 for a 3 month period but I don't have the prices to hand, that could be for non-student/staff though.

gollem_1975

public membership is €75 for 3 months
graduate membersip in €50 for 3 months

you also have to pay €2 each time you go.

another small thing about the gym there .. it closes at 6pm on the weekends and bank holiday mondays its normally closed

jank

Does that include the pool aswell!?

Bit unfair that after you pay a fee that you have to pay a small fee to use the place there after

Amaru

From the top:

no there is no chalk. like i said, its bare essentials.

Its 1.50 before 6, 2 euro after it. Students do not have to pay any membership, just the entry fee whenever they want to go in. I'm not sure of the prices for non students though.

I don't know about the pool, and nobody else probably does either, because its not open yet.

Mantel

The pool is in a seprate building and from what I've heard they're still trying to decide who will manage it. Even the staff in the sports complex don't know and whoever does know about it is keeping tight lipped. It's a shame as it's been sitting idle there for quite awhile now. The last I heard was that it wasn't actually complete yet and they needed more funding (more than the 7 million they've gotten already) to complete it. They've said they've got it now and have the contracts out to tender (this was about mid augest)

"While it was hoped that we would have the pool open for October that
target will not be achieved." So it may still be quite awhile.

I'd say scince its in a different building and most likley going to be managed by a different crowd you'll have to pay seperatly for use of it.

Guvnor

How heavy are the db's? 2 quid a throw on top of the 75 is robbery imo.

Amaru

the heaviest is 50lbs. yes lbs(god knows why the dumbells are in lbs, they're the only thing in there that are). also the heaviest static barbell is 35kg.

Guvnor

50lbs??? What an insult to the members. I've found a place with 70kg bells which is great as it means you can do your sets of 8 on db bench and know that 8 was hard.

Amaru

Actually i tell a lie, the heaviest is not 50lbs. Its 37.5kg. Theres a set of 37.5, and a set of 32.5.

For some reason though i doubt very highly that you can bench 140 for 8 with dumbbells. But if you say so, then so be it.

The heaviest i've heard is 55kg, which was is a serious gym and that should be more than enough to get a good workout, mostly because i don't know many people who bench more than that with dumbbells.

logic1

Amaru wrote:

For some reason though i doubt very highly that you can bench 140 for 8 with dumbbells. But if you say so, then so be it.

The heaviest i've heard is 55kg, which was is a serious gym and that should be more than enough to get a good workout, mostly because i don't know many people who bench more than that with dumbbells.

Judging by the "advise" you've been giving on this forum you're obviously an extremly new/amateur weight trainer. The Guvnor however is a long time powerlifter and athelete. He olympic benches well in excess of 220kg and dumbell benching 70kg for him is not a problem.

Simply because you've never seen someone do it doesn't mean it's not regularly done.

Here's a clip of Ronnie Coleman dumbell benching with 90kg dumbells. Oh wait, that's impossible right, cause you've never seen it done at 'hardcore' gyms?

http://www.irongame.com/videos/RonnieColemanDumbellBenchPress-200lb.12reps.mpg

.logic.

Amaru

Alright thats fair enough, its just the way he's been asking around about the dumbbells sounded more like bragging than actual inquiries. Don't be a arsehole though, i never said lifting 90 was impossible. What I did say though that if he says it then it is what it is, but that i just doubted it. Now that you've backed him up, i'll retract my statement.

Yes i am an amateur lifter, and DCU is an amateur lifters gym. 37.5 is the most anybody would be lifting in there with the dumbbells, and i've never seen anybody bench more than maybe 110 there on the bar. I don't hang around "hardcore" gyms, but i know a couple of bodybuilders and they've told me that 55 was the heaviest they'd seen in most of their gyms.

logic1

Amaru wrote:

Alright thats fair enough, its just the way he's been asking around about the dumbbells sounded more like bragging than actual inquiries.

There's moderators that can decide what's suitable to a forum or not. It isn't your place.

Don't be a arsehole though, i never said lifting 90 was impossible.What I did say though that if he says it then it is what it is, but that i just doubted it.

So you believe him if he says it's true but you 'doubt it'. But of a contradiction don't you think?

Now that you've backed him up, i'll retract my statement.

Trust me he doesn't need any backing up. I was simply pointing out your error.

Yes i am an amateur lifter, and DCU is an amateur lifters gym. 37.5 is the most anybody would be lifting in there with the dumbbells

You have no way of substantiating that. It's simply another assumption on your part. If their lifting 37.5 dumbells then they can go heavier with progressive overload.

I don't hang around "hardcore" gyms, but i know a couple of bodybuilders and they've told me that 55 was the heaviest they'd seen in most of their gyms.

Do these 'bodybuilders' compete, because 55 isn't by any means heavy. Will we be seeing them at the Nabba this month?

.logic.

Amaru

There's moderators that can decide what's suitable to a forum or not. It isn't your place.

Not really. People are free to respond how they like to people, as long as they're not being offensive or whatever. if i think he's being an arsehole because he says those dumbells are an insult to the members, even though most people there can't lift them, then its my choice. If i think he's bragging because he just tells us that he can lift 70s for 8 out of the blue, even though we weren't talking about how much we can bench with db's, then thats my choice.

So you believe him if he says it's true but you 'doubt it'. But of a contradiction don't you think?

Again not really. I'm not able to say it's true or not, because i've never seen him do it, so i have no choice but to believe him. That doesn't mean that i didn't have doubts, and wouldn't be surprised if somebody shot it down. People believe in God, but that doesn't mean they don't have doubts from time to time. To remove doubt you need is proof, which leads me to the next point...

Trust me he doesn't need any backing up. I was simply pointing out your error.

I also lift in excess of 220kgs. Don't believe me? Why? Because you've never seen me bench before. Now if a third party came along and confirmed it, you probably would. See what i mean now?

You have no way of substantiating that. It's simply another assumption on your part. If their lifting 37.5 dumbells then they can go heavier with progressive overload.

Have you ever actually been to DCU gym? I'm there more than probably anybody on this forum, and i've still made the definitive post on this topic. I know the guys in the gym, and i know what kind of weights they're lifting. Nobody lifts serious weight in there, and the biggest guys don't bench at all. The guys that do bench don't usually dumbbell bench, and i've never seen anybody in 3 years there using the 37.5's to bench. So its not a baseless assumption, like i said, i'm in a better position than almost anybody to comment on it. Now if people go to their own "hardcore" gym to lift the serious weights thats fair enough, but nobody lifts heavy dumbbells in DCU.

Jak

Fairly pointless debate at this stage so locking.

70kg dumbells for Bench is very good, but not record breaking in serious terms. All depends on your standards.

I don't know about DCU gym so won't comment, but certainly UCD has a few of us who would train for power seriously. Also 70LB dumbells for benching is not heavy by any stretch of the imagination - for someone of medium size with a reasonable level of training it is quite attainable - so I would imagine plenty could in DCU also.

Incidentally it was a 227.5kg bench - I spotted him.

Jak

Closed