The Big Box Gym V The Club Type Gym

Conditioned

I'm about to go off on a little rant so bear with me!!

Lately I've been thinking about the difference between the "Big box gym" and the "Club" type gym and the difference between its members. Bear in mind that this is going to be generic before someone loses the plot with me.

One of the differences as I see it is that the Big box gym is a business thats there to make profits. Theres nothing wrong with that as it is a free market economy we live in. But alot of people who go to these gyms (again generic) think going to the gym is enough, the quality of training that they put in isn't a factor to them as far as there concerned there "working out" 3/4 times a week. There form can be can be brutal (generic, I'm sure your with me at this stage) and there probably doing the latest "Muscle and Fitness" put on 10 pounds in 8 weeks routine, which by the way will be replaced 4 weeks later with another better programmes which offers 12 pounds in 8 weeks.

Now nothing above hasn't been said on the boards before but where I'm going with this is in one of the "Big box gyms" you and I stand back and laugh! We laugh at the 19 year old doing quarter squats with 160kg who read on the internet that full squats are bad for your knees, on a side note that is the danger with the internet if you want to find something that conforms to your believes you will regardless of whether its right or wrong and you can be sure that the 19 year old has found an article or a new found friend on a forum that tells him full squats are bad for your knees and strokes his ego into believing he's squatting just as much as some famous athlete or bodybuilder. We laugh at the young fella doing all machines or doing chest and biceps and maybe some abs every time they come into the gym. This is the "big box Gym" mentality. I'm so clever we have a little knowledge and I'm not going to share it, I'll just sit back and laugh.

The Club gym atmosphere is as far as I'm concerned completely different. For starters all subs, which usually aren't that much compared to big box gyms, are put straight back into the club. The equipment is usually basic enough but you can be guaranteed you'll have a barbell, lots of plates, a bench, a squat rack, somewhere to do pull ups and dips and maybe even a power rack. This wouldn't impress your average gym rat who'll be looking for his pec-dec and leg extension but its more than enough for most people in these gyms as they are focusing on the compound lifts anyway. But a key difference beteen the big box gym and the club gym as I see it is that everyone shares their information, no one laughs at the young fella doing the quarter squats they'll go to the trouble of actually correcting his form and it'll be more than likely that he'll heed their advice.

How many people do you know that have started programmes and given up on them because they don't work. They don't stop to think why they haven't worked, was it diet? was it effort? or maybe it was because the person had changed the programme so much that it wasn't the same programme anymore? These people have no where to turn in big box gyms, theres probably little chance that the 21 year old gym instructor has ever heard of Mark Rippetoe, Jim Wendler, Louie Simmons, crossfit or whoever elses programme your following. They'll probably tell you your wasting your time and should be doing what Arnold done. In a club gym you can be sure that someone is doing or has done one of the programmes.

You can know that when you take advice from anyone in a club gym its something they've done themselves. They may well have read the original exercise or programme in a book or on the internet but they'll have done it long enough to know if it works. In the club gym your a club member your part of something, people will actually notice if your there or not.


What is the Club gym? The club gym from what I can see is Hercules, Ropers Gym, Colm O'Reillys gym, your garage gym, etc. Places where its not about the money paid but the effort put in. I'm sure these gyms have lost lots of members through the years who have decided its not for them. Its too cold, there's not enough equipment, there's not enough ladies but the true loss is not by the club gym but by the member.


Now that I've got to the end of my rant I realise I'm probably just letting off steam. It all comes from a conversation I had with a friend I hadn't seen in a while outside his gym. He told me he'd being going 5 days a week for the last two years. He told me he was squatting 170kg for 3 sets of 10 reps, I had my doubts!, he told me his workout the day before was a disaster because the gym was so full he had to use an exercise for his chest which toned down the muscle after doing one which added the mass and he was looking for the mass! He told me he was taking a protein powder which cost €80 which was well worth it because he'd seen great gains, great gains I'd be looking for miracles at that price. He told me some funny stories about lads doing things wrong in the gym while going on to tell me what he was doing!! I listened and shocked at all he was saying didn't want to sound like a know it all, which I'm not every day I realise how little I knew the day before, but I did offer him some small pieces of advice he should look up Mark Rippetoe on the internet and he should look around the internet for cheaper protein. He replyed that he didn't take it as serious as me so wasn't that interested in Rippetoe, even though he was going to the gym for over an hour a day 5 days a week, but that he would look up the protein on the net. Point being, if there is a point, in a club gym he wouldn't have wasted two years of training and spent silly amounts of money on supplements.

dave80

Hate those big commerical gyms no atmosphere in them, there just there to make a porfit, club gyms are where its at, asked a couple of mates to join my gym got various answers like, they have no pool, there all too big in that gym id feel intimidated training there and theres not enough machines :rolleyes:

AlphaMale 3OO

I see what you mean about clubs being more knowledgable than gyms. Funnily enough, I'm a member of both a club and a big gym. I honestly see more people deadlifting, squating, cleaning etc. in the commercial gym than the club gym. The club has some hardcore guys but the majority are content with peck decks, leg extensions and sh1tty smith squats. The club also has guys who are deadlifting 300kg plus for reps, so its not that clearcut. This blurs the line and truly baffles me. I've come to the conclusion that every gym is going to have members that you know for a fact are doing things wrong or are ignorant in the way they approach their training. My frustration at this is probably greater in my club than my gym!

kevpants

Very nice post.

To play devils advocate though. Are the guys bicep curling and peckdecking away not happy? Ask yourself what are their goals in the gym? Do you think they are really puling towards that bodyweight bench or a certian height vetical jump or whatever? What are they there for?

I'd put forward they are there for the ego boost and that's all. And they're getting it. They are achieving their goals. Your mate couldn't be more wrong or misguided but he feels like Chuck Norris I bet. He struts out of the gym like a peacock and probably flexes one bicep as he knocks back his exceedingly expensive protein shake.

As much as there are two types of gym, there's two types of gym goer. Those who are in there with a purpose, see the fitness logs, will eventually find the right track and get help even if it is not volunteered on them by a knowledgeable member. Do you think your buddy would take kindly to me telling him he needs to take 100kg of the squat and go deeper? No f'in way.

Some people will never get anywhere from a physical perspective from the gym, but they will get exactly what they wanted from it.

Conditioned

I agree with what you say, just because what someone is doing in the gym is not "right" doesn't mean there not getting any enjoyment out of it. The lad I was talking to had replaced something else witht the gym and he was obviously getting great enjoyment out of it. I'm a big believer that if someone is doing something that there happy at that doesn't affect anyone but themselves than leave the too it. But when they do go to the effort of going its a pity they don't go a step further and learn what there at I'm not saying become an expert, I'm far from an expert and this isn't an "I'm so smart everyone else is so stupid" post. How many times have you heard someone say a deadlift is dangerous? To a certain extent that may be true, if you don't know what your doing. Nobody watches someone drive a car and presumes after watching them that it looks so easy they can do it. So the same can be said for most exercises. Its not that there overly complicated but when you start of, and maybe at any time, you do have an image in your head of what you are doing which can be completely different to reality.

It probably is true that there are two types of gym goer, the knowlegeable that will probably be regulars and the less knowledgable that will probably give up because of bad genetics, weights are boring etc. these people will give up and be replaced by more people with the same mindset all because they lacked a bit of guidance.

Roper

I agree almost entirely with your initial post.

Garret (spiral on here, but I feel stupid calling him that) and me were having a chat after training one night and he said something along the lines of "people want sport". I agree with him. In other words, sooner or later after you've done so much (or so little) in the gym, you want that edgy feeling of either competition against another human being or against the clock or just against yourself. In my considered opinion, ahem, most people quit the gym at that point, or just coast along. There are exceptions of course, but they prove the rule.

Smaller gyms, what you're calling the club type, give you that I think. Mostly because to start one, you're probably either an extremely motivated and interested individual, or a group with a common goal. Usually the group gyms are to help with a sport be it football or bodybuilding. So you get that motivation from your fellow competitors or even just having people alongside you that you know and who are there to help you along if you're not competing. Believe me there are much, much easier ways to earn money than to open a facility so no individual in their right mind opens a gym to become a millionaire.

Personally, everything I do I do because I love it. That's the truth. I spent last night and all of today laying down new mats and finding room to put a power rack, a rower and a hyper bench in our "small gym" and even though it's poxy work I love it. I'm sure there are fitness instructors in big gyms who have the same love though.

gabgab

Its a team........

In a club type gym everyone is in some shape or form encouraging one another and pushing or dragging one another along,

In a big box at best your left alone while at worst some berk is staring at you or gym lurching.... Getting on equipment after you or beside and competing with you,

I train in a small gym and whilst at times when I'm wrecked and could easily jack it in having a few friendly words of encouragement or just plain shouting to help me finish really makes a difference,

You feel more a part of something and there is a great community atmosphere and banter "where were you on tuesday man...."

Try saying to that to a person in westwood, be funny to see the outcome.