Chris…right on about the B.O. I find it hard to imagine that these people can not smell themselves. It’s the worst when you are in the middle of benching to ABSOLUTE failure and you get a whiff of someone’s skank ass bodyodor and get nauseous. Also, what is up with these guys that train upper body only. We’ve all seen them. 56" chest, 19" arms, and legs like a 140lbs. seventh grader. They look like big freaking snowcones. And there is always the guy who is obviously doing too much juice (look for the outlines of organs on his distended, bloated gut) who insists on wearing either spandex or the big, colorful clown pants and a tight shirt with the neck and arms cut. Where do these clowns come from?
Dumbell racks that have an open center— where you have to place the dumbells back exactly perfect or else they fall through and CRUSH YOUR HANDS–wake up --put a strip of wood or something in there to aviod this, pencil necks doing curls in the squat rack, people wearing jeans,army boots,& winter coats while w/o. Gym owners who don’t grease the machines, barbells & dumbells that are loose or about to fall apart & of coarse the music!!
Faggot music, pretty much enough said. My gym used to play okay music, an alternative radio station mainly, but then some old bitch complained about hearing a “sware word” on the radio, so the owner only allows easy listening, bitch and faggot pop music, and the occasional classic. Play hard or at least fast music so we can actually get a friggin’ pump to kill ourselves in the squat rack, not feel like going and masturbating in a berry passion bubble bath. Thank you.
In short make sure you have plenty of free weights, squat racks, benches, dumbbells, etc.
As for music, my gym plays music depending on who’s working. Usually it’s heavy metal, techno or some wacky stuff. But it’s not turned on too loud. So I can easily block it out when training. Besides, many people will wear a Walkman.
Are you catering to a certain crowd? Or are you going to have an overall “health and fitness” gym?
I say, keep it full of free weights and cater to the more hardcore lifters. Only have a few cardio machines. This will keep out the aerobic lovers and pussies who don’t think free weights are good!
Keep the place clean! It sucks to work out someplace that has nasty bathrooms and dirty benches, etc.
Sell good supplements! Try to get Biotest and other high quality supplements...and don't sell junk! And don't have your staff endorse junk to make commission!
I had a few more, but now I can’t remember.
Make sure you’ve got some deadlifting/olympic lifting platforms installed also. You can even find rubber 45 and 25lb plates that bounce, so the platform doesn’t get all fucked up from idiots who like to slam or drop the weight back on the platform.
Where to begin…? I hate the fact that my gym has no dedicated dip station(unless you count the Gravitron). As a result there is also no belt with a chain to attach weight to. The ceiling is only high enough in an area of approximately one cubic foot to allow complete pull ups (re-god-damn-diculous!). Furthermore the overwhelming majority of the ignorant,tennis-playing,gold-jewelry-wearing,perpetually tanned,girls’ middle school gym coach dyke-looking, gum-chewing,cum dumpsters called personal trainers make my fucking skin crawl when I’m pounding out a set, dutifully counting to myself…“down-two-three-four-pause-up-one-two,five-down-two-…” and they’re flapping their jaws about the beach vacation they just got back from to the poor fat broad that pays them to learn how to perform half-assed dumbbell curls and carry on an oh so meaningful conversation at the same time. That kind of irks me. Thank God for Power Drive-tunnel vision can be a beautiful thing.
- Fat bitch “trainers” trying to teach men how to work out, THE WRONG WAY.
- Guys that do bench press EVERYDAY.
3.Guys that are doing some workout that for the life of me, even using my imagination, I can’t figure out which muscles they are trying to develope. (ya’ll should see this guy. I wan’t to roll on the ground laughing every time I see him.) - The ever famous fat guy giving advice to people who wish he’d shut the hell up.
- The fact that I heard two guys got caught giving each other head in the steamroom. (puke)
6.The shitty music. Too much backstreet boys is probally responsible for the above.
Dont do anything weird with the business hours…my former gym (notice i say former) had a seemingly normal schedule except for sundays…they were open from 8-12, then closed from 12-3, at which point they would re-open until 7. What is up with that??? also…if possible, make sure your facility has the capacity to expand (new equipment, etc)…good luck.
Doug,
Good suggestion. My gym has an Olympic weightlifting platform that me and some buddies train on. It’s in horrible shape, but it gets the job done. My friends had to buy all their own weights. They keep them locked up so the dumbasses don’t destroy them. So if you’re going to have a platform, you might want to reserve it for Olympic lifting only! My training partners chase people off who use the platform for deadlifts or other exercises.
Another suggestion, keep your membership affordable! I pay $99 a year and I get everything I need: FREE WEIGHTS.
I don’t go to the prettiest or cleanest gym. But it has everything I need and it’s affordable. And the majority of the people that work out at my gym are serious trainers!
Of course, I live in a college town so there are plenty of Biffs (frat boys) that come in on Monday to work chest and arms and then take the rest of the week off to drink and party! What a waste of time.
If you’re ever in Gainesville, be sure to stop by for a workout.
My biggest complaint about my gym is that they re-painted it. Before it had white walls with dents and holes all over the place from people smashing them with plates and dumbells. Now they repainted it with yellow sponge blot-thingies and put wood paneling around the bottom, it’s so homey and nice it’s sickening. Aside from that I would just say make sure the benches you get aren’t big and cushy – I hate at my gym. Also, instead of personal trainers I would hire someone qualified (and I don’t mean ACE or whatever certified, somone you know that knows their stuff) to walk around and give people a spot and/or advice (only if they ask for it!).
Tell people to shut the hell up–particularly the big guys, or the wannabe-big guys, who grunt and groan and moan with every cheating rep of a curl or quarter-squat or half-a-bench press…they aren’t impressing anyone but their own sorry selves.
Tell the staff to stay out of the way at busy hours. My gym has a manic janitor who mops all around people when they’re working; I’ve seen him mop the shoes of some poor sap doing seated overhead presses!
Get more than one chin-up bar.
Get more than one parallel bar setup.
Get more than one squat rack.
Get hot water in the showers.
Get lockers big enough to hold something besides a thong.
Space to deadlift and power clean would be great. My gym has four leg extension machines yet hardly any room to power clean. I hate that. Also, I wish gyms would have an area for pull-ups only. Like right now, my gym’s only decent spot to do chins is from a bar attached to the cable crossover machine. More than one squat rack would be great, not that many people even use it. A sign that says “For squats only” would be nice too. A power rack would be a plus. A shrug bar would be cool for deadlifting. Oh, and no rule against lifting chalk. And don’t hire every damn college kid that walks into the gym and dub him or her a trainer. That title should not be applied lightly. Lastly, sell Biotest supplements and carry T-mag! 
Here is what you should do if you want to cater to both serious and fitness trainers.
Have one area with nice walls, carpeting and lots of machines, cardio area, stretching mats, etc. Also a couple bench setups, light dumbells and a pull-up bar in that area. Play lite music. This is your fitness bunny and medium bodybuilding area.
Then in another room, keep it slightly unfinished. Build a platform, put in power racks, benches, and supply good weights, including 100s and lots of bumpers. Squat stands and Heavy dumbells too. Put in chalk boxes and allow loud music at certain hours. This is your competitive lifting and serious training area.
Contact Richard Sorin (Sorinex), they do full college and commercial weightrooms.
Gotta agree with the seperate areas idea, even if its only one end of the room. Design the area with lifters in mind- power rack essential and preferably an olympic lifting platform as well. Let them use chalk in that area. Allow some degree of grunting, sweating and thudding, but dont be afraid to enforce gym rules- make them clear. Serious lifters are happy to keep some form of order and respect their gym, even if they are rough on it. And it keeps the inevitable aerobic pansies happier. Remember, for every total fuckwit whose membership you revoke, ten more paying punters will respect some order and join up. Besides, they’ll usually pull their head in before it comes to that. Have someone on staff who knows how to lift- not neccesarily the local pullhard who lives hi life in spandex. Music- I dont go to the gym to listen to fuckin’ radio advertising and sissy shit- no msic is a better option in lifting areas. It may be solved by placement and direction of speakers if youre dealing with a single space.
Oh yeah, make sure you have some sort of temperature control. My gym doesn’t have any A/C in the back room. And the back room has a tin roof. And summertime in Florida in a gym with a tin roof is not the most pleasant place to train. Especially when it feels like 120 degrees and you begin sweating the minute you walk through the door.
In the winter, the gym is nice and cool in the back. But many people don’t like to train when it’s cold. Hey, it doesn’t bother me and feels better than dying of heat stroke but most people don’t like it.
Even though my gym is hot, dirty, smelly, full of rusty weights and is disorganized, it’s actually a great place to train.
There are at least three pull-up bars, two power racks, a lifting platform, a number of squat racks and benches and many free weights. And like I said before, it's cheap!
I guess you get what you pay for. If I wanted more of a health and fitness type gym, I would go to some of the other places in town that charge more than $400 a year!
So let us know how your gym turns out! I would be eager to hear what types of things you have done to avoid many of the mistakes we have posted!
Good luck!
last gym i belonged to the owner would put all his clients down behind their back, fill up the bottled water container with tap water from the shower and “cut” protein powders with pancake mix to get more. and, he did this thinking nobody knew…he had a habit of drinking too much beer sometimes and he talked alot.
My 2 cents: Music seems to be a hot topic. If you want to have
music playing keep it quiet that way guys who are serious about
working out will be able to ignore it and the bubble gum lovers
won’t be able to complain. Make sure you have enough dumbells,
nothing worse than needing a specific weight for your next set and
having some old fat lady using it to rest her feet on with no regard
for the time she is wasting while she picks at her bra straps. Keep
the locker rooms clean. I hate my gyms because my stuf comes
out of there smelling like mold. I know there will be some
unpleasant smells but keep what you can clean. Don’t use harsh
cleaners on the water fountains. Some people may like the taste
of cleaning products in their water but I am not one of them. Give
your gym a muscular look. What I mean is try not to dress it up to
much by coordinating the colous to match the wright machines,
and don’t worry about the odd scuff on the paint, it adds character.
And lastly, if possible have a (semi)separate area for the real
hardcore guys. We all hate watching fuck ups doing whatever it is
that they do. I bet that we could avoid them if they was a special
section for them, just name the area with some buzz word that will
atract them like a fly strip on a hot august day. Other than that try
to hire cool people who don’t offer opinions unless asked for.
I sleep days, work evenings, and am up late. I find it a pain trying to find time to work out around a gyms schedule. Try a 24 hour setup. You could even offer a discount membership to members who only use the gym at these odd hours to make sure it is financially feesable, and to up your membership roster without a lot of extra people durring peak hours.
Also quit filling up those little peep holes to the womens shower, or better yet, add one way mirrors.
And all those stationary bikes in front of the tv’s, but no porn. Wheres the porn. (Maybe treadmills will work better in front of those tv’s.)
Oh yeah, topless waitresses offering the new biotest grow beer (in the works?) free to members.
I am also tird of washing myself off after every workout. Girls with washcloths, thats right, girls with washcloths to wash us off.
Do all this and I will join.
robert,
i like your question, mostly because i hope to one day be in your position.
i work out at the “strength and conditioning” room at my university. the equipment is nice and it is plenty big but the person who runs it is some kind of fitness nazi. the only alterations she will make to the gym are the ones that get more cardio equipment in there and homogenise the place. any attempts to use chalk or powerlifting specific anything are shot down without consideration. so be cool to people who “train” as well as the ones who “workout”. even though the majority of the people in your gym may not give half a rats ass about ever competing in anything short of the office betting pool, be cool to the recreational athletes that visit your place.
also stupid yet beautiful female staff aremore of a hinderance than a help, hell the same thing goes for pretty boys too. they talk too much, and can't help in an emergency.
real PT certifications are a plus as is first aid/Cpr in case anything goes really wrong.
good luck and keep us informed.
Great question.
I train at two gyms because I am a shift worker. #1 is a YMCA,it’s pretty well equipped but no open space for overhead lifting or power cleans.
What really bugs me is people not replacing the weights. The staff should make them replace them or unload the bar themselves. Also the staff should be observant and helpful,I saw one worker lean against a leg raise stand while a woman was struggling to ajust the seat position of a machine next to him.
My other gym is a little red neck gym.( I live in mobile alabama)A great place to work out but poor maintenance and little housekeeping ,spit cups and doghair everywhere(owner has a bluetick hound) Both places have pro & cons.