Gyms in San Francisco/Berkeley Area

Off Topic
1

Hey there chaps, I’m from Dublin, Ireland and I’m heading over to San Francisco for the entire summer and am looking for a good gym to train in.

My training style is hard and heavy, powerlifting style (I’m using a Westside routine currently) . I need somewhere with a lot of heavy weights and a great atmosphere conducive to ball busting, PR producing workouts. Somewhere where floor presses and heavy deadlifting aren’t looked upon as being odd.

Can you guys help me find this place?? Thanks in advance

2

I live on the Penninsula (Palo Alto) now, but I used to live in San Francisco. The BEST gym in San Francisco by far is the Sport Palace (I think it has still retained that name even though it moved out of old location in 2000). Jim Schmidt who was 3 time U.S. Olympic weightlifting coach is owner/manager there.

If you ask him, he’ll help you out with your form for free!!! If by chance the name has changed, it’s at 13th or 14th and Valencia.

Definitely go there.

3

Thanks a lot for the speedy reply, I really appreciate it!!

I’ll definitely check that place out

4

This place is now called Valencia Street Muscle and Fitness.

5

I trained for a couple of years with Jim. He is no longer at the Valencia gym.

He had/has a place in South San Francisco I trained there a little and went to a competition a few years ago.

This is his website and it has not been updated for a while. http://www.sportspalace.org/

6

[quote]posthuman wrote:
Hey there chaps, I’m from Dublin, Ireland and I’m heading over to San Francisco for the entire summer and am looking for a good gym to train in.

My training style is hard and heavy, powerlifting style (I’m using a Westside routine currently) . I need somewhere with a lot of heavy weights and a great atmosphere conducive to ball busting, PR producing workouts. Somewhere where floor presses and heavy deadlifting aren’t looked upon as being odd.

Can you guys help me find this place?? Thanks in advance[/quote]

Wow, thats Allen Holdsworth in your avitar. I’ve seen him play many times.

7

[quote]Hagar wrote:
posthuman wrote:
Hey there chaps, I’m from Dublin, Ireland and I’m heading over to San Francisco for the entire summer and am looking for a good gym to train in.

My training style is hard and heavy, powerlifting style (I’m using a Westside routine currently) . I need somewhere with a lot of heavy weights and a great atmosphere conducive to ball busting, PR producing workouts. Somewhere where floor presses and heavy deadlifting aren’t looked upon as being odd.

Can you guys help me find this place?? Thanks in advance

Wow, thats Allen Holdsworth in your avitar. I’ve seen him play many times.

[/quote]

Indeed it is. I haven’t had the pleasure of seeing Allan live yet but Ive booked a ticket for his next London show, which is in November. I’ve been waiting to see him live for many years now so I’m very, very excited.

8

Just a quick update for everybody who took the time to reply (which I greatly appreciated):

I had the best summer of my live in San Francisco! I went over on my own with the intention of doing a lot of thinking, self reflection (sounds hippyish I know, but it’s true) and critical self evaluation. This trip was such a good experience for me, immensely enjoyable. The complete isolation was what I needed.

I joined Valencia Street Muscle for the time I was over and had many an excellent training session. It is a pretty good gym. I managed to find some Olympic plates for deadlifting, as well as a foam roller. Both of these were very helpful.

Thanks again for the suggestion.