I’m moving there in sept…wondering if anyone from there could help me with a couple questions regarding living.
How bad is the NE? I’ll be living with my gf and want to live in an area where she can walk around after dark by herself. I’ve heard it’s a shady spot, but is the whole area bad or just sections? (I will be working in the NE so I want to be close to it if possible)
What should I expect to pay for a 2 bedroom apartment or duplex, or basement or trailer, etc.
How is traffic during the morning and afternoons? Is it a pain to drive around the city or does traffic flow pretty good?
And of course I’m going to want to find a place to train.
NE and north part of SE can be pretty bad. There are areas where it’s pretty much guaranteed your house will get broken into. Those areas are also mostly filled with minorities, who will beat you up if you look at them wrong or have something they want.
That’s just the very worst couple communities though. The rest of the NE is relatively OK.
I’m going to say $1200 for the 2 bedroom apartment/duplex. Depends on area and how nice it is of course.
Traffic can be pretty bad depending where you are heading. If you go towards downtown in the morning or on roads leading out of downtown in the afternoon, you will be in a lot of bumper-to-bumper traffic. Deerfoot (the most used road, especially if you live in the NE) is pretty good, but accidents happen almost everyday, and then you’re screwed.
I like the YMCA for training because the equipment is as good as it gets, your card lets you in at three locations, and the price is cheaper than the other gyms. Unfortunately, there is not a location in the NE. Whatever you do, don’t join the World Gym on 32nd Ave NE. I was SO close to breaking their fucking windows.
[quote]Thomas Gabriel wrote:
NE and north part of SE can be pretty bad. There are areas where it’s pretty much guaranteed your house will get broken into. Those areas are also mostly filled with minorities, who will beat you up if you look at them wrong or have something they want.
That’s just the very worst couple communities though. The rest of the NE is relatively OK.
[/quote]
Thanks, how’s the circled area in the map above? Pretty safe or no?
edit, map doesn’t show up well, but I was thinking of finding a place within a few kms of the trans canada highway and deerfoot intersection, sort of on the boundary of the NE and NW regions of calgary (I think).
Ya, that area isn’t bad. It’s called Mayland Heights. I stopped by at a friend’s BBQ there a couple weeks ago. I was walking around at 2am and didn’t feel unsafe.
For a gym i’d recommend one on the intersection of center street and the trans-canada. It’s called ironworks, you can’t miss it. Alot of old equipment, but it works very well. Dumbell sets up to 140, single dumbells up to 162. A few power racks, quite a few other useful things. Generally I find it to be an extremely friendly/serious atmosphere, where people will know your name. Having someone say “cya tomorrow andrew” goes a long way for keeping me consistent. As of now, it’s not crowded at all. Go check it out.
As far as communities to avoid, i’ve found that the ones that are really far in the north east are the worst. Taradale for instance would be a terrible place to live. Stay south of mcknight or west of deerfoot.
But really, all things being said usually it’s alot better than people make it out to be. Calgary is a very safe city for now.
Going from west to east in the morning and east to west in the afternoon can be difficult traffic-wise. Also deerfoot really sucks during rush hour if you’re going with the majority of traffic, because of the accidents as Thomas said.
Well I am out here now and got a month membership at ironworks to see how it is, seems ok, only 1 rack though and no platforms. Out of the places I called it is the cheapest, although still pretty fucking expensive compared to what I am used to paying.
Driving here sucks hardcore, everything is so congested and it takes forever to get anywhere. In lite of this I am now looking for some weight plates and a bar to use at home so I can cut gym visits down, anyone got a good suggestion on where I can get some?
I was looking through craigslist and kijiji, and not much going on there. I tried Play it again sports, but they don’t even have oly weights.
The only problem with the ownership is they are trying to make the gym into a regular gym rather than something unique. I have actually been working on them to get a platform/bumper plates, but they are pretty unresponsive to ideas because the financial situation isn’t so great at the moment.
There’s a friend of mine i’m hoping will become the manager. He was going to make it more of a strongman type gym, which is something I really want to get into. I think within a little while he’ll be starting a gym one way or another. As far as I know there are no strongman gyms in calgary.
I think fitness depot has the cheapest stuff, though used equipment would be much cheaper. It’s unfortunate the price of iron has increased so much recently. I got my iron and olympic bars for 49 cents a pound about five years back. I doubt it will be nearly as cheap now.
I think i’ve got the cheapest membership out of anyone that goes to ironworks, since i’ve been there from before it changed ownerships(and I got a great deal then, too). Most gyms in calgary are commercial chain gyms that cost a fortune and have a bad atmosphere.
When do you work out anyway? I’m usually in there around 7:30 pm on weekdays. What kind of training do you do?
[quote]AndrewBolinger wrote:
there’s a rack upstairs and one in the basement.
The only problem with the ownership is they are trying to make the gym into a regular gym rather than something unique. I have actually been working on them to get a platform/bumper plates, but they are pretty unresponsive to ideas because the financial situation isn’t so great at the moment.
There’s a friend of mine i’m hoping will become the manager. He was going to make it more of a strongman type gym, which is something I really want to get into. I think within a little while he’ll be starting a gym one way or another. As far as I know there are no strongman gyms in calgary.
I think fitness depot has the cheapest stuff, though used equipment would be much cheaper. It’s unfortunate the price of iron has increased so much recently. I got my iron and olympic bars for 49 cents a pound about five years back. I doubt it will be nearly as cheap now.
I think i’ve got the cheapest membership out of anyone that goes to ironworks, since i’ve been there from before it changed ownerships(and I got a great deal then, too). Most gyms in calgary are commercial chain gyms that cost a fortune and have a bad atmosphere.
When do you work out anyway? I’m usually in there around 7:30 pm on weekdays. What kind of training do you do?
And where are you located in calgary?[/quote]
Basement? I didn’t know there was 2 floors to the place, I was just on the top floor. I will probably be going anywhere from 6-8 pm once I get into a regular routine, 3-4x a week.
Training varies depending on what I’m focusing on, but I have done some strongman training and some local comps when I was in Ontario, I have a log, farmers, 2" db, and a keg. I’m in Mayland heights, it’s only like 5 clicks away but it felt like it took half an hour to drive over there last time I went.
Best equipped place in calgary is “peak Power” at SAIT campus. They have the best bumpers and platforms. Just pay the regular fee and you should be good. not too busy there.
[quote]Avocado wrote:
Best equipped place in calgary is “peak Power” at SAIT campus. They have the best bumpers and platforms. Just pay the regular fee and you should be good. not too busy there.
-chris[/quote]
I know a guy that goes there, but at 100/month I’ll pass.
There is an olympic training facility somewhere near COP.
Heresay: A gym owner was telling me that powerlifters used to be allowed to train there but were recently kicked out. I think they’re pretty exclusive as to who gets in there… and I understand that sentiment.
Avocado was telling me that there was a strongman type gym on edmonton trail, but I looked around for awhile and couldnt’ seem to find any trace of anything but a martial arts studio.
The university of calgary has a gym just for people on the Dinos, I’ve heard that one is quite good but I’m not sure how a non-student could go about gaining access.
I think Calgary is due for a good gym opening up sometime soon. The demand is definitely there…
I trained at the olympic oval gym quite a bit. It’s pretty damn nice. Like 5 squat racks/power cages, 3 lifting platforms, tons of plates including bumper plates, containers of chalk everywhere. If you want to get in, just try walking in. Me and my friend went there once a week, and always just walked in. One time someone asked me for credentials, and I said I was on the football team.
[quote]Joe84 wrote:
Avocado wrote:
Best equipped place in calgary is “peak Power” at SAIT campus. They have the best bumpers and platforms. Just pay the regular fee and you should be good. not too busy there.
-chris
I know a guy that goes there, but at 100/month I’ll pass. [/quote]
It’s only $50 per month if you don’t want the coaching. And I’d say you could take or leave the coaching if you’ve been versed in the O-lifts.
At 450 it’s not a bad deal when you think about what you get.
[quote]Mufasa wrote:
I’m out of my league here, but have always been curious about the “left over” training facilities in places like Calgary that have hosted an Olympics.
Are they pretty much “off limits” to regular folks (non-Olympic athletes), and/or the purvue of the rich?
Again…just curious.
Mufasa[/quote]
majority of them are only available to athletes of the trainers who work there. examples are the oval and COP. You can, as said walk into the oval to train and hope that they don’t figure you out and boot you. COP is much tighter. no walking in even just to look at the facility. The amin trainer at COP, Matt Jordan, is fairly good at keeping “his” facility clear of non-athletes, who typically have an athlete card (typically).
That being said I’ve just walked in and trained as well. but even attempting to pay for a membership is hard as fuck. It’s like they want to keep people from training hard without coaches. as a coach i can understand that but fuck, im willing to pay for fuck sake. it’s as if ill get in the way of the 5 coached athletes that may or may not be in there at any one time period. Oh well, Ideally a new athlete center will be opened up by Travis Moe in okotoks within a year or so.
[quote]vozaday wrote:
Do you guys know if there is any strongman competitions in calgary. A guy I know mentioned something about The Yard, but I can’t find anything.[/quote]
from what I’ve found Calgary is pretty lame in that regard. I tried posting on manitboa strongman forum, got a couple responses but nothing concrete on an actual competition. There is a guy putting a team contest on here, but it’s invite only…and I don’t know how you get invited, try poking around here maybe, I started a thread over there a while ago, http://strongmanitoba.yuku.com/
