I’m moving to West Hollywood/Hollywood area. Does anyone recommend any good gyms or a gym where serious “T-mag” readers would train. I don’t like training at franchised gyms where most pencial head geeks train and don’t have clue. Thanks guys.
Franchise gyms (Golds, World, Powerhouse, 24 Hour Fitness, Bally’s, LA Fitness, Sports Club, etc., etc.) are pretty dominant in Southern California. Fortunately,you can find a serious lifting scene at most of these franchise gyms. Many of these gyms are unbelievably huge (facility and membership) so there is every kind of scene imaginable. Being that you will be in the Hollywood area, you might want to check out the Golds gym there. It’s an impressive facility and there are definately some hard core lifters. If you don’t like it, just drive around. There are literaly gyms everywhere in Southern California.
I would suggest Crunch Gym. To begin, thats where a lot of the models/actors try to get prettier, but also where alot of the muscleheadz go to lift seriously. Ive been to different gyms all over the US, and Ive never seen so many guys that could push serious weight as I saw at Crunch.
I have been training out here in So Cal for a while now and ive been to every gym worth going to. You first need to know what your looking for great equip, hardcore environment, a scene etc. Ok in hollywood your choices are Hollywood Gold’s and Crunch. Gold’s is more hardcore has great equipment but there is one drawback it is 80% Homosexual its also a major hollywood scene (everyone thinks there cool if you know what I mean) I personally hate it there I cant stand working out around a ton of gay guys or being in such a “cool” gym with spinning and aerobics classes. Crunch is the same on the gay factor its less hardcore but is even more of a hollywood scene. I train in North Hollywood Golds , just your basic Gym nothing fancy and no aerobics or spinning classes But its probabbly a 20 min drive from hollywood. I always train at the Venice Gold’s once a week its hardcore and has amazing equipment and its fun to see flex, cormier, dillett, priest all training. IF you ever want to train when you move down here hit me up with a post!
Thanks for the advice guys, it’s greatly appreciated. Tapper, I agree with you on the 80%, that was obvious when I was visited last weekend. I’ll post you in about two weeks.
Touching on what Tapper mentioned, there is a large gay community in the Hollywood area (not that there is anything wrong with that). So, this means that the Hollywood gyms will have a large number of people from that lifestyle. Additionaly, both Golds and Crunch have more than their share of Hollywood “phonies.” Don’t let this scare you away from the area. There are a wide variety of people there (some good some bad). As I mentioned earlier, if the scene isn’t to your liking, there are countless options within a reasonable distance.
I believe Allwyn Cosgrove runs a gym in Souther Cal. I would highly recomend searching him out.