I walked in yesterday and I wasn’t the only one doing box squats. The only problem is that the other guy was doing them on a Smith machine. Oh well.
Brent: one lucky bastard.
This morning, as we were performing Zercher squats, the platform next to our rack was being utilized by a “trainer” and his client.
The “trainer” loaded up a barbell with the 10K bumper plates and had his client perform “speed” deadlifts. You’d think, “wow, a trainer at 24 Hour actually knows about deadlifts?” But hold on: the clients form was a abomination (back curling ALL over the place, hips HIGH up in the air), he was literally dropping the bar down, so that (due to the bumpers), it would “bounce” back up - therefore, he had absolutely NO control over the movement. All the while, his “trainer” was talking, and talking, and talking about shit not dealing with the training at hand. At one point, while still in the middle of his set, the client had to look over to respond to his “trainer”. Uh huh. I was just gasping. Oh. My. God.
After that, another “trainer” had his female client perform the following: holding a pair of DBs’, she would perform a lunge and then immediately stand up and perform a press while balancing on one leg. After several sets of this “exercise”, we saw that he had her on a horizontal leg press. Uh huh.
THIS is what happens when I allow my gaze to wander about in the gym. Dammit. NEVER again. NEVER.
Other than the “trainers” - who ALL suck, there are a few good things about our gym. It’s a former warehouse, so it’s HUGE. It’s got the platform (and bumpers), four squat racks and plenty of free weights. Plus, we can still use chalk and we’ll be beginning box squats soon: so we’ll be packing in a box.
We’re usually training in the only “civilized” portion of the gym: the platform. Far away from all the numbnucks.
My gym has every piece of equipment known to man - except a GH raise machine. And if you want to tilt something or madify it in some other way, the owner will like as not come over and help you out.
There’s a mirror over the main bench.
There’s a cage that is rarely used. More for me!
Bands are in very frequent use.
Everyone’s nice.
There are the occasional screamers, but they usually end up leaving after a month or two of showing everyone how “hardcore” they are.
No one gives you shit about what you wear (which is good for me, since I’m still basically stuck in the 80’s).
You can get a good spot any time.
Everyone’s into encouragement and complimenting those around them. If you make improvements, you’ll hear about it.
There’s a TV. While this might not seem like a plus at first, it is. See, it mesmerizes those who don’t time their rest periods, thereby freeing up the machines for more of the time for those of us who do.
There is only one treadmill, only one exercycle.
The whole place is covered with rubber mats.
char - I’ve never been in a gym with a mirror above the bench. I always thought that would be good, at least instructionally, as it would be very easy to watch yourself (at least in that plane).
This may be weird, but I’ve found that I can incline press more if I can watch myself in the mirror. Kind of strange.
Yup, it can help. Good for sex on the bench after your workout, too.
we have 200 lb db’s 
My gym is decent…Some of the stuff is a bit old, but for 25 a month, I can’t complain…They have a bunch of flat benches, db’s go up to 125, which is enough for me (cept on shrugs)…and they have a couple squat racks…a bunch of hammerstrength stuff, mirrors all around, which is nice so I can make sure I’m doing the exercise right…I tend to do more weight on military if I can see myself for whatever reason…Just like you guys on incline…