Barbell Campaigning

[Dastardly]

I am in the UK, here the local government/council are resposnible for providing local municipal sports facilities. Things like basketball courts and football pitches are free, but things like gyms & swimming pools cost money. The price is subisdised and about 2/3rds of the price of similar private gym's.

The places with gyms are referred to as leisure centres. The big ones have both a "fitness" orientated gym with treadmills and lots of isolation machines. And a smaller freeweights gym.

All of the freeweight training facilities in my city were set up around 1980, and have very much a 1980's bodybuilding vibe and aging, but decent equipment.

The city is currently in the latter half of undergoing a revamp of all these facilities.

Unfortunately it seems this revamp is going in the wrong direction.

The gym at the main leisure centre was somewhat legendary, I keep hearing how awesome it was. (I never actually got to go) there were two competive olympic weightlifters who trained there specifcally. One who got gold at commonwealth games. And there was a olympic discus athlete too.

That whole leisure centre was knocked down. And a new gym put in place with a relatively tiny freewights gym, full of bulky and clearly overpriced but poorly functioning hammer strength equipment. this includes useless floor grabbing stuff like decline bench press and seated military press. there is also only enough plates for one truly strong person to train there. They have a set of bumpers but they are always loaded onto machines.

It is only open for 4 hours each day, only has space for one person to deadlift or clean. and is so rammed full of BB wannabe bros that no one serious trains there anymore. The council chose to spend their money on a extra large "fitness" gym instead with hoardes of treadmills, stationary bikes (including a handbike) and isolation machines.

In most of the other centres around the city they have combined the strength & fitness gyms. Which means that they have got rid of dangerous silly things like the power rack, barbells and benches. And replaced them with smith machines, light dumbells, bosu/swiss balls, and hoardes of ridiculously expensive looking cardio & isolation machines including several "powerplate" machines. Which are basicically platforms that vibrate.

there are three gyms that have free weights in my city that they havent revamped yet. One of them they decided to close down.

So that makes two. both of them are compact/tight and have beat up 1980's equipment but are pretty good for both basic strength training and bodybuilders.

One of them is the gym I train at, they have begun changing some of the pieces. So far they have removed the big old beat up cable station and replaced it with one massive dual cable station (specifically designed for doing crossovers in front of a mirror) a cable lat pull down (confusing because gym already has a better lat pull down) and a small cable station for ticep extensions. They also got rid of a calf raise.

None of this stuff has bothered me so far as it is not stuff I use. But the fact that it is all equipment made by hammerstrength/lifefitness worries me about plans for the gym.

I tried finding out from management but it seems decisions are coming from higher up.

I get the strong feeling that they might replace the benches and squat rack with smith machines as has occured at other gyms. Or if "lucky" I think they will waste a shit load of money on replaced the GOOD old fashioned squat rack & benches with shitty hammer strength equipment like in the other gym.

The squat rack in this/my gym is 30+ years old but is in perfect condition except for paint. Where as the 1 year old, very bulky and awkward to use, racak at the bigger centre is already beat up.


I want to write a letter to local govt, to people in charge of leisure/sprts provision encouraging them to keep/expand freeweights training facilities. I mean, there is only 3 govt provided squat racks in the entire city and only 1 lifting platform. I want to somehow make them see that training with things like barbells is by far superior for nearly all populations. Perhaps I may even need to use the cult of crossfit to help get this point across?

I also want them to stop wasting money on bulky but inferior hammer strength machines/equipment. AND get a damn REFUND on those "powerplates". And also provide an area for pulling from the floor (deadlifts or cleans) in every gym. and try to shift the role/ideology of resistance training in these govt. provided facilities away from bodybuilding and more towards athletic physical improvement.

And lastly make them request a higher standard of staff without broscience beliefs who endager trainee's with their fucked up opinions.

I am going to have to act on this pretty quickly, and will find it difficult because I suck at writing up stuff like this quickly in a concise, detailed manner. I am a total procrastonator and need some help if this is gonna get done.

If anyone knows of very official sounding documents/papers/articles that they will respect. Which explains the benefits of barbell training in VERY LAY terms, the dangers of smith machines and inferiority of hammer strength/lifefitness equipment in a very persuasive manner - please send them to me!!!


Thankyou very much peoples.:)

[Alyion]

The sad truth is though, it simply isn't as simple as that - Squats and deadlifts are hard, and people would rather walk on a treadmil/elliptical for an hour and feel proud of themsleves - no one would probably go.

I know what you mean though, I live in the UK myslef and the town hall of my town recently underwent a massive overhaul and built a mutli-million pound "fitness centre" - I am 100% serious when I say the only free weights they have are a dumbbell rack - plenty of bikes and machines though.

At least the gym I train at has kinda the right idea, more focused on the compound lifts despite them only having limited equipment (one stand/one cage and a squat rack - they even recently bought hexagonal plates - ugh) but sadly its the best we've got and everyone knows it (a bunch of ex-pro powerlifters and strongmen train there and all the biggest guys in the area go)

Maybe people will wise up one day, or maybe they will just stay lazy.

[matclone]

If anyone knows of very official sounding documents/papers/articles that they will respect. Which explains the benefits of barbell training in VERY LAY terms, the dangers of smith machines and inferiority of hammer strength/lifefitness equipment in a very persuasive manner - please send them to me!!!



I'd say Starting Strength, or any of Rip's articles would be a good source of material for what you're looking for, although I'd drop the argument that Smith machines are dangerous unless you know something I don't know.

Good luck in your endeavor. The same sort of bs has been happening in the U.S. for years.

[gzt]

I think the best bet is economics. A power rack, barbells, benches, and weights are a lot cheaper and more effective than a room full of machines.

[matclone]

Yes, the economic argument is a good one should definitely be used --especially for a public facility as Dastardly is in (maybe less effective for private facilities who depend in part on the chrome factor for attracting business). One counter argument that might be made is: we already bought this equipment (assuming it's not being leased), and we don't want to buy more now. Think how you would respond to this. Also, be ready to address arguments that barbells are not safe. In the very back of ss or pp, Rip cites a study that shows weightlifting injuries are down the list of injuries activities. Good material.

[Platus]

I think the economics angle is sound. I think the health science for free weights is great, but you'll have to be very careful to craft the message in a way that will overcome the inertia of people's beliefs.

Most importantly, I think you need a way to demonstrate that others feel the same way that you do. They are spending money on useless, space-filling equipment because they think that is what people really want. Since this is not a complex social issue (I am working on a campaign around funding for youth jobs in Baltimore in the US, which is a terribly complex process), I think that if you can just demonstrate public interest in barbells, people might actually listen to you.

You need to convince people that not only is this in the community's best interest, but that there are community members who really want this. I think you could make some headway if you can get a letter-writing campaign together, or get some face time with the people in charge of these decisions - and show up in mass or with some 'experts' that can explain the benefits of barbells.

[toddmr]

As a practical matter, you are screwed. The elected officials would rather have ribbon cuttings at shiny, mirrored fitness centers than brag about having refurbed gear that looks prehistoric and painful to use.

Bright side is that they'll be selling the good stuff, and you should try to purchase a rack or racks. barbells, bumpers, plates, etc. on the cheap.

[vhalros]

If writing letters doesn't get you any where, you could always try running for office.

[LondonTiger]

to be honest mate, I wouldn't worry about it. You'll be spending all that energy on a one man crusade for a relatively pointless cause (compared to other things you could be doing with your time).

Look it's as simple as supply and demand, there's no demand for powerlifting type gyms, most people don't want to do squats, out of all the gyms I've ever used I was probably the minority of people who've ever used the squat rack.

And like rip said in SS, machines are good because any minimum wage employee can go round and teach new joiners how to use all the machines in 30 mins.. Compare that to the amount of training is required to learn barbell lifts.

It took me 2+ years to learn how to squat..

Also, your real estate argument is flawed. These hammer strength machines actually don't take up that much space.

You simply sit in the appatus, push the pin into the right weight and lift.. The machines promote faster workouts, and convenince.. You can put machines quite close together.. maybe a foot apart.. How close together do you reckon you can put two powerlifting stands?

Machines are controlled, very little wear and tear, they require very little maintenance, maybe lube the pulley's once every couple of years, and that's it.

Bottom line is, there's very little demand for it, if you want your gym to take action maybe play the olympics card, 2012, etc.

But for what it's worth, you're probably better off just buying a power cage and lifting at home.

[cjangelo]

The squat rack in this/my gym is 30+ years old but is in perfect condition except for paint.

Tell them if they're looking to get rid of it that you'll buy it from them.

[BryanM]

Sounds like some V for Vendetta stuff. If I was angry enough in your situation, I'd just send a letter that says "your ruininz yer gymz you big stoopid heasd" and include photographs of all the fat and scrawny people watching tv while siting on stationary bikes, compared to epic lifters in the middle of a deadlift and professional athletes.


Bright side is that they'll be selling the good stuff, and you should try to purchase a rack or racks. barbells, bumpers, plates, etc. on the cheap.
'xactly. x1000. Put your energy to improving Your World, because The World is royally fucked. Eatting tacos and watching tv/computering between sets makes a gym too barbaric to stand in comparison.

[Sal Webber]

Dastardy- If you really want to influence them, I think you need to go develop a relationship with the legislature . Your passion for barbells will not translate in a letter alone. Go meet them, talk with them, impress THE SHIT out of them and then follow-up with a letter. Also, if you can show up with some political capital to trade, your odds go up exponentially.

[IlPrincipeBrutto]

Put your energy to improving Your World, because The World is royally fucked.

seconded.
I also agree with London Tiger: machines are better than platforms from an economic point of view, and Rip makes the same argument in the second edition of SS.
I would also add that from an Health & Safety point of view, platforms and free weights are a far bigger liability than machines, and you know how much H&S is influencing every aspect of life in the UK.

You only chance is to get together a group of like minded people, and show the council that there is a sizeable minority that would be interested in retaining a few black-iron training stations. You could start talking to the gym manager first, who might be more amenabel to the argument. You'll need a fairly big number though; if it's only 10 of you interested, I don't think you have much chance.

Good luck with your efforts.

IPB