Coach, I'm frustrated with the gym's in my area...

[Hollis]

You summed it up nicely, Rip. I find most CF gym operations very limiting and, ironically, not very "functional." My shoes and log/seminar notes were recently stolen from my gym and I've been looking for another. The only useful gyms around are CF gyms, but you can't get in there and do your own thing because it's all time/class based. I don't regularly need their assistance. I haven't found one that would entertain the idea of using it as an "open gym" to do SS--or they want to do it within the class schedule. Then there's the additional stick-in-the-eye of the cost essentially for one power rack.

Aside from seeing the light and focusing on strength (what smart CrossFitters end up doing after 6-9 months), I quit CrossFit because I was tired of checking a blog everyday to see if my class time was still being offered or the place was even open. I think CF gyms would have a more "functional" business if they included regular-gym-style availability. I could be paying them, but instead I'll be paying some other gym because I can show up any time I want.

[Mark Rippetoe]

Or you could make an equipment list, get a loan, buy the equipment, and pay yourself Gym Dues until it's paid for. Makes more sense that making the Cf guy's payment for him.

[Kyle Schuant]

Good gyms offer three things: instruction, equipment and atmosphere.

Bad gyms just offer equipment. The rates of even a cheap gym are too high for that, since if you've the space, you can buy your own equipment for the cost of a year or two's membership. It's not like iron wears out quickly.

Instruction in the basic lifts can be had from a good trainer/coach outside a gym.

Atmosphere is the more difficult thing to get in a home gym. Good gyms will have a lot of people working hard and willing to help each-other out. Bad gyms are a lot more lonely with everyone on treadmills or under the bar with their mp3 players blaring.

One thing you can do is find a few likeminded buddies and turn your home gym into your circle of buddies' gym. You can pool your money, makes it cheaper - whoever has the biggest garage or basement... But choose the right buddies, you want the serious ones not the goofballs who just want to drink and watch tv.

[Evan]

Have you checked out the McMaster University gym in Hamilton. They built a new facility a couple years ago and they have a lot of racks, bumper plates, you're allowed to use chalk, drop weights etc. I live in Toronto now, but if I still lived in Hamilton I would definitely train there. It's not too expensive either.

+1 for the McMaster University gym.
I was studying there when they built the new athletics building. Very useful facility to train at. I would continue to train there if I were to still live in Hamilton.

In general the big universities in Ontario seem to be a good place to train at if you live in one of the cities they are in. Most of them seem to extend membership to members of the public as well so you don't have to be a student to use them. It seems common to find power racks, bumper plates, olympic platforms, etc. The downside is that you will run into lots of lots of deuchy, bro-science frat boys. But at the same time I've met a lot of really good lifters at the university gym I train at now. They have a weight lifting club taught by Bulgarian coaches that trains together several times a week.