Yep, things have changed at Hopkins since Billy left. Same all over. But change may be slowly creeping in the right direction. The best we can do is to show everybody what effective training does, and thereby create a market for it.
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My View from the Irony Tower
[Rip -- mainly for you, perfectly happy if no one else sees it.]
I just started working at a fairly elite little academic institution in Baltimore, MD and so find myself calling a university's weightroom my new home. I've got two zingers, one that Rip has already probably caught on to and one that is pure happenstance.
The first came when I was walking to my office on Monday morning. Evidently we recently elected a new dean or president or some other guy who wore a funny hat and absurd robes for the exercise. Because there might have been some rain a huge tent was erected on one of the quads... enormous. It was up for a few days, and on Monday I arrived to see it being taken down. The tent itself had been unstaked before I got there, and the poles were being anchored with huge, reddish-brown cylindrical masses. As I got closer I realized that each of these anchors was a stack of 8 rusted 45's that read YORK. Badass stuff... took a picture with my phone just to make sure it was recorded. (Sadly, I can't take pictures with my phone for shit, and it looks like I took a picture of a lawn with 360 lb. terds decorating its perimeter.)
Monday was going to be my first real workout in my new gym, too, so the sight of all of this perfectly useful weight doing nothing but killing grass made me think: there's plenty of money here, and if this great stuff is left to rust, I wonder what's in store for me when I go a gym that's named after a rich guy who threw in a lot of coin to get himself on the cornerstone?
I won't waste any time in saying that there's not a fucking deadlift platform or squat stand in the place... at least not for non-varsity lifters. But I can selectorize or load Hammer Strength up with some shitty plates that have freely rotating handles and sloppy bores... great to deal with when you're sweaty, right? The York gear that they're using to keep the tent from flying away is better than the bullshit that the lifters are paying for. (I hear the kids' parents are coughing up 20k+ per semester, by the way.)
The ultimate irony occured when I asked one of the staff where I could power clean and deadlift... if there was a platform somewhere. I was told the varisty athletics gym had plenty of weights, but the recreational gym had machines that could work the same muscles in a safer manner. Despite this rationalization, 5 barbell bench press stations are found in the weightroom just waiting to go Guillotine on some poor engineering student. And to cap it off? All this at a place that Bill Starr once called home.
I suppose that Duke Ellington had it right... things ain't the way they used to be.
TMPHBITEU
Yep, things have changed at Hopkins since Billy left. Same all over. But change may be slowly creeping in the right direction. The best we can do is to show everybody what effective training does, and thereby create a market for it.
Member
Sad state of affairs. The Navy gym in Groton has 2 power racks, 2 bench press 'stations' and no platforms for power cleans. As Mark says change is creeping in the right direction. I have the trainers at the gyms, cute little things, asking me about the proper squat depth and what is hip drive mean.....
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Saturday's Denver Post had an article about a new training facility at Colorado State. The picture accompanying the article just happened to show two platforms with barbells loaded (apparently) with bumper plates--so someone there must know something. However, the article mentioned nothing about this and instead took pains (it pained me anyway) to say that the new facility had the top-of-the-line health club equipment, i.e., machines. Style over substance.
http://www.denverpost.com/colleges/ci_13370852
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I'll never understand how a 30,000+ sq/ft commercial gym facility can justify having MULTIPLE hammer strength chest machines and only 1 very very old power rack and 1 squat rack. The tards they have working there as trainers say things like "yeah but we've got 2 smith machines and a 'squat' machine." Oh and we've got 75 obscenely expensive cardio machines.
I just joined a gym like this I am very frustrated with large globo-gym style facilities. But at the same time, I don't want to commit to a crossfit style facility because I can't just go there and workout how I want.
I long for a proper gym. End of rant... Good day.
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My View from the Irony Tower
At the risk of soundling like an idiot, I don't think those are real platforms in the photo, if you take a closer look (unless I'm missing something). I'd also be more optimistic about it if the barbells were actually on the floor, too. It looks like they are set up for a hang clean or shrug.Originally Posted by matclone
Ken
Member
I walked into my gym today and the authentic weighted reverse-hyper was gone. GONE. A Hammer Strength stood their in its place mocking me. A sad day indeed.
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At the very least, having a space on the floor is a start. Also, I know the varsity facility is better having seen it but my prospect for using it isn't as good as it once seemed :-/
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...oh, and junk barbells piss me off too. Just had my first workout at a new gym. ALL OF THE BARBELLS WERE DIFFERENT. And the fit between plate and barbell was terrible. The barbell sleeve was too small and the plate holes were too big. The barbells were all of different diameter and knurling, and many of them were warped from being abused...
ok, sorry I've got some time on my hands. Currently out of work. Have a good one.
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