The End of the Hardcore Gym

[Confuse]

I've seen quite a few large chain gyms close in SoCal, not even two years after being built. Its pretty insane. As for hardcore gyms, none within proximity. I noticed many of the gyms I've been to over the years have really neglected their free weight area and keep investing more and more in cardio equipment, tanning, all sorts of silly classes, and personal training services. So its pretty clear where their priorities lie and where all the money is at. I talked to a guy from craigslist selling a GHR saying he turned his gym into a pillates studio! Pretty sad.

I do feel very fortunate I was able to invest a bit of money into my home gym. That's a lifetime investment that no one can take away from me. My gym, my rules.

[Hoops]

Just makes me glad my commercial gym has a love for the lifters though more and more I"m noticing them trying to play down anything "hardcore." Still we have a lot of great equipment much of which I'm assuming came from certain trainers working there but it's there non the less. As long as they keep the basic "essentials" such as quality racks and a variety of quality bars the gym I don't care if they focus more money into the tanning, the machines, or what ever else.

[Cobrakai]

Where I live(By Seattle), 24/ 7 days a week gyms are becoming the new rave. There's no staff most the time, but you can get in with a proximity card. These aren't very hardcore at all though. More convenience for those that like to workout late or early.

[Sand Blaster]

Anytime Fitness has a decent idea. They are great for cardio, although some even have Hammer Strength.

SB

[Cobrakai]

We have an anytime fitness and 3 SnapFitness within a 10 mile radius.

[Confuse]

Originally Posted by Sand Blaster

Anytime Fitness has a decent idea. They are great for cardio, although some even have Hammer Strength.

SB

Agreed. The last one I worked out at had some Hammer Strength stuff, but it was pretty crowded at peak hours (even with capping membership), especially since they had one power rack. All barbell work had to be done on the power rack since there were no olympic benches due to the lack of staff at non supervised hours. But cardio sessions there were great as I could go at any time of the day or night.

The Anytime Fitness here has had a special for the past few months of $20/month (reduced from $35) with no initiation fees, which is pretty decent given the availability they provide. Then again, theres been a lot of promotions lately due to the economy.

[ThatArmyKid]

My goal is to open a small studio for personal training and when there no training going on blast rock music and let the beast have there fun in the squat rack or loading stones.

like this two birds can be killed with one stone

[JDeluca21]

I used to train on Sahara. Now I and a lot of other lifters have been pretty much forced to LVAC. Ugh...

[Sand Blaster]

^Is Sin City Barbell still in business?

SB

[F-Mac]

Originally Posted by Sand Blaster

^Dave just wrote something about the Compound, I believe he said what he takes in is about 8% of what it costs.

The "real" way to do it is to pool resources and split rent...unless someone has a place.

SB

Yeah i remember reading that too..........but crap, did you see the size of that place? Plus it was a metal building in the middle of nowhere so it must have cost a fortune to heat it. A setup of that magnitude is a fair bit more than most would need. Plus he is moving to a new location at the moment partially because of that very issue ($$).

You and IA are right though, rent is the big killer of a lot of hardcore gyms......they are a niche market and unfortunately the demand is not there, which is why to make them succeed you need to have very low operating costs.

I have been debating building a garage in my back yard for the sole purpose of turning it into a gym...........but I don't have enough training partners to help pay power and heat so it likely wouldn't work.