As you know I just moved to CA, and will probably end up residing in Newport Beach. I've tried to do a little research on places to lift. There are more 24-hour Fitness's out here than gas stations, and I'm not sure that's what I want. Yes, they are nice and have lots of amenities, but cater to the cardio crowd. Still, they have racks usually and you can still do squat/bench/dead exercises I believe; but I don't think they have platforms, do not allow chalk, and I'd bet they don't allow olympic lifts. On the upside, the nice ones have pools, saunas, etc.
In looking for more powerlifting type gyms, I found Milos' "Koloseum" in Fullerton but seems it is a bit far and expensive. However, very close to where I'll be living, I found a Met-Rx gym that people claim is the best "hardcore" gym in the OC... very nice people, and more oriented towards serious training. Being in CA I think they are more oriented toward bodybuilding, but still definitely cater more toward the powerlifting type.
Looking for advice/opinions on the topic... ie recommended gyms and/or if you think 24 would suffice.
(Nate, Frank, yall are from the LA area so I'd especially like to hear your thoughts)
Jon
When I'm in LA, I usually use my weight set at home. When I was in high school, I'd go to a YMCA, but back then I had no idea what I was doing, so I don't know if it will be useful to you at all.
ReplyDeleteNathan's buddies train out of UCLA and another gym near there, but both are basically on the other side of LA from Newport Beach, so I don't think you'll be able to go there regularly.
Commercial gyms should be fine. Before I joined the Z, I trained at commercial gyms like 24-Hour Fitness (BSC, FitCorp, etc.), and while I didn't really know what I was doing then either, the staff were generally pretty cool about me doing the power and Oly lifts as long as I didn't actually drop the weight (I'd catch it on my thighs). This led to some lingering wrist and lower back issues for me, though, so I wouldn't recommend it. The powerlifts should be fine. I find that as long as you're clear up front about what you want to do, there's usually no problem, including chalk use and heavy deadlifts.
Finding training partners is harder. Hell, I never trained with even a semi-regular group before I met you guys, and that was mainly Danny's doing, so I'll let him speak to that.
Not having training partners sucks... :(
ReplyDeleteTry:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.ocstrengthclub.com/ My buddy Dean lifts here sometimes.
http://www.fourstargym.com/ My old training partner Brent lifts here, as well as UCLA guys when they can make it.
http://www.recreation.ucla.edu/insidepage.aspx?uid=c850f130-0171-406c-bbcd-256ec5bc40a7 The UCLA gym.
goober
ReplyDeleteGym Name: American Gym
ReplyDeleteAddress: 1638 Placentia Ave.
City: Costa Mesa
State/Province/Country: CA
Zip: 92627
Website: www.eastweststrength.com
Notes:
This gym is home to the only Pro Strongman in Orange County Scott Brengel and World Champion Powerlifter Sean Demarinis. This gym has olympic lifting, powerlifting, strongman, mma, boxing, muy thai and brazilian jiu jitsu.
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Gym Name: Club Met-Rx
Address: 140 E 17th St.
City: Costa Mesa
State/Province/Country: CA
Zip: 92627
Phone Number: 949-645-1677
Notes:
This gym has 3 squat racks, heavy dumbbells and lots of free weight. They have bumper plates, an Axle, safety squat bar, trap bar, Glute-ham Raise, Reverse Hyper... A group of guys from the Freak Factory train at this gym, so they are fairly leniant about powerlifting.
Both gyms sounds great to me. Hanging out with pro-srongman or guys who call themselves "freak factory" are intruiging incentives besides all the great equipment...
Guys, thanks a lot.
ReplyDeleteI stopped by the Met-Rx gym today, and unfortunately it has been bought out by a company called "Club Z". Previously they allowed chalk and oly lifts, but now are like most places and don't allow it for insurance and liability reasons. Kind of sucks but it still seemed more powerlifting friendly, and they were nice enough to give me a 2 week free trial, which is more than 24 would ever do.
Frank: Good to hear you think 24 could work. Most people there are noobs and probably never use the powerlifting equipment, which is good. Also I don't use chalk really ever anyway, so it may not be that critical. The real issue now is probably finding a place with dedicated lifting buddies. Oh, also heavy deadlifts are a concern.
Nate: UCLA way too far, same with El Segundo. However the OC strength club seems pretty badass, maybe too badass. First of all, love the motto "no excuses... just results!" -- wonder what they'd say about me whining about my knee injury? haha. This group seems literally like a group of intense powerlifters. The gym is that cramped, grimy, awesome type place you see in russian lifting videos. Also, this blew my mind: "The Orange County Strength Club does not provide contractual memberships and is non-fee based. 'Members' of the Orange County Strength Club represents individual team members and there are no financial obligations"... so it's free??? Is this some guy's personal equipment? I almost worry that if I didn't add 10 lbs to my deadlift every week, there would be some type of hazing and I'd end up dead. Will definitely look into further.
Kik: Mentioned the MetRx place already, but the other place is also really close by and looks promising. The banner picture shows a guy pulling a boat anchor chain with links the size of babies. The equipment pics look like a compromise between an insane Latvian hole in the wall gym and a 24 Hour Fitness. This is a good thing.
Will research further, thanks so much for the quality (and quick) input.
Nice cutting and pasting from PLW, Kik.
ReplyDeleteJohn, sadly I know next to nothing about California nor any good PL gyms there, but best of luck with everything!
As an aside, I don't know how much memberships are or if you'd even want to think about doing this, but just for the record: getting a halfway decent rack, a bar, bench and some weights would probably run you 3 grand-ish...If I had to pay Manhattan type health club prices (or hell, I'd do it now if I had a place to put it) I'd definitely try to find some room for a power-rack. This probably isn't viable, but if you never know, so there it is...
Also, you should have seen Brian at the Z today...he was moping around like a sad puppy.
You can also consider the third option, which is training at two (or more) places. This could be more expensive, but for example ...
ReplyDelete-- If during the week you are stressed in time, training at a nearby commercial gym may be unavoidable. Just try to find a good one, and forget about training partners, unless you are doing bench presses (or "hitting your pecs", translated to BB terms).
-- Then if there is enough time to spare over the weekend, you can try to find a powerlifting / strongman / whatever gym, which could be farther away (just make sure that it's worth the effort).
Try OC Strength Club. My buddy trains there and he was just getting started in PL (only one meet) when he joined. All powerlifting gyms are much more welcoming than you would expect so long as you are there to lift "seriously" and not just dick around doing curls in the squat rack. It would be a very good environment to train in.
ReplyDeleteSo... My buddy Dean says that you would have to talk to the owner to get access to the gym. So take that however you want it.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.powerliftingusa.com/articles/SEP2010/hardcoregym_SEP10.php
I know I'm late to the party, but OC Strength Club is by far your best bet near newport beach. A lot of our guys from the OC at UCLA train there over breaks and during the summer and it's been great for them.
ReplyDeleteIf you feel like heading up north on the weekends, we have bench assistance and GPP work on Satudays at UCLA, haha.