The Best Gym Atmospheres that I’ve Ever Experienced

Coming off of yesterday’s entry about the horrible atmosphere at the local gym where I recently opted to let my membership expire without renewing, I thought I’d write a short entry about the two best gym/workout atmospheres that I’ve ever experienced.

The best atmosphere that I ever worked out in was back when I was a student athlete at Roxbury High School in the late 1990’s. This was actually an easy choice in terms of which atmosphere was the best to work out in. How could I not have enjoyed being a student athlete and having full teams of high quality coaches dedicated to helping me improve my game on the field and on the mat as well as improving my workout routines in the gym? Easy choice! Plus, I was in much better shape back in high school (just look at that stunning young man in the black and white picture on the right side of this page) and I could actually engage in a variety of different workouts from cardio to power lifting to plyometrics to resistance training and more. Nowadays, I’m lucky if I can get a good cardio session in before my body starts to turn on me!

But I’ll break that laziness out of my body at some point (soon). Moving on…

The second best atmosphere that I ever worked out in was at The Fitness Company in Ocean Township, New Jersey. The Fitness Company has been closed for a number of years and for a few years before the gym actually closed the building itself was under a great deal of development and torn up on the inside. However, before the construction started the atmosphere in that place was awesome. There was a four-foot deep swimming pool as well as a hot tub and six or seven different workout rooms. The rooms ranged from cardio equipment to a spinning room to an isometric machine room to free weights to abdominal stuff and more. Plus, there was a full court basketball court inside the gym and two racketball courts. Inside the men’s locker room was a steam room, too. This was a great place to workout in and my results from working out there showed.

For those of you who have been reading this blog for years, you may remember six or so years ago when I started losing a bunch of weight. I went from about 385 pounds to about 260 pounds and I accomplished that feat by working out at The Fitness Company. My workout regime was so good back in those days – I would go to the gym in the morning and do some cardio for about an hour and then lift weights for about an hour. Afterward, I’d swim in the pool for about an hour and then sit in the steam room for about 30 minutes. Then I went about my day (life was a lot simpler when I was in graduate school and only working part-time). And I’d usually wind up ending the day by heading back to the gym for a nighttime dip in the pool around 8:00pm or 9:00pm.

That was the life – and it was a great atmosphere to work out in. It’s too bad no one ever purchased the old Fitness Company and tried to open it back up as it used to be. The Fitness Company used to have a ton of members and they had great monthly and annual rates, too. What a shame.

Here’s hoping that the atmosphere at the new gym at the local college where I teach (which is where I’ll eventually be working out) is as good or better than these two places!