Weights and Plates Podcast - #61 - Lessons from the Old School Gym

Episode Date: September 16, 2023

There's something about the vibe of the old school, black iron gym. Whether it's a powerlifting dungeon straight out of the 80's, a bodybuilding gym packed full of machines and dumbbells, or a weightlifting hall with rows and rows of platforms, the single-purpose gym dedicated to training (not merely exercise) is a special place. A place where shit gets done, where hard effort and consistency are the primary currency. These gyms are hard to find, but you know them when you walk in the door. The energy is palpable.   In today's world of online coaching and affordable home gym setups, many trainees haven't experienced this sort of old school gym, and they probably should! If you're serious about your training, you owe it to yourself to train at a gym like this. Whether you're a novice struggling to squat 315 (or 200!) or a you've been at it for years and feeling burnt out, training at an old school gym -- even if it's just for a little while -- can ignite some fire and passion in your training program and set you up for success.   Mark Rippetoe and Marty Gallagher Interview (3 Parts): Part 1: https://youtu.be/siaDQdpQPRQ?si=jBBEqMFP6drd1mKm Part 2: https://youtu.be/TxjibbKJ8UE?si=YilgpD6MG6bxAGZG Part 3: https://youtu.be/RIe_7ODKycQ?si=6t5M2L88a0J7DvGV   Kirk Karwoski squat instructional video (he squats 600x8 beltless at the end!): https://youtu.be/-hd8mN765KQ?si=PktYt_b5x3Zxo3ac   Karwoski 1,000lbs double: https://youtu.be/Oo1tU1YqPp0?si=xDLu_pO-5jfW0bQq     Weights & Plates: https://weightsandplates.com Robert Santana on Instagram: @the_robert_santana   Trent Jones: @marmalade_cream https://www.jonesbarbellclub.com

Thank you for tuning into the Weights and Plates podcast. I am Robert Santana, your host, along with Trent Jones, my co-host. Yo, yo, yo. What is happening, man? Oh, man. There's a lot going on. Always things happening in the Jones world. Man, I've had like the car situation. You know, like your death situation? Oh, yeah.

I've had one of those, but with a car that I'm just trying to sell. I have this Honda Fit that I've been trying to sell for like three months, but there's just been like this one particular issue with it that, uh, it turned out to be really simple, but it took like three different shops to find it and fix it. So, uh, I'm at the end of that rainbow. And now, now after spending like 1100 bucks fixing what was actually a fairly simple problem, now I get to sell it. I don't even want to keep the car. I just want to get rid of the damn thing. Fun times, man.

Well, if you were local, I might consider taking it off your hands. Yeah, if you live in the Chattanooga area or East Tennessee in general, I have a 2015 Honda Fit with 145,000 miles and it's ready to go another 145,000 miles. So hit me up. Let me know. Hit them up, people. That's not what we're going to talk about today, though. No, no. We're going to talk about something more weighty. Literally. Yeah. Well, you know. That was a dad joke. Well, I'm, you know, almost 40. Yeah, you get them by default. Once you hit 40, you just start telling dad jokes.

Can you do that even if you're not a dad? I think so. Okay. I think so. Well, we'll see. So, you know, I'm at my gym right now. And it dawned upon me that we need to talk about reasons why you would train at a gym versus online with a coach or by yourself, uncoached, you know, which a lot of our listeners do as well. So, yeah, let's get on with that, huh?

Ah, yes. You know, I don't think we've talked about this specifically in the show. I could be wrong. I could be wrong. We've got a lot of episodes out there now, but, um, you know, one of the things that you learn when you do a lot of online coaching is that there are people for whom online coaching just does not work. And, um, and that's okay. You know, there's nothing wrong with that, but, um, you know, there, there are aspects of online coaching that are difficult for some people. And, uh, I think it's important to know, you know, cause we talk a lot about expectations on this

show and, you know, learning how to manage them and also learning how to manage your resources that you have. Like, so if you want to get the most out of your training, you got to manage the resources that you have. And that's, you know, time is one of them. Recovery is one of them. But there's also, you know, sort of soft resources, if you will. And some of that, and one of those is your ability to self-coach. is your ability to self-coach. And one thing, you know, I have some recent experiences with this, but one thing that I've learned over the years of coaching a lot of people online is that, you know, ultimately online coaching requires a lot of self-coaching. And if you either don't

have the desire or ability to do that, or you just struggle to do it, then it's probably not for you. And you need to go find an in-person gym. So I guess what I'm really saying here is that I'm championing the in-person gym experience. You know, I've had a lot of time to think about this because I've kind of done it all. When I first started lifting, I went to commercial gyms or fitness centers, you know. What does Rip call them, health spas? Health spas. Yeah, I think I went to my first gym membership outside of the high school gym.

The high school gym was an old dungeon that later they remodeled, but I liked the original dungeon better anyhow. Oh, yeah. The very first gym I actually stepped into was in 1994 in Illinois, the Leaning Tower YMCA. It literally had a replica of the Leaning Tower of Pizza in front of it. It was on Skokie Avenue in Niles. It was pretty cool. You cannot go into the Leaning Tower though, but it was there and it was full size, you know? That's amazing. And my dad lived there because he liked having the maid service and he thought it was better than an apartment as a single man. So I got to experience that, like what life in Hawaii was like. Anyhow, you know, I found out recently from a guy who bought a consult from me that

apparently Ed Cohn passed through there a few times and it was like a destination spot for competitors, you know, both in powerlifting and bodybuilding. And it doesn't surprise me because it was like a legit 80s slash 90s dungeon, you know, like concrete walls, all the white equipment, you know, right. There's like the only decoration is like the one blue stripe across the hole. I don't even know if it had a stripe, dude. I think it was just bare white concrete from what I can remember. Yeah.

And my dad took me in there and I think I had to be 12 to lift. So I just would watch him, you know? And then I couldn't wait till I was 12 so I can do something. And I couldn't perform a dip. So he just like, well, just hold yourself up in the lockout position while I go do these dumbbell flies. So I did some isometric dip lockouts. That was probably my first weight room exercise that I can remember. And, you know, I was 10.

Fast forward, I think by the time I was old enough to go in there, he'd been getting ready to move out. But later on in high school, I finally was able to lift with the swim team. And, you know, I did that. And, you know, that will save that for another episode. But when I got to college the first year, I didn't go to the university, I went to the community college. I lived at my mom's house. I worked at a local gas station. And, you know, it was an actual local gas station actual local gas station where the owners would come in there. It wasn't some faceless entity owned by some organization in another country. It was locally owned.

Right. And I remember I needed a gym membership. My mom worked out at this health and fitness center in Orland Park, Illinois. It was called Palus Health and Fitness Center. I think it's still there. And it was affiliated with the hospital. So there was this perception that it was much more legitimate than, you know, Bally's or Lifetime or the Globo gyms, you know, the big box Globo gyms.

But it was the same shit, you know. I think they, of course, I don't know that they even required degrees out of their trainers. They may have wanted certs that were perceived as better than others. I don't know that they even required degrees out of their trainers. They may have wanted certs that were perceived as better than others. I don't know. But I know they had a pool, a spa, all that shit, right? And then carpet. So it wasn't like there was carpet in the machine area and there was rubber in the freeway area. Yeah.

And lots of cardio. There was an upstairs track. I think that's what I liked about it. There was a quarter the freeway area. Yeah. And lots of cardio. There was an upstairs track. I think that's what I liked about it. There was a quarter-mile track around it. So that I liked because at the time I liked to jog. So that was my first. And then I tried all the various ones. I tried bally's.

Then later I tried L.A. Fitness. I tried Lifetime. It was all the same shit. And I trained alone for many years. That's kind of what I'm getting at. I'd go to these Globo gyms, and it was kind of a very isolated environment. You know, nobody talked to each other. Most people were looking at themselves in the mirror with headphones on.

And you just went in there, you took care of your business and you got out. And I think that's kind of still how it is unless you're, you know, hiring a trainer. These people, you know, pretty much hire somebody to be their buddy because it's really all those fucking guys are good for. But again, another episode. And it wasn't until I was 24 getting my master's. There was a guy that would probably fit into whatever category we fit into. You know, he was a professor at the university. And he was one of those guys they would consider a third-class citizen in the world of academia because he had a master's.

Oh, my God. But he was the coolest, most knowledgeable motherfucker of the bunch, and I think he has his Ed D now, E-D-D. But his gym reminded me a lot of Rip's. It wasn't his. Him and a couple of retired professors got a bunch of donated equipment and set up a little dungeon style gym underneath the Salvation Army in town. And all they had to do was keep track of sign people signed in in order to keep it running. And, you know, it's like rips old pictures of meets and competitors and lots of history there. And they did strongman. They did powerlifting.

They did Olympic weightlifting. He did all of them, you know. And they were, you know, big compounds. You don't need to do curls. That's the first time I heard all that shit. I learned how to hold a bar, low bar. And he taught me how to do that the exact same way Rip did. So fast forward, you know, five years later I met Rip.

And that part was already figured out, you know. Yeah. Which is, you know, it's pretty cool that I got that experience at that point. But it was the first time I went to a gym and, like, everybody was cool and you're just talking to everybody because now it was no longer about getting a quick pump and going to work. Now people were there with a purpose. They wanted a bigger clean and jerk, a bigger snatch, a bigger squat, deadlift, bench press, or whatever it was, or they were competing for a strongman meet. And, you know, I wanted that again. You know, I wanted that again.

In L.A., I was at the Globo gyms at first. Then I found one powerlifting gym in the city of Los Angeles. It was in El Segundo. It's still there. It's called Four Star Gym. And, you know, my buddy Jason coaches there, game time strength. And, you know, he was competing in the geared era where they wore equipment, geared meaning equipment, suits and whatnot. And he's probably five to ten years older than me. And he was friends with Horn as well. And he was running his personal training out of there. But the guys before him were from the 80s era.

So he had a lot of old school guys that were in their 50s, 60s. This was about ten years ago. And just a lot of meat photos and stuff, old equipment, you know, mixed up weights. And it was a cool environment. Everybody was nice. You know, you talk to people, but there was like a divide, right? With Jason and the younger people. And then like the older guys that had been there for a long time. So you kind of see this at all serious lifting gyms to some extent. And it was kind of funny watching that, but everybody got along at the end of the day. And, you know, I was there for a while. Then I went to another powerlifting gym in town that opened up later because it was a little bit closer.

It was called Barbell Brigade, much bigger. And that was like the new school YouTube powerlifting gym that got old very fast for me, you know? Yeah, sure. So, you know, then I moved here, went to Revolution Training Systems. People probably saw my videos there if you've been following me long enough. And still cool with those guys, you know, Mike and Matt Peltz, nice guys, strong motherfuckers, gifted athletes, you know. And I trained there for a while until I finally opened up my gym. So, you know, I bring all these places up.

One, you know, if you're close to any of them, go check them out. I can't think of a gym owner I didn't like when it came to these smaller gyms. You know, we've all annoyed each other at certain points. You know, we all, you know, have, you know, we all lift heavy. We're an eccentric bunch. We lift heavy shit. You know, we're higher testosterone than the average untrained male. And, you know, we're going to piss each other off at times.

But I can't think of a gym owner that I legitimately cannot stand, you know. And I like all of them. So if you're in those areas, if you're in town, you're closer to Mike, go to his gym. If you're closer to me, go to my gym, you know, that's more awareness to this service product and sport, you know, the more we all do well, you know, it's not a zero sum game. Oh man. Yeah. Well, you know, we gotta, we've got to protect these, these little, these little paradises, these little oases of training in the desert of fitness. And, you know, I like bodybuilding gyms, too, you know? Actual bodybuilding gyms, not global gyms.

Those places are awesome. I mean, I wouldn't train at one because I'm not into that, but I would go there to do a session, you know, to go and, like, you know, bang arms or something. They typically have great equipment. It's usually beat to hell, but usually they'll have, like, interesting stuff, you know? Like, if you need to go do, like,

one of those calf raises you like to do? Donkey calf raises. Yeah, I get that. Right, you need to put 800 pounds in that. You can probably find something like that at a bodybuilding gym. You know, I went to one here in town called Thorbeck's. It's still there on Curry Road and near Tempe.

And he was cool, three bucks to get in. I don't know what he charges now, but his website's still the same that it was 10 years ago. And I drive past there periodically to see if he's still there he's still there uh and he had all these pictures of Arnold up I think he had one squat rack that was even narrower than rips like it was this narrow squat rack and it was like not very level and you know they were all about machines and you know dumbbells you know and benches but everything was so crammed and it

was like a time capsule back to the early 80s but uh you know again it's like it's owned by a person you know and you and people know each other and people socialize and they're all kind of doing the same thing you know global gym is like you know get in get out that's the that's the mentality you know and uh you go to like a lifetime most people are in there to get in and get out or work with their trainer and socialize with him you know nobody people aren't there to socialize with each like members don't socialize with members unless they kind of already know each other with a few exceptions you know and nowadays everybody's got you know earbuds in yeah you know so it's they're not listening they're not listening to the whatever bullshit top 40 that they're piping in and it's funny you mentioned that see i never liked headphones i don't like shit in my ears i remember no in college

i started at the university in 03 so so that was the iPod era. And all these people walking around with shit in their ears all day, you know, during the iPod era. And I got an iPod and never used it. Then I got an iPod Touch right before I moved here. I never used it. I cannot have headphones on for music. I can't fucking do it. But when I went to that Salvation Army gym back in 2008 to 2010 over in Macomb, Illinois, there were signs with rules.

And one of the rules was no headphones. And the first time I saw that, I'm like, well, that's not a problem for me, but I get it. And I kind of saw that same kind of culture across these performance strength slash weightlifting slash powerlifting type gyms. I don't know about the bodybuilders, but you go to their gyms, they're talking to each other too. Because when it's privately owned like that by a person, because technically, corporation is technically private too. Owner-operator kind of situation. Owner-operator situation fosters community and people talk to each other. And that's what made CrossFit so popular. See, I never got into that. Was not drawn to that. Still not drawn to that. Have no interest.

But I can see why it worked so well. And having worked with so many general population clients, I can see how it really feeds that exercise ADHD that a lot of people have. Oh, of course. Yeah, absolutely. I don't have that. I don't have that. I'm a specificity guy. So if you look at what I've talked about, what I've talked about is each one of these gyms, they're specifically focused on something.

I went to a weightlifting gym once. I forgot to mention that. Takano's in Woodland Hills in L.A. County. Really good. And he just started sending newsletters out again, too. So if you're in the San Fernando Valley, go check him out if you're into weightlifting. But I went to a weightlifting gym, and of it, you know, shared with a CrossFit

different vibe there, but everybody's talking to each other. You know, it's what Rip said, they're kind of a little more elitist than some of the other gyms, but they're talking to each other. You know, they're all doing the same thing. Bodybuilders are all doing the same thing. Powerlifters are all doing the same thing. In CrossFit, it's really about stimulating your brain so you keep showing up, you know, and I just don't have that problem. I want to do one thing, focus on it and keep going. And that's why I kind of do better at these other gyms where it's like tailored to one focus. You know what I mean? Right. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I've only been to a handful of CrossFit boxes, but they all, they're, they, all of them were set up to, you have to go with the group.

Yeah. Like they were set up so you do whatever the group's doing. And it's different all the time, you know. So it's kind of like if you wanted to go over in the corner and like do your thing, there's usually not a great way to do that. So, yeah. That, you know, it's definitely, I mean, but I think that's, it's a feature, not a bug for them, you know. That's part of the culture. It's a different market. It's a different market. and, um, you know, whatever you're doing, whether you're powerlifting, bodybuilding,

weightlifting, uh, or just a general strength trainee like we are, but training at one of these places, right? There's a culture to it that goes beyond simply like getting in and doing the workout, doing the program. And I think a lot of people struggle with this. A lot of the people that, that, that struggle with online coaching, they struggle with this aspect. You know, how to behave in a gym. And I don't mean like etiquette stuff. You know, like I don't mean like how to not be a jackass at a gym. You should already know how to do that. Yeah.

All the people that I work with are like nice, like well-adjusted people. So that's not what I'm talking about. What I'm talking about is like, how to walk into a gym with intention. Right. And like, what is your mindset? Like you roll up in the car, whatever's going on, maybe the day hasn't started yet. Maybe you've already had a full day. Uh, you know, when you walk in those doors of a real gym, there's a sense of like Where you get in there and you start warming up and you're not just like going through the motions, right? Every warmup has intention. You're like, okay, what am I doing today? I've got to squat. What am I squatting?

Oh man, I've got to squat 335 for a set of five today. You know, and you've been thinking about it all day. But every warmup now has a little bit more intention behind it. Like I'm getting ready to crush this set. And you see other people in the gym, you look around cause you're like, maybe you're not sure if you can do it today, but you look around and you see other people doing the same thing with their program. You see the focus and the intention. And yeah, there's a, usually it's a, there's a camaraderie to it too. Like everybody's sharing in this, you know, hardship that you're this voluntary hardship that you're,

you're putting yourself under. Uh, but when you see other people taking it seriously and getting focused on psyching themselves up to do the work, it rubs off on you. And, um, you know, some, it rubs off on you. And, um, you know, some, yeah, some, some people, some people don't really need that. Um, some people have that drive, that internal fire and motivation to want to do it by themselves. Uh, and they can do it just fine. Uh, but there's other people who don't, and I don't, I don't think that's a bad thing. You know, it's just a difference in personalities. We have all sorts of different personalities in this world and everyone fits into our social fabric in their own way. But those people that struggle with, you know, taking their workout seriously, and by that I mean like approaching every aspect of what they're doing with focus and intention, and then really giving

a hard effort when they're doing their work sets. People that struggle with that tend to do really well in a gym, like I'm describing, because other members will show them the way by example. And that's a real intangible of a good gym. It's impossible for me to create that vibe online 100 and uh you know what i'll say is this um i sense that that was missing when i was at you know la fitness in los angeles yeah and i remember even before that i was i was like man i want to do something competitive you know uh and be involved

with something you know and at one involved with something, you know. And at one point I was considering CrossFit because it was popular. But, man, I just did all the weird. You didn't want to do handstand push-ups? I like lifting, you know. I like swimming, you know. Kipping pull-ups? Yeah.

I don't want to. I like lifting. All I saw was, you know, there were guys throwing barbells up that looked pretty big. And I thought that part was cool. But then, like, all the other stuff, gymnastics, like, not interested, you know? Yeah. So I ended up finding that lifting gym when I did Starting Strength. And it was in large part because of an old episode from 2012.

I encourage you guys to watch it. It was an interview with Rip and Marty Gallagher. I believe it was part three. It was two or three parts. Oh, yes. The whole series is great marty is awesome oh yeah oh yeah he's like the historian of old school barbell training he's like the bridge between new and old we're gonna have to get him in here at some point i guess if we can um i think

it was a second part i can't remember which one um but uh anyway uh you know they were talking and i you know i was reading the book and i was sitting on the boards and i was getting excited about all this and uh then i watched i forgot why i watched that interview but uh basically they were saying that you know rip was like you know you are talking about um yeah it was part three of three by the way so starting strange series marty gallagher part three of three it was in 2012. So starting strength series, Marty Gallagher, part three of three. It was in 2012. And they're sitting in Rip's gym next to a rack, if you're looking it up. But basically, they were talking about the eating.

So me and my friends love that because he was just saying how, you know, how much some of these guys used to eat and yada, yada, yada, you know. But for the purpose of this episode, I want to focus on the part where Rip's like, you know, I was 220, you know, and he's like, or no, he said, you talk about, you know, 700 squats, 800 deadlifts, or 800 deadlifts, 700 squats, whatever he said, 500 benches, as though it was the norm, you know, and then he's like, you know, let's see if I can remember my, my Rip script here. He said something along the lines of, my sorry ass squatted 622, I tripled 600, and deadlifted 633. I had 406 on the bench or 407 if I had another attempt, but where did I go wrong here? And then Marty responds to him, well, you know, you did fabulous training in a vacuum. And that he's like, you know, by that I mean, you know, and I won't rephrase the whole thing, but this part's critical. He's like, by that I mean, if you're squatting 600 and everyone else around you is squatting 315, that's a whole lot less incentive than you can't go on the big bad platform unless you have at least an eight squat because it doesn't make sense you know right yeah he's like no when you're around that you know it drags your

game up you know it really does you know yeah being the weakest guy at the gym is a great thing because um like you're gonna learn some shit and you're gonna absorb some stuff that you're just not gonna get in a lot of places and i I think this applies to anything, you know? Yeah, I always want to be the dumbest guy in the room. I want to be the worst musician in the studio. You know, you don't want to be drowning, but at the same time, but even then, that's the thing. Like, at a gym, though, you know, people appreciate hard effort, and I think even more so at a gym like this like we're talking about an old school

You know real gym uh people appreciate effort and that you know, because I think every one of those guys that got to that level had to um You know, they they had to work on some some fundamentals at some point. Oh, yeah. And really build something, really build, like, good technique and really work at a training program, like, iterating through that program for long periods of time, right?

And so they get it, right? They didn't just, you know, the gym, like, you go to your Globo gym or whatever and you might see a guy squatting 315 or, you know, I've even seen a guy squat 405 at a gym. Now's quite rare yeah oh yeah i'm not it's rare but you might see that and some people can do it sort of by accident you know it's a funny thing that you mentioned that that

you know you'd rarely see 500 deadlifts at me and my buddy adam were talking about this the other day when i was at the globo gym and we're convinced it's because of how shitty the knurling is on those bars. Oh, that's true. I can't even, if I, if I get over like 335 on a lot of bars at a globo gym, I can't even, my straps slip off. I can't fucking hold on to it with straps. Dude, I had a guy bitching about that. I could not believe it. It's so slick. Yeah. It's ridiculous. But yeah, I mean, but you know, that's, that's the thing, right? So like you might accidentally, you might find some handful of like good athletes out there that, you know, that sort of without trying too hard squat 405, but you just, even if you take a great athlete, you're not going to see guys squatting 600, 700 that haven't put in

some time and really worked at a program. So you go to one of these gyms and, and they understand that. And even if you're a, a, a rank novice, um, and that, but they see you training and not just fucking around, um, there's, there's respect there. And then you can learn a lot from watching how they approach their training. Uh, you mentioned Marty Gallagher. There's a great video. I'm going to link it in the show notes. Uh, and we'll, we'll link that other, uh, interview with Rip in the show notes as well. But this is a video of, it's like an instructional video of Kurt Karwoski, who famously was coached by Marty Gallagher, squatting. He's explaining how to squat, like how to perform a squat. And he talks about his, you know, how he warms up. And what's cool about watching him warm up is the intention he puts behind it. And you don't really know this is where the video is going, but he ends up squatting like 655 for a set of eight at the end of that.

And it's like, I mean, Kurt Karwoski, if you're not familiar, was a very, very good power lifter. One of the best squatters of all time. Look up the 1000 for two video. If you have not watched that yet, because that is a, watching that video is a rite of passage. If you're a gym person, if you ever need to get psyched up for something, you got to watch that video. It's like, it never fails. It makes my hair stood up just thinking about it. Uh, but yeah, so he famously squatted a thousand for two uh in during you know a meet preparation

you remember what he's amazing remember when what he said when they asked him why he went for the double i think rip asked him that right it might have been ripped he said why'd you go for that double you had you could have probably went higher at the meet the week after because it fucked him up to do that oh yeah i did yeah because he didn't he didn't uh yeah yeah because he was supposed to just do a single and he went for double and his response i think this was his interview with rip i could be wrong but his response was well it's not christmas in the gym every day yeah yeah you know that's that's that's funny he might have had that sense that he was uh that he was already peaked and it wasn't going to happen on the meet. He might've known that in the moment. They're like, well, today's a day.

It's not meat day, but fuck it. If it's not meat day, he's bad motherfucker. But yeah. So Kurt Karwoski, he is one intense dude. Like this guy gets psycho psyched. Not everybody is, is that way. You know, there are some more like calm contained lifters and you know, I'm not saying you need to be like Kurt Karwoski, but he's an intense dude. And so it's hard to not let that rub off on you. But anyway, this video is great because you get to see how this guy approaches that set and you get to see what a real balls out set of eight looks like. Yeah. And that's, and that's what we're talking about. If you have only trained by yourself, if you've only trained at a Globo gym, if you've never trained at one

of these gyms with other people training hard, uh, you may not have ever seen what a real balls out set looks like. And you may not really have a measuring stick of, you know, what RPE 10 looks like, right? Going back to our RPE episode, this is one of the problems with it, right? Is like, um, your caliber, your calibration for what hard effort looks like can change based on social factors. And that's, that's one of the benefits of a gym. So, yeah. So I think, you know, we were going to record a short episode today and that's, that's kind of the message, you know, is, um, you know, when you're looking for training help out there, online coaching can be wonderful because you can hook up with a lot of very good coaches who can help you with programming.

And I think in particular, people who have gotten through the novice phase of training or pretty close to it and need help transitioning, it can be a great thing to hook up with somebody to help you navigate the confusing intermediate sort of hell of programming and have someone to kind of hold you accountable and hold you to a program for a long period of time, right? That you can actually succeed on. So you don't, you know, kind of get the, you don't get too excited and start program hopping every two months. Um, but if, if it's, if it's not working for you and you've struggled with a novice linear progression and you have a sense

that you are not getting everything out of your training that you think you could, I highly recommend finding a gym like this. It's not easy. Not everybody has one. It might have to drive. You might have to drive, but it's worth it. And even if it's just for like a period of time, even if it's just for like six months, training in a gym like this, that can leave a big impression, you know, and that can set you up for future success.

If you're just a guy trying to squat 315 and you're struggling with that, it's great to immerse yourself in that. And it's much like method acting. Method actors will go and immerse themselves in whatever the character is supposed to come out of, right? Yeah. And it's kind of like that, right? If you want to get strong, you want to be around a bunch of strong people. Just because it just normalizes what you're doing more. That's probably a better way to put it. I remember remember clear as day. I put 405 on my back. I was terrified of it

I never squatted it before I was at barbell brigade and then the owner of the gym Bart Kwan was tripling it as part of his warm-up right in front of me and I was right I was facing him He was in a rig because you know that CrossFit rig, you know And I was yeah power rack the elite FTS power rack and i was facing out of the rack he was facing out of the rig he just reps out a triple this is you know second to last warm-up and i'm like well fuck i can't be afraid of this so then i just went for it then there was a guy squatting seven there i mean i have no interest of doing all that but being around it changes your perception of what you're doing you know kind of normalizes the extreme effort and some of the things that you think are kind of crazy are certainly no longer crazy. Like when Rip said

500s on a heavy deadlift, I believed him at face value, but then I really believed him when I saw guys warming up with it, you know? Right. Yeah, absolutely. So absolutely. In fact, I want to go into one like really bad. That's not mine. Like just, I want to go to a gym with, you know, a bunch of strong guys. I've had this desire recently. So, yeah, I think it's great, man. It's, you know, and that's the thing too. Like, uh, you don't have to train forever at a gym like this to, to get this benefit. Um, and, and even if you've been training in a home gym and, and, you know, uh, you're not a novice anymore, you've been doing this for a while, man, it can really reignite some, some passion and some fire to go train somewhere else and meet some other people and realize you're not alone. Sometimes in the home

gym, it's wonderful. There's a lot of great benefits to having a home gym, but sometimes you just kind of feel like drudgery just because you're like, man, there's just, you know, it's just a kind of empty experience sometimes it's just kind of quiet and uh you know it's good to have some fire it's good to know that there's other people out there doing this and you know sort of keeping it going of course yeah so you know if you're training at home that's great if there's a gym like this that you can access you know within a one hour drive because a one hour drive is worth it. I did it. More than that's probably not worth it. But if it's within a one hour drive, get in there once a week, you know,

get yourself around that because it will impact, it will positively impact your training. You know, so, you know, I have more to say on this. We can pick it up later in another episode or wrap up in the next one, but we wanted to keep this one short this week so I hope we inspired you to go around that that's right so you know I highly recommend it go look around see if there any power gyms just you know nod your head and be polite when they tell you to look up to go up and you know all this other bullshit you know keep lifting the way we're suggesting they know you squat aster grass it depends on where you are, what you're going to get. You're going to get a bunch of advice.

Just remember where you came from, people. But enjoy them. Being around a bunch of big, strong guys, even if they're sometimes not the brightest or don't agree with you or have different opinions, it's still fun. I can't say that I've hated anybody that I've met. Power meets, power gyms, weightlifting gyms, et cetera.

I've been cool with everybody. Annoyed is probably the worst emotion I've experienced, but you're going to get annoyed with people anywhere. So highly recommend it, and that's our PSA for this episode. That's right, and if you are in the Phoenix metro area, there's only one place to go. Of course. And that's, that's a weights and plates. Forget that other place I mentioned earlier. Yeah, no, yeah. Come by, you know, I'm near the airport. So if you're in town for business and you're staying near the airport, I'm literally like five minutes away. I'm by that Hilton Doubletree, actually, that everybody seems to stay at when they're here on business. So if you're in Phoenix and you're

staying at that Doubletree Hilton on Broadway, I think that's Broadway and Priest, you're five minutes from my gym, people. You know, that Buttes Marriott over there, too, you're five minutes from my gym. You know, come on by, get a session in. You know, we can arrange to get you in if you got to get in early uh otherwise yeah let's uh let's close this guy out so perfect thank you for tuning into the weights and plates podcast since the topic is in-person gyms you can find me at weights and plates gym in phoenix you know we're at 46 10 south 35th street you know about five minutes from the airport my website's weights and plates.com you can find me on instagram at the underscore Robert underscore Santana and the slow updating Jim's Instagram page is weights double underscore and double underscore plates.

All right. Well, if you want to find me in person, you can't. I train out of my home and right now it is just private, just for friends and family right now, but maybe in the future I'll have something you never know. Uh, in the meantime, you can find me on Instagram at marmalade underscore cream, or you can send me an email Jones barbell club at gmail.com. All right. We'll talk to you all again in a couple of weeks. Thank you.