Crull Fitness - Richardson

I decided to start off small with this little adventure, so the first place I checked out is Crull Fitness (pronounced "Cruel").  They offer a three day trial pass, which was very easy to get.  Just walk in, fill out the waiver, and take the short tour.

I only went to the Richardson location, so your experience may vary.  Walking in my first impression is this place is compact, but has a lot to offer.  It's a local gym, so it wasn't packed, but it wasn't desolate either.  Only once did I have to wait for someone to finish up on the bench, so it would be nice if they had more bench racks.  The color scheme is also a bit... garish with bright blue and yellow, anything but boring.

With the type of equipment they have to offer, the place seems a hybrid between a globo gym and a crossfit gym. They have the traditional weight/cardio machines, but they also have Oly platforms, tires, sledghammers, 20m of track to sprint on, etc.

An Oly Platform!!! Notice the section of track.

They have quite a bit of cardio machines, and they even have a small section of track to sprint on.  I say sprint because the section is just a strait-away, it's not a loop so you can't jog.  I was really impressed that they had bumper plates and Olympic platforms.  As an ex-Oly lifter I was really happy to see this.  I tested it out to see if I got yelled at for dropping the weight from overheard (with bumper plates!) and no one said anything or looked my way.  Thumbs up from me.

They also have a room that has a bunch of combine type stuff, like you can test your vertical and do other cool stuff.  It gives the impression of a place that is more sport-specific.

I will say, however, all of their machines are.... weird.  All of the machines are the type where you insert a pin, none are the kind where you load up the plates.  

This place seems to specialize in working with high school athletes. You will regularly see teenagers working with coaches in group settings. So there's a lot of focus on training for a sport, and I personally really like that as opposed to the typical hamster-wheel feeling I get from some... more sterile gyms. That's not saying this place is dirty, I just mean that it is a bit more exciting when you have someone over in the corner doing sledge strikes on a gigantic tire.

They were very generous with the three day pass, telling me that if I needed to I could come back a couple more times without signing up. I decided I wouldn't take advantage of their kind offer since I had no intention of signing up, but the staff was very nice.

I will say it was worrisome watching one of the "head" trainers lifting. He was working on his cleans and his form was pretty terrible. I know the Oly lifts are complex, but in my mind if you're supposed to be a trainer then you're supposed to know how to do them correctly.

They did offer a very few yoga classes, but those cost extra. I thought it strange that membership did not include a single class. So if group classes is your thing, you might want to look elsewhere.

So far so good, this free gym membership thing could work for quite a while.  It should be interesting to see how far I will take it. I mean, will I start driving 30 minutes so some small gym just so I can last one more day?  We shall see.