Gold's Gym - Uptown

Trying out the Gold's gym uptown.  This place is in some prime real estate, right next to the crescent hotel. I was able to just go online and print out a 7-day VIP pass.  I don't think my previous workout at the other Gold's nixed my ability to surf here because I didn't go through the online procedure with the white rock lake location.  Who knows.

For the location, they have some nice parking, three parking lots in total, but I only used the one right next to the facilities.  Almost entered through the emergency fire exit. Oops.  There are some huge guys here, I think that's the kind of guy that's a part of the Gold's gym army.  They really try to promote a strong culture here with the clothing, the whole label of the Gold’s Nation. This place seems a lot like the LA fitness Signature, although the clientele seem a little more focused on lifting than showing off. Perhaps it’s because I never came in during peak lifting hours, I don’t know. But you will find a lot of large dudes wearing tanks here, but probably not as many tattoo sleeves.  There were 1 or 2 gym bunnies lifting. Most of the women seemed to be in the group exercise classes. I guess that is the usual way of things, never noticed until I started this thing and took notice of my surroundings.

Layout/Facilities

View of the weight area.

This place is surprisingly large. The entrance is a small, one story space filled to the brim with stairmasters, treadmills, and ellipticals. However, it opens up to an expansive, two story space filled with skylights, making it feel very open.  They have their own wod area.  That’s not what they called it, but it’s a space where you can go HAM with kettle bells and box jumps and the like. Unlike the Whiterock lake area there is no rouge cage, so that’s unfortunate if you’re looking to do pull ups or need a squat rack in a pinch.

They only have two squat racks here, and every time I got to lift here I had to wait on someone else. It seems people like to use the squat rack for really heavy shrugs.  They do have two smith machines, but I don’t like smith machines at all.  This place is definitely for guys who are ridiculously strong. The dumbbells they have here go all the way up to 150#!!!

They have a yoga room for yoga and mat Pilates, as well as a cardio theatre room. The theatre room is basically you watch a movie while on a bike or a treadmill.  This will help greatly with the boring, tedious nature of long, slow distance cardio. While I was there the theatre room was actually out of order (projector light needed replacing), so I didn’t get to try it out.

They have bumper plates!  Granted, it’s with a ghetto platform that is just a slightly elevated platform that’s entirely covered in padding.  There is no wood stripe in the middle.  This kind of matters for weightlifters because you want to try to remove as much springiness between your body and the floor as possible. Springiness equates to less energy being directed up so you can’t move as much weight.  This is why weightlifting shoes usually have a wooden heel (at least mine do).  Anyways it doesn’t really matter unless you’re competing but I do prefer the firmness of lifting off of wood.

Group Classes

Again, I’m sorry to report that I didn’t go to any of the group classes. Right now my schedule is getting pretty hectic and I’m only finding time to do my normal strength training routine and it is hard to supplement that with some yoga.  Also, this gym doesn’t really seem to offer the nice, slow, relaxing yoga I prefer. Most of these classes are the kind that ramp you up, like a boxing class or a power yoga. There’s one that’s called “RPM”. So this gym seems more tailored to the uptown crowd who likes their group classes to be… aggressive. They also seem to have a lot of them, though nothing really seemed appealing to me. Again, this is all just personal preference.

Showers

Really non-descript. Basic gym shower, clean and not fancy. I don’t like that I have to bring my own lock, but I guess I’m spoiled from Equinox and Lifetime Athletic.

Surfability.

Again you have to sign up online and take the tour after signing a waiver, fairly easy.  However, I really didn’t like part of the… accessing. Part of the sales pitch is where they take your height and then you stand on a scale to get your weight and using bioelectrical impedance (BIA) to determine your bodyfat %.  First of all, BIA is not accurate at all. It has a give or take of 8%.  So if it says you’re at 20% bodyfat (like what it said with me) than I could be 14% to 26%. That’s a pretty big swing.  Second, this whole weight and height thing is silly to me.  This method doesn’t look at the fact I can ATG squat 250#, or run 100 meters in about 11.5 seconds. There are no real functional parameters here, and it bothers me.  The system said my physical age is older than my chronological age, and if I use their program/ training I can lower my physical age. 

I don’t like this. I feel like the process is designed to try to make you feel bad about yourself and that they are the only ones who can help you.  Granted, all of consumerism is based on the idea that you’re inadequate and you need X to make yourself better, but when it comes to being physically fit it really grinds my gears.

I mentioned, like I always do, that I am recovering from an injury and the salesman, like they always do, tried to sell me on the trainers. I really need to stop saying I'm recovering from injury.

Days in: 48

Amount paid: $0