PL/SM friendly gym - Vancouver

[Anti-Human]

Starting in July I will be stationed in Vancouver, BC for a 7 month(minimum) work contract. I checked a few previous threads relating to Powerlifting and Strongman friendly gyms in Canada, and none for that area were discussed.

Does anyone know of any, specifically, that are located around the West End/Downtown?

[Iwant2Grow]

i don't know of any gyms in Vancouver that are specific to that
but i train at Golds in Burnaby and they have a good squat and deadlift platform /station with the Olympic style rubber plates.
this gym is about 15-20 mins from the down town core think you u will find what your looking for here

there is also a gold at UBC but i have not been to that location

check out the map

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&source=s_d&saddr=Allison+Road,+Vancouver,+BC+V6T+1T5,+Canada+ (Gold%27s+Gym+Ubc)&daddr=Dawson+Street,+Burnaby,+BC+V5C+4B3,+Canada+( Gold%27s+Gym+Franchise)&geocode=Fdq-7wIdunmn-CEUYARV9lJxJilL0DTzx3KGVDHTsAQ6PFNc9w%3BFYG37wIdjf qq-CHUXFMtj0cE3SkB7589KXeGVDEMDxZO8rI3BA&hl=en&mra=ls&sll=49.228584,-123.090477&sspn=0.151562,0.308647&ie=UTF8&ll=49.264444,-123.127556&spn=0.151452,0.308647&z=12

[Anti-Human]

Thanks Iwant2Grow, it seems the Golds in Burnaby is nice and close to the job site and where I'd likely be staying. How are they regarding Chalk usage at that location? I've heard good and bad things about Golds, seems to be pretty hit and miss depending on the location.

[Iwant2Grow]

yeah they have a no chalk policy there im pretty sure as i have never seen it there.

overall its a very good gym certainly not your family rec centre style place.

[ubcpower]

Anti-Human, the only one downtown would be Pantheon. Its owned by a bodybuilder so its more liberal about chalk and heavy pounding. If you get in there are decent hours (not 4-6pm) its pretty good

[ubcpower]

Golds UBC blows, im leaving it asap

[Anti-Human]

Anti-Human, the only one downtown would be Pantheon. Its owned by a bodybuilder so its more liberal about chalk and heavy pounding. If you get in there are decent hours (not 4-6pm) its pretty good


Thanks UBCpower,

If these are the reasonable options around that area I think I'll give Pantheon a shot first; as the ability to use chalk and not having to be extremely cautious about being gentle is fairly appealing.

What are their prices like? I can't seem to find it on their website.
Hours are good though, up to 11 on some nights.
Is it usually pretty busy?

[ubcpower]

considering its right downtown in the heart of the city its not really that busy. ever since steve nash sports club opened its lost some business... peak hours are peak hours though... if you go anytime in the a.m. or after 830-9 its dead

[PdH]

Make the trip to Surrey and go to The Garage. PL/SM friendly, old school, not crowded, and chalk is welcome.

http://www.thegaragefitness.com/

[Mr.Meat]

Starting in July I will be stationed in Vancouver, BC for a 7 month(minimum) work contract. I checked a few previous threads relating to Powerlifting and Strongman friendly gyms in Canada, and none for that area were discussed.

Does anyone know of any, specifically, that are located around the West End/Downtown?

ThERE ARE NO GOOD PL/SM FRIENDLY GYMS IN VANCOUVER PERIOD! If you are serious about your sport then none of these places will do.


i don't know of any gyms in Vancouver that are specific to that
but i train at Golds in Burnaby and they have a good squat and deadlift platform /station with the Olympic style rubber plates.
this gym is about 15-20 mins from the down town core think you u will find what your looking for here

there is also a gold at UBC but i have not been to that location

check out the map

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&source=s_d&saddr=Allison+Road,+Vancouver,+BC+V6T+1T5,+Canada+ (Gold%27s+Gym+Ubc)&daddr=Dawson+Street,+Burnaby,+BC+V5C+4B3,+Canada+( Gold%27s+Gym+Franchise)&geocode=Fdq-7wIdunmn-CEUYARV9lJxJilL0DTzx3KGVDHTsAQ6PFNc9w%3BFYG37wIdjf qq-CHUXFMtj0cE3SkB7589KXeGVDEMDxZO8rI3BA&hl=en&mra=ls&sll=49.228584,-123.090477&sspn=0.151562,0.308647&ie=UTF8&ll=49.264444,-123.127556&spn=0.151452,0.308647&z=12

Burnaby Gold's is the best gym that is also the closest to DT Vancouver, but it also has only 2 squat racks for like 10,000sq.ft. of floor space... If there inst some dildo taking up space doing curls etc in those racks then you're set. Warning when I asked about chalk the girl behind the counter "our patrons prefer to use straps" and "if you make a mess I'm gonna be pissed".

Also, my Bro who was promoting a local SM comp went to this gym with a poster asking if they would put it up in a few places around the gym to help get some bodies out to his comp. The chick behind the counter responded with "what are you gonna do for us?"




Make the trip to Surrey and go to The Garage. PL/SM friendly, old school, not crowded, and chalk is welcome.

http://www.thegaragefitness.com/

Garage is one of the bes gems around but its currently CROWDED!

[Anti-Human]

ThERE ARE NO GOOD PL/SM FRIENDLY GYMS IN VANCOUVER PERIOD! If you are serious about your sport then none of these places will do.


Brutal.

If the Garage was not brutally crowded as you say, I'd probably make the trip down there. The 40 minute drive would be worth it... But anything farther is not very doable as I work 12 hour days and for 3 hours of my day being travelling that hardly even gives me time for training.

I might have to settle for some place that is a little less restrictive (allows chalk and some banging noises) and than maybe buy a few odds and ends for some strongman styled exercises.

Anyone try this shit from Elite FTS: Liquid Chalk?

http://www.flexcart.com/members/elitefts/default.asp?m=PD&cid=114&pid=1008

[ASGARDIAN]

I will never ever go to a place that does not allow chalk. I left Fitness World after 5 yrs of service, with access to all 20+ locations, and only paying 15-20bucks a month, because one of the workers told me i wasn't allowed to use chalk.
Golds Gym can suck a fart out of my ass too, because they made such a big deal about putting up one poster in their gym. She said they would put it up in the shitter!! I was like fine, Thank you and F*ck you!
I have my own strongman gym with tons of strongman stuff. If i want to train at a gym i either go to Canada Games Pool or Ultimate Fitness. Canada Games is hot inside and very humid. There is no seperation from the gym and the pool so i sweat buckets. I do my power cleans, deadlifts, and Squats, with chalk and lots of dropping. The staff doesn't care. They've never said jack shit to me. Ultimate Fitness aka GRIMS gym also have never complained of chalk use or dropping of the weights.
Would you like to come and train strongman Sundays with a small group of us? At the end of this month we should have everything there but right now we can still get a great training session in.
Good luck to you sir!

[fathead]

i highly recommend you come to ron zalko and bang your weights and use lots of chalk

[ubcpower]

i highly recommend you come to ron zalko and bang your weights and use lots of chalk

lololololol ;)

[tiramisu]

I've never really understood the need to make a mess with the chalk. It takes very little to do the job.

[Mr.Meat]

Brutal.

If the Garage was not brutally crowded as you say, I'd probably make the trip down there. The 40 minute drive would be worth it... But anything farther is not very doable as I work 12 hour days and for 3 hours of my day being travelling that hardly even gives me time for training.

I might have to settle for some place that is a little less restrictive (allows chalk and some banging noises) and than maybe buy a few odds and ends for some strongman styled exercises.

Anyone try this shit from Elite FTS: Liquid Chalk?

http://www.flexcart.com/members/elitefts/default.asp?m=PD&cid=114&pid=1008

Its not Brutally crowded but in my time there it went from emptyish to pretty packed esspecially between 5pm and 830pm which is great for his buisness but detrimantal to my training... Definetly can't do anymore of this:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4zKBMAMhMo (theres a bunch of football payers doing some sort of camp everyday and these guys are everywhere I want to be lol).

I train at Ultimat Fitness in Port Moody and I'm working on having some SM equipment there permanently. Ultimate Fitness and The garage are pretty much on par and the best gyms around although UF's stuff is alot newer and has the ONLY REVERSE HYPER in the lower Mainland that I know of.

If you wanna train events there's a good group of us training every sunday in Port Coquitlam (25min from DT Vancouver in Sunday traffic).

[ubcpower]

Meat, whats the garage like at like 6-7am? or 8-10pm?
Im moving back to the area soon and looking for spots around langley or surrey

[Anti-Human]

Thanks everyone for the input, I'm pretty sure I know where I'm going to try training at as things currently are. Ultimate Fitness seems to be closer than the Garage, doesn't sound like I'd be waiting for equipment, plus their reverse hyper is an added bonus. The mention of possible Strongman equipment in the future also makes it very tempting.

I will see how things go there, but so far I like what I see.

ASGARDIAN and Mr.Meat, I appreciate your invitations and I am definitely interested.
I will send you some PMs with a few questions and to further acquaint ourselves.

[Deadlift_Jones]

Burnaby Gold's is the best gym that is also the closest to DT Vancouver, but it also has only 2 squat racks for like 10,000sq.ft. of floor space... If there inst some dildo taking up space doing curls etc in those racks then you're set. Warning when I asked about chalk the girl behind the counter "our patrons prefer to use straps" and "if you make a mess I'm gonna be pissed".

I've been going to the Gold's in Burnaby for about 3 years and I've been using gym chalk for the 3 years I have been training there. I also drop the bar heavy on a lot of my deadlifts.

All you gotta do is play nice with the people around you and watch out and hide your chalk from the owner. If every one around you likes you no one seems to complain about the noise and such.

Of course if you ask about chalk they are going to say no. If you are messy with the chalk they are gonna say no.

I actually commute from Cloverdale to the Gold's in Burnaby.

I found a nice hole in the wall gym that is 24 hour key pass in Langley for only $30 a month @ Laurie's Gym (http://www.lauriesgym.ca). I tried training at the Gold's in Langley but I swear they don't maintain the equipment.

[pacificx]

I go to Fitness World in Surrey, and have been using chalk for 2+ years now... As I live 1 block away makes sense...

But the garage is the shit, just like Metroflex, old school...

[ubcpower]

Hey Deadlift jones, thanks for the link to that Laurie's gym. if i mmove in to downtown langley will deff check it out. is thta guy related to Sandra Wickham?

[japh]

I've always wondered why comercial gyms don't have a powerlifting/strongman room only where anything goes. Best of both worlds. I am aware that they have to cater to the masses but these things are becoming more popular as a form of training for all types of people.

[Diesel_250]

Meat, is The Garage the old Maxx Muscle gym?

[Diesel_250]

..

[tiramisu]

What annoys me is that commercial gyms are too cheap to invest in a platform and bumpers. For what they charge they should provide decent equipment. Most of them don't even have a halfway safe bench press and a good power rack is like finding diamonds. Don't get me wrong a reverse hyper, ghr, bands, chains, pegs and a monolift woudl be great but you would think they could actually figure out that the j-hooks on a bench shouldn't be 3 inches deeps and should probably be height adjustable.

sorry for the rant. I've been shoppng for a new gym lately and it's depressing.

[Mr.Meat]

Meat, is The Garage the old Maxx Muscle gym?

Its the old Gator's that all I know...

[SadiaK]

What annoys me is that commercial gyms are too cheap to invest in a platform and bumpers. For what they charge they should provide decent equipment. Most of them don't even have a halfway safe bench press and a good power rack is like finding diamonds. Don't get me wrong a reverse hyper, ghr, bands, chains, pegs and a monolift woudl be great but you would think they could actually figure out that the j-hooks on a bench shouldn't be 3 inches deeps and should probably be height adjustable.

sorry for the rant. I've been shoppng for a new gym lately and it's depressing.

i worked at fitness world for a few months (friends work there) and honestly, no one is there to "WORK OUT". they are just there to do their arm curls, their lat pull downs, their bench press, their 20 minutes on the treadmill and then tan. no one there dead lifts or does heavy squats. the commercial gym is not meant for people that actually sweat, grunt and use chalk. my husband and i actually got in 'trouble' for using chalk and the squat rack too much.
i'm shopping around for a new gym as well. preferably downtown area but a gym that allows me to Olympic Lift.

my apologies for bringing to life this tread again, but if anyone knows of a place that'll let me drop a weight and not get in trouble, it'll be much appreciated.

[MuSuLPhReAk]

If you're close to Physique's gym (he's a sponsor here), go there and bang some weights and chalk up the place. Tell him MP said it was ok :)

[SadiaK]

where is this place?

[faller]

where is this place?

On the island...

I've read so many threads about the condition and rules of gym's and it makes me feel pretty fortunate. Our gym is in a community center not a big gym, but has everything a guy needs and they have no issue's with chalk. I mentioned the use of chalk to one of the girls working there and she said it was a safty issue.

20 min. north of where i live there's a gym there that has buckets of chalk spread through out the gym, and 15 min. south a gym that also allow's chalk. Pretty damned lucky.