This weekend I’m in Iowa City, IA for a Writers Workshop clinic. I went to the University of Iowa as an undergrad. Back then I worked out hard and often. Between the schools’ various workout facilities and a gym called “Body Dimensions” in downtown Iowa City (located right next to a still running restaurant called “The Brown Bottle”). I didn’t expect to experience an issues or concerns when it came to working out here.
The hotel gym is excellent for cardio workouts. I dropped in to take a look and I saw newer-looking treadmills and other machines. The strength training equipment looked limited. Consequently, I went next door to Iowa City Fitness, a 24-hour gym. It cost me $10. That’s a price I’m happy to pay in order to get a great workout.
At first blush the gym looks great. When you walk in and start planning out the workout, however, you notice that the equipment is a mishmash of machines that was put together. While it doesn’t look so great, if it works well, then the look of it doesn’t matter.
The equipment stinks. The machines don’t adjust their seating positions on several of the pieces I sought to use. The cushioning was loose on the leg extensions and in the middle of my first set the cushion upon which my left ankle was pressed slid almost off the bar. This is just one example.
The leg press machine wouldn’t allow me to adjust the position of the backrest so the range of motion for the exercise was static. It looked like it was set back in a position that worked for someone much taller. As a result, my range of motion on the exercise was less than 45 degrees. I like a full range of motion on my leg exercises so this was not helpful.
In the lower level of the gym where the free weights were I found some better equipment. The problem in the free weight area, however, was that it was a mess. Clearly this gym didn’t require patrons to put the weights back when they were finish.
Also, there aren’t nearly enough plates for the number of machines they have. It was fine for me last night because I was working out alone and I had to move about the space to find plates. Given the size of the room and the number of machines in the free weight area if there were 10 people doing strength training at once and they were at my level or better, then they would have to share weights. That’s horrible. It’s one thing to share the equipment with another person, but to have to share the weight plates between machines would be extremely disruptive to a serious training session.
I wrapped up my workout with a light 30 minute cardio session on a treadmill. It was an old Cybex machine. It was ugly but fine.
Today’s schedule calls for strength training for my chest, shoulders and triceps. I’m not sure I want to go back to Iowa City Fitness to get it done.
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