C'mon people, I posted a thread ages ago and there were a few people who go to TFC. Are any of you still around? :P

I've been going now for about 5-6 weeks and have put on about 4.5kg so far (sitting at about 65.5kg now), and reeeally looking for a spotter to increase those gains even more heheheh.

Reply here if you go to TFC and wouldn't mind having a training partner!

I see you have fixed it :)

last edited by Parag0n at 19:07:58 28/Apr/04

Social skills, get some

I'm off for a while due to illness :(

Social skills, get some

Yeah, or take a good opportunity to meet some more people in a community that I'm a part of. Failing that, yes, I'll use my social skills. Thanks for the constructive response :)

Sorry im tired, need sleep. didnt mean to be rude ;)

That sucks Trog, what you got? :(

Come to fitness first in the city and I'll train with you :)

He is using his social skills ya poof.

shingles, it sucks

It must be trendy to have shingles at the moment, a guy at work has it and my brother has it too.

Pfft sif Fitness First or TFC :)

I have started up in a gym myself. Second lesson with a PT tomorrow :)

Fitness first rocks, I had a look around a few other gyms and the Fitness First at north quay was the best looking out of all of them. The one at indro isn't bad either, but I haven't been to the Lutwyche one.

When I was down in melbourne on the weekend though, I had a look at a couple of the Fitness Firsts there, and they own ours :( The one in St Kilda has like 5 tennis courts, 2 squash courts and an indoor pool!

Lutwyche fitness first is the best(fitness first gym), i've tried them all, it's got an indoor pool. Thats in brisbane.

last edited by imitation at 21:05:47 28/Apr/04

ya while i prefer stand alone gyms if I was ever going to join a chain I would go FF or zest, they seem to be the best organised and well equipped.

The one in St Kilda has like 5 tennis courts, 2 squash courts and an indoor pool!

UQ has 21 tennis courts, 6 squash courts, an outdoor 50m pool and a hot heated pool.

It's dirt cheap when one is a student there...

[Edit: 'hot heated'? .. hmmm]

last edited by parabol at 23:16:04 28/Apr/04

Yeah, but I'm not a student at UQ, and I dont live close to UQ, and I can't use the UQ gym anywhere else in Australia, or even in other countries, with the one membership.

I was just talking about gyms anyway, was just saying I hadn't see a gym with all that, plus a rather large weights section, large cardio section, boxing area, and a few other bits and pieces.

last edited by Khel at 23:22:23 28/Apr/04

Nah, I understand your point.

I also haven't seen any fitness centres like that, that aren't connected to a big institution.

It's a shame, but then again I'm not sure I could use all of their facilities on the same day/night, it's tiring enough doing cardio and weights :)

woman likes bjs (hohoho) gym at kessles road

but its for pretty people

i prefer running and skipping and sport to gym work

I'll hopefully be checking out toowoong fitness sometime soon with a mate, but I live in Toowoomba so it'll prolly be a one off :P

The main thing I look for in a gym is new looking equipment - I hate the dingy dirty old stuff. I only do weights in the gym cos I find doing cardion inside to be really gay (unless its like boxing or something).

Also for the person who said "get some social skills" - its often hard in a gym cos there are so many try hard d*******s in there that want nothing to do with anybody else. Also, for a real gym partner, it has to be someone you're comfortable with so you can handle being pushed hard by that person and also so you can trust them not to let a barbell fall on your head....

morax: failing everything, you should ask one of the attendants there to spot you, i'm pretty sure they'd be happy to. only takes 30 seconds of their time for a few minutes.

i personally love my gym. its got an old/grimey/industrial feel to it. gym's arent beauty salons to get your nails and hair done, you're there to lift raw iron baby. a bench press is still a bench press, a dumbell curl is still a dumbell curl. doesnt matter if the equipment is new or not, it isnt going to help you get fitter/stronger, you get that way by putting in maximum++ effort everytime (yes that means you might sweat).

I am planning on joining a gym. Want to go everyday before work 6am or so (well on the days I don't run). I am such a gym noob but I have specific goals of what I want to get out of going to the gym. Prolly end up going with fitness first.

Kind of surprised none of the gyms that I have been to so far have offered like a package membership + PT once a week, they always seem to keep them seperate ... makes sense to me.

PT make their money of their own clients, they don't get paid by the chain or gym to be there. They are just provided an office/space to organise their stuff and then they have to proactively get clients by walking around the gym. PT cost around 50$/hr and imho are not worth a cent if you are willing to do even marginal ammounts of research yourself.

yah go pay $50 for arnies modern encyclopedia of bodybuilding and you'll have a lifetime worth of fitness advice in there.

has plans and s*** for beginner, intermediate, advanced, competition etc if you need that sorta thing

I use a PT and I'd have to say its very useful for someone like me (ie, someone that had never been to a gym before in his life and knew absolutely nothing). Sure, I might have been able to do some research myself, but having someone there taking you through things, showing you the proper form, giving you tips, and pushing you on way harder than you'd ever push yourself, is pretty handy.

I dont know if I'll continue with the PT long term though, I bought a pack of 10 sessions off him, and I'll probably buy another 10, but after that I reckon I should know enough to continue by myself (with the aid of a friend or someone who can fulfill the "push you harder than you'd push yourself" bit :)

I assume thats great if you want bodybuilding. But I am not interested in the size of my deltoids.

But my goals are more like I was to get down to and maintain 83kg. Increase my verticle leap by 20 centimeters.
Increase my lateral leg stretch ie. to chinese splits (assuming my hip structure even lets me).

And a bunch of might be nice stuff like 1.5 times my body weight for a bench press etc etc

Increase my verticle leap by 20 centimeters.

Fark, that's a lot of vertical leap. What are you trying to do? A 360" slam dunk from the free throw line?!@#@$!!.

Also with regards to streching, you might be better off doing Yoga or Pilates than normal gym work.

last edited by Opec at 11:58:07 29/Apr/04

The main thing I look for in a gym is new looking equipment - I hate the dingy dirty old stuff.

well you won't like TFC then!

oh and I have heaps of mates that PT at fitness first, they pay $250 a week to fitness first to use their gym and they keep all the money they make off clients and can charge what they like. However, when a new memeber signs up and get PT packaged with it, they usually get paid a small amount by Fitness First to do the initial sessions, but they all do it cause it gives first dibs on a new client.

Jumping spinning heal kick to a target above my standing reach is my goal... reason ? no reason ... just they look cool.

Real reason ? I don't have a good verticle leap atm (ie. I can just get my fingers over a basketball hoop and I am 6'1) and having a bigger ones would be advantageous for tournaments.


last edited by Obes at 12:06:14 29/Apr/04

Fark, that's a lot of vertical leap. What are you trying to do? A 360" slam dunk from the free throw line?!@#@$!!.

He wants to jump up and kick really tall people in the head I think.

s*** hey Obes is Jet Li in disguise.

Sif jump and kick to the head. You'd be better off destroying thier knee caps, when they're on the ground *then* you can go to work on thier head.

last edited by Opec at 12:09:44 29/Apr/04

oh and I have heaps of mates that PT at fitness first

You dont have a mate called Brendan Obrien do you? Hes my PT.

Kicking to the head is easy, even without jumping.

And in tournaments no kicking below the belt.

nah the only guys I know that do any PT work at the city Fitness first are a big Kiwi bloke called Tristan and a little pretty boy guy Called Tony Prescott.

Obes increasing vert is about doing plyometrics and training your technique. Read this thread you'll learn alot and it's got links to some excellent pages for increasing vert. http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=248759

I assume thats great if you want bodybuilding. But I am not interested in the size of my deltoids.

But my goals are more like I was to get down to and maintain 83kg. Increase my verticle leap by 20 centimeters.
Increase my lateral leg stretch ie. to chinese splits (assuming my hip structure even lets me).

And a bunch of might be nice stuff like 1.5 times my body weight for a bench press etc etc

Do sports training, and don't get a PT, they'll teach you to train like a BB. From that link I posted read some of the stickies in the forums there, it's a goldmine of information for training.

great link imititation

I'm finding cardio the hardest at the moment. Years and years of sitting at PCs and doing no exercise at all has left me incredibly unfit, so I get out of breath when doing cardio stuff really really quickly and I find it quite hard. Its a bit of a vicious circle though, because I wont get any more fit unless I do cardio but I hate doing cardio because I'm so unfit =\

Personally i like the dingy old gyms... I hate the trendy fag-clad joints like the place I have to go to now.

But yeah come train with me at Fitzone in the valley Morax, you wont be back too quickly :D

lol Nitro, why wouldn't I be back too quickly?

khel what kind of cardio are you doing?

personally it hink you should do a amjority of your cardio work outside the gym, you'll find you enjoy it more.

are you doing it for fitness or pure fatburning? because each has its own training technique.

Theres a new fitness first opening just across the road from garden city in june. One of my friends is gona be a pt there.

For anyone going to fitness first in the city, do you train it there? or drive? i was looking to join up for a change from the gym i goto down at southbank (its in a shed, and damn its cold in winter) but they dont have any parking. I guess if you driving you must know of someplace handy to park around there that doesnt cost a finger everytime.

I know there is on street out the front aswell.. but thats pretty iffy trying to get a spot.

I usually go there on my way home from work, so I get the bus from work to the gym, and then a bus from the gym home aftewards.

The advantage of joining Fitness First though, is you can use any of their gyms, so you can use the indro and lutwyche ones if you want to drive (I guess it depends how far it would be for you to drive there though).

Also, like someone said, theres another one opening near garden city soon.

Yeah I like the feel of the dingy gyms and the atmosphere, I don't like s***ty dirty equipment though.

And yeah, cycosis, Arnolds Encyclopedia is the best money I ever spent. I read virtually the whole thing and I am constantly refering back to it. Its not only great for bodybuilding either, it has huge amounts of useful info for people interested in any sport, like nutrition info etc.

Bodybuilders are totally different from weight lifters - they also do heaps of cardio and their weight training is totally different from what powerlifters do (although they include some power movements to increase strength and muscle density). The current MR Olympia includes the full splits in his posing routine, and some of the others can do back flips and all this other crazy stuff - thats why they are called mr olympia, cos they are the pinnicle athletes. I mean, think of a guy who can run faster than most of you, do the full splits, and squat 855 pounds....

ALso, I see some personal trainers teaching people so REALLY dubious stuff... crappy form on exercises and things like that. I'd give them a miss and read Muscle & Fitness - its the words of the industry's top pros and I would rather take their written advice than the physical advice of someone with arguable competence. The only thing PT's are good for is spotting for big lifts IMO.

last edited by AnaRoT at 10:13:45 30/Apr/04