Opening up my own Gym

MrFeathers · 1 Oct 2012 at 12:22

Freefaller said:
Because people don't want to be fat and realised you can get big without getting fat if you do it carefully and slowly. People are impatient and therefore "bulk" and think "woah I'm biiiig" - whereas in fact, you're not, you're just fat. By the time you cut back on all the fat, you will look great, and have gained a few lbs of muscle... and wasted months cutting down.

Whereas now people realise that you can get to the same goal in the same time, without bloating out, and potentially actually make more LBM as you're not having to do the whole "cutting" side of things.

90% of the guys I know don't even lift, and have no interest in doing so :confused:

Point was when I was last living in the UK, seemed like everyone was interested in lifting weights.

Freefaller · 1 Oct 2012 at 12:24

Yeah, people are now either fat, or after the lean "boyish" look. Which is fine. I'm a Neanderthal and proud. :cool:

Makes you stand out from the crowd

Delvis · 1 Oct 2012 at 12:24

Without derailing too much with this discussion, to me it just seems that the general view of someone lifting weights is 'weird' and 'not normal'.

That's my experience anyway. People don't understand how I can find it enjoyable

lemon2 · 2 Oct 2012 at 00:21

I found that at university a very very good proportion of guys do lift, but they mostly dirty bulk, focus only on pecs and bis, and have shameful chicken legs.

Maybe 30 guys in my uni of thousands of people actually did compounds with good form. And of course those were the guys with the most lean mass.

Awesome rack though, industrial gym equipment is far cooler than the generic grey plastic racks I'm used to.

Murf · 2 Oct 2012 at 08:31

I'm a cyclist. Last thing I want is to be hauling around additional weight, be it muscle or fat.

I do some free weights, but not much. I much prefer a lean look to a beefcake one. However, I could not fit in skinny jeans with my thighs!

Clipsey · 7 Oct 2012 at 16:11

I'll be doing a large update to this thread shortly

Figured I'd wait until completion for a before/during/after look.
Things are still progressing well, flooring goes down tomorrow and the painting should be complete, bathrooms knocked out by Weds/thurs and security system being installed on Wed & Thurs.
The big item (equipment) arrives a week Monday and then we should be 95% complete!! Can't believe we are almost open, scary to think!!!

Sign ups are still going well, ahead of our projected amount which is nice (means I can sleep a little at night!).
Will keep you all posted soon, thanks for the well wishes fellas

Delvis · 7 Oct 2012 at 17:02

Awesome mate

Cant wait!

yer_averagejoe · 11 Oct 2012 at 09:39

You can't have picked a better time to open a gym really! Everyone is basking in the glow of the Olympics thinking about getting fit and you've got new year on the way too! Wish you every success!

MoNkeE · 11 Oct 2012 at 10:04

He's in the 'States, so not sure if the Olympics is quite as in-your-face over there

yer_averagejoe · 11 Oct 2012 at 10:12

MoNkeE said:
He's in the 'States, so not sure if the Olympics is quite as in-your-face over there

I thought it would be, since they have such a great team? Probably isn't comparable to the mania here, given that we hosted it but still?

Clipsey · 11 Oct 2012 at 13:35

The Olympics mania has more than settled down now.
However, it is still the best time to open a gym, October & November are the two busiest months for sign ups according to industry research (and they are only just slightly behind January which was a surprise). It's more than likely the changing of the weather and people settling down from summer traveling.

Clipsey · 17 May 2013 at 16:38

Ok, so I know I slacked and never updated the thread! We have been busy

I'm going to get a big update sorted for next week - a kind of before/during/after approach with lots of pics etc.
Anything else people want to know specifically about owning/running their own gym? I'm happy to be an open book

Syla5 · 15 Jun 2013 at 08:03

Clipsey said:
Anything else people want to know specifically about owning/running their own gym? I'm happy to be an open book

Do you spend a lot more time on your feet now?

Do you have more time now for things like mobility, stretching, cardio etc seeing as you work there?

I bet the time you have to do just odd little bits here and there is invaluable

BennyC · 15 Jun 2013 at 09:26

Be interesting to see your month on month increasing in revenue as I presume it took a few months or even a year before you started turning a profit? If you don't mind disclosing the financials!

etom · 16 Jun 2013 at 14:55

Delvis said:
Without derailing too much with this discussion, to me it just seems that the general view of someone lifting weights is 'weird' and 'not normal'.

That's my experience anyway. People don't understand how I can find it enjoyable

pretty much all my friends lift

. I think it depends on your social group and job.don't think its that rare still! seems to be quite common, noticing a lot of 'shredded' guys too, more so than a few years back i think (no homo involved!) just in walks of life, so i think it is in fashion for it at the moment! :cool:

gym looks really good

. Would be a dream running / owning a gym!! can imagine its stressful though!