Beyond Barbells
I’ve said it many times, every gym has bars and plates. Every gym has dumbells and benches and machines. Some even have platforms and monolifts! But what I’m essentially trying to convey, is that you can pretty much train anywhere. I’ve done my fair share of sessions in a small room with nothing but a bar, some plates and a rack. It’s absolutely fine. So what is it that makes a gym different enough to want to train there? Why do people drive past many other gyms on the way to the gym that they love? Because it's definitely NOT the bars and plates. Now here at PTC Rowville we have the best competition bars and plates and benches, but if I’m honest, most people wouldn’t recognise a Texas Power Bar if it landed on their face.
For me, it's the OTHER resources that the gym can provide you, the intangible stuff.
It’s the knowledge, the information and support that the coach can provide you. How do you deal with plateaus in training? Technique issues? Programming problems? Meet day issues? If you are NOT training with a good coach you’re robbing yourself of potential progress, or perhaps setting yourself up for failure altogether. When you run out of information where you are now, what is your next source? The value of a good coach is immeasurable, and while sometimes you have to kiss a few frogs to find Coach Charming, the search is well worth it. Your body, your lifting, your progress will thank you! All of a sudden the extra 15 minutes in the car becomes irrelevant.
The other main one for me is the culture. The PEOPLE in the gym. Their attitudes, effort and intentions. Do the other people in the gym share the same attitude as you? At PTC Rowville we have many people from all walks of life. Each of them have their own specific goal that I tailor for as I train them. But regardless of their different goals, they all share a common thread of self improvement. They are all here to get better, and through their own personal journey they acknowledge and support the people that struggle alongside them here in the pursuit of their own success. Sometimes it’s a hand loading plates, or a high 5 after a lift, other times its sitting on the other side of the gym not communicating at all, but just knowing that there’s someone else in the room who’s also busting ass like you are. Now that kind of culture might not be for everyone, but it’s what we have here, and it’s the thing I’m the most proud of at PTC Rowville.
See, we’re not the gym you go to because there’s a big marketing banner out the front, or because it’s convenient on the drive home. We don’t offer 24 hour convenience and it’ll cost you a little more than $8.65 per week. The people that train here recognise that the bars elsewhere are perfectly usable and 20kg plates still weigh 20kg. They come here on purpose, for a purpose. Because they know that choosing a place to train is about far more than the equipment, it's about the intangibles, and THAT is where you find your progress.
Yours in strength
Dan