Clean Up Your Gym

by Atomic Athletic on Wednesday, September 21, 2011 at 2:07pm

You want to improve your numbers?

Yes, I am talking about your members, but it also applies to your lifts as well. Everyone loves a clean and efficient gym. It breeds a positive attitude.

When you have weights strewn all over the place, random small tools in piles on the floor and a general sense of clutter, the anarchy breeds tension. Tension is the enemy of a positive attitude. Positive attitudes in the gym breed camaraderie.

Whether you have a garage gym or military facility that is constantly in flux with rapidly changing membership, everyone knows that great training partners and friendly challenges lead to bigger numbers on the lifting platform. It's not just an issue of having a challenge barbell, but that helps. It's not an issue of having a competition team: powerlifting, crossfit, or Olympic lifting; but that is great too. These things are all great, but you need to start off on the right foot. Camaraderie breeds added membership in your gym.  

Here are three things you can start today:

1. Put all your plates in racks. If they don't have a place, then you need to find a place. Piled in the corner is not acceptable.
2. Design traffic flow. You need enough open space to walk in circles without dead ends. They lead to unused equipment and wasted square footage.
3. Cleanliness. You know what that means. Work on it every day.

Check out these links:

Atomic Athletic Garage Gym Guide

http://www.atomicathletic.com/store/ProductInfo.aspx?productid=BK1000

Vertical Bar Rack

http://www.atomicathletic.com/store/ProductInfo.aspx?productid=Y6916

Horizontal Plate Racks

http://www.atomicathletic.com/store/ProductInfo.aspx?productid=Y69040

Norb's book is completely out of print and we have only a few copies left. It's packed with photos and info about his colorful life and tips about his unusual training methodology. Don't forget, you also get copies of the interviews I did from the 1990s for the IWF!

Live strong,

Roger LaPointe