Gym at Washington University? (Atlanta: live in, floors, building)

[bannsmith]

Anybody use the weight rooms at WashU? I'm beginning a graduate program there this fall and during a recent visit some of the other graduate students told me the gym isn't all that nice (dingy, ill-equipped?) and that they go other places. But if its free, it can't be all bad, can it? I'd be interested in hearing from anyone who's been there.

[breer23]

I use the weight room in the mornings or during my lunch break, and it's perfectly fine.
Whoever you spoke to may not know about the "real" weight room at the field house, since the layout is a little confusing. There are actually two "weight rooms" inside the gym, but one has just a few nautilus pieces and some treadmills/bikes/etc. This is not the "real" weight room.

When you enter the building and check in, head down the stairs for a full two floors (the smaller "gym" is only one floor down). When you come off of the stairs, the locker rooms will be to the right, and the full gym will be to the left.

Much of the equipment is newer - even the plates are the newer, rubber surface type. The music selection isn't the best, but most folks wear headphones anyhow.

The room is a little dingy, but mostly due to bad lighting - it's not as bright and chipper as someplace like Bally's, but I have never trusted a gym that didn't have a little grime under its nails...they're meant for work and sweating, not staring at body parts bouncing in and out of lycra.

[bannsmith]

Thanks so much for your response here and to my other posts. I live in NYC and go to a gym that is very well-lit, loud, muscular-male dominated (I have actually seen men kiss their own muscles there and get into impromptu flexing contests!), and consequently a little high-pressure. I am almost always the only female in the free weight room (although a trainer there who passed me on the staircase heading to the free weights once told me that "for most women, machines are better"!)

My experience at university gyms has usually been more pleasant--people just trying to get through a workout to get to class or to work, not paying as much attention to anyone else, less Muscle Milk and unracked weights lying around. I used to go to an old Y in Atlanta and I loved it-a little dingy and creaky but I personally like that in a gym as well, it feels more gritty and intense.

Thanks for posting!