What's been going on? New gym about to be the former gym.

After my wonderful, adrenalin-rush ski vacation, I came back and had severe post-vacation blues. Wanting to shake things up, I decided to switch gyms. Oy, what a decision. The Gold's I chose seemed ok at first, 2 power cages, plenty of weights and a dedicated weight room away from bosu-ball fools. It wasn't long before I began to think of it as the Silent Hill gym. You know, the beginning of the movie where it is solemn and deserted, and when she finally sees other humans they are non-egaging at best, menacing and creepy at worst? Yup. That is Gold's. I chatted with one of the front desk girls who did respond (in astonishment that a member was talking to her I guess) and she was sweet. There were a couple of other normal lifting guys there, but too many somber, stomping around wanna-be tap out douches.

As far as the building goes, there were two Women's bathrooms in the place and one or the other was out of order every time I went. The gym has an all-alround maintenance guy, also nice, who they put to work for everything, including plumbing. I feel for him. Tons of equipment and machines crowded together belie the fact that most are poorly maintained (see maintenance guy, responsible for Everything) which led to my going through four different cardio machines one morning at 6am. Did a staff member come over to help? Nope.

The worst part is that the weight tree is crammed in between the two power racks, so you can either twist to the side, bend to avoid the barbell in the rack and unload the plate while both bent over and twisted, or walk across the room crowded with useless machines and curl-bros to get a plact from another tree.

One month later, I was at the front desk of the YMCA asking them to cancel my cancellation, which the helpful friendly people were happy to do. Was I dumb to think that decent equipment, cute powerlifters who spot, and a friendly atmosphere were normal for gyms? Guess so.

I had the sacrum-back crushing while squatting 145 two wekes ago. Went in for the next squat session and squatted 2 x 3 x 135, 1 x 1 x 135. Not good. The one after that, this past Sunday, I squatted up to 2 x 3 x 125. My back feels better now so I'll see what happens on Wednesday. Have been doubling benchs 2 x 2 x 105, and haven't been deadlifting but will resume weds.