Best of 2013: Training Destinations

I traveled a lot in 2013, which meant lifting weights away from home. And usually, this means sucking it up and working out at a commercial gym. You know how I feel about commercial gyms. But this year I smartened up. Each time I traveled, I scouted out an awesome training facility and made sure I could get in a quality workout at a place better suited for powerlifting/being awesome than a glorified day spa.

Along the way, I was fortunate to meet some good lifters and great people. They welcomed me to their gyms with open arms and thanks to them, my training never missed a beat.

LIMITLESS STRENGTH & CONDITIONING
Location: Deerfield Beach, Florida
Owner: Ken Morris 

I spent a week in Florida with the Adelphi baseball team in March, which was right in the middle of my preparation for a powerlifting meet. While that meet didn’t go as well as hoped, I had the pleasure of lifting twice at Limitless Strength & Conditioning, the best private facility in Southern Florida. It’s owned and operated by Ken Morris, a former strength coach for the University of Florida football team and one of the strongest dudes I’ve ever met.

The facility is extremely well outfitted, with lines of EliteFTS racks, specialty bars, Prowlers, sleds and everything else you need to get brutally strong and athletic. Each time I came in, Ken was finishing up working with personal training clients, who were mostly younger boys and girls, who were working their asses off but clearly enjoying the workouts. Kudos to Ken, who after coaching kids for hours, flipped a switch for the evening powerlifting crew. Ken and about a dozen other lifters get together every night and crush powerlifting workouts. Some of the feats of strength I witnessed were insane. Everyone was crazy supportive of each other, which motivated me to hit a big rep PR on squats (fast forward to 1:10).

DYNA-MAXX
Location: Westbrook, Maine
Owner: Matt Israelson

Matt and the guys at Dyna-Maxx are kickin’ it old school in a badass training environment, full of powerlifting, bodybuilding and strongman equipment that’s got plenty of character to go with its dust and rust. While in Maine for a wedding, Matt let me come in twice to train, and I couldn’t have been more fortunate to find a place on the back roads of Southern Maine that has a monolift, deadlift platform with a Texas bar, Forza competition bench and plenty of other goodies. I did some heavy squats and pulls and felt like I was home the whole time.

Matt was a friendly, down-to-earth guy who was happy to help out a fellow traveling powerlifter. And turns out Dyna-Maxx is Eric Cressey‘s old stomping ground, so Matt and I chatted about Eric and how he’s taken the strength training world by storm.

Portland is an amazing city with great food and booze, so if you’re ever visiting and manage to pull yourself away from the chowder and Shipyard, give Matt a call and go check out Dyna-Maxx.

WILD IRON GYM
Location: Santa Clara, California
Owner: Marcus Wild

When we planned a late spring trip to California, I knew I had to check out Wild Iron Gym. Even before I got into powerlifting, I remember seeing videos of the beasts at Wild Iron moving tremendous amounts of weight. So I got in touch with Marcus, who let me stop by on a Sunday morning and jump right in for a Dynamic Effort lower body workout.

Wild Iron is the quintessential warehouse gym and is outfitted much like you’d expect a Westside-modeled facility: monolifts, tons of specialty bars (we used the giant cambered bar for our squats), reverse hypers, the whole nine yards. Just talking about how strong these guys are doesn’t do them justice. Watch and learn:

If you ever make your way to San Jose, San Francisco or Sonoma County, it’s worth the drive to visit Wild Iron.

ATHLETE’S EQUATION
Location: Cumberland, Rhode Island
Owner: Jason Price

It’s tough to call Athlete’s Equation a “training destination” since I live less than 20 minutes away, but AE saved me when I first moved to Providence and needed a place to train. Owner/head coach Jason Price and Tom Bouffard (my buddy from high school) run what I consider to be a true hidden gem in the Rhode Island/Greater Boston area. Of all the gyms I’ve been to, AE has the best blend of bootcamps, personal training and sports performance services – all with great equipment and coaching.

An AE bootcamp isn’t like your typical body pump or Insanity nonsense. Jason and Tom guide their clients through high-intensity workouts while stressing proper movement patterns with bang-for-your-buck exercises like trap bar deadlifts, med ball slams and plenty of suspension trainer exercises. Considering most bootcamps are a shit show, I’m always impressed with how well their clients move and how hard they work.

An added bonus: AE just added a big expansion, with another 30 yard turf strip, a full Rogue rig and plenty of new Rogue bars and plates. If you live in Rhode Island or Southern Mass, you’ve gotta check out AE.

ATLAS TRAINING SYSTEMS
Location: St. Johnsbury, Vermont
Owner: Aaron Fondry

It’s hard to believe that such a great gym could be tucked away in such a tiny town in Northern Vermont. It’s also hard to believe – but tremendously encouraging – that Aaron’s facility is packed with bootcampers, personal training clients and young athletes, all day every day. Aaron, a former MMA fighter turned strongman competitor, is bull strong and crazy passionate about coaching. I always love catching up with Aaron when I head to Vermont to see family.

Recently, the only legit (if you can call it that) gym in my hometown closed down. Now, there’s literally nowhere to work out that can handle more than a handful of people at a time, let alone serious lifters who move serious weight. So if I still lived in the Northeast Kingdom, I’d make the 40-minute hike to ATS a couple times week just to train with Aaron. He’s that good.

Over Christmas break, my sister and I visited Aaron for a workout at ATS. He gave me some deadlift pointers (he’s kind of strong, in case you didn’t notice) and taught my sister how to push press. I can’t thank him enough.

TOTAL PERFORMANCE SPORTS
Location: Everett, Massachusetts
Owner: CJ Murphy

What more can I say about TPS that I haven’t said already? If Heaven was a gym, it would be modeled after TPS. When it’s owned and run by a guy like CJ Murphy – EliteFTS sponsored powerlifter and strongman – you know it’s going to have the best equipment and a no-bullshit atmosphere.

I’ve headed to TPS almost every weekend for the past few months, and I’m stronger and smarter because of it. I did most of my weekend training at TPS leading up to my last powerlifting meet, which helped me get familiar with the competition equipment like the monolift and Texas deadlift bar. It’s also helped me bond with my younger sister, who’s recently fallen in love with lifting and is making tremendous strides. We meet up every weekend and crush weights, leading up to her most recent PR at the TPS Deadlift seminar.

If you live ANYWHERE near Boston, you need to train at TPS. It’s $40 for a month’s membership and day passes are $10 (!). Plus, every weekend they run lifting classes/seminars, where you get a couple hours of coaching for $20. It’s the best deal I’ve ever seen.

ON THE ROAD AGAIN…

Next time you’re traveling, forget LA Fitness or Equinox, where you’re going to pay upwards of $20 for a day pass just to train in an environment that doesn’t care about you getting better. Instead, search for the town/city you’ll be in with “strength and conditioning”, “powerlifting” or “strongman”, and call the first few numbers you find. Usually, you’ll find a friendly coach/owner who will only charge you a few bucks to come in and train. You’ll probably meet some great lifters and pick up some training tips/advice that will stick with you forever.