good gym in NW Chicago??

[sandcracker21]

well i have been lifting at XSport in the NW side of Chicago for the past few years...nice gym...allows chalk...good amount of equipment....

but lately they have been going down the drain...replaced powerracks with boxing bags...hundreds of people in the gym 'socializing' and standing around, NEVER have the air on...its always hot and humid....place is a real mess....

I NEED A NEW GYM!!!

any sugestions to a good gym in NW Chicago or the NW suburbs?? I live near ohare airport btw

[theBarzeen]

drive to montgomery and train at jakked gym....... 2 monolifts, full gym, bands, kettle bells, strongman equip....metal music playing all the time....... Byron the owner is cool too.....

[Pete22]

The two that come to mind are Quad's Gym and B&W Gym. Both are hardcore, powerlifting friendly gyms on the north side.

[sandcracker21]

montgomery is waay to far for me...over an hour...as far as the other two i will look into them in the morning since im about to pass out for work, but i believe those to both be pretty far east...note i am on the west most border of chicago for the most part....thanks for the input though!

[Cmanuel]

Isn't quads gym where ed coan lifts at? You'd be stupid not to lift there

[Hazerboy]

B&W is about 6 or 7 miles east of o'hare, just south west of loyala. Not sure how far of a drive that would be for you. Never been to quads.

[djenkins76]

I lift at xsport also as a power lifter its tough since they dont have half the equipment, but i have to make due with what i have..
check out this sandcracker > http://www.powerliftingwatch.com/node/4420

[Guido]

Isn't quads gym where ed coan lifts at? You'd be stupid not to lift there

Ed lifts at the one in Calumet City most of the time, which is a little far.

[Guido]

I posted in your other thread that B&W would be a good bet. It's an awesome place and I know a few strong guys that lift there. Leaning Tower YMCA in Niles has a good weight room (or at leaast it used to, not sure now). If you want about a 35 minute drive you could train at Velocity Sports Performance in Willowbrook. They have a powerlifting crew that trains there and they have top notch equipment. Eric Stone puts on a lot of APF/AAPF meets out of there.

Sadly, except for the Y there is nothing you aren't going to have to drive at least 30 minutes to get to that's any good.

[TankofZenzenBB]

Velocity sports performance is no more, i believe it's right fit now and they just moved like 2 feet away from where they were at before. I was on stones team back in 07 but went to NIU in fall 2008 and now i'm on Zenzen barbell team thats suits me a lot more. Stone got 2 competition benches and 2 monolifts. He just got the new Elite FTS panzer monolift. I drive about 45 min. to a hour to train at zenzen.

[Pete22]

Velocity sports performance is no more, i believe it's right fit now and they just moved like 2 feet away from where they were at before.

I heard about this. Sort of sucks because I really enjoyed all his meets at Velocity. The state meet in March is at Bolingbrook High School, and future meets are TBD.

[Notorious]

I posted in your other thread that B&W would be a good bet. It's an awesome place and I know a few strong guys that lift there. Leaning Tower YMCA in Niles has a good weight room (or at leaast it used to, not sure now). If you want about a 35 minute drive you could train at Velocity Sports Performance in Willowbrook. They have a powerlifting crew that trains there and they have top notch equipment. Eric Stone puts on a lot of APF/AAPF meets out of there.

Sadly, except for the Y there is nothing you aren't going to have to drive at least 30 minutes to get to that's any good.

The Y is pretty good. They have a monolift, 2 squat racks (though the catches on one are broken), a spot for deadlifting, and random stuff like some bumper plates, a GHR bench, a fat bar, safety squat bar, and a log-type bar. They are rarely crowded from my experience, but it might depend on what time of day you go. There are a lot of strong guys who train there, but I'm not sure how many of them are actually PLers (and I haven't seen toooo many people squatting, at least to good depth).

[Guido]

Notorious - glad to hear that the Y hasn't changed much and they still have some good equipment there. I would hate for them to "fancy up" the place.

Tank & Pete - I hadn't heard about Velocity closing. That really sucks. Their website is still up so I figured they were still there. I did many many meets there including my first PL meet ever ('05 Summer Bash) so it's sad to me that it is gone. I hope Eric and Amy can continue to put on lots of APF meets.

[TankofZenzenBB]

Velocity was a nice facility. very big and nice warm-up area. i heard about this on the team stone's facebook page. they got pictures up it looks pretty nice inside.

[geoffsherman]

I just moved to Arlington Heights and hae been training at the XSport on Dundee. Any of the folks on here train there by chance? There isn't much that I have found up this way. There is a new place in Northbrook that I checked out, but they have pretty limited hours as it is a private place.

[Guido]

Since you are in Arlington Heights it might not be too far for you to get to Monster Garage Gym in Waukegan. Awesome place. You'd have to drive up I-94 a ways, get off at Grand, head east, then left on Delaney Rd and up a mile or two.

http://www.monstergaragegym.com/

[theBarzeen]

I live in Wheaton and drive out to montgomery from work in Roselle ( wife drives out from Des Plains) ..... it's worth it. You could also go old school and try Frantz gym in Aurora. Ernie is pretty cool to work with.

[geoffsherman]

Since you are in Arlington Heights it might not be too far for you to get to Monster Garage Gym in Waukegan. Awesome place. You'd have to drive up I-94 a ways, get off at Grand, head east, then left on Delaney Rd and up a mile or two.

http://www.monstergaragegym.com/

I would love to go up there every now and then, unfortunately with a 6 month old, 60 hours of work a week, and getting settled in a new house, I have to settle for Xsport. lThe place in Waukegan looks awesome though!

[mikesbench]

Yeah, I train at Monster Garage and love it. Great atmosphere and a good group of guys.