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Inside University of Bristol
University of Bristol
Bristol

Gym quiet time?

So the gym at Bristol is rather stupidly small (especially the free weights room) and i'm wondering if anyone on here can advise me when a quiet time is? atm I cant do my proper workout at all (there's one squat rack and no space for dl's) so if anyone has any advice it'd be much appreciated.
Cheers

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Reply 1
My flatmates go at about 8pm-10pm (until it closes) because of that very reason. They say it's much less busy at that time. They do weights there too.
Inside University of Bristol
University of Bristol
Bristol
Reply 2
Original post by LemonPi
My flatmates go at about 8pm-10pm (until it closes) because of that very reason. They say it's much less busy at that time. They do weights there too.


I've been there at 9.20 and it was still really busy :/
Reply 3
Original post by fireph
I've been there at 9.20 and it was still really busy :/


Hmmm. If you've only been once at that time it could be a one off? ...I'll ask them tomorrow about it and see if they come up with anything useful for you :smile:.
Reply 4
Original post by LemonPi
My flatmates go at about 8pm-10pm (until it closes) because of that very reason. They say it's much less busy at that time. They do weights there too.


Yeah I tend to go at that time and it is usually a lot less busy in the regular area but the free weights area does sometimes remain busy because it's such a small room anyway.

I think it depends largely on what night you go, I couldn't say which are best but some sports clubs will have training on certain nights so less likely to be in the gym. Friday nights are DEAD I can tell you that :smile:

If you can get in in the middle of the day it's usually quite empty too, and although I haven't been in the mornings I would expect that to be the quietest time - i.e. from 9am - 11am - either people have lectures, hangovers, or just still in bed! :smile:
Reply 5
Hi, this is the flatmate.

I have to agree with dobbs, it can get pretty busy between 8 and 10 pm, especially on Mondays and Tuesdays, but the rest of the days are okay. Went today (Wednesday) and there were a maximum of five people in the weights room at any one time. You would have enough space to do dead lifts and no one ever seems to use the squat rack.

Towards the Christmas holidays it begins to die down, by next term it's going to be packed because everyone's going to have a new body-building resolution and they're going to want to see the 'new' gym.

I used to go at 7 in the morning, as you can imagine that didn't last long. The gym was completely empty, apart from one guy who worked out religiously, but I just felt completely dead and drained at that time. You might want to try to see if it works for you? It stays quiet until about 11 so, depending on how long your workout is, you might not need to wake up ridiculously early. I would go at that time but I like to work in the morning.

I was told that between 2 and 4 in the afternoon is good, I've only been there at most three times then but it has been quite empty.

Hope that's helped, good luck with your workout.
Reply 6
Original post by LemonPi
Hi, this is the flatmate.

I have to agree with dobbs, it can get pretty busy between 8 and 10 pm, especially on Mondays and Tuesdays, but the rest of the days are okay. Went today (Wednesday) and there were a maximum of five people in the weights room at any one time. You would have enough space to do dead lifts and no one ever seems to use the squat rack.

Towards the Christmas holidays it begins to die down, by next term it's going to be packed because everyone's going to have a new body-building resolution and they're going to want to see the 'new' gym.

I used to go at 7 in the morning, as you can imagine that didn't last long. The gym was completely empty, apart from one guy who worked out religiously, but I just felt completely dead and drained at that time. You might want to try to see if it works for you? It stays quiet until about 11 so, depending on how long your workout is, you might not need to wake up ridiculously early. I would go at that time but I like to work in the morning.

I was told that between 2 and 4 in the afternoon is good, I've only been there at most three times then but it has been quite empty.

Hope that's helped, good luck with your workout.


Thanks a lot for this, I appreciate the effort.
Reply 7
Original post by LemonPi
Hi, this is the flatmate.

I have to agree with dobbs, it can get pretty busy between 8 and 10 pm, especially on Mondays and Tuesdays, but the rest of the days are okay. Went today (Wednesday) and there were a maximum of five people in the weights room at any one time. You would have enough space to do dead lifts and no one ever seems to use the squat rack.

Towards the Christmas holidays it begins to die down, by next term it's going to be packed because everyone's going to have a new body-building resolution and they're going to want to see the 'new' gym.

I used to go at 7 in the morning, as you can imagine that didn't last long. The gym was completely empty, apart from one guy who worked out religiously, but I just felt completely dead and drained at that time. You might want to try to see if it works for you? It stays quiet until about 11 so, depending on how long your workout is, you might not need to wake up ridiculously early. I would go at that time but I like to work in the morning.

I was told that between 2 and 4 in the afternoon is good, I've only been there at most three times then but it has been quite empty.

Hope that's helped, good luck with your workout.


Urgh I hate exercising in the morning!! Plus it's not actually possible since I leave my house at 7am to drive to my teaching placement which is in WALES :frown:

And yeah - relatively excited about the new gym but looking at the plans they're splitting up all the ergs (rowing machines) which should be interesting, usually keep those together. Though not looking forward to the proposed 'skeleton' gym over the Christmas vacation - which whilst most students get 4 or 5 weeks, us PGCE students only get two weeks so I was actually looking forward to it being empty over Christmas, but it'll be empty and basically CRAP :frown:
Reply 8
I bought the sport pass before i came to Bristol. Big mistake.. how can they have such a small and **** gym? :frown:( at least they should make the weights room 2-3 times bigger
Reply 9
Original post by Gabor
I bought the sport pass before i came to Bristol. Big mistake.. how can they have such a small and **** gym? :frown:( at least they should make the weights room 2-3 times bigger


Well the good news is that over Christmas they're completely renovating the gym with new machines, new layout, and new "decorations" (I'm hoping mirrors all around??). But an interesting thing they say is that they're going to increase the size of the free weights area, not sure exactly how they'll do that but we'll find out in January :smile:

I hope they actually have it done on time though....and not go wayyyy over like they did when they closed off the side room with the rowing machines/stretching area back in October and it was closed for like 2 weeks longer than they said it would :rolleyes:
Reply 10
During a protest?
Reply 11
For what it's worth you can get a pass that allows you to use the Coombe Dingle gym over Christmas. Not sure if the no working out on your own still applies but worth a shot.
For those not in the know the Coombe Dingle gym is epic compared to the campus one. I think all the broken and old equipment from Coombe Dingle was passed on to the campus gym.
Now if anyone is going and passes Kingsdown with a car, give me a shout :p:
Reply 12
go when the undergrads aren't around!
Reply 13
I was wondering, apart from the busyness, how good a gym is it? Like is it easy to get to for an undergraduate living in halls and roughly how many stations/weights areas does it have? Also, how much is it per month/year? Thanks :biggrin:
Reply 14
Original post by moxeyy
I was wondering, apart from the busyness, how good a gym is it? Like is it easy to get to for an undergraduate living in halls and roughly how many stations/weights areas does it have? Also, how much is it per month/year? Thanks :biggrin:


Its a fairly terrible gym imo. The cardio area is pretty good if you're into that kind of thing, but the free weights room is the worst ive ever seen. They say they're expanding it over crimbo so heres hoping it gets a lot better.
atm there's only one power cage, a smith and two benches. Theres a row machine and some adjustable benches which people use for db work.
Reply 15
Nah I'm not really into cardio but thanks anyway!
Reply 16
anybody checked out the new gym?
Reply 17
Original post by .Theory
anybody checked out the new gym?


Yep - quite impressed with it I must say.

The big racks with the TVs on have gone so that the new flatscreens are up on the wall which would have been on your left hand side if you were facing the old TVs, which has freed up space in that area.

All the cardios are now facing that wall and they are all brand new which is nice, they are all much quieter too, and each machine has a built-in fan! :biggrin: Though on the bikes there seems to be no setting to complete a set distance, say set it for a 10km cycle. There's only a time setting, or just cycle, or then the programmes.

The bit where the old tv's were is now the stretching area, quite a lot smaller than the old area, and now the free weights are split between the other two rooms, which means thats been significantly improved as all new equipment and not all cramped in one small area.

Haven't checked out the free weights equipment though as I don't really use them but my flatmate seemed impressed.

All the indoor rowers seem to have been serviced and are much nicer than they were before christmas.

All in all, pretty impressive. Apparenly it's more busier than it was last year though, as January = people on diets etc.
(edited 13 years ago)
Reply 18
The free weights are crap. Looks decent and is useless. There's no space to lift whatsoever anymore. There are 3 bench presses squeezed in to the corners, the squat rack is alright but the guard is slightly too high for a deep squatter. The bar bells are ****, there's no grip on them at all. I usually shred my hands on deadlifts and I didn't even get a blister lifting 100Kg...
The bevel on the dumb bells are **** as well, they're too short and thick so your hand constantly slips down them if you're doing rows or something.
They've only got a mirror where it used to be and then to the right as well. But all the equipment (squat rack, smith, bench press) are right up against them so they might as well not be there.
Only good thing is now there are multiple sets of the dumbells.


Original post by dobbs
Yep - quite impressed with it I must say.

The big racks with the TVs on have gone so that the new flatscreens are up on the wall which would have been on your right hand side if you were facing the old TVs, which has freed up space in that area.



Left if you're facing the tvs from the entrance.
Reply 19
Original post by Zorg
The free weights are crap. Looks decent and is useless. There's no space to lift whatsoever anymore. There are 3 bench presses squeezed in to the corners, the squat rack is alright but the guard is slightly too high for a deep squatter. The bar bells are ****, there's no grip on them at all. I usually shred my hands on deadlifts and I didn't even get a blister lifting 100Kg...
The bevel on the dumb bells are **** as well, they're too short and thick so your hand constantly slips down them if you're doing rows or something.
They've only got a mirror where it used to be and then to the right as well. But all the equipment (squat rack, smith, bench press) are right up against them so they might as well not be there.
Only good thing is now there are multiple sets of the dumbells.




Left if you're facing the tvs from the entrance.


Ah, glad you could provide info on that stuff as I never use it, usually sit on the ergs (rowing machines) for most of my gym sessions!

And oops, can't believe I actually sat here and had to visualise the gym and where the tvs were and STILL got it wrong hah!! Edited now :biggrin:

I do find it annoying the lack of mirrors - especially now in the tiny stretching area! Why don't they basically line the walls with mirrors? Would make the place look bigger for a start :smile:

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