Temple Gym, Birmingham (UK)

[gauze]

this place is a shithole.

I've recently moved to Birmingham, and have found a place which caters for my PL and strongman training needs, but is 30 minutes drive away. I decided to check out Temple to see if that would cover my workouts which didn't involve thick bars, farmers walk or oly lifts. Now I knew this place was strictly BB'ing only, but from reading tales of Dorian Yates' hardcore, locked away sessions from the 90s that took place there, I expected some kind of "intense" atmoshpere or atleast somewhere which inspired me to push heavy shit.

Instead, I was greeted with tonnes of pics and magazine shots of Dorian strewn all round the place, two partly helpful/partly lazy reception dudes, no equipment that I havent seen in many other gyms on my travels, and weights left all over the place. The worst was seeing only one power rack, with the support beams nowhere to be seen and some idiot leaving 400lbs on the bar for the next dude to warm up with. No doubt this place relies on the name to get members!

[SpugFab]

The worst was seeing only one power rack, with the support beams nowhere to be seen

Lol my gym has no power rack, but I'd say it's far from a shithole

I didn't realise you were training thick bars, oly lifts, PL and so on. You should get involved in the Power and Strength section, it's crying out for more attention these days

No numbers up on the strength table either? What kind of weights are you moving?

[JP]

hey man, sounds like fairly typical hardcore bodybuilding gym. We have similar kind of place called Betta Bodies - definitely a place to be if you are a bodybuilder. Powerlifter, not so much...

I thought there are couple really good powerlifting gyms in birmingham, for instance Birmingham Sports Centre hosts many of the national powerlfting comps, and a while back we went to see the BWLA unequipped british in a place called... was it coliseum? not sure... Anyway, i seem to remember there being couple good gyms for powerlifters in the area.

[JP]

here is one good list of gyms suitable for powerlifters and some strongman stuff as well:

http://www.powerliftinguk.com/showthread.php?t=2142

[gauze]

here is one good list of gyms suitable for powerlifters and some strongman stuff as well:

http://www.powerliftinguk.com/showthread.php?t=2142

yea, I go to the Olympian gym from that list - bodybuilder populated, but has 3 different weights of metal logs, thick bar, heavy db's, power rack and some bumper plates. I'm gonna check out Coliseum too!

Spug M - I've only recently started training this way literally last week. Before that I hadn't trained properly since March, and only then it was half arsed bb'ing stuff. I was always lazy with my diet + training, but an intense reading session of DINOSAUR TRAINING this weekend has put me on the righteous path to good lifting. Once I've finished physio on my knees and got in the PL'ing groove, I'll add some numbers up to the list.

[gucciman]

hi, don't know which part of birmingham your living in but have you tried the Ironworks gym in Kings Norton?

is a great hardcore bodybuilding gym with a seperate powerlifting and strongman room, theres a guy who entered the 2008 britains strongest man who uses it.


the gym is off the A441 birmingham to redditch rd, in between the cotteridge and kings norton green traffic islands and is tucked away behind the bp petrol station and the cotteridge village inn pub, diretly opposite the entrance to the bristol street ford car sales garage.

[gauze]

just like to update - I checked out that Ironworks place and it is INCREDIBLE.
Dedicated strongman area, plus shit tonnes of machine, racks, bars and db's. Cheap too.

[gucciman]

hey glad you liked it, best gym ive ever trained in, good intense atmosphere in there.

will you be training regular or is it too far for you to travel?

when was you down there?