September 23, 2005

17 responses to Metal Gym membership

  1. Scott Says:

    The house in the country is intriguing - what sort of place are you considering? Any idea as to where?

  2. Kris Says:

    We’re looking for a traditional wooden house with a sizable enough plot to afford some privacy and, preferably, some forest in, ideally, close proximity to the sea. A barn or similar additional building for a small workshop and a home gym is also high on the list. Either an hour or so outside Helsinki or possibly up north close to the family summer cottage.

  3. Scott Says:

    Soumds great. You’re certainly making a Finnish friend of mine (who’s also looking for a house - but here in the UK) quite envious.

  4. Kris Says:

    It certainly is a blessing to live in a sparsely populated country that for the most part is still covered by forests and lakes. :-)

  5. Stinn Says:

    WOW! That would be amazing to train at a real powerlifting gym, especially one as big as that..that’d be pretty much like working out at WSB.

  6. Kris Says:

    It’s like working out at WSB after hours. More often than not, I am in there alone due to the very late hour. Fast forward a few more months, and I’ll probably start to refer to it as “the home gym”. ;-)

    I’m planning to get in some more evening workouts after family life eases up a bit to see how the barbell is wielded Metal style (would you rather train alone at WSB or learn by seeing the guys lift…). For now, it is quite nice to be able to use whatever I like and just to get to know the unfamiliar equipment.

  7. Alberto Caraballo Says:

    Do you think all the reverse hypers you can do there might give you some back relief?
    Metal’s sounds like a sweet gym. Aside from the atmosphere and the equipment (I’ve been to the website), I have never heard of a gym that gives you the chance to come in after hours to work out. Maybe I’ve been stuck under a rock! Lucky!

  8. Kris Says:

    I thought the reverse hypers would be just the ticket and, as you will see as soon as I get out of this back-blogging hell caused by prioritizing sleep over blogging, I worked them most every time I was in there in October and November. My back didn’t get any better, quite the contrary. I then learned that they were part of the problem and after just two weeks of a more enlightened routine I am already closing in on my former box squat PR from two years ago. More on this a bit later.

    I don’t know about elsewhere, but there are actually several gyms here in Helsinki that allow people to enter with key cards after the gym staff has left the building. For example, HTC gym is open till 5am-1am and Hot Gym is open a whoppin’ 24h. Am actually thinking about getting a card to Hot Gym as well for precisely that reason. I have already missed 11pm by a few minutes a couple of times at Metal, which is when you have to enter the latest (gym open until midnight though). Basically, I think gym crime levels are fairly low… that said, Metal shop and the office areas are locked so no sneaking away with a Metal suit… ;-)

  9. john y Says:

    hah what an awesome gym, no better motivation than being surrounded by top powerlifters im sure. ive never heard of a gym where you can come in after hours either… pretty sweet setup.
    sorry to hear about your back, hopefully you can continue training without aggrevating it - although it must be one of the more frustrating injuries. good luck with it

  10. andy Shaffer Says:

    Where can I find out more info on Patrik Nyman and his lifting theorys?

  11. Mich Says:

    A late night gym would be great. My gym closes at 10:30pm Sundays through Thursdays, 3:00pm on Fridays and is closed on Saturdays. On the other hand, the gym owner is entitled to a life also… I think I’ll suggest an afterhours key/card system before I go back to North America.

  12. Kris Says:

    Andy, Patrik Nyman frequents the Finnish Westsidebar forum, which also has an English section. Try to reach him there.
    Mich, card systems are great, as long as the gym owner is not a worrier… it’s like an open door, except your not there. A camera is good for security in addition to a web cam that allows the owner to see what’s going on from time to time lest someone try to pull a fast one by squatting in the Smith machine or something even worse.

  13. Måns Says:

    Yeah, someone might do inverted-looking dumbell rows on one of their benches… :)

  14. andy Shaffer Says:

    Thanks for the info. Is that program on this site made up specifically by Patric Nyman himself? Or is it made up only based on his theories?

  15. Kris Says:

    Andy, I programmed the script, but it is his program. The links are there with the script, but they’re not going to do you much good unless you speak Finnish. If you shoot me an e-mail, I’ll let you know how to contact him directly.
    BTW, did you try the program? If so, what kind of results did you see?
    Happy New Year 2006 :-)

  16. andy Shaffer Says:

    Kris,
    I really have wanted to contact you but I couldn’t locate your e-mail on your web page. Forgive me if I just missed the obvious. My e-mail is [protected]@aol.com
    My results are great with the program. And that is one reason I was eager to contact you. I don’t have my log book handy but I can tell you that I am able to bench 500 for 5 sets of 3 (86%)where not too long ago I could only do 500 for a set of 3 and two sets of doubles afterward. At first I wasnt respecting the 80% days and I was trying to do more… I fried my CNS in a hurry.
    I do my assistance differently then the program states however and I dedicate one day a week soley to my back work. After each 6 week cycle I plan on doing 1 or two weeks of high rep stuff for tendon work and “deloading.”
    Since I can’t seem to locate your e-mail do you think you could give me an e-mail so I could contact Patric Nyman? Thank you for your help.
    andy Shaffer
    [protected]@aol.com

  17. Kris Says:

    Andy, my e-mail is at the bottom of every page. I took the liberty of removing your e-mail address from your comment to protect you from needless spam harvesting. You’ve got a pretty good bench to say the least… thanks for sharing the details! Sending off an e-mail now.

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