Finding a Gym in Grande Prairie

I just got back from a 3 day trip to Grande Prairie.  I'm moving up there for a couple years for work, and I needed to find an apartment.  While I was up there I took the opportunity to check out the gyms, and I think visited the majority of them, if not all of them.  I'm sorry if I missed a few but I went to all the ones that were listed online.  Being sent to a small town for 2 years and not knowing anyone?  Hello gym, my new home.  Ok here we go. 

World Gym

These guys let me try out the place so I did my back workout there.  It's the biggest gym that I went to and it's similar to the YMCA.  With lots of machines, a couple bench presses and squat racks on the main floor and cardio machines on the second floor, it'll have most of what you'll need.  They even have an olympic platform which is a must for me.  The weird thing is they don't have bumper plates for their platform, only plastic covered weights which isn't as bad as the normal ones but I can't imagine it being good for the platform.  Oh well not my problem.  Membership is $60/month if you sign up for a year which isn't bad I think. 

Snap Fitness

There's two of these in Grande Prairie, and they're rather small gyms.  They are 24/7 gyms if you're into that kind of thing but I'm not going to be working out at 3AM at night.  When you walk in the people are quite friendly, and the atmosphere of the entire place is nice.  They keep the place clean and for the average person it's not an intimidating place at all.  Compared to world gym you walk in and it's like Gold's gym in Schwarzenegger's "Pumping Iron".  However, since this is a 24/7 gym there are times where the place isn't staffed and because of that, they don't have a lot of barbell stuff like squat racks etc, due to liability issues.  They have a smith machine, but well...  it's a smith machine.  Membership is fairly cheap, depending on what kind you get you can pay from $40-50 a month.  Also, their membership plans are fairly flexible so they don't lock you in like other gyms.  There's one of these gyms right in my backyard of my apartment, but with no squat racks to do squats, cleans, deadlifts and such, it's really not much use to me.  But again, it's got a variety of machines and you're not that picky then this gym would be a great choice.

Winston's Health & Fitness

This place is located on the upper floor of a building.  It's a smaller gym, definitely smaller than World's gym but bigger than Snap Fitness.  It's got a squat rack, and bench press, but again it doesn't really compare to World's gym.  The staff were really nice though!  The other thing is that since it's on the upper floor, I'm sure cleans and deadlifts are out of the question.  Olympic platforms and bumper plates are very  important to me, as you can tell.  I didn't inquire as to the membership prices, but I'm sure it's around the same as the others.

The Club

A part of the ranchlands apartment complexes, this gym is one of the nicest gyms I've seen at an apartment.  But that's not saying much.  It's ok though.  They've got a swimming pool, two squash courts and a small gym.  Again, no place for cleans, and squats, only a smith machine.  If I got an apartment there though, I wouldn't mind a membership here since it's less than $30/month if you're a resident.  However, since I didn't get an apartment here, I will most likely never set foot in here.

Grande Prairie Regional College

Ok I lied.  I didn't go to all the gyms.  There's a gym inside the college in Grande Prairie, but I didn't go check it out.  I've spent 4 years working out at the University of Calgary gym and it's great, but I was glad to switch gyms afterwards.  Everything is just more convenient when a place is just a gym, I find.  GPRC isn't small compared to UofC so I could be totally wrong, so maybe it's worth a look at.

VO2 Max

I decided to save the best for last.  Actually I was pretty disappointed in the selection of gyms so far, and VO2 Max was my last stop.  This place is a private gym, and they're not your typical gym.  They have a few machines, but the majority of their warehouse is filled with gymnastic rings, barbells with bumper plates, prowlers, ropes, medicine balls, etc.  When I walked in I felt like I was in heaven, I knew that was the gym I was looking for.  They do a lot of personal training, but they also do group classes.  They specialize in Crossfit, with a few classes in power lifting, olympic lifting, and bootcamps.  I've always wanted to get into Crossfit after I put on some mass to condition my body.  Anyways, after looking around the place I came back the next day to attend a Crossfit class.  We started with a 500m row to warm up, followed by some stretching.  The focus of the class was the Clean and Jerk, so we did 1x1x1x1x1x1, increasing the weight each time until we maxed out.  I never did a clean and jerk before, and I lifted a personal record of 165#!  I was pretty happy.  After that, we did 30 clean and jerks for time.  I had 135# on the bar, and it took me 10 minutes to complete... hah hah...  Pretty bad, but I know my conditioning is terrible.  It was a great class, they instructors are professional and friendly and the other people in the class help push you too.  Membership rates are pricey, with almost $200/month to sign up, but I think it's worth it if you are serious about getting in shape.

P.S. Wondering what a clean and jerk is?  Get your mind out of the gutter and watch this hilarious attempt at one.

Conclusion

World Gym and VO2 Max were definitely the two places that stuck out for me.  I would join VO2 Max right away, but I'm trying to put on 15 pounds of mass first so I might join World Gym for a month or two and then switch to VO2 after.  I still need to do more research because maybe it's possible to put on mass with VO2's classes.  Crossfit isn't typically a program for putting on mass, but I with proper nutrition I might be able to.  If there's any gyms I missed I'd love to hear about them so I can check them out as well. 

I went to a few martial arts gyms too, but a couple of the places were closed when I got there so we'll save that review for another day ;)