You know when you are in a Real Gym. The dumbbells have their poundages hand-scrawled on the sides, the bars rattle when you do dips and if your chin rises above the pull up bar there's a chance that your head will hit the ceiling. There's no-one to hand you a fluffy white towel at reception, no pool, no juice bar, no sauna, no steam room, no jacuzzi and the shower facilities include the occasional drip of rainwater through the ceiling. Real Gyms rely heavily on free-weights which provide better results than machines. Machines only offer a limited range of movement and recruit a limited number of muscles when you're performing an exercise; when free-weights are used stabilising muscles are also used. If you want to make any noticable progress you have to use free-weights.

Real Gyms can range from some national chains who have set aside space for a free-weights area (although more than just a token rack of light dumbells!) to dedicated weight-lifting clubs who welcome visitors who would like to train for other sports. We have listed within these pages as many different sites as we can find, but would like to include more. If you know of a gym or club that you feel would qualify then please fill in the 'submit a gym' form and mail it to us. The more that we can include the better for everyone. If you find yourself a new gym through TheRealGym.com be sure to mention us to the owners. Some of the gyms listed haven't got complete details shown yet. If you know more about them, please drop us an email and we will improve the entry.

e-mail: TheRealGym@aol.com