Two racks, one platform, 1,420 pounds of plate.
That is the honest answer to whether this is a real gym or a room with three treadmills in it, so it is the first thing on the page. The full count is below and it is accurate this week.
- Whole floor from the door corner
- Chest height, wide, 16:9
- Both racks and the platform in frame
- Lights on, empty, no members
- Chalk and wear left visible
- No tidying up beforehand
Everything in the building
Counted, not described. Each block below is drawn roughly to the floor the thing actually takes up, because in a room this size that is the constraint that decides whether two people can train at once.
Competition platform
8 by 8 foot, calibrated 20kg bar, jerk blocks behind it. It is the only place in the building you may drop a loaded bar, and the only reason the lease survives is that the rule is enforced.
Power racks
Both 3 by 3 inch, 11 gauge, with safeties and a pull-up bar. One holds a bench, one does not.
Deadlift bar
27mm, whip, knurled centre. Kept on the platform and not on a rack, which is deliberate.
Dumbbells, in fives
Rubber hex, complete pairs the whole way up with none missing, which is worth stating because most gyms this size are short two pairs somewhere around 55.
Plate
Two pairs of bumpers at 45, iron from 45 down to 2.5, four pairs of change plates. Enough for a 500 pound pull and a 300 pound bench at the same time.
Bars
Two 20kg power bars, one deadlift bar, one 15kg. All straight, all spinning.
Benches
Two flat, one adjustable to incline. Pads are firm and none of them wobble.
Cable stack, dual
Two 200 pound stacks, adjustable pulleys top to bottom, lat bar and rope and a straight bar hanging on it.
Specialty pieces
Trap bar, safety squat bar, reverse hyper, GHD, belt squat, and a leg press that gets used more than any of them.
Cardio
Two treadmills, one rower, one air bike. That is genuinely all of it, and if cardio is what you came for this is the wrong room.
Turf strip and sled
Down the long wall, wide enough to push a sled or carry a pair of heavy dumbbells the length of it. It is also the warm-up space, the stretching space and where the two children who come with their mother on Thursdays do their homework.
How the fob works
- Come in during a staffed hour and sign the waiver. It takes ten minutes and somebody walks the floor with you.
- The fob is programmed while you wait. There is a twenty dollar deposit on it and you get the twenty back when you hand it in.
- After that the door opens for you any hour of any day, including holidays. The camera runs the whole time and that is not a secret.
- Bring somebody who is not a member and the fob stops working. One warning, then it stops. Insurance, not attitude.
Staffed hours, which are different
Somebody is actually in the building Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 5 to 8 in the morning and 4 to 7 in the evening, plus Saturday morning. Those are the hours to come if you want a spot, a form check, or your first squat session with a person watching.
Every other hour of the week the room is unstaffed and you are on your own with a camera and a phone on the wall. Most members prefer it. It is worth being honest that it is not the same product.
Price
Month to month. No contract, no sign-up fee, no cancellation call to a number in another state. Tell the person at the desk and it stops at the end of that month.
- One person, monthly
- $38
- Fob access every hour, staffed hours included.
- Household, monthly
- $62
- Everyone at one address, any number of them. Own fob each.
- Twelve months, paid up front
- $390
- Two months off. Still cancellable, prorated back.
- Student, monthly, September to May
- $24
- High school and college. Under sixteen needs an adult member in the building.
- Day pass
- $8
- Staffed hours only. Rolls into the first month if you join that week.
- Coaching, one hour
- $45
- Squat, bench, deadlift and press. Two coaches, both certified, both work day jobs, so evenings and Saturdays.
What this place is not, so nobody joins by mistake
It is 3,100 square feet in a town of two thousand three hundred people. It is a barbell room with cardio in the corner, run by two people who train here themselves. On a busy evening there are eleven cars in the lot and you might wait for a rack.
What it does have is equipment that is not broken, a platform you are allowed to use properly, and a door that opens at four in the morning if that is when you lift.
- No pool, no sauna, no steam room, no plans for any.
- No group fitness studio and no class schedule.
- No childcare. Children in the building must be with an adult member and off the platform.
- No tanning, no smoothie counter, no supplement wall.
- No towel service. Bring one, and wipe the bench.
- Two showers, one of them has been slow since March.
Where
- Address
- 123 Main St, Lathrop, Missouri. Gravel lot behind the building, eleven spaces, plus the street.
- Staffed hours
- Mon, Wed, Fri 5 to 8 a.m. and 4 to 7 p.m. Saturday 8 to 11 a.m.
- Fob hours
- Every hour of every day, once the waiver is signed.