When I first arrived at Tiger Muay Thai back in September, the indoor, air conditioned gym had been turned in to a BJJ hall and all the gym equipment had been moved outside, whilst construction on a new, larger gym was underway. The gym equipment was getting pretty weathered and people were lifting with gloves to protect themselves from rust etc. This caused me to join Titan Fitness’ gym for a while instead whilst I was living near it.
In the middle of December Tiger Muay Thai finally opened the doors on their new gym so I’ve been working out there since, 4 times a week doing the same body building routines I was doing back in Brighton with my old personal trainer Gervasio Da Gloria.
The gym features 2 proper squat cages with safety bars, 1 angled squat rack, a Smith machine, several benches, a dip/chin-up station, an assisted dip/chin-up station, an incline and a decline leg press, a cable sation and loads of dumbbells, free weights and barbells.
All the equipment uses the free weights, so there’s no moving a pin up and down a weight stack and all the weights are in lbs. There are 2.2lbs to a KG so I’m constantly having to do math to work out what I should be lifting. This is not the worst thing in the world however.
The leg extension and leg curls can be done with an accessory attached to the end of a bench, there’s no separate machine for these exercises, but it works. After the first day of leg curls my DOMS were so bad I couldn’t walk properly or straighten my legs and had to have it massaged out!
Whilst there is everything here I need to do my work outs, the other gyms on the street are all missing something key, I am a little concerned with the quality. The bench, for barbell bench press, is already getting rickety and I don’t think that’s because the bolts are lose. It’s a little concerning when you’ve a 90kg bar 2 ft above your face and the bench you are laying on is wobbling. I guess I’m working my core though .. right?