The Strong & Shapely Gym in Rutherford, NJ is Truly Awesome!

Posted By elissa on Apr 27, 2010 | 2 comments

Today was the first day of Supply Side East.  It was all talks – the vendor expo doesn’t open until tomorrow. I took a peek at the preparations, though – looks like it will be pretty cool.  I always like hitting the vendor displays – it’s a lot like “Trick or Treat” for grownups. Last show I went to, the Natural Products Expo in Boston, I came home with two sacks full of samples. 😉

I attended several talks in the “Nutrition Track.” The first was on an academic research project aiming to create a classification scheme to rate the safety of various herbal supps. The second was on fish oil and sustainability.  The final one was on sports supplements from an “anti-doping perspective” (you can guess what that one was about).

Ok, where does the Strong & Shapely Gym enter in to any of this?

Simple… sorta.  While I was between talks, I returned a call from Rick Collins – whom I’m working with on several projects.  He’s in New York (just a stone’s throw from where I am in NJ) and knows the area well.  We set up an appointment for tomorrow, and in passing, I mentioned that I was going to the Gold’s Gym in Teterboro after the show for a workout.

Nuh-uh.  He was insistent (so was fellow author James Villepigue, who was in on the call)… I HAD to go to Strong & Shapely in East Rutherford.  He even e-mailed the manager, Chris, to let him know I was coming.  And since it was actually closer to me than Gold’s, I figured, what the heck?

Wow.

The place is fantastic!  The owner, Bob Bonham, has built a near-museum… there is a ton of old equipment there, alongside newer pieces.  As Bob put it, he kept a lot of the old stuff that worked, which makes sense (newer doesn’t always mean better).  There were 10 different leg presses – all set at different angles.  There was even a lunge machine… something that I never even knew existed before today.  And when was the last time you saw 250 pound dumbbells???

I got a pretty good workout in, but I also spent a fair amount of time rubbernecking – it was cool just looking at the different pieces.  You would NEVER get bored for lack of variety in this place, that’s for sure.

One sad note, though.  I got a bird’s eye view of the whole place from the free weight area, and quickly noted one thing:  I was one of only two women on the training floor – and the other gal was a noob being instructed by her boyfriend.  I mentioned this later to Bob, and he affirmed this: he had to put in a special “women only” room in order to attract female members… as he put it, women are “too intimidated” by all the guys.

Sigh… why this is, I do not know.  Yes, a lot of the guys were big and beefy, but no one so much as looked crosswise at me.  They were there to WORK, and so was I, so that was that.

At any rate, if you live within 20 miles of East Rutherford, NJ and are looking for a gym – go and sign up.  That place is seriously REAL.  If I lived in the area, I’d join in a heartbeat – it’s THAT good.