Okay, now this is purely my opinion, I'm sure other coaches will have different needs to mine, but after moving to our 4th location in just over 5 years, I've had a fair bit of practice as to what works and whats needed.

First, let me point out that every move was because we simply out grew the gym we were in. Now on our 4th go, we have a place thats 550sqm, over 4 times bigger than our last. No longer do I have space limitations, and I can use any piece of gear I feel valuable.

I have been conflicted for some time because a large percentage of my client base actually compete in powerlifting, at a local level, National level and International level. For them to be competitive they need to train and lift on the same equipment they will encounter at Nationals or Worlds. Now this equipment is expensive and it takes up a lot of room. Its why you rarely see multiple mono lifts in a facility.

The problem I have is that an even larger percentage of my clients compete in other sports, football, basketball, soccer, boxing, weightlifting etc. They require different training tools.

Then there are those that are injured and struggle to get around, but still need to train. Currently I have 2 on crutches and one with a broken arm, so their needs are different.

Then there is Joe Average who wants to train in a gym without time wasters but still has quality equipment.

So these were all my considerations before I began building what I think will be a world class facility.

Powerlifting
We have had a mono lift for quite some time, but the reality was most of our team couldn't get on it, so we got another a few months ago. Now both were being used by the team non stop, but I still had lifters missing out. I had no more room for monos, so we moved. We now have 4 mono lifts, more than any other gym in Australia, and on most nights all 4 are being used.

Not all powerlifting competition requires mono lifts, so I also have 3 combo squat/bench racks at PTC, these are used in IPF competition, and again, we need more than one, despite their cost.

For bench press we have chosen the Gold Standard, Forza. Most 1000lb benches have been done on Forza benches, they have the best pad and grip of any bench made. Again, one wasn't enough, so we have 4 of these.

Finally for deadlifts we have 4 platforms, each measuring 2400mm x 1800mm.

Now all these pieces of equipment requires bars and plates obviously. On the mono lifts we run 35mm diameter SportKraft squat bars, made in Finland. These bars do not whip, even with 500kg. On the bench press we run 29mm Eleiko power bars, the best bar available. On the deadlift platforms we have 3 Texas deadlift bars and 1 SportKraft deadlift bar, as used in Worlds.

We only have calibrated plates in the powerlifting area, both Eleiko and Ivanko, over 1700kg worth.

There are also specialist bars from Westside Barbell and Elite FTS, we have Bamboo bench bars, Super Safety squat bars and cambered squat bars, plus the Super Shoulder saver bar.

No powerlifting gym is complete without a Westside Reverse Hyper bench. We also have plenty of bands, chains, boxes and boards

Strength and conditioning
This takes up the most area of our facility. We have another 9 squat racks, because you can never have enough. We have the Iron Edge Iron Cages joined with the chinning bridge. This piece is a life saver, most nights we have 4-5 people on it at the same time.

We also have another 4 bench presses here plus 2 deadlift platforms and 2 Iron Edge weight lifting platforms. This entire area uses Iron Edge bumper plates exclusively. We have around 12 bars here, from Iron Edge/ABC/Zhang Kong.

We have Iron Edge kettle bells, from 4kg all the way up to 80kg, with multiples of each. This is what we mainly use for conditioning at PTC, along with our Ironedge sled.

We have a full set of dumbbells from 7kg to 65kg. We are planning on getting a few heavier ones as the need arises.

We have 7 flat benches and 2 incline benches, a GHR, dip bars, numerous chin bars, Ironedge log and Farmers Walk handles, 4 chalk bowls, plyo boxes and weight trees galore.

We also have another Westside Reverse Hyper in this part of the gym, we think its that valuable.

Rehab
This is an area that lots of gyms neglect, its not attractive, takes up valuable gym space, and its expensive. Ignoring injuries isn't smart. For the first time we are able to equip this area properly. We have around 8 pieces of first generation Nautilus equipment arriving tomorrow, plus a Hammer Strength Unilateral leg press. There will be a 4 way neck machine, leg extension, double shoulder, leg press, a couple of lat pulldowns, a chest supported row, a pullover and a bicep machine. For those that have never had the opportunity to use this Nautilus stuff, you will get a shock. The inventor had a medical background, these machines are nothing like the offerings from China that is clogging up our gyms.

We also have a full compliment of foam rollers, massage balls and compression bands from Iron Edge.

This new facility we have opened is a dream come true for me. I've always been happy with our gyms, but our new facility is something I've had pictured in my mind for many years. Through the support of Iron Edge and ABC, we have grown slowly through the years, now we have reached a point I didn't think would be possible in just 5 years.

This last chapter would not have been possible without the help and support of Emad Nayef. We have talked about the next stage, but you guys will have to wait.

Markos Markopoulos - PTC

Tags: training Markos Markopoulos