I used to train at the same gym for over 20 years. It had 2 gyms, a giant heated pool, squash courts & a large basketball court. There was even a shooting range underneath the gym. Sadly it got contaminated with lead from the rifle range & the cost of decontamination was too great.

Youthtown, one of the best gyms in town shut permanently. After this I did kettlebells & functional training hardcore for 5 years & ended up tearing my rotator cuff. That injury took 18 months of daily physio to get back to 90%. So much for functional training. Its bullshit.

So since that time I have been training heavily at cityfitness which has gyms all over New Zealand some of which are very large & well equipped but its not a power lifter or bodybuilders gym. In many ways its what I call a poofters gym. Plus the music they play is fucking terrible.

Anyway I am out of Auckland for the summer & recently dropped into a gym in Whangarei called Pumping Iron Gym. I also had a few sessions at the aquatic pools gym which has a sauna.

Pumping Iron Gym is a real gym for bodybuilders and power lifters. Best of all they have Keiser Air Resistance Machines.

I had never seen these machines before & they look a bit weird. A bit of a gimmick maybe but having trained for 36 years I had to try it out. I tried the leg extension first. Not bad & I liked the way you control the air pressure with buttons or a foot press. Its so easy and gives you immediate control over resistance either up or down. You can even change resistance effortlessly during an actual movement or isometric hold.

I swapped to regular weights for my hams & as there was a real hot chick doing stretches in the Keiser machine area I went back & tried the pec machine, like a fly I think it was called the butterfly machine. OK again not bad being able to change resistance on the go.

Next I tried the seated bench machine. This is when the lights went on. The machine can go up to 600 lbs. After 36 years training I know my body. This machine is what I want. I’m sure I can double my bench real fast training on this thing. Why? There is no jolting, no strain on tendons that is biomechanically compromised. It just feels way better than fixed resistance. You have foot pedals controlling resistance. You can pump it up for a super strong lock out and pull back down where you need to. you can change resistance immediately for each set.

Its a chest training machine that certainly works for me. The bummer is I leave here on thursday & will only get one more session.

I searched the net & cant find any other gyms in NZ with this gear. Thats not to say they are not out there. Still looking.

Frankly if I can find a Keiser equipped gym to train at for 1-2 years I will be stronger than I have ever been.

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