garage gym: Gym Jones Salvation Club

Monday, January 17, 2011

Gym Jones Salvation Club

Regular readers of this blog soon realize that I am a fan of the Gym

Jones web site. In fact, it was Gym Jones that inspired me to remodel my garage so my friends and I could train the way we wanted, when we wanted. That said, I would like to stress that we are not trying to copy Gym Jones. How could we? Why would we? We are attempting to create a space of our own where we can grow physically, mentally and spiritually. Therefore, garage gym will have to evolve organically drawing from many influences. For my own training I often take the workouts right from the Gym Jones web site. I often modify the training to better suit our equipment, athletes and goals. Mountain athletes can be fiercely individual. We are often self taught, shunning the need for a mentor or coach. Our approach to seeking improved performance is random, with random results. We would rather make up a workout (the same tired routine) based on our strengths, than be humbled by something new, guarding the ego at all cost. It's important to keep an open mind, constantly evaluating your own training and results. A critical and unsentimental self analysis is required on the path to improved athletic performance. Unhappy with the results of your training? Buy a book, watch a video, surf the web, or hire a coach. Try something new.

So with little hesitation I joined the Gym Jones Salvation Club ($50.oo per month or $500.00 a year). I drank the Kool aid. The club offers more information, and (perhaps more importantly) inspiration than the public site. The daily workouts are explained in greater detail with a glossary of commonly used abbreviations. I find the knowledge articles to be very informative, blending exercise science with their practical experience. There is also more video and photos, as well as a member forum. I like that the forum has some rules, keeping the conversation focused (mostly) about fitness. But I've really just scratched the surface of what the membership offers and I'm pretty happy with it so far. I'll try to pass some of this information to the athletes who train at garage gym. I don't think it would be ethical to just post purchased information on this blog out of respect to Mark Twight and his crew. Recently I posted some information about cross-training for climbing and my experience with Gym Jones on Supertopo.com. I figured some other climbers might find it as inspiring as I did. What a mistake! The response was mostly negative. I declined a rebuttal. You can check it out for yourself by searching under my code name Spike Flavis on the Supertopo forum.

We've been enjoying a great ski season in the Sierra. Garage gym has been busy and we've welcomed a few new athletes into the mix. Currently it's sunny and warm with a bit of spring fever setting in. But we know better, right? (photo Tim Mc Dermott on the last of 10 rounds of Kettlebell swings x 10, KB goblet squat x 10, 21" box jump x10 w/one min rest between rounds)

1 comment:

PatrickJanuary 19, 2011 at 2:57 PM
Came here from supertopo... Generally, the rational there stay quiet and just like to listen to the old school climbers and gather inspiration. The others do what they do.

I've been doing my own solo gym jones wannabe thing here in Kentucky; so it's inspiring to see others do the same. Thanks for keeping it going and providing me with some more inspiration... Looking forward to reading more...
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Introduction

garage gym

I’ve always been a gym rat. I like to workout. In particular I’ve always been interested in strength and conditioning as a means to improve climbing performance. Bachar ladders, home made fingerboards, pull up bars, and crack machines have over the years littered my garages and lawns. In my thirty years of climbing I have almost always had access to a commercial gym. I have also accumulated a small library of books and articles on fitness and climbing performance. These include a dog-eared, twenty-year-old copy of Bill Pearl’s Strength Training, to my recently purchased copy of Eric Horst’s Maximum Climbing. After an extended lay off due to illness and pursuing other interests, in the fall of 2009 I began to train again.

After a few workouts at a local gym I began to question if it (a machine based circuit) was actually helping me. I was going through the motions. It was boring as hell. A few days later I stumbled upon an article in Outside magazine on GYM JONES the Salt Lake City based gym owned by famed alpinist Mark Twight. Since I’ve always admired Twight’s climbing, writing, and taste in music, I quickly drank the kool aid. The Gym Jones web site was a revelation. A short time later I discovered Mountain Athlete.com, Climbstrong.com and Cross fit. I soon realized that I had been wasting my time, and perhaps I had never really trained with any meaningful level of intensity. In Twight’s book Kiss or Kill Confessions of a Serial Climber he says, “…know the difference between working out and training”.

Since family, career, and other interests take up a lot of my time, I decided I needed the ability to train at home. Fortunately I have a large garage. I started with a pull up bar, fingerboard and a few dumbbells. Later I added kettlebells, a medicine ball, gymnast rings, a small climbing wall, and an Air dyne bike. The information age made it easy for me to find the books, websites, and videos by Paval Tsatouline, Dan John, Neil Gresham and others. Yet none of these training philosophies addressed the specific needs of my friends and myself, i.e. forty-something’s who climb Yosemite’s long hard free climbs and big walls in a day. High Sierra car-to-car, dawn-to-dark missions that combine ultra running/hiking with multi-pitch rock climbs and high ridge traverses (my personal favorite). We also skate ski, backcountry ski, as well as ride mountain and road bikes. Our training combines all these influences into a potent brew. The process is always evolving. We’ll try anything. Then we’ll evaluate it, modify it, keep it, or chuck it. Then try something else. The results speak for themselves.

Mike Davis RN

Truckee, California

Spring 2010