bare bones...

Walking past the guardhouse as i got back from a full day Saturday's work, i saw something that made me think i was hallucinating.

No, it wasnt Linda Evangelista topless on a tricycle dragging a giant Goonch catfish through an inflated swimming pool of mayonnaise. No. PRETTY sure of that.

Something more mundane.

First thing i thought to myself - "Holy shit, is that a bench press machine on the CCTV?"

I ask the guard, "We have a gym here?"

And he says, "AAWW HELL YAAAW!"

And im like, "AAWW HELL YAAAW!!"

Turns out there was one all along - it's been there for years. The only thing that ticked me off slightly was that it used to be a Squash court that they had gutted and mutilated with mirrors and tiles and frankensteined it with machinery and threadmills everywhere.

It was already 630pm on a Saturday - my tennis hopes had been dashed, so i was thinking of packing up and embarking on a 30min bus ride to paya lebar to get to the company gym, so this was a welcome change-up.

Boy was it DIFFERENT.

Beside the pool, there's a small club house, with a games room and changing rooms, and a flight of stairs that leads down. Down to the pump room, where u can hear the engine whirring through the old wood door. But the stairs dont end there - they go further down one more floor, where a tiny strand of light peeks out from underneath the door at the bottom.

Open that up, and there it is - the gym. I call it the Dungeon - and was a dungeon through and through.

The Dungeon is what people will call, the titular Bare Bones Gym. This place is not for the pampered. What makes it a bare bones gym? I'll tell ya:

1) No airconditioning - this reason is typically enough to keep women away

2) No radio - this reason keeps posers away

3) No modern day machinery.

Yeap, you heard me right. Bare as bare can be. Back to the basics i would say. I step into the gym and on the threadmill for a warm up, and im already sweating like a pig. There are mostly free weights, with only the basic bench press, lat pull down and thigh stretching machines. Nothing else. So those of you looking for an assisted pullup machine, or a guided preacher curl, or a "low impact" leg exercise - SORRY, try some place else.

Immediately i realize that I've been spoiled by the company gym. While I can usually manage 40kilos on a bench press, in the dungeon, im struggling with 30kilos. While i can usually manage a 35kilo shoulder press, here im barely getting past 20. My deadlift went from 40kg down to 30kg. Basically, every weight that i could usually manage, i had to cut down by at least 20%.

Without the assisted machines, i did only pure free weights and basic exercises. And the "heat" of room temperature sapped my strength away. This is endurance training at its finest - and i dont remember sweating as much as i ever did. And i struggled to get up the stairs back to my apartment.

Excellent stuff. I'm going back there tomorrow morning.