Thanks to the Navy and its fitness facilities, I now look very similar to Arnie.1. Charleston, S.C. : Naval Weapons Station Goose Creek is home to at least 3 fitness facilities. -Sam's gym is the main one. It has slightly old weight equipment, although perfectly functional. The locker room is OK. The shower stalls have a tendency to flood... There are also racquetball courts and a basketball court. The worst part of the gym is definitely the hours. Definitely more closed than open!
-The Bowman center, which is right outside of the power school building on base, actually has a newer, cleaner facility. The weights are also slightly old, but the locker rooms are very new and nice! Plus it's a 5 min trip from power school so you can get in a legitimate work out at lunch. I attribute this gym for helping me maintain my sanity and 25'' biceps during power school.
-The barge gym, at prototype, down the road. Gross. They have newish cardio equipment, but cardio should be done outside on the pavement, not in a room. The barge is obviously a floating pile of s***t so you can imagine the locker room.
2. Groton, CT: Submarine Base New London is one of the oldest Naval bases in the country, having been built in 1872. There are two fitness facilities here, both in older brick buildings.
-Morton Hall Gymnasium: A true "gymnasium" it has 4 full sized basketball courts, and a raised indoor track (7.5 laps = 1 mile). There is a portion cordoned off for weights and cardio equipment. The lifting equipment there is actually quite new and nice! The funny thing is they have tons of machines except this one:
What the heck? Who doesn't have an ab bench? The locker rooms here though are the biggest complaint. The lockers themselves are coin operated. LAME. Then the shower is a huge prison shower. Next.-Body Works fitness center: With a name like that, it's got to be filled with beautiful women and luxurious amenities. Then you remember that you're in the navy and that there will be no women and you can maybe hope for decent amenities. Well, there are decent amenities! This location is a cardio heavy location, and has mostly weight machines. There are 3 racks of free weights, but no bench!! There is a cable assisted tower for squats and such, but those are for commies anyway. You can still do a whole bicep + ab workout here, and even a leg workout if you are willing to use the commie tower. The locker room is the best part. When you give them your military ID, the give you a towel and a locker with a key! The showers are funny: there are 3 stalls, in a row. You can tell that they hooked up the heads in series because the first one gets to a certain temp, and the rest can't get as hot. Haha! That being said, always grab the one on the right.
3. My current home port gym: I shall leave my homeport a mystery for now, but I will say that the equipment there is old, some of it like the Charleston gym, much of it even older. Being that it's a pretty populous port, it gets use by many more people than in Charleston or Groton facilities. The locker room was also not as nice as Groton. As happy as I was to leave 20 degree weather, the gyms sure were nice...
I finished packing my sea bag today, as I will be heading out for a while. I'm disappointed that I can't get to know my new homeport for a little longer, however I signed up to go to sea and am very excited to get out there! I even got my submarine glasses and submarine bowler hat. Take a look:
Fair winds and Following Seas!
