Georgia Tech Campus Recreation Center
750 Ferst Dr
Atlanta, GA 30332 USA
(404) 385-7529
- 9/28/2011
5/5 stars
Most of Georgia Tech is dedicated to learning about submicron waveguide effects, astrotelemetry, thermohydraulic performance, and other everyday items that people plain don't realize *are* everyday items. This part is different. This part of Georgia Tech is dedicated to *endorphins*.
This is not a wimpy gym, but it's very accepting of wimpy people like me. You're as likely to see t-shirts covering every era and series of Star Trek as frat shirts. The latter are there, particularly the first week of any semester, but even then they show engineering ingenuity. How the hell can you pop the collar of a t-shirt?!?! And the full span of faculty ages work out here as well.
I cause myself pain here almost every weekday morning. About half the days are spent beating myself up with cardio and weights. The ellipticals and stationary bikes provide a good range of options. There are those with TVs (ew), and those without. There are ellipticals that show each stride's range. There also are stair masters, the upper-body ellipitcal-like thing, etc. Almost all have all their functionality. Sometimes one's a little out of whack, but nothing like those of us who use them. Check where the pregnant women work. Seriously. They wipe the floor with most of us. Watch where they go, because they'll show you what's working best. And they'll make you feel like an utter wimp, even if you're one of the ROTC kids.
The weights also span a wide range. There are free weights (I'm clueless), cables (I'm still clueless), semi-cable-ish (getting there), and the fully guided simple weight machines (my category). If you're there "off-hours" (mornings, and pretty much any time once we start crushing the students with work, MUAHAHAHAHAHA), there's little to no wait. If there's a wait, just switch to circuit training and you'll be better than fine (and look it, too).
The other mornings? I make a fool of myself in the pools. Typically the "recreation" pool, where real swimmers practice and are polite enough not to laugh at me. The recreation pool's comfortable and still permits serious workouts. The competition pool ('96 Olympics, Michael Phelps, etc.) bottoms out somewhere in the south Pacific. It's scary. In a good way. I'm all sorts of proud of myself for managing it a few times. And there are spas. Perfect for that cool down phase after "working out." Really.
There's an indoor track, etc. But real running scares me. I'll stick to my fake, feel-good running TYVM. And there's a sauna, but I am old and out of that category.