Gym Bulletin Board

[Rooks]

So my office has a pretty nice little gym.  It has 2 treadmills, 2 elliptical machines, 2 stationary bikes, one barbell, a squat rack / smith machine combo, weights, dumbbells up to 70lbs, and 2 large cable based machines that offer all sorts of basic strength movements.  It also has a bulletin board area that no one ever maintains.  Currently the bulletin board looks like a FLEX magazine vomited all over it.  There is an article about "Highway to Super Guns", a shoulder and back routine, and some other program that are completely irrelevant to the entire populace of our office, since I'm pretty sure most of the people there aren't looking to build 26" arms.

 

Anyway, my point.  It's been 2 years since I got hired here and no one has ever updated this board.  I'm taking action.  I'm going to rip down all these stupid programs and start posting some things that might actually help people.  I realize not everyone is like me and wants to lift weights, and I even get that most people probably won't even look at a bulletin board at a gym.  But I figure I'm going to at least try something instead sitting around doing nothing

 

Here's what I'm thinking so far.

1. A sheet for people to offer ideas for improving the gym (this one is what started the whole thing for me in that I'm trying to get input from others within the company on ways could improve this).
2. [Running Crowd] A small article about the Couch to 5k program.
3. [basic Strength] NF's article on How to do a pull-up (although not sure how to condense that one yet)
4. [Mobility] Some article about MobilityWOD.com and how it gives great info.

So fellow nerds, I need your input.  I listed the equipment above so you can see that many different types of people could use this space.  I thought about something about a basic powerlifitng programs but SL 5x5's documentation is way too wordy.  

 

So what would read on a bulletin board at your gym?  

[Anim07734]

I'll recommend the startbodyweight.com infographic, as it provides a good starting point for anyone who wants to try BW exercises.

 

Not sure if you have room for a whiteboard, but a workout of the day/week section could be nice for people who don't want to build/find/track their own program.

 

As an alternative to posting a bunch of blogs, you could just give a quick intro to the site and provide the link for people to look up on their smartphones.  Could even make one of those flyers with the tear-away strips at the bottom and use it as a pseudo-voting system to see what people are interested in (if all the SL 5x5 strips get taken for people to go look up on their own, it's time to post more info on that; etc).

[Oramac]

Just put up one big printout that says "Nerdfitness.com!!!"  

 

 

You could also put up some motivational phrases/pictures too.  A couple of my favorites:

 

 

 

[Dilnad]

Why not organize it and put some stuff up on the board and not immediately remove other stuff. Just from my corporate experience I've found that people who remove this and put up that in it's place get some negative publicity. People tend to think. what makes his stuff more correct or more important. You also risk pissing off the few people who may actually value that stuff. I'd consider leaving most if not all of the original stuff up and add your own. Give people the chance to think for themselves and decide which direction they feel is best. Maybe pull the other stuff down bit by bit over time. I've seen Steve comment that he's seen people he was dying to walk up to and tell them they are doing it wrong but chose to take the high road and let them figure it out by themselves in due time.

 

Just an opinion of course.

[HedgeMage]

My fave gym bulletin board find is a QR code I can zap with my phone and get a link to the gym info, and useful links.  I, at least, am not going to waste precious gym time staring at a board.  Then again, I'm a techno-weenie.

[Juni0r83]

It's also worth posting stuff about nutrition. Think recipes, articles about ways to improve general wellbeing, etc. specific exercise variants will appeal to some, but nutrition impacts everyone. I would also recommend staying away from any particular dieting ethos (paleo, keto, vegan, etc) as that's a great way to polarize an otherwise potentially receptive audience.

[Rooks]

Thanks for all the feedback everyone!

 

I'll recommend the startbodyweight.com infographic, as it provides a good starting point for anyone who wants to try BW exercises.

 

Not sure if you have room for a whiteboard, but a workout of the day/week section could be nice for people who don't want to build/find/track their own program.

 

As an alternative to posting a bunch of blogs, you could just give a quick intro to the site and provide the link for people to look up on their smartphones.  Could even make one of those flyers with the tear-away strips at the bottom and use it as a pseudo-voting system to see what people are interested in (if all the SL 5x5 strips get taken for people to go look up on their own, it's time to post more info on that; etc).

 

That infographic is pretty slick.  I'll see if I can get it printed in a meaningful fashion.  Also, I like the idea of a "good information places" with links for people to use.  Or as HedgeMage said, maybe I can figure out how QR codes work and make it super easy for people!

 

Just put up one big printout that says "Nerdfitness.com!!!"  

 

 

You could also put up some motivational phrases/pictures too.  A couple of my favorites:

 

Yeah.  I'll get NF up there somehow.  That said, I've never been a big fan of motivational posters.  Appreciate the feedback, and maybe I'll use one or two, but I like info (but again, that's just me).  

 

Why not organize it and put some stuff up on the board and not immediately remove other stuff. Just from my corporate experience I've found that people who remove this and put up that in it's place get some negative publicity. People tend to think. what makes his stuff more correct or more important. You also risk pissing off the few people who may actually value that stuff. I'd consider leaving most if not all of the original stuff up and add your own. Give people the chance to think for themselves and decide which direction they feel is best. Maybe pull the other stuff down bit by bit over time. I've seen Steve comment that he's seen people he was dying to walk up to and tell them they are doing it wrong but chose to take the high road and let them figure it out by themselves in due time.

 

Just an opinion of course.

 

Appreciate that thought.  That said, there is literally no room for anything because of all these programs.  And very few people actually do weight training in the gym so I feel that I should be safe.  But that said, I'll leave them in a folder near the board, as well as post something on the board informing people they can post whatever they want as well.  Open to all!  

 

My fave gym bulletin board find is a QR code I can zap with my phone and get a link to the gym info, and useful links.  I, at least, am not going to waste precious gym time staring at a board.  Then again, I'm a techno-weenie.

 

I like it... assuming I can figure out how QR codes work.  Haha...

 

It's also worth posting stuff about nutrition. Think recipes, articles about ways to improve general wellbeing, etc. specific exercise variants will appeal to some, but nutrition impacts everyone. I would also recommend staying away from any particular dieting ethos (paleo, keto, vegan, etc) as that's a great way to polarize an otherwise potentially receptive audience.

 

Indeed.  Great feedback.  Any thoughts on some basic nutrition stuff?

[Dilnad]

Appreciate that thought.  That said, there is literally no room for anything because of all these programs.  And very few people actually do weight training in the gym so I feel that I should be safe.  But that said, I'll leave them in a folder near the board, as well as post something on the board informing people they can post whatever they want as well.  Open to all!  

I think that sounds like an amiable solution. I'd say go for it!!

[Juni0r83]

Indeed. Great feedback. Any thoughts on some basic nutrition stuff?

Recipes, articles on the importance of things like fibre or water intake, basically if you see something that you find informative and helpful, you can put it on the bulletin board, because maybe someone else will too.