I refuse to hip thrust in public
Hip thrusting in a private gym in Manhattan, Kansas at Gym Pods.
By the time hip thrusting became a popular exercise for training glutes, I was already at the end of my rope with traditional gyms. I had been dealing with the awkwardness for over a decade.
I started lifting weights in 2012 while in college. I remember sitting on a bench reviewing a basic body building plan. I was focused on getting the form correct - I knew that the fundamentals were key. I played basketball through school and focusing on the fundamentals was ingrained in me by my grandfather; he was a basketball coach who emphasized focusing on fundamentals throughout my life.
This mindset is something I apply to everything I do. He was famous for saying (not in these exact words) “you have no business doing fancy plays if you can’t even rebound.” With this in mind, I knew form would be critical in getting the results I was after. I pulled up a few YouTube videos to help me remember proper form.
In the first video, the guy was talking about all the idiots at the gym who don’t know how to properly place the bar during squats. “Awesome,” I thought. “That’s going to be me.” I had no idea what I was doing. I was afraid I was going to embarrass myself.
Feeling worse but knowing I had to start somewhere, I stumbled around the gym trying to figure out how to use the equipment without looking like a total rookie. I remember exactly how I felt when I made my way to the deadlift platform. My thoughts were racing as I struggled to load the 45-pound plates onto the bar. The bar dropped, a plate rolled away, and I felt like a complete phony. I didn’t belong there. I had no idea what I was doing.
I finished the first few exercises and moved on to leg press. There was only one machine. I sat down to wait for the person using it, but as soon as he finished, a group of five guys jumped in—clearly his friends. I decided to wait, telling myself I could use this as an opportunity to practice patience, which I did not have.
Twenty minutes later, I was still waiting. They weren’t going to be done anytime soon, and I needed to leave to get ready for work.
I walked out of the gym thinking, “This is insanity. People actually do this every day?”
I struggled through gym workouts for the next 10 years. It never got easier, and I hated every minute of it. I tried other types of workouts, but I always came back to the same conclusion: heavy weights are truly the gold standard for transforming your body. The thing that was frustrating was that I enjoyed the weight training part - I just really, really hated the gym part.
Fast forward to 2023. I had just moved to a new town and joined a brand-new gym. It was enormous, and I thought the experience might finally be different. In a gym that size, I assumed the usual problems wouldn’t exist.
I showed up ready to start my workout, but that familiar frustration came rushing back as soon as I saw the relatively small weight training area packed with people. I got through my first exercise and moved to the Smith machine. The moment I loaded the bar, someone stood right behind me, awkwardly trying to make eye contact. I looked up and was immediately asked the dreaded question: “How many sets do you have left?”
That was it.
I was done. The purpose of going to the gym was to work out and prioritize myself, but this experience was anything but that. I hated everything about it.
I went home and immediately started venting to my boyfriend. I told him I was going to build a home gym. He reminded me that we were about to move, and transporting all that equipment would be a nightmare.
That’s when the idea clicked.
Why isn’t there a gym equipped with heavy weights that I can book and use privately—like the Airbnb of gyms?
That question is where this journey began. Tired of the all-too-common frustrations of traditional gyms, I knew something entirely different needed to be created. Gym Pods was designed to feel nothing like a traditional gym. Instead of being frustrating and stressful, it is peaceful and private—a space free of judgment, anxiety, lines, and waiting.
If you believe that people shouldn’t have to deal with common gym frustrations and you’d like to create a private gym in your community, visit thegympods.com/own-a-gym
