Out With the Old, In With the New

With the ever growing membership and additions to our fitness staff at our Lincoln Park Clubhouse, real-estate in the gym was in high demand. With more members utilizing the gym, working on their off-season goals, alongside our team of 6 trainers, we thought creating a more usable, efficient gym space was in the cards for 2021. Simply put, our existing setup had been outgrown. 

Our main objective was to create more training areas throughout the gym, all while maintaining a relatively small footprint. We wanted to keep the walkways open, and not over clutter the area with bulky stationary machines. Our existing Life Fitness Synrgy 360 unit provided a great base in the middle of the room to work off of, however the rest of the gym had plenty of room for improvement. Breaking each exterior wall up as a work area proved to be the best solution.

With many equipment manufacturers to choose from, we ultimately chose to work with Sorinex for the main portion of the build out. Sorinex is the most sought after strength brand for professional teams, colleges, high schools and military bases. With a premise for creating functional strength training equipment, their seamless custom design process made it relatively easy to maximize our space. Working with our assigned rep Jared, we ultimately created a solution to best fit our needs. The beauty of Sorinex is that everything is modular. If we found we needed some additions down the line, it would be rather easy to rearrange and create more training stations.

The low profile unit includes:

• Squat Rack
• Adjustable Jammer Arms
• Two Adjustable Cable Columns
• Belt Squat
• Landmine
• Step Up 
• Adjustable Pull-Up Stations
• Low Bridge Setup 
• Weight Storage
• Bar Storage
• Band Attachments

In addition to the Sorinex setup, we also added a Keiser Functional Trainer to our space, which has been a home run. The Keiser allows unlimited possibilities for training – any load, any speed, any plane with virtually zero load shock to the body as it utilizes pneumatic resistance. The Keiser unit also allows us to accurately gather some data in regards to power and speed.

If you’re interested in learning more about SMART Golf & Fitness Instruction and our fitness facility, contact us today.

About the Author

Nick Piper is a graduate of Loyola University of Chicago where he received his BS in Exercise Science. He has furthered his education by becoming a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist through the National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA), as well as a Functional Golf Specialist through the Gray Institute.

Over the last few years, Nick has been a sports performance coach, where he has had the opportunity to work with and train professional and collegiate athletes (NHL, AHL, NCAA), as well as lead and develop hundreds of youth athletes to their full potential.

Click here to learn more about Nick.