Gym Review: Hyde Park Gym in Austin

If you're looking for a no frills strength gym in Austin, be sure to check out Hyde Park Gym. Whether you're training for bodybuilding, powerlifting, Olympic weightlifting or strongman, this place has the equipment you need.

Fees

The gym is affordable and has no sign up fee or contracts. This makes it super easy to join if you're just passing through. They have an option for day passes as well if you're only looking to drop-in.

Olympic Weightlifting

Since my sport of choice is Olympic weightlifting, I'll give a more in depth review about the weightlifting area/equipment.

The weightlifting area is tucked away in a large back room. Like most strength gyms, you can drop weights. During all hours of the day you can find people training in here. It's never too crowded unless you come when there's a weightlifting class going on. It's a shares/multi-use space so other members, coaches, and athletes from different sports will also be training here.

Platforms

Hyde Park Gym has 4 large platforms. One of the larger platforms is all rubber mat. If you're not used to training on something like that, choose a different platform. There also a few other smaller platforms used for deadlifting which can be used to practice, but I avoided these since they are too short for split jerks.

plates

They have kilo bumper plates and a ton of change plates. My one complaint is that while they have 2.5kg discs and 5kg discs, they only have one pair of 5kg bumper plates. And the one pair of 5kg bumpers are usable but are pretty damaged and haphazardly fixed with tape. The discs you cannot drop so if you're a beginner or like to know you can bail without damaging equipment, you might have a challenge. I think it would be a great addition if they added a cheap pair of 10lb bumpers.

bars

There are a ton of bars here. They have Olympic weightlifting bars in a variety of conditions: some are new and some are old, some are expensive and some are inexpensive. The women's bars are not out on the floor, but in a back room. Not a huge deal, but if you use a woman's bar, every session you are forced to walk your bar out and put it back.

other

There is no shortage of squat racks. Some platforms have cages, some are built into the platform and there is a single freestanding rack that can be easily be moved around. There are jerk blocks and a few other blocks for you to use during practice.

oddities

The mirrors are oddly placed in this back room. Only one platform has a view without a mirror. It's my favorite platform. The other ones will either have a full or partial mirror. This is only bothersome when practicing anything from the rack: squats, jerks, snatch balance...etc.

Coaching / Personal Training

As a member of Hyde Park Gym you have access to very knowledgable coaching and training staff. Many of them compete and understand the training and mentality needed to be a successful athlete.

I've done a personal session with Coach Jennifer. She's a physical therapist, former power lifter turned Olympic weightlifter, and one bad ass #girlboss. We primarily worked on squats where we went through a series of breathing drills to help me stay tight throughout my squat. We also came up with various cues aimed at helping me keep a neutral spine and also keep that position when coming back up. All around it was a great training session and I learned a lot!

I also had the pleasure of working with Coach Keith. He teaches a weightlifting class at Hyde Park Gym. The class costs extra, but you can also pay to drop in. The class was fun and incredibly helpful. I'm coming back from a wrist injury and Keith pushed me, but also checked up on my wrist to make sure I wasn't aggravating it. We worked on trying to push through my heels for longer during my snatch. We also worked on enforcing the idea of not walking the tightrope when it came to my split jerk. It was a great class and I can't wait to go again.