Chapter 23 Facility Design, Layout, and Organization part three

    In part one of this series, we outlined the process of building a faciality from the ground up and designing accessory equipment within a facility. All of this information can be found in the Essentials of Strength Training and Conditioning 4th edition. The material itself is more informational, but very practical. The arrangement of equipment such as barbells, dumbbells, machines, Olympic platforms and aerobic machines makes for a better workout experience. Consistently trying to find equipment is frustrating. The idea behind arranging equipment in a certain fashion is for safety reasons and traffic flow. Crowded bench presses with weight trees create a log jam (especially on Mondays for gym bros) around that portion of the gym. Spotters for large muscle groups such as bench, and squat need spotters or in some cases more than one spotter. Having enough room for spotters to navigate without disrupting traffic flow is ideal. Having walkways, creating enough space for spotters builds a traffic flow to the gym that participants can be as effective with workouts as possible.

    

    To aid in visual aesthetic of the room shorter equipment should be placed in the center of the room that way the taller equipment can along the walls. This way managers and participants alike are able to see more of the room. Stretching and warm-up areas are to be 49 square feet that includes mats, bands, foam rollers, tennis balls, golf balls (or any other SMR type equipment)    

Barbells and dumbbells would ideally be at least 36 inches apart to ensure spotters can navigate the space, and more than one participant can utilize the equipment. The arrangement of such equipment can create natural walkways within the facility itself. Walkways at least 36 inches wide create a natural walkway and ensure folks navigating throughout the gym are not in the way of folks working out. For machines the concept is the same-at least 36 inches away. Machines can be arranged to maximize circuit training or super setting with alternating upper body and lower body machines. Olympic platforms should have more safety cushion than machines or free weights due to the bouncing of equipment and potential falling of participants. I formula can be used to measure distance. Typically, a platform height is 8 ft with walkway space of 4ft is multiplied by the width of the platform (8ft) with walkway space of 4 ft). (8x4) x (8x4) equals 144 square ft. 

    Aerobic machine distance varies from machine to machine. Stationary bikes and Stair steppers are very found in nearly every gym and do not require a lot of space between them. The relative effort used, and sound produced by using the machine. In a perfect world these machines are 24 square feet apart. Skiers (if your gym has one) is a rare machine that may or may not be available. These narrow-ish machines only require 6 square ft of space between. Rowers are to be spaced 40 square ft because of the high intensity these machines are used for. Treadmills have the largest space needed with 45 square ft due to the need for walk space, sweat from users and the sound emitting from high enough intensity.