(Grandma and Grannie Annie – the title of this blog just means “where we work out.”) 🙂

As many of you know, Brian and I are kind of workout fiends. By “kind of workout fiends,” what I really mean is that I probably owe many of you an apology for the daily Facebook reminder that I went to Crossfit. But I digress.

We knew that one of the first things we wanted to do once we got settled in here was to find a gym we liked, and I’m pleased to say we have. Ironically, it’s called Fitness Studio California, so it’s like we never even left the U.S.! It’s great because you can join without a contract, and it’s only 30€ per month, which is cheap given what other gyms around here cost.

FSC is a warehouse gym about 1.5 miles from our current apartment, perfect for a warm up bike ride. (Well, it’s mostly downhill, so I say “warm up” loosely. What’s REALLY fun is riding back home after the gym, uphill.) It’s everything we could possibly want in a gym – it’s smelly, sweaty, and kind of dark. It’s got everything from stationary bikes to treadmills, free weights to squat machines, yoga mats to punching bags. It’s even got an actual pull-up bar! (That’s exciting for me – I was afraid my pull-ups were going to disappear quickly.)

We really like the atmosphere there; everyone respects each other while they work out, and they even help you out every once in a while. I’m generally the only girl there, which was a little off-putting at first, but once I start my WOD (workout of the day), I don’t even see anyone else. I even had a guy approach me post-WOD one time to tell me he thought it was “really cool” I was doing dumbbell snatches. I guess that doesn’t happen very often.

Personally, my only complaint about the gym is that nobody puts away the weights they used for the barbells. They’re scattered all over the gym, so it’s like a scavenger hunt. That, and it’s hard to find a matching set, especially rubber ones.

Credit: http://www.bodybuilding.com

I knew I was going to miss my Crossfit crew, so this lessens the blow a little bit since I can visit the WOD page and workout as if I was still there! Needless to say I think this will be our gym for (hopefully) the next year!

Here are some not so crisp iPhone pics I snapped after our workout today:

Brian doing some post-WOD stretching.

Awesome chaos.

My fave.

Box jump alternative.

There’s so much room for activities!

The smallest of the bench press racks, so hence, it is mine.

Tons of mismatched dumbbells. Finding a matching set is a WOD itself.

Where I confuse people who don’t know what a kipping pull-up is.