Das Gym

The second part of my summer trio to Slovenia involved a trip to the World famous Intelligent Strength gym in Vienna.

Our flights were to and from Vienna so it made sense to check out the gym when we were ‘in the area’.

After visiting Lake Bled we left Slovenia and drove to Vienna. It was a long drive and after a few near misses with with Trams in Vienna we eventually got to our very questionable Airbnb……..

We only had one full day in Vienna which was the Sunday before flying home on the Monday.

We returned the hire car early Sunday and set off for the gym, which didn’t look like it was far away but was actually a 2 hour stomp, which ended up being a great way to see the city.

It was also a good chance to catch up with Ian brainstorm some ideas and also the walk helped ease off our legs from the 3 days of hell in Maribor with Marck.

I had heard much about the gym we were visiting and with it being located in the home of the legend Arnold, it was always going to be worth visiting.

It didn’t look like much from the outside, but when you walked in it was something special.

The place was kitted out with every bit of kit you could ever imagine and top of the range stuff. There was literally nothing they didn’t have and it was all the best of gear.

Once we got some food and took in the atmosphere, we were ready to get a session in. We didn’t have anything planned. After 3 days of he gruelling sessions in Maribor, we were just here to experience it.

As we made our way to get changed we quickly realised these guys were fans of Arnold. The place was like a shrine to the bodybuilding legend – they even had TV screens showing the movie Twins above the urinals. Watching Danny Devito whilst doing the toilet was definitely a first for me.

The pictures of the gym will do it far more justice than what I can describe. They could cater for bodybuilding, strongman, powerlifting, Crossfit and the general public. There was a vast range of different people training in there. All taking their training very seriously. What was interesting was the choice of music – they had classical music playing the whole time which created an interesting atmosphere. Very quiet, with the classical music in the background and the sound of weights being moved.

We spent a couple of hours trying out different pieces of kit and equipment before getting some more food and heading back to the digs.

A very different gym to Marcks in Slovenia but a very worthwhile visit.

New experiences and ideas to take back home.