In today's world, we want everything shiny and new. We want air conditioned spaces when it's hot. We want the best equipment man can create. We want it in our homes, and in our fitness places.

When did the gritty iron weight rooms without any windows and A/C, salt stained benches, and poorly lit weight rooms become a thing of the past? When did it become uncool to workout at such a place?

What ever happened to picking up heavy objects while screaming your lungs out and slamming them back down? Oh yeah, it died when Planet Fitness came into play.

But you workout at Planet Fitness.

You're right, I do, but that's only because it's what the wallet allows. If I had more money, I'd be working out some place else. Like a YMCA, Lifetime Fitness or some place with actual free-weights.

Don't get me wrong, I love the college's rec. center and am grateful to have access to it, I just love that rustic, manly, true grit, balls-to-the-wall feel that old school gyms have. I love the red dust that is left on your hands from the rusty old barbell. The hot and heavy air that fills your lungs with every deep breath taken. The smell that can knock a grown man to his knees as soon as he sets foot in the weight room.

That's the gym that I love. No gym needs fancy weight machines, or rules that say "You can't do this, that, or the other thing." The only rule should be that if you aren't there to throw around some heavy objects, leave. It's as simple as that.

That should be the law of the gym. None of this, "no slamming weights because you'll scare away our patrons." Excuse me for working hard.

So bring back the old-style weight rooms. The ones where nobody cared what you were doing, as long as you were there to lift. Those were gyms. Not these "weight rooms" (if you can call them that) that we have today. I'm talking the down and dirty, sweat soaked benches, bent barbells, cracked 45 lb. weight plates, broken dumbbells, air filled with man-stank, and hazardous cable machines.

Those are the gyms I want back.