The best gym in Cuba

[Pseudonym]

I spent Christmas/New Year with a few friends in Mexico and Cuba. Both are Spanish-speaking countries, and at the start of the trip my Spanish vocabulary was limited to “Si”, “No”, “Muchas gracias” and “Por favor”. But it’s amazing how far that can get you.

Visiting Cuba, one thing we all agreed was that we didn’t want to stay in tourist resorts and only do touristy stuff. We wanted to see the real Cuba.

So we stayed in casas particulares – bed and breakfasts, and made sure we got off the beaten track. In the capital, Havana, we stayed in the old part of the city, La Habana Vieja.

Wow. It was absolutely mind-blowing. Like we’d stepped back in time.

Narrow, cobblestone roads full of potholes, pedestrians, horse and carts, stray dogs – and the occasional tourist driving the wrong way down the one-way street. :oops:

On the one hand, Cuba seems like an incredibly poor country – and it is. Shops are often just holes in the wall, with only a few items on display. Not a lot of product choice here. On the other hand, it’s a very happy country, people are well educated and no-one is starving.

So I was very keen to see what a Cuban gym looked like. I approached someone in the street who looked like a fellow gym junkie, pointed to my map of Havana, and said “Gymnasio?” in a hopeful tone of voice.

It turned out that Amaury, my gym junkie friend, spoke excellent English. And he was just on his way home from the gym. So he promptly turned around and led me back to what he believed was “the best gym in Cuba”.

Cubans are amazingly friendly people. When the gym couldn’t give me change for $3 note (a casual visit was a whopping $2), the receptionist tried to give me $1 out of her own purse before I stopped her.

Using another member as an interpreter, I explained to the gym owner that I’d like to take a few photos for my amigos back in New Zealand. But despite the best attempts of my interpreter, the owner refused to allow it.

My interpreter later offered to take a photo for me, even though he’d be kicked out of the gym if he got caught. Again, I refused. I didn’t think NZBB needed an interior photo so badly that we got him in trouble. But the next day I came back and managed to get a sneaky photo on my phone.

As you can see, the gym isn’t huge. No cardio equipment, just a carpeted running track around its circumference. But it has all the basic weights machines. I didn’t recognise the brand, but they’re designed a lot like older, lighter Hammer Strength machines. Not bad.

The biggest issue was a lack of weights. I think there were maybe half a dozen 15kg plates, and that was as heavy as it got. There seemed to be 4 sets of dumbbells (although these were adjustable).

I met up with Amaury later on, and asked him how he coped. He admitted that on leg days, he used nearly every weight in the gym. He seemed quite surprised that I should find this unusual – from his point of view, it was a good weightlifters gym and had much better equipment than any other Cuban gym he’d ever joined.

Certainly, there was a good atmosphere here (well, apart from the murderous humidity). A bunch of guys who were clearly serious lifters, and a bunch more who were serious up-and-comers. Not many time-wasters at all. Oh, and the ladies weren’t bad looking either.

So, when you’re next in Havana, make sure you check out “Gimnasio” on Inquisidor Street, between Sol and Santa Clara. It’s well worth the $2 for a casual session. \:D/

[Cameron_R]

Spanish vocabulary was limited to “Si”, “No”, “Muchos gracias” and “Por favor”. But it’s amazing how far that can get you.

muchAs gracias :roll:

I see "word of the day" did not work for you! LOL

Interesting concept of the running track. I guess when equipment is so expensive, you make do in other ways.

[Pseudonym]

Dunno what you're talking about. :shifty:

[tomsammce]

Cool mate.

Lol check those stairs out haha imagine that after leg day

[dannyjay]

word, cuba is gully

[FellowshipOfTheRon]

sounds like a fun trip, nice review

[In_Flames]

Seems like you had an amazing time!

What was Mexico like? Any awesome stories to share?! :pray:

[Pseudonym]

Oh, the other interesting thing about wandering around Havana was looking at people's physiques. I don't know whether it's genetics, or diet, or active lifestyle, or a combination of all three, but Cubans seem to be a really lean people.

It didn't look like they were underfed - many were quite muscular. And they still had their share of fatties. But the average build seemed to be leaner, and the number of extremely ripped (as in, competitive bodybuilder ripped) was amazingly high. Where in NZ, 1 in 500 or 1000 people would be shredded enough to make me do a double take, in Cuba it was probably more like 1 in 50.

I suspect it's mostly the Caribbean genetics. So many of them had the big, defined shoulders you see in Jamaican sprinters. And I bet they didn't train for it, either. Bastards. :grin:

[genetic freek]

Did you feel safe off the beaten track?

[Danomyte]

Great in sight Pseudo - cheers for posting this.

Makes me wanna just travel and experience gyms around the world.

Man, they should make a series on that aye - would be mean!

[Pseudonym]

Did you feel safe off the beaten track?

Absolutely. We were sensible about it, and didn't take unnecessary risks. But at no time did I feel unsafe.

Makes me wanna just travel and experience gyms around the world.

Man, they should make a series on that aye - would be mean!

Neat idea. I wonder how much more time off work my boss would give me. Maybe if I asked really nicely... :pray:

[Terrymundo]

what was the cuban food like?

[severe]

Cuba for the win mate. Too awesome! Bucket list destination.

[Pseudonym]

what was the cuban food like?

Honestly? Not so flash. Going to restaurants in Havana felt like stepping back into post-war rations. Restaurants do the best they can, but it seems like there are very few ingredients available to them (and looking at empty shelves in the shops certainly supported this theory). Flacid canned green beans are not my idea of yum.

Food improves when you get into the country, and we saw a field growing green beans - so my guess is that the issue is more transportation of ingredients. There's also a big issue with transportation of people, and you'll see Cubans standing in the middle of nowhere waiting to hitch a lift at "truck stops". When a passing truck does stop, they cram impossible numbers of themselves onto the back of it. Here's a very modest example (there were much better examples, but if I'd stopped to take a photo, I'd have had 20 Cubans in the back of my car)

And here are the townfolk of Viñales buying their onions.

I should also add that one restaurant in Havana stood out for its modern, tasty food - still the same limited ingredients, just cooked smarter. I can recommend Paladar Doña Eutimia. Interestingly, it's also one of the first privately owned companies - the government only made this possible two years ago.

Anyway, you don't go to Cuba for the food. You go to see a totally different way of life - and it certainly delivers on that!

[Ronin]

Nice write-up mate. I hope you also managed to get in some underwater time as well, I hear there are some spectacular dive sites in the area.

Oh and, if you brought back any spare Montecristos....