Just because the juice bar at your gym doesn't have your favorite flavor of protein drink or there is a crack in one of the hundreds of mirrors in your gym does not make it a hardcore gym.
Most of the members here are not old enough to remember when Powerhouse, Olympus, and powerhouse gyms were at least border line hardcore gyms. This was before ellipticals, stair master, power yoga, and Tae bo.
There were no televisions playing Dr. Phil and oprah, and x-m radio playing endless elevator music.
Hard core gyms have dumbells that actually go over 100 lbs. There are benches and power racks , lots of plates and bars. The equipment isn't all clean and shiny because IT GETS USED. There are not 100 different machines that are designed to make working out EASIER! training is hard work and it should be.
A gym should smell like a gym and not fucking wildflowers!
Now, I am not suggesting that there has to be a dirt floor and a fire pit, (but that would be kinda cool) but come on, the gyms today are designed to attract fat lazy hpusewives and the average 9-5er, they are not hard core. Holy shit!, some gyms have actually installed alarms that go off if you make too much noise of any kind while training, WTF!!!
Chances are that even if you think you have been to a hardcore gym, you are probably still pretty far off.
I could go on forever about the candyass gyms of today, but I think you get the idea.
The Next thing that makes a Hardcore gym is the people that train there and how they train. I don't care if you are a Bodybuilder,Powerlifter, Olympic lifter or what ever, you can see who is hardcore with there training and who is just going through the motions.
If you wear gloves while you train, you are not hardcore, if you wear your belt for every rep of every set of every exercise, you are not Hardcore, I won't even say how that looks. Don't even get me started about the Pad on the squat bar!
When you walk into a true hardcore gym the hair on the back of your neck will stand up, the blood will start pumping as your heart rate increases and you haven't even touched a weight yet.
It ain't about how much weight you lift but how you lift it, the intensity and your commitment to the moment.
All of this is actually too much to try and explain with just words, the few of you that have been there know what I mean, it has to be experienced first hand. You will know it when you see it, you won't just think it's hardcore you will KNOW IT!
Unfortunately there are not very many of these types of gyms around, but their numbers are actually increasing because more and more people are beginning to want this kind of atmosphere and are opening gyms to satisfy that need.
There are a couple around, you just have to search them out. Once you have experienced it there is no going back.