Boss Barbell Club - Mountain View, California

calvin

This is the best gym in the bay area.

A family run gym by the multiple world record powerlifter Dan Green and his wife Sparkle, this place is your cure to corporate fitness. Eleiko barbells, Ivanko plates, Rogue bumpers, EliteFTS machines, racks, and monolifts, SBD wraps-- this gym has the highest quality of equipment you can get and all of it is available for everyone.

Close to Stanford and Palo Alto and the general Silicon Valley area this gym is not oversubscribed like way too many businesses in the area. Going in the mornings or early afternoons I have never once waited for any equipment. Evenings are more busy; the Google "how busy is it" estimator has a good representation of daily variation in my experience. This is not only a place for elite powerlifters either; you will find every type of lifter across every skill level and personal background, from olympic lifters, to older people seeking general fitness, to athletes looking for accommodation for their own sport's specialties.

You have access to everything from piles of resistance bands, grip chalk, olympic weightlifting bars, gymnastics rings, scores of weightlifting belts, wrist wraps, lifting straps, chains, climbing ropes, wheels, rollers, knee wrap tighteners, piles of supplements, cardio machines, plate loaded bodybuilding machines, dozens upon dozens of top of the line barbells and barbell variants, squat yoke bars, kabuki bench bars, trap bars, piles of dumbbells going up to weights that are almost puzzlingly high, heaps of bench bar variations, and hundreds upon hundreds of other things I have absolutely no idea how to use but that Dan will happily explain to you with a sly smile on his face if he is around. Oh, and he will be around. Dan who has a lifetime of high performance lifting experience and many other accomplished lifters are regulars and you will see them and you will learn from seeing how they work on themselves. I have learned more about keeping myself fit in my months at Boss Barbell than maybe all of my time before I started.

All of that is to say: Boss Barbell quite literally has everything you need to become the strongest person in the world. That isn't just true for men either. Many of the strongest lifters and current record holders at Boss are women. This is a place that isn't just the best in the area, it's a place I feel lucky exists and that I am fortunate to belong to. Before I signed up to Boss I spent a little more than a month driving around to all sorts of different gyms in the peninsula and I can say there just isn't one that even comes as close to being as good as this. Sparkle keeps the entire facility from the weight room to the kitchen and lounge in excellent running condition and it's simply a quite nice pleasant place to spend your time. My workouts have started taking longer and longer because I just like spending time here.

Jay

Was a member there for 3 months. Great place for beginners to pros. Probably can find all the equipment used in the gym. Special shout-out to Jake for amazing tour and helping whenever required.
Friendly people. Bathrooms to shower. Living room to rest. Free protein powder (inside the gym, not sure if it's still going on). Dog friendly. What not. Just try it up.

Maddie C. -. L.

Eh. Old equipment, not much variety of equipment either. $28 for a day pass to a gym like this was not worth it. For paying that much I would expect a nice gym

Leticia J.

I've been going to this gym for a year now and it's been a great experience. It's a really motivating environment to work out in, the people are really friendly and low ego (even the big swole dudes who look intimidating), you don't have to wait on equipment, and it has everything you need if you're into lifting. I find it to be pretty female friendly, although the lifters are predominantly male. Sparkle, who runs the gym, is very present, warm, and does awesome little things like provide snacks, decorate for the holidays, and light candles in the lobby so it smells good. The bathrooms are immaculate and there are feminine products stocked. If you're into super fancy gyms that provide towel service, are temperature controlled, and have lots of machines and 50 treadmills, this might not be for you. But if you want a serious lifting gym to get stronger, can afford to pay for it, and are tired of waiting for squat racks at corporate gyms, I recommend this place.

Sidenote: This gym is workable for people who have sensory processing sensitivity (ASD, etc) but you'll need headphones or ear plugs. There is often heavy metal music playing but the speaker has very little bass vibration so you can block it out.

Y W.

Wow. Seasoned champion lifter Dan Green runs a huge, downright luxurious (with big, single user showers, large kitchen w/fridge and lounge w/TV) iron temple for those who love weight training. I’m a fan of the garage-y vibe. Good for short term visits, 24 hr access available, and you get your money’s worth for sure.

Van T.

Excellent gym for powerlifting and other strength sports. Dropped in for 2 days since they were open on July 4th! Everyone was super nice and welcoming, even got some bench tips from Dan Green himself!

Doug M.

Member here for two years. Every toy you can think of, great environment for lifting.

Programming and gym membership is mostly focused on powerlifting (unsurprising once you look up Dan), but they have plenty of resources for Olympic lifting and strongman, among other things. Sparkle can be a little prickly at times, but whenever I had an issue we were able to work it out.

Daniele H.

Great powerlifting facility. Plenty of squat racks and abundance of other equipment, I wish we had something like this in Vancouver. Loved the couches on the side to relax between sets. Shower facilities nice touch. Coming back here again!