Gymratz Gym Equipment - UK Specialists since 1999

Behind the scenes:
(a tale hopefully with a happy ending).

Anyone that's attempted to browse our (gymratz co uk) website this week might have been hit with an "It's broken, we're fixing it" message or e-mail bounce etc and here's why.

In 2010 we were forced to move our site across the pond to Florida because our UK hosts had become extremely unstable and the shared server kept crashing so we moved it to a company called FutureQuest. And that was that as good fairy-tails start off; but all was not as it seemed, and 5 days after we'd paid for another 12 months hosting we were hit with the attached "RUN AWAY ASAP" e-mail stating very shot notice of closure of their data centre, and all for customers to seek an alternative solution immediately!

Well, given that our site was custom coded back in 2008 (I still remember the first order in it's pre-production state (Mark)); and it has quite unique requirements it wasn't a matter of simply dump, download and upload to a new host like today's sites, it's quite a finicky beast; like taking your elderly and slightly senile parent/grand parent out for a meal. (that's a different story though). "Do I like that?"

Fortunately we still had ongoing hosting with our original UK company with a number of other vintage static-page sites knocked up last millenium by my fair hands so logic suggested if it'd been there before, 15 years of hardware upgrades should have made the server far more stable place for the site to live out it's final years.

A quick message to the legend that created the site, who always appears like BatMan in times of server catastrophe, and the move was on.

E-mails came back to life thismorning on the new server and at time of writing the site is back up and seems to be zipping along like it's risen from the grave. 99.5% there, just some final environment tweaks to make and we're back!
No, it's still not mobile friendly so Google has buried it in the depths of "no pay, no play" manipulative commercialism like they do but you can still pinch&squeeze for a taste of the golden times.

I can now start updating stock and everything else that's been scuppered by the last 3 years of global corruption... so if you want something specific just ask. And no, we don't hold everything in shop stock, that ship sailed in 2020 through to 2022. Though we still have some 20Kg Olympic bumper plates in the warehouse that we hoarded away for local customers. :)

And now I will close with a final glimpse of keeping up with the times...

We do have a website that IS in the right decade and running on a fully loaded Bertie-big-balls enterprise-class server that was the dogs danglies 10 or so years ago! but the site is still in development (it's been an "interesting" learning curve for myself and BatMan), so no payment gateways or e-mail set-up and only been set-up with the majority of WaterRower and NOHrD products. Feel free to take a look, let me know if you like it (so-far as an in-development site) and of course, if you would like anything seen I'm sure we can make it worth your while taking the time to contact us.
I'll not put a direct link as the Zuckerburger empire will want it's 3 stone ("what's a stone?" all the non Brits shout) of flesh... but you might find it at (gymrats uk) don't forget the dot .
Thankyou for spending 3 minutes to read my ramblings if you made it this far. And don't forget to comment expressing your love for the retro site and the streamlined efficiency of the new one if you can find either.


Pete (and Deb of course)

Summer is coming. If we had to suggest only one exercise machine it would be a close call between either the WaterRower or what we consider to be possibly the best Air-Bike available in terms of being HIIT Rated for Commercial Gym use.
Weighing in at 75kg should be proof enough of its' class leading "built to last" construction.
We have had nothing but glowing praise for the Tornado Air Bike from Commercial, Educational, and Domestic consumers.
But best of all, the Tornado Air Bike (black edition) is currently on a spring special. See comments below or call us.
Invest in your health.

Heads-up to forthcoming price rises over the entire WaterRower and NOHrD range typically in the region of 10% so if you were pondering on a purchase don't hang about as prices all go up on November 1st - Check out our main GymRatz.co.uk site for current prices and offers etc.

"Exactly as advertised, except better"

We might have been a bit quiet on our FaceBook page lately but we're still here and have some great new products to add.

What has been popular this month is our premium top-grade bench. Our fabricators turned the first one around in 48 hours from customers placing the order.
The next one ordered a week later wasn't as quick as a delayed delivery of steel held up production for over a week but even then, once steel arrived the bench was cut, welded, assembled, powder-coated and shipped within.... yes, 48 hours just 2 weeks after customer placed order.

Why am I posting this? just to confrim our "made in England, best of British, heavy-duty gym equipment is still ruling the roost when it comes to performance & quality. With special thanks to our customer that took delivery yesterday for the new tag-line for this bench....

"exactly as advertised, except better"

See comments for link to product in question.

When is the best time to train?
The following article makes a lot of sense.
Essentially, the BEST time is the time you can train consistently which is FAR more important than trying to micro-manage a possible (but unproven) tiny percentage gain from hormone peaks.

The Best Time of Day to Train Is there really an optimal time to hit the gym? A time that would give you better results? Here's what science has to say.

In case you'd been missing our content...
Just thought I'd remind you how much the humble WaterRower has been keeping up with the times over the last 3 0r 4 years:
The "SmartRow" is a replacement front pulley that even fits the humble A1 rower but uses all the tech. found in mobile phones to translate into stroke power, power output, stroke rate, distance etc etc etc.
Watch the vid... it's a brilliant presentation!
https://player.vimeo.com/video/594364002

We don't just install our own kit, occasionally we get requests to install kit purchased from other sources as was the case a few weeks ago when a local Bristol customer requested assistance with a new adjustable bench, rack and lat. attachment (all still boxed).

As always, de-boxing and interpreting the "instructions" took far more time than expected but it all came together in the end.

Yesterday myself and Deb took a little(!) jaunt to Cambridge to personally deliver and assemble one of our "Made in U.K." commercial power cages (power rack), adjustable bench, dip atttachments, weight/bar storage tree and a selection of bumper plates and bar etc.

Customer hadn't quite finished the floor but there was enough down to assemble the rack ready for when he got home.

Greeted thismorning with the following:

"Good morning Pete,
I just wanted to say I'm over the moon with the gym equipment and also thankyou for putting it together for us.
I will be highly recommending you to others."

Sometimes giving that little extra personal touch makes all the difference.

p.s. The footprints were already there. 🙃

Quick trip to Epsom last week for a G6 install in our customers new combined garden office/gym. A great space and the perfect gym to slot into a compact area without restricting the capabilities of the gym or it's huge range of available functions.
Call for current special offers.

This weeks install is a local Bristol Customer who purchased his ForceUSA G12 and Commercial Adjustable bench on the very first day of "Black November" (an event forced upon us at distribution level, that they'd applied on the last day of October which we of course matched).
This customer opted for self assembly assisted by Steve, and I must say from the pictures it looks like an amazing gym space.

For this and other great November ForceUSA offers give us a call on Bristol 01179 118139.