Trieste is a beautiful seaside town near us. Even if some would call it dormant, progress has been seen in recent years: the city has woken up from a deep hibernation, it is visited by more and more tourists, and the locals are becoming more active as well. And it is exactly the locals that make use of the several different sports rigs scattered through the picturesque narrow streets of the city.
But we are especially fond of one sports facility, one Trieste community of athletes. We befriended the management of the Audace fight e crossfit gym at the very beginning of our journey, and mutual respect and cooperation has continued to develop over the years. Not only were they one of our first customers, our employees also trained under their professional guidance; we have been successfully participating in the organization of the East Coast Challenge competition for four years.
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Our friendship thus dates back to the days when the Audace fight & Crossfit members still trained in an apartment. Yes, you’ve read that right. Their first gym consisted of two apartments in an apartment building. They started with martial arts, then added functional exercise that naturally developed into Cross-training. Of course, this meant that weight training was almost banned, a steel structure was placed in the narrow hallway, and athletes were arranged into several smaller spaces.
Despite the lack of space, the number of trainees grew because, as Giulio, one of the founders, said, they invested in building the community instead of the space. People sensed a friendly and professional approach and were happy to attend the courses.
However, the owners knew that they would not be able to “live” in such conditions for a long time, and thus the search for the perfect space began. With a lot of imagination, they fell in love with an old abandoned building that was initially a factory and later a military post. The space had rickety walls and a sunken roof, not to mention lacking electrical wiring and other installations. But the guys from the Audace community saw their future gym in the ruins of the building: the upper space would be occupied by the martial arts equipment and the lower space would be devoted to Cross-training.
Of course, they were also aware of the problems: the walls were brick, which meant drilling into them was difficult, and in the middle of the building stood a load-bearing pillar that prevented the erection of a free-standing rig structure in the middle of the space.
We tackled the problems gradually. Of course, we could not move the load-bearing pillar, so it was necessary to take care of strengthening the walls that will support the wall structure. According to our proposal, concrete was poured into one of the walls and thus it turned into a load-bearing one. The wall rig also takes up less space compared to the free-standing one, so the central part remained free for all visitors of the fully booked courses.
The wall rack is of course custom-made. It is 360 cm high, which was possible as the ceilings are very high. To allow as many people as possible to use the rig at the same time, we added gymnastic rings and climbing ropes. The golden color immediately catches one’s eye and blends perfectly with the brick walls, as well as elevates the gym into a coherent whole.
The result of long work and thoughtful planning is a modern and spacious gym, which nevertheless retains its original features and is imbued with the spirit of history. We are glad that the old and decrepit building gained new value.
The moment you set foot in the gym, you are taken aback by it. Based on our followers’ comments we are convinced that this is the most beautiful gym by far and wide. We are proud to have been able to help the owners of the Audace gym make their dreams come true.
But most importantly, the relationship between Giulio and Giandomenico has improved even more and we more and more believe in working together on further planned gym upgrades as well as in organizing an increasingly important competition on the map of European competitions: the East Coast Challenge.