The greatest tiny gym in the world.

November 4, 2025August 28, 2025 / antonioyrocinante / Leave a comment

If you are a reader of this blog, you know that I like to think that I am a connoisseur of gyms, as you could read here and here. You also know that I strive to stay fit, mentally, spiritually, and physically. This means that if I am going to have an extended stay somewhere where I am going to have some routine, I need a gym.

This is what happens when I visit my family in Madrid. For the last few years, when I come, I get myself a monthly membership at Synergym.

This is a great gym; it has a great vibe, a great staff, chill but helpful when needed, the definition of professional, led by their great manager, Paula. It has all the equipment and classes you need, all the requirements of a modern-day gym. Everything is managed by the Synergym App, including entry to the gym. It also helps that it is very reasonably priced.

There is one main issue with this gym: it is tiny. Yes, it has all the equipment: 5 treadmills, 1 staircase, a bicycle, and a handful of ellipticals for cardio, all the main weight machines, a squat rack, a cable machine, and of course, dumbbells, oh, and all the plates you could ever dream of —there are plates everywhere! The problem is that they are all in a tiny room. There is another room for fitness classes, changing rooms, showers, etc.

The trick is that if you go when there are many people, you do not have the luxury of waltzing from one station or machine to the other —unless you are very patient— so you must know your exercises well so you can get a good workout at any given station.

So if you are looking for a chill, neighborhood gym in Chamberí, you have a solid understanding of your workouts, and you are not too fussy, Synergym is for you! You are welcome.

What makes the best gym? The Zoo

April 9, 2024April 8, 2024 / antonioyrocinante / 3 Comments

I once wrote about the best gym in the world, but it is in Naples Fl, so it is not a viable daily option as an everyday gym. Which prompts the question, which is the best gym?

As usual, I was a bit of a late bloomer into the gym scene, although I have done a lot of sports since childhood, they were mostly outdoors. With age, and Boston winters I “discovered” resistance training as a critical part of one’s fitness journey. Since those winter days of 2010 I have been to many gyms and now have decent criteria for choosing a gym.

The factors to consider when choosing a gym might be:

Convenience, it is easy to get to for you. Ideally you could walk. These were my gyms in Boston (city Sports), Madrid (Metropolitan, Synergym) and Chapel Hill. If it is at all inconvenient that becomes a great excuse not to go… it is too far, there is no parking, etc. etc.

Size is important, you want to be able to mix up your workouts. You need a variety of cardio machines and enough of them to be able to get one when you need one. For example, my apartment building has a gym which is only an elevator ride away (no, there are no stairs to get to it, ironic), but it is rather small and limited, so I have reduced options for workouts.

Ideally it should have staff to help you with anything from helping you with technique to helping you with anything you might need.

It is in this aspect that The Zoo in Boynton Beach shines! Yes, it is only a few minutes away from home and yes it has enough machines and weights and spaces to be able to always do a workout. But it is (as usual) the people who welcome you and make you feel at home that makes the difference. Jennifer is always there with a blinding smile that makes you feel that little bit better to face your workout, she is always quick with advice, wise beyond her years, encouragement or just chit chat to get you motivated. Lorenzo will gladly check your posture or technique, or if you ask him will give you advice on specific workouts -beware of what you ask, or he will kick your ass (in a good way). I have learnt to only ask if I am up to giving that little bit extra to finish off my workout! Since I always do my workouts in the afternoon / evening, I do not usually see Mario, but he wears a permanent smile as he welcomes you and checks you in.

Some gyms offer all the amenities -which do not get me wrong, are nice. The Zoo has golf lessons and physical therapy, but at the end of the day you are going to the gym to work on your fitness and wellness, do not focus on the superficial aspects of your workout.

What makes a good gym for you? let me know in the comments!

Happy New Year! and the resolutions that come with it

January 2, 2024January 2, 2024 / antonioyrocinante / 2 Comments

It is time to reframe and write down our new year’s resolutions. How is that working out for you?

Our main issue with new year’s resolutions is that we try to change either one thing, quit smoking or everything: quit smoking, lose 10 lbs., go to the gym, save a million dollars, etc. Usually neither one of these approaches works long term. TV, social media, hyper processed foods, etc. they are all engineered for you to lose that battle. The solution? A lifestyle change, Stoicism, a gradual approach. Let me break that down.

A lifestyle change means that you change your outlook on life. Under ideal circumstances that requires more motivation than a change in a number in the calendar, for example a breakup, a heads up from a doctor, something nice and traumatic. Another hack, this time from British Philosopher Alain de Botton, is the importance of repetition. De Botton sets the example of religions, which are particularly good at making us repeat things. So, make yourself repeat things until they become second nature -but beware of staying mindful of your actions, do not let them become rote.

A key component to succeed with your New Years resolutions lies in balance, in equilibrium, the Middle road as the Buddhists say, or moderation, the motto of the Stoics. You can´t kill yourself in the gym only to get drunk every night, or you cannot eat super healthy if you are not exercising. You cannot work all day and not have a moment of recollection; you get the idea. What I propose is to take stock of all the distinct aspects of your life: physical, mental, spiritual and see how and where you can improve.

Last year one of my online tutoring students gave me a wonderful book: Diario para Estóicos*, daily reflections from the Stoics. I loved it and incorporated it to my evening version of “Lectio Divina” when I read and meditate.

The problem with the current Stoicism is that you are reading a quote from Marcus Aurelius on Social Media, you smile to yourself, think that is a good one, maybe even do a screen shot, and then keep scrolling. You are lacking the repetition and the action components necessary to exercise Stoicism. Reading a daily prompt incorporates that repetition that de Botton talks about, and I believe that after a year I have become more Stoic. Of course, for any self-improvement to happen, you must be conscious of who you are, and that, my friends, is the hard bit.

So good luck with your fitness and your diet, your prayers and meditation, your yoga and community service, your sleep and your work, your reading and socialization. But most importantly good luck with your consciousness.

“begin in philosophy is this: a clear perception of one’s own ruling principle.”
Epictetus

As for me, I said goodbye to 2023 running my 6^th San Silvestre Vallecana 10K. Where are you on your path to wellness?

* The Daily Stoic Journal: 366 Days of Writing and Reflection on the Art of Living by Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman.

Happy New Year!! A New Year’s Eve tradition

January 3, 2023January 3, 2023 / antonioyrocinante / Leave a comment

This was my fifth San Silvestre Vallecana 10k (sorry I could not find a photo with the lime green shirt), and it was the most fun.

With no Covid restrictions, 40.000 runners and thousands of spectators participated in this year’s race, making it the most fun to run in. My phone timer says I did it in 1.01 but I am hoping the official time was under an hour so I can leave in a more competitive box next year -cross your fingers!

I am not going to write about the San Silvestre, I already did that here and here. But I am going to encourage you to make fitness one of your New Year’s resolutions. It does not have to be much, but set some objectives: walking a bit more, maybe running a 5k or a 10k like the San Silvestre, maybe hitting the gym, riding a bicycle, whatever. If you lack motivation or are out of shape, take it slow so you do not quit by February. First day just put on your running shoes, or drive to the gym -you don’t have to go in! But the next day go in and hang out for a while, and so on, and so on, so that before you know it, you are feeling better, and sleeping better, maybe losing some weight, maybe making new friends, whatever, the secret is in starting.

So, having said that: Happy New Year and if you run the San Silvestre next year, let me know and we can run together!

The best gym in the world?

March 1, 2022January 16, 2023 / antonioyrocinante / 2 Comments

While I have been to many gyms, I am not in any way, a gym explorer, a gym connoisseur. In the fifteen years I have been going to gyms I might have gone to about a dozen or so gyms, not counting hotel gyms, since they are all mostly horrible –with a few exceptions like the Steigenberger Golf & Spa Resort Camp de Mar.

At any rate, the other day I drove over to Naples to celebrate my old student’s Lukas, birthday, and he treated me to workout at the gym where he works a couple of nights a week: Fountain X.

This might be the best gym in the world, what an experience. It has all top-of-the-line equipment, every person gets a power lifting rack, the whole floor is rubberized, many of the weight machines work with compressed air which hits your muscles different and avoids the metallic clanking you hear in gyms, it just feels amazing!

When you finish your workout there is a fridge with cool, peppermint infused towels to refresh yourself with, they were so invigorating and soothing at the same time. There is also a water and fizzy water fountain. Then there are individual infra-red saunas! There are post workout compression recovery “boots”, there is a body composition scanner, in short, all the bells and whistles.

I loved the workout, the “Zen” feeling, the peppermint infused towels, the personal sauna, but I think my favorite was the Molton Brown soap in the shower and body cream after the workout, yes, I am an old man, and the post workout is just as important as the workout itself. The haters will say that I have gone soft, that a smelly, moldy gym with rusty weights and posters of my cousin Arnold is more motivational, whatever, haters gonna hate.

First year back Stateside

May 18, 2021May 18, 2021 / antonioyrocinante / 1 Comment

A year ago I was locked up in Madrid, teaching a few classes on line, obviously Tonxo Tours was paused indefinitely. So I started looking for gigs around the world. As fate would have it, I ended up back in my beloved (not) Florida. Well at least the East coast of Florida which, having a bit more history than the West coast is a bit more diverse…

So, as I review the year, what are my main observations and conclusions:

I love my school! Saint Vincent de Paul Regional Seminary. We get students from North Carolina down to the Caribbean, and I get to teach them Spanish and English in a beautiful campus with great colleagues!

Despite Covid issues like having to wear a mask to class, it still beat Zoom classes where students are sitting on their beds, getting up to brew a cup of tea…

I have worked hard at building my community by building relationships at school, volunteering as an usher at my church (wait for a blog post on that), and trying to socialize –although that boils down to me going to my cigar lounge once in a while.

Speaking of fate, I was lucky to find out that my friend from my schooldays in London, Manuel Andrés lives a couple of towns North of me in Juno Beach! We basically saw each other every week-end for pizza, barbecue, or trips to Ikea. Last weekend we crashed the Walker Cup which took place next door to him (watch for another blog post on that).

I have moved so many times –about 20- in my life, that I now have a fairly established routine: find a nearby church, gym, and yoga studio, bar, coffee shop, cigar shop/lounge, community service, breakfast restaurant, Trader Joe’s, etc. Of course it is tricky to check all the boxes, so there is a bit of give and take. For example, I do not really go to the bar much anymore, but I do have the beach to go running, swimming and walking/meditating, so it compensates.

All in all, it has been a positive year and it has flown by! Now I only have a handful of meetings, some paperwork and I am off to Spain, stay tuned!

My Chapel Hill

January 3, 2014 / antonioyrocinante / Leave a comment

Sushi!

The Carducho (or Carducci)

The arboretum

The Carolina Inn

(delicious) Taco Truck

Did I mention Gelato?

Mandey of Zog’s w a broken finger

The pool in the theatre!

Older posts might mention this, so please excuse my old age and incipient dementia. I want to tell you about Chapel Hill. Chapel Hill, I tell people, is a village, a thriving, dynamic, diverse village, but a village nonetheless. It has the advantages of a village: everything is walking distance from everywhere, it is easy to make relationships, safety, $4 movies at the main street (Franklin St.) Varsity movie theatre, all this translates to community. On the other hand there is a thriving cultural scene. Just this semester I have seen: Wynton Marsalis with his Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, Andras Schiff playing Bach’s Goldberg Variations, L-E-V an Israeli modern dance company, Shakespeare’s Tempest and Mary Zimmerman’s Metamorphoses, both with a swimming pool built into the proscenium!, opera (UNC’s The Orpheus Diaries), an early modern Spanish, French and Italian concert, with period instruments! And of course the, for me obligatory Nutcracker ballet. If that was not enough, I have gone to a couple of fascinating conferences by top presenters, for example, one on Baroque Spanish Literature. And then there are always gigs at Zog’s, my favorite bar, that range from reggae to punk to New Orleans Jazz. Given my constant need for stimulation, Chapel Hill delivers. An example of how Chapel Hill fits me like a glove might be Sunday mornings. After my breakfast and coffee I walk to church which is always a rich a rewarding experience with the wise and funny Monsignor Wall. After mass I cross the street to The Carolina Inn, where I enjoy a nice cup of coffee in the cozy living room where I do some reading. Then I walk up the street to the Ackland Art Museum where I sit down in front of a painting to do some more reading. In fact I always sit down in front of the same painting: Madame de Villeneuve-Flayosc, a sweet 18^th Century lady with whom I like to converse about the goings on in the Enlightenment. Finally, it is home for lunch, or if it is nice weather for a nice Rocinante ride to search for a nice lunch.

On another level, I have state of the art fitness facilities: gym, swimming pool, basketball courts, etc. There are nice restaurants, cafés and shops (being realistic, and keeping in mind that we are not in New York City). There is a planetarium and an arboretum, there are world class libraries. Best of all, I am so busy reading and working that what little time (and money) I have to spend, I know will be good!

Mallorca

July 7, 2013 / antonioyrocinante / 1 Comment

My family used to go on holidays to Galicia, the Northwest coast of Spain. Atlantic water temperature and Atlantic waves. When my little sister Rocky was born we decided to switch our holidays to Mallorca island on the Mediterranean, where we found a little “cala”, inlet on the south shore of the island. Warm, beautiful, tranquil, crystal clear water. We have been coming to the same place for the last forty odd years, Camp de Mar. First we stayed at the “Gran Hotel”, old world style and panache, real furniture, “sit down dinner”, even a springboard on the beautiful pool! Unfortunately, after falling into disrepair it was razed and turned into a gaudy monstrosity. So we rotated through a series of rental homes until in the early 00s we found the Dorint. A resort built on what used to be an old farm where we used to go on nice summer evening walks eating the carobs off the ground. Some of my fondest memories are of excursions around the island, walking the old streets of the capital, Palma de Mallorca, with it’s beautiful squares and Gothic cathedral. I loved coming to the island when I had my own business and customers to visit. For many years when I had the money I rented a rag top Jeep to drive around the island and to go to the village to pick up freshly made ensaimadas, the local pastries, enjoying the sun and wind in my face and hair (I had hair then).

For the last few years my parents have been bringing their grandkids on holidays here. The rest of us come and go as time and money allow! I have been able to come for the last three years and I love it.

There is something magical about these islands. The light, the sea, the warm, dry days and nights, the intoxicating sweet smell of night. Not surprisingly it is, and has been home to Phoenicians, Romans and Moors, Chopin and George Sand, Agatha Christie, Rubén Dario, Joan Miró, and more recently Michael Douglas, Claudia Schiffer, and of course Rafa Nadal.

Our life here is very quiet. Wonderful breakfasts with local pastries, quiet beach, pool, siestas, and nice meals. I enjoy the gym, swimming, running on the local forested hills, evening walks with the family after dinner and the bar at night. But most of all I am getting a ton of reading done for my Ph.D. exams next spring! On Sundays I go to the village to the 1248 church for mass (granted it was pretty much re-done in 1703, but still).