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Bollodromo - 24/7 gym in Tarragona Bollodromo - 24/7 gym in Tarragona
Platforms and the Stronghold banner on the main floor at Bollodromo, Tarragona

Bollodromo

A gym where people know your name

People who say hello, who step in when you get stuck under the bar, and who celebrate the record set next to them. Sweat and laughing, both at once.

People say hello

Not a policy, just what happens in a room where everyone chose to be there.

A spot without asking

Get stuck under a bar and someone is already there. It is the most reliable thing about this place.

Records get celebrated

Bollodromo hosts the Copa Bollodromo, an AEP-sanctioned meet, and members compete through the year.

You are not a number

What members tell us shows up on the gym floor — equipment added, things fixed, details changed because somebody asked.

By Daniel «Bollo» Villacampa Updated

You can buy equipment. You cannot buy the thing that makes people keep turning up in February. Bollodromo is the opposite of a commercial gym where you are a membership number inside somebody's acquisition target: a room where people know each other, where someone will step in when you get stuck under a bar, and where the person on the next rack is pleased about your record even though their own goal has nothing to do with it. If you have just moved to Tarragona, that is worth more than any piece of kit in the building.

What this actually looks like

It looks like being asked how the programme is going by someone who remembers what you said last week. It looks like three people stopping to watch a heavy single and meaning it when they react. It looks like the room going quiet for someone's first competition attempt and loud immediately afterwards. None of that is on a spec sheet and all of it is why people stay.

If you have just moved here

Arriving somewhere new and finding a gym is one of the faster ways to stop feeling like a visitor. English is spoken here, plenty of members are not from Tarragona either, and nobody is going to make an event out of you being new. If you have just landed, the page for people new to Tarragona covers the practical side of getting set up.

Competing, if that is where it goes

Some people arrive here to train and end up on a platform. Tarragona sits an hour from Barcelona, which puts most of the Catalan federation calendar within a comfortable drive, and there are members competing at regional and national level through the year. If it goes that way, you will not be doing it alone — see the powerlifting page. If it does not, nothing about your training changes.

Come and look at the room

You cannot judge the feel of a gym through a screen, which is the one honest thing anybody can say about this. Come round, look at it, talk to whoever is training. Ten minutes in the room tells you more than this page can.

Common questions

Frequently asked questions

I train alone and I want to keep it that way. Is that a problem?
Not at all. Plenty of people here put headphones in and get on with it, and that is respected completely. The community is available, not compulsory.
Do I need to speak Spanish?
No. English is spoken here, and you can do everything from signing up to the initial assessment in English. Most members switch without thinking about it.
Is it intimidating if I am not strong?
The unwritten rule here is that you respect whoever is learning. There are members who have trained for twenty years and members who walked in last Tuesday, and the second group is not treated as an inconvenience.
Are there events, or is it just training?
Bollodromo hosts the Copa Bollodromo, an AEP-sanctioned meet, and there are members on the platform at regional and national level through the year. Watching one is the fastest way to understand what the place is.

About the author — Daniel «Bollo» Villacampa

Powerlifter de competición y entrenador, propietario del Bollodromo

Daniel «Bollo» Villacampa es powerlifter de competición y campeón de España, entrenador de fuerza y propietario del Bollodromo. Lleva años entrenando a levantadores en Tarragona, desde quienes empiezan de cero hasta competidores.

@teambollo on Instagram →

Ready to train seriously?

Bollodromo is the 24/7 gym in Tarragona for people who take strength seriously and enjoy doing it. Message us and we will tell you whatever you need to know, or come round and see the place with no obligation.