24 new machines.
New Bunker Room.
Diggers Gym just got serious about strength. 24 brand new Hammer Strength and Life Fitness machines across two floors. Plus a new room downstairs called The Bunker, set up for glute and lower body work. Built for how locals actually train.
Three reasons
we built it.
Focus, not friction.
Lower body work is loud, deliberate, and takes time. On the main floor that means queues, distractions, and people cutting sets short. A separate room means you train the way the work actually demands. Walk in. Walk to your machine. Lift.
Built for how locals train.
Glute work. Runners' knee prevention. Rebuilding after pregnancy. HYROX sled prep. That's what our members actually train for. So we built the room around it.
Premium gear, real prices.
Hammer Strength and Life Fitness. Set up inside a 90 year old community club. We don't think serious strength training should cost a serious membership fee.
Six new machines.
Glutes, quads, calves.
Every machine downstairs is brand new Hammer Strength or Life Fitness. Chrome and yellow trim, plate loaded or pin loaded. Here's what each one does, and what to use it for.
Plate loaded Hack Squat
Hammer Strength · Plate loadedHeavy quad and glute work with the spine supported. The safest way to load 200kg through your legs without a spotter or a perfect squat groove. Foot position changes everything. High stance for glutes, low and narrow for quads.
Linear Leg Press
Hammer Strength · Plate loadedHigh volume lower body conditioning. Stack the plates, set the depth, push hard. The workhorse of any serious lower body session. Use it for finishing sets, single leg variations, and progressive overload without loading the spine.
Plate loaded Smith Machine
Life Fitness · Plate loaded · Smith #2The Bunker's second Smith, dedicated to lower body. Hip thrusts at any load. Bulgarian split squats with depth control. Reverse lunges on a stable bar path. This is the machine that builds glutes you can actually see.
Hip Abductor and Adductor
Insignia Series · Pin loadedThe most underrated machine in any gym. Abduction builds glute medius, the muscle that keeps your knees and hips stable on every step. Adduction trains the inner thigh strength most people ignore until they tweak something. Both, both, both.
Seated Calf Raise
Hammer Strength · Plate loadedSeated targets the soleus, the deep calf muscle that handles endurance and ankle stability for runners. Heavy load, short range, controlled tempo. The unsexy work that pays off at kilometre 18.
Standing Calf Raise
Hammer Strength · Pin loadedStanding loads the gastrocnemius, the bigger, more visible calf muscle that drives vertical jump and sprint power. Pair with seated for full calf development. Yes, train calves. Properly.
And 18 more
upstairs.
The main strength floor. Pin loaded selectorised machines, plate loaded Hammer Strength isolators, and two dual adjustable cable stations for everything you can do with a handle and a rope.
- Dual Adjustable Pulley × 2 Signature Series · Cable
- Smith Machine Plate loaded · Upstairs #1
- Pin loaded Chest Press Hammer Strength Select
- Pin loaded Shoulder Press Hammer Strength Select
- Pin loaded Tricep Extension Hammer Strength Select
- Pin loaded Bicep Curl Hammer Strength Select
- Pin loaded Seated Row Hammer Strength Select
- Pin loaded Fixed Pulldown Hammer Strength Select
- Pin loaded Seated Leg Press Hammer Strength Select
- Pin loaded Leg Extension Hammer Strength Select · ×2
- Pin loaded Leg Curl Hammer Strength Select · ×2
- Pin loaded Seated Leg Curl Hammer Strength Select
- Plate loaded Iso Lateral Row Hammer Strength · Plate loaded
- Plate loaded Iso Lateral Incline Press Hammer Strength · Plate loaded
- Plate loaded Iso Lateral Shoulder Press Hammer Strength · Plate loaded
Built for everyone
who turns up.
Whether you're rehabbing a knee, prepping for HYROX, building glutes for the first time, or just trying to age well, there's a use for every machine in The Bunker. A few of the people we built it for.
The runner with weak glutes.
Hip abductor work and single leg press are how you stop your knees collapsing inward at km 8. Calf raises, both kinds, keep your achilles from quitting before you do.
Coming back from pregnancy.
Hip thrust work on the Smith. Gentle progressive loading on the leg press. Adductor strength for pelvic stability. Coached or on your own. You set the pace.
The HYROX athlete.
Sled push prep needs heavy unilateral leg drive. Bulgarian split squats on the Smith. Walking lunges with the rack. Hack squat for the lunges, leg press for sled position conditioning.
The 55 year old who wants to age well.
The best predictors of independence at 75 are leg strength and balance. The Bunker trains both. Safely loaded. No spinal compression required.
Why we
called it the Bunker.
"A bunker is a fortified position. A place to do quiet, serious work. Held in reserve until it counts."
Coogee Randwick RSL Sub Branch, Est. 1935
Coogee Diggers was founded in 1935 as an RSL sub branch. A home for returned World War I servicemen and their families. The club has lived at the corner of Byron and Carr Street ever since. The name "Diggers" comes from the Australian soldier tradition. "The Bunker" comes from the same place.
We liked the word because it carried two meanings at once. There's the historical sense: fortified, focused, prepared. And the literal sense: downstairs, basement, dedicated. A room set apart from the main floor, so the work inside it gets done properly. Without distraction. Without apology.
Ninety years of community work behind us. A new room downstairs for the next ninety. Built in 1935. Built for you.
See it, lift it,
try it.
Tour the new floor. Walk the Bunker. Use one machine, use all of them. Your first workout is on us. No price sheet, no pressure. Coogee locals first.