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| - I, like most everyone else who works in uptown, frequent this YMCA during my lunch. It definitely gets crowded at that time, so if you can make it here during off-hours, it is a decent gym. Very clean and nice locker rooms. Plus, I once lost a necklace here, and the cleaning staff found it and gave it back to me, so props for that.
I do have some serious issues with this gym, though. I am a group exerciser, so my main problem is with the group exercise facilities, which seem to have just been thrown together without much thought. Most of the classes are just randomly held in one part of the gym that is separated from the rest of the gym by sheer netting. As a result, when you're exercising the entire gym can (and usually does) stare at you. There also isn't a mirror anywhere for you to check your form. The YMCA actually has a proper group exercise room hidden away in another part of the building where a few classes are held, but it isn't clearly marked at all, plus you have get a special pass from the front desk to even get to it--very inconvenient. The spin classes are held in the middle of the running track , so while you are spinning, joggers, often engaged in loud conversation, are constantly running by you, which is pretty annoying. In general, the classes taught here tend to be different than at other YMCAs--the instructors are older and the classes are very Jane Fonda-esque. I've been to a lot of them and have found the spin classes and the Body Pump (group weightlifting) classes to be the most challenging and have the best instruction. I've never been to the Athletic Conditioning class, but it seems pretty intense, too. That said, in general, I don't think the classes are as hard as what you find at the Dowd or the Gateway (the Turbokick classes here are in no way as good as the ones at Gateway and the Dowd YMCAs).
This gym does have great pool going for it. Unfortunately, it tends to be packed with jerky triathlete types who either don't know how or don't care to properly share the lanes. Again, when it is off-hours, the pool is much better.
While this Y does have parking in the basement of the building, but it is a little dicey to get around, and I believe parking is only free during off hours.
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