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| - The Stowe YMCA is a pretty good gym overall. They have a nice assortment of group fitness classes, free weights and machines, cardio equipment, and other miscellany including a nice big pool that I don't plan to use.
The good: two flat benches, an incline and a decline bench, a squat rack and a power cage, a wide array of dumbbells along with a deadlifting platform and plenty of barbells allow for any weightlifter to achieve his or her goals. I wouldn't mind seeing them get rid of their Smith machine and replacing it with another power cage.
They've got plenty of cardio equipment including the usual suspects of ellipticals, treadmills, stationary cycles, stair steppers, and rowing machines.
Their group classes are good and effective, though they seem to be inordinately full of middle-aged housewives with implants for whatever reason.
The bad: Hours. Specifically their weekend hours. They close at 6 on Saturday and 5:30 on Sunday. Staying open until their weekday closing time of 8:30 would be a godsend for people who have busy weekends but still want to squeeze their workout in.
The cardio room is too small for the number of machines they have, and kind of gross. I see far too many people use the equipment, not wipe it down, and I don't ever see the staff cleaning it either.
Their wifi signal SUCKS. It's either extremely slow or completely non-functional. This is extremely low hanging fruit and I'm sure would make me and many other people happy if they were to remedy it. It doesn't help that this Y is located in somewhat of a dead zone for Verizon service so if I can't get on the wifi, I can barely stream music.
All in all it's a good place to work out and the benefits do outweigh the negatives. I will continue to spend too much money to come here.
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