Do You Want a Killer Body?
Written: Dec 16 '04
|
Product Rating:
|
|
|
Pros: Very nice equipment; well maintained; friendly, knowledgeable staff; classes
Cons: Expensive!! and parking but this is NYC.
The Bottom Line: The Mercer Street location is a nice facility. It is one with fewer frills but those frills were more than adequate.
|
|
|
| jo.com's Full Review: New York Sports Clubs |
I spent some time in New York City with my daughter not too long ago. She recently joined New York Sports Clubs because her boyfriend belongs. I am reviewing the one that she goes to most often which is closer to school. We went to this one because we were going shopping from there so I did not see the gym near her apartment.
This club is located at 232 Mercer Street. Their phone number is 212-780-7407. Their hours are are Monday through Thursday from 5:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m.; Friday they are open 5:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m.; and Saturdays and Sundays they are open 7:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. We went on a weekend but I just want to note that other than 24-hour gyms this gym is open later than any I can recall. Their early hours are the norm, though 5:00 is even 15 minutes earlier than my gym which opens at 5:15 a.m.
New York Sports Club is part of the Town Sports International which has many fitness facilities in not only New York but Boston, Washington, D.C. and Philadelphia. They may not all offer the same services. In fact the gym we went to, my daughter told me, has fewer services than the one near her apartment does. Whatever type of membership you choose (I'll talk about this under cost.) you will want to make sure that the services you want are available where you are planning on joining or going to. The ones she uses the most have no child care for example but you can go to one close by in New York City and find a club that offers that service.
You can take advantage of a free week. I did not pay because I took advantage of the free week pass even though I wasn't there for a week.
Details about this gym:
~The weight training equipment: There were two areas in this gym. One was a cardio vascular section which I will mention more about and the other is the weight training section.
I was impressed with the amount of equipment, the type and the condition of the weight training equipment. I found the equipment in very good condition. I also found lines that are not available in some gyms.
~The work out machines include Cybex, Icarian, Nautilus, and LifeFitness. There are also plenty of free weights. We went early and I imagine that early on a Saturday morning in New York City is not the most popular time to go to a gym so we did not have to wait for any equipment or machines. As in every gym I have ever been too, my daughter told me that she tries to avoid the 4:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. time frame unless she is going to a class.
~One of my pet peeves is to go to a gym that does not have enough benches but I found this location to have an adequate amount.
~What I found really interesting is their XpressLine. I found it interesting because a gym I used to belong to in my hometown has implemented something very similar. If you know how Curves works, this is the premise of XpressLine. This is a circuit with eight workout stations designed to give you a full body workout in less than 22 minutes. I will not review that concept here but it is good information to file in the back of your brain. Also if you have questions about my opinion of the pros and cons of this, feel free to e-mail me.
~The cardiovascular equipment:
New York Sports Club located on Mercer Street has a decent amount of cardio equipment. You will find treadmills by Life Fitness and Star Trac, Ellipticals by Precor and Lifefitness, Lifecycles, and stationary bikes including upright and recumbent (They have backs on them and are low to the ground.) You will find a really nice entertainment theater system. I wish my gym had this! I found cardio equipment attached to a cable television, (That is fairly standard at this point.) a cassette deck and CD player, which I have not seen in my local gyms. Now they just need computers on each piece!
Amenities:
New York Sports Club at this location has fewer features than in other locations. I will tell you what is standard at all Clubs and what is available at various locations. Mercer Street has a steam room for in the women and in the locker room for men. I found the locker rooms and the gym in general clean and well maintained. There are also toiletries available. My daughter told me that they change depending on what they run out of but on this weekend there was shampoo in the showers and body lotion. There are lockers that can be rented (I loved this service when I belonged to a gym in another town many years ago.) and free towels for either wiping down the machines or for showering. This too is really nice. My current gym charges $1.00 for a towel.
Classes:
I was even more impressed with the classes. There are 17 different types of classes including two types of Yoga, Pilates, Stretch Classes, Ab classes and Tai Chi to name a few. We went to a Yoga class one day and a total body conditioning class another day. I thought the quality of instruction was very good. My gym does not offer Vinyasa Yoga so it was a treat to try something new.
The classes are 55 minutes long. The spinning classes (a class on stationary bikes) are 45 minutes long. In some locations some classes require reservations. There seems to be none here that require advanced notice.
Personal Training:
Personal Training sessions are 1 hour long. You can buy single sessions or pack of 10 or 20 sessions, which
will save you money. New York Sports Club offered me (as they do with everyone I was told) help of a personal trainer. He would have spent an hour with me showing me how to use the equipment and would have designed a workout for me. This should be done at every gym. In my experience the level of enthusiasm varies from a trainer who really wants to work with you even though he or she is not getting paid much to train you as a new member to one who barely shows you how to work the equipment and you will come back having no idea how to use the equipment.
This is just my perception on this weekend but it seemed that the staff was enthusiastic, friendly, caring and attentive. I did not tell them I was a personal trainer. I just said that my daughter would be able to show me around and they were fine with that. I was also told that I could have them do a health history and things like blood pressure and target heart rate so when I got on a piece of cardio equipment I would know what it is (Maximum heart rate is 220 less your age. Target heart rate really depends on how hard you want to work. If you want to work at a good pace, you will be targeting 60% to 75% of your maximum heart rate. This is just an aside; just for your information.)
The Cost:
I found out that there are different types of memberships. This is a very smart tactic on the company's part. There is a family membership which would save you a bit of money if additional family members join. The gold membership would give my daughter, for example, total access to the gym near her house which is the one in which she signed up and then other gyms, for example the one on Mercer Street, during less busy times. The passport membership would let her use any gym at any location at any time. There is also a senior membership if you are over 60 but you can only use the gym in which you signed up.
My daughter signed up for the passport membership (Although I think she should have gone with the gold which is less money). She wanted the passport because she finds herself all over New York City, wanted the flexibility of being able to go to any gym and her boyfriend helped her with the finances! (He got some money back as a referral fee.)
She is a student. I believe they waived her initiation fee with her student ID because it seems there is one but she never paid. However she pays a whopping $86.00 each month. That is twice what I pay. I realize I am not in a city let alone NYC and I don't have access to gyms all over. I was thinking that if I rented a towel every day at my gym I'd almost be where she is at so the free towels add up! (This is said somewhat in jest. I was trying to justify in my own mind this very big price tag she is paying that she cannot afford.)
There are no-frill gyms that can be as low as $19.99 a month but you often get what you pay for so know what you are getting. They do not lock in this rate so it is possible that next year my daughter will have to pay more. She was using a water bottle she told me she got when she joined as well as a few other freebies. (We always say we think we should have gotten a t-shirt when we joined our gym. We got nothing.)
Other information:
I want to mention some features that other locations may have:
Baby-sitting
Basketball
A cafe
Laundry service
Massage
Racquet sports (squash, racquetball or tennis)
Running track
Sports Clubs for Kids programs
Swimming pool
Standard at all locations are:
Strength training equipment and cardiovascular machines; group fitness classes; personal training services including fitness assessment; daily use lockers and complimentary toiletries and a pro shop.
My final thoughts:
I was very impressed with New York Sports Club. It had everything and more that I would need and it certainly has everything my daughter needs to keep fit. She just started Yoga with her boyfriend and loves it. I am delighted by that because it is such a wonderful stress reducer I recommend it to everyone.
As we were leaving around 12:00 p.m. it was starting to fill up with young people. Each facility will attract different types and ages of people. Some will be mixed and some fairly homogeneous. Perhaps because Mercer Street is so close to New York University I was certainly among the oldest person there at this time of day although I imagine quite a few professors go here during the week.
I would recommend New York Sports Club. If I lived in New York City I would pay the money to be able to go to a gym on the other side of the city from where I live. If money is an issue you have other options.
Please feel free to leave me a comment or question if you have a question I have not answered. Feel free to ask me fitness related questions as well. I am open to being of help.
Other reviews in which you might be interested include:
How to Choose a Health Club
World Gym
Curves for Women
PowerHouse Gym
Bowflex Xtreme XTLU
Bowflex Ultimate
Crossbow
Weider's CrossBar
Recommended:
Yes
|
|
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.