NYSC Review
I stopped by the new NYSC on 145th, which is having its soft opening now. There were a good number of people working out, though at nearly 6 o’clock, the place wasn’t full. Since the staff was busy, I took myself on a tour of the facilities. There are over a dozen treadmills on the lower level, though I didn’t get an accurate count. Each machine has a personal TV monitor, and there are also big flat-screens projecting music videos of Top 40 tunes. The lower level also has a studio for classes, as well as a lot of weight systems, and a women’s locker room.
The studio was fairly sizeable; I’d say a class of at least 30 people could fit in there. The weight machines looked reasonable as well (sorry, not a weights person…wasn’t paying too much attention).
Upstairs on the upper level, there’s a cycling room, free weights, more weight systems, elliptical machines (about ten or so), two stair masters, a couple of rowing machines, a good variety of balance balls, stationary bikes, as well as some other galloping-type machines whose names I couldn’t tell you.
The facilities are new, and clean. It looked as though the place could get fairly crowded, and though there are two levels, sometimes it felt as though the machines were fit snugly into the space. The locker room was spacious, with two areas for storage, bathrooms, as well as showers. There were plenty of towels as well as an attendant.
Here’s a look at the upper level:
I also picked up a class schedule for the opening season:
Mondays:
6:00 a.m. Total Body Conditioning
10:30 a.m. Club Strength
6:30 p.m. Cardio Kickbox
7:30 p.m. Total Body Conditioning
8:30 p.m. Cardio Jam
Tuesdays:
9:30 a.m. Step & Sculpt
7:00 p.m. Pre-Season Sports Conditioning
8:00 p.m. Hatha Yoga
Wednesdays:
6:00 a.m. Boot Camp
6:30 p.m. Pilates Mat
7:30 p.m. Step & Sculpt
Thursdays:
9:30 a.m. Cardio Cross-Training
7:00 p.m. Boxing
8:00 p.m. Total Body Conditioning
Fridays:
6:00 a.m. Pre-Season Sports Conditioning
10:30 a.m. Pilates-Based Mat
Saturdays:
9:30 a.m. Step
10:30 a.m. Total Body Conditioning
11:30 a.m. Hatha Yoga
Sundays:
9:30 a.m. Cardio Kickbox
10:30 a.m. Total Body Conditioning
Things look good so far. I’m not a member, but if anyone is or decides to join this club, please let us know your thoughts!
Stumble It!
Galloping-type machines. Heh! Maybe those were the Cybex arc trainers? That ski/elliptical hybrid thingy?
For reference, it feels much smaller than the 125th Street NYSC and many of the other branches. The women’s locker room is pretty small compared to other NYSC locations like 125th, Union Square, 23rd & Park, etc. But the showers are very nice. In fact, the facilities are very nice overall.
It doesn’t seem too crowded for now. I had no problem getting an elliptical machine during a 6:30am session and a crossramp machine during a 6:30pm session (the regular ellipticals were taken). But if people really start joining up and/or using their Passport memberships, I can see it getting extremely packed on the floor. The studios, however, seem to be in-line with other NYSC locations. In fact, the spinning studio seems pretty big by comparison.
Overall, I give it very high marks. I hope they’ll expand on their class schedule.
I went yesterday for the first time, in the late afternoon, and found it to be pretty lovely. I don’t think it’s actually smaller than 125th St, just split into two levels. One potential problem of the organization, though, is that the weights machines are split between the two levels – I was just doing cardio yesterday, so I didn’t check out the specifics, but I’d hate to be shuttling between the two floors to do my routine.
The galloping-type machines, I think, aren’t arc trainers, though they have those. They’re more like a cross-breed between an elliptical and a stair master, similar to the adjustable-stride fancy machines they recently introduced to a few locales. (I know the UES at 76th got a pair.) They’re really nice machines – a more natural, cushy stride than an elliptical, sort of like running through water.
I thought this place opened over the summer.
Ok, I have 3 complaints.
1) They are charging for a regular month, but the hours in October are truncated. If they aren’t open full time, why am I paying full price for October?
2) The tvs are hooked up to one station only- a poor man’s MTV. So, you can’t watch the news or Oprah or whatever. I watched an Ashlee Simpson video before I turned the whole system off. Ashlee Simpson- c’mon.
3) They need more treadmills.
Re:FriendlyNeighbor
I was able to watch several cable channels both times I have gotten on the machines. CNN, ESPN, etc…
I did notice that I couldnt operate the TV if I did not have earphones plugged in on one of the machines, so it seems like they are buggy or something…
Really! Ok, I will give it another try. I was only able to get one channel on my treadmill the other day.
Any thoughts/news on when the 115th St. location will be opening?
I’ve been to a lot of NYSC locations where the TV doesn’t work unless headphones are plugged. They changed over ths summer to save energy when the tv isn’t actually in use.