Kristine Powers
June 5, 2019 13:36
After spending a couple of years floating between local globo gyms (Crunch, Fitness 19, etc.), I wanted to find a powerlifting-friendly gym where I felt comfortable, and Yelp led me to Moses Fitness. I opted for an open gym membership here. The gym is a nice facility with great equipment. There was everything for a well-rounded athlete: from multiple bars, 2 platforms, iron plates, bumper plates, free weights, a belt squat and hack squat, turf, a sled, several cardio machines, etc. Olympic weightlifting, powerlifting, functional fitness - you could do it all here.
When I first joined in October, I had no problems getting workouts in on weekend mornings and weeknights. At the time, there was enough space to roam around, and I didn't have to wait for a squat rack. There were at least 6 or 7 different areas to set up for squats in the gym, which is pretty rare for a gym like this.
However, over time, the gym started getting more and more packed. Classes were added at some point, and the same open gym space is also used for personal trainers and physical therapy. In the evenings, it was common to have around 6 people in a class while there were an additional 6-8 open gym goers doing their own thing at the same time. Whenever there was a class, the entire rig would be occupied, which is fine. I get it. It just felt too cramped. It was uncomfortable and just difficult having to move weights and equipment around the gym while there was a full class being run in the middle of the gym space. If you're not careful, you could easily hit someone. One evening, I was asked to move not even 2 minutes after I set up space for deadlifts. I purposely picked a spot in the gym that was far away from the class, too, so I was pretty annoyed. It's not easy to find enough space in that gym while a class is going on, and 45lb plates get heavy to drag around. I was also asked to trade dumbbells so that a class goer could use the ones I'd originally picked out for my workout. And finally, someone bothered me for the bench within a couple minutes of me setting it up one evening. When I told him I had at least 5-6 sets to get through, he then told me to tell anyone else that I was saving the bench for him. I was taken aback by that, and it killed my mood for the rest of the hour and a half I was there. So that was my evening experience.
On Sunday mornings, there's a kids class, so you need to be careful with moving heavy weights around with the kids running around the gym. And finally, a LOT of gym members don't have the etiquette to rerack their weights and put them back where they belong! For example, someone always leaves at least 3 iron 45-lb plates on each side of the hack squat. I've seen a few trainers also leave their weights and bands lying around when they're finished with their clients. If you're going to spend around $75 for a monthly open gym membership, for goodness sake, have some respect and take care of the equipment you use.
Long story short, it's a nice facility with nice equipment. However, logistically, it just didn't work out for me.