Wednesday, January 10, 2007

Two thumbs up for the Y

I tested out the Embarcadero YMCA last night and I found it to be a very pleasant experience. The staff was super friendly and way more outgoing and genuinely nice than I've seen at the other gyms. The locker room was okay, not great, but the steam room and sauna were clean and inviting. They'll be remodeling the locker room in February, which will be an inconvenience, but will also mean an entirely new, shiny facility. I hope they put in new lockers, because the ones they have now require you to bring your own padlock, which is a huge hassle for me. I can never remember the combo.

None of the equipment was overcrowded, nor was the pool. That was a bit of a surprise to me, since I expected a new year's resolution rush of eager exercisers. Most importantly, the place wasn't a scene. None of the women in the locker room had extensive plastic surgery and none of them were applying make up pre-workout. There were a lot of people in my age range who looked fit and relatively interesting. A reasonable amount of checking each other out was happening, but it wasn't overwhelming or icky. There were also enough semi-attractive guys to watch lifting weights that time on the treadmill seemed to pass just a little bit faster than normal.

They offer a cardio kickboxing class on Tuesday afternoons and Wednesday nights. I'm going to scope it out next week and see how scary it looks.

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