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Crunch | Equinox | Chelsea Piers | World Gym | Printing House New York Sports Club | American Fitness | Reebok Sports Club | |
CRUNCH | |
| Crunch Fitness was the first gym to offer Spinning in NYC two years ago. They had the Johnny G. Schwinn Spinners, several Johnny G. certified instructors and it was all quite excellent. Alas, what was is no longer and Crunch has spun itself from the best and only spinning location to maybe the worst, in the rapidly expanding whirl of spinning expansion.. |
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| Schwinn which manufactures Johnny G's Spinner revoked their contract with Crunch when Crunch started using untrained instructors (and unsafe moves on the bikes) to teach their classes . They are now calling the classes "Spin" and Schwinn no longer services the bikes. This has resulted in an inability to replace broken bikes, change parts etc... Having had the 'untrained instructor experience" and being somewhat temperamental, I have stomped out of classes there on numerous occasions. | |
| The general "laissez faire" of the 13th street club in general has warranted vociferous complaints, not to mention multiple lawsuits from members that have suffered injuries on the numerous bikes needing to be put to pasture.
Being a Crunch member and somewhat of the pesty sort, armed with all my self- righteous indignation, proceeded to write a two page letter (with a list of suggestions), accompanied by a three paged petition signed by spinning members. The landing from my self-satisfied soar was rather abrupt as I realized my frenzied efforts resulted in...absolutely nothing.
Actually, that's not quite true. Upon entering the Spinning room one day..Lifecycles! 15 brand new Lifecycles. What this has to do with Spinning I have yet to understand. (After a two week presence, during which absolutely no one used these machines... They were finally moved.) | |
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The uptown location at 77 & Columbus has a relatively small Spinning room with 33 Johnny G. Schwinn Spinners, one does not get any sense of clausterphobia here as the glass wall allows views onto the studio across the way. |
| The quality of instruction is quite high here, the sound system very good and the bikes are checked daily insuring proper maintenance. Equinox's downtown location has, in my opinion, one of the best Spinning facilities in the city with 40 bikes and plenty of room to spare.. The bikes are checked twice daily to ensure proper functionning, the instuctors are very good and there are enough classes to fit most schedules. | |
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| Chelsea Piers is really an amazing sports facility. That being the case, I expected an amazing Spinning site. I was somewhat disappointed. Spinning takes place in the Mezzanine level in an open space surrounded by weight lifting, Nautilus type equipment. There is really nothing wrong with that, the sound system is quite good, the instructor can clearly be heard through his/her mike, but I found all the activity in the nearby vicinity quite distracting...On my right, on a lower level, I was quite intrigued by the Aero Boxing taking place in |  |
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the boxing ring. Below that, a runner being timed on the track by a coach... Straight ahead golfers teeing their balls onto the green expanse right below them. My mind was wandering in amazement everywhere but on the inner road I ought to have been focused on... But then again I have been told I suffer from Attention Deficit Disorder. Three of the bikes I tried were not working properly. The fourth was perfect. Being somewhat claustrophobic , I found the bikes to be decidedly too closely packed together... I don't mind the idea of riding in a pack, but don't always feel like rubbing elbows with my neighbor. Saturday mornings at Chelsea Piers... A new circuit which begins with a 1/2 hour abs class, followed by an upper body weight lifting circuit and a Spinning grand finale. I was a wet rag by the time it was over. Nonetheless, a contented one as this was indeed a complete workout. On this occasion, the bike I chose posed no problem. It was the sound system.; the speakers were blown. Intervals were the focus of the class and it was such a hard class that I had absolutely no time to focus on my surroundings. | |
WORLD GYM | |
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The uptown location at 1926 Broadway and 65th has 20 bikes, a nice sized room and though I found the A/C not to be up to standards,I have absolutely no complaints. The bikes at World Gym are brand new Johnny G.Schwinn Spinners, they have yet to be confronted with the maintenance problems that tend to plague the bikes as they age. No complaints about the sound system. |
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The newly opened downtown location also has brand new Spinners, a brand new fitness director (who just left Crunch) and who also happens to be a Spinning instructor ... She therefore knows about Spinning fanaticism and is putting together a new spinning schedule which will include many of my favored instructors. Goody.
The Spinning room is large, light and airy with a very high ceiling. No claustrophobia here. I'm not crazy about the lighting, which though off during the Spin is brutally fluorescent when on. From what I've been told , it is soon to be changed to a dimmer system. | |
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| Printing House is not yet going all out with their Spinning program and as of yet are only offering one class a day. Hopefully, as the classes take off they will be increasing the number of classes. As of now they have not yet | |
| dedicated a room to Spinning but are using the main aerobics room into which they wheel the bikes in before class. This room is vast and airy with very high ceilings and a good sound system. The bikes are arranged in a circular formation around the instuctor and this works quite well. | |
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After passing the reception desk at the New York Sports Club at 61 West 62nd Street (corner of Broadway), I was directed downstairs... Down one flight to the Spinning room, down another flight to the "Cycling" room (what it's called here), down another flight to more equipment and to the locker rooms. No windows, fluorescent lighting and awfully ugly industrial carpetting. The "Cycling" room is small, the 24 bikes leaving very little extra space. |
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Mirrors lining the room, the instructors bike is perched on a plateform which is nice if you happen to be in the back where it is often very difficult to see just what the instructor is demonstrating. I usually try to get to class early enough to get into the front row as I like to try to focus as much as possible on the instructors' form. The sound system was quite good here and no bikes were down, which is usually a sign that proper attention is given to bike maintenance. | |
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| Brand new Club. Brand new Spinning room. There is no room to spare with the 20 bikes packed into the small room here. Remarkably, I did not get the expected sense of clausterphobia upon walking in. This was perhaps due to the fact that I chose a corner bike, at an angle, with no immediate neighbors. The mirrors |  |
| lining the room do contribute to its feeling larger than it actually is. You really get the feeling of riding in a pack here and if the instuctor and the music are good , the energy can be quite communicative and send you spinning into another realm. | |
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Walking into this club felt more like entering a resort or a luxury hotel than a sports club. Beautiful facility. Feeling of plush luxury as one explores the floors here. The Spinning room is on 6 and the room is filled with 47 bikes at all times, when one breaks down it is replaced with extras kept on hand. |
| Bike Maintenance is taken very seriously here. One half of the bikes are equipped with clips which allows serious spinners to take advantage of the sense of being "one with the bike". Numerous daily classes, excellent instructors and great sound here. I've certainly never experienced such sheer lavishness in a New York City gym. What makes a good Spinning class?? The instructor, of course! and of utmost importance in my book, the choice of music (The rhythm one follows during class is very much cadenced by the music which is blaring through the speakers). | |
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