This is among the better gyms in the area, and it has a lot going for it. Staff are fantastic,…read moreequipment is very clean and well maintained, the amenities are nice, and the overall environment and vibes are great.
However, it also has a big issue holding it back from being a truly great gym. Despite having among the highest fees in the area, equipment variety is lacking for both machines and free weights. For the latter, the problem is pretty simple: there's only one squat rack and dumbbell weight only goes to 100 lbs. Several of their competitors in the area have multiple racks and dumbbell weights that go to 125 or 150. If you need to squat or overhead press and someone is using the only rack, you're out of luck. If you want to incline bench with safeties, do rack pulls, or do Romanian Deadlifts without conventional deadlifting the bar up to the starting position then you prevent anyone else from squatting. It's unfortunate.
Their machines are largely a mix of Nautilus, Precor, Icarian, and Paramount, with the Precor pieces being the newest and by far the standouts in terms of quality (for example they have easily the best preacher curl machine in the greater NB area). The Paramount machines are well-maintained, but they're quite old and have relatively low amounts of weight on their stacks. The Icarians basically all work great despite their age, and the Nautilus machines run the gamut from fantastic to kind of awful.
For the most part the bases are covered, and there's a few exceptional pieces mixed in like the aforementioned preacher curl machine, but there's certain holes:
1. No hack squat, which especially stings since there's only one squat rack. Nautilus makes a great hack squat, it'd be nice to see one.
2. Both identical seated leg curl machines use a really uncomfortable and unusual design instead of the standard thigh pad you usually see. Swapping one for a different machine that uses the typical design would go a long way.
3. No pec deck
4. Unusually low stack weights for several important leg machines like Leg extensions, Calf raises, Adductors, and Abductors, all of which max out at weights 50-100+ pounds less than what many of these types of machines usually have.
5. Both of the identical nautilus chest press machines (the only chest machines in the whole gym) are quite underwhelming, which is ironic since Nautilus also makes IMO one of the best machine chest presses on the market in the form of the Nautilus Leverage Flat Press.
This really has the potential to be by far the best gym in the area with just a few investments in their equipment, and they could appeal fully to trainees of all experience levels and motivations. I hope to see them do so, but in the mean time it's an unfortunate unrealized potential.
