YMCA of Austin

I love the outdoor pool., park. The childcare staff is so caring and sweet. They have fun on the preschool park. My kids always have fun. I like the class instructors. I like how the staff guides parking in busy hours.
I do not like the impossible parking some days.
I do not like how the child watch is limited an hour.
I do not like how child watch will not change diapers.
I do not like how you can’t use the hot tub jets during the time aquatics fitness class is going on.
I do not like how the indoor pool is cold for my kids and how there is not a shallow part for them to touch

This YMCA is pretty nice, offering a good selection of classes for adults and children alike. I would highly recommend the YMCA if you have children that you would like to get involved in sports on a budget. The large selection of sports offered allows you to expose your children to several different sports to identify what they enjoy most. They have free child watch to allow you to workout without distraction. They have everything you would expect to see at any other gym including machine and free weights, treadmills, ellipticals, bikes, and an indoor running track. Additionally, they have an indoor and outdoor pool for swimming year round. The staff is very friendly and everything here is overall clean and well maintained. The only negatives for me are the fact that some classes are held in the Annex (another building in a strip mall about a block over). Having to drop a kid off at the Y and then go over to this building is a pain. Also, this Annex building doesn’t even have a simple water fountain. Also, as mentioned in another review parking can be a slight pain at busy times. They have allowed for parking in the lot across the street and they also have staff working the parking lots to reduce this issue lately.

Overall a great place. Nice, pleasant team members. Clean and updated facility. The place isn’t big, therefore not some overwhelmingly huge gym. More of a community sense where you get to see familiar faces.

All the Austin YMCA’s are great places to work out and a great place to do activities as a family. The Southwest branch has a great 6 lane heated lap pool outside. Early in the morning are friendly staff and instructors. I love going to the 5:35am cycle classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Wonderful instructors. Parking at the Southwest branch is not as bad as Townlake. There are more classes offered at Townlake, but the Southwest the class size is just perfect and you get a lot of one-​on-​one instruction from the instructors. Furthermore, the East branch has a great paved trail to run or ride road bikes. Download the YMCA of Austin app on your phone and you can see all the classes all the YMCA’s offer.

I can’t say enough about this gym. If i could give this a 6 star i would. I love the Town Lake Y because it of the architecture design and all the lighting it offers, however this Southwest branch is really hard to beat overall. First i have to say that they have probably one of the nicest outdoor pools around and a huge playing area to go along with it, neither which the downtown offers. And not to mention a computer lab and an indoor track also neither which the downtown location offers. But without getting into comparisons this gym is really great, especially once they address the parking issue with offering additional parking options as well as parking traffic guides, yes Y is so committed to addressing members concerns and issues that they have at least 2 people during the peak hours controlling the parking helping people find empty spaces, LOL. How can you not love that?
The best thing about this gym is the second level of this gym which i recently found out about. They basically have another whole gym up there, so many rooms for all sort of different classes, and their second workout area with dumbbells, exercise balls, stationary bikes, and about 8 or so kinesis machine, yes ‘8’, kinesis machine’s. And the best think it is very secluded and a great place to work out if you just want to focus and get away from the crowd. It is great, i can’t say enough good things about this place.

I just LOVE this YMCA. The people are nice, the lap pool is clean and there’s always a lane. The facility itself has new up to date machines and the classes are cool too!

When I don’t want to deal with the parking hassle of the Town Lake Y, I take classes here. Try a class taught by Kat or Tere. You’ll get a great workout with a very enthusiastic instructor. I mainly take Zumba here, but Body Combat has been a new favorite class in recent months.

I would give 5 starts except parking sucks my foot fungus. I love all the things this location offers, lessons, private trainers, tons of equipment… but if you go at peak time, you will park on the street and walk half a mile. In the heat with a small child, that sucks. I do love the two pools, though, so that makes it better.

I started going to the YMCA 6 months or so ago and truly enjoy my time there. The facilities are very clean and the staff is super friendly.
I generally go from around 6:30pm-8pm on week days. The parking lot can get a bit full during this time. I notice a big difference in attendance between the summer season and when school was in session. The good news is that most of the people there have their kids out in the pool. The cardio and weight equipment is always available even during these busy times. I’ve never had to wait for a machine.
Everything seems to be in good working order other than the lone rowing machine which makes me a bit sad but I understand most people aren’t interested in that particular machine so I let it slide. The cardio room has a nice wall of TV’s to keep you entertained while you sweat. There is also a great spinning room that while there is no class you can use alone and put the TV on the channel of your choice!
I can see that the child care is probably the crown jewel of the YMCA. I don’t have kids quite yet but believe me, when I do they will be chillin’ at the YMCA while I work out! The kids always seem happy to be there and having fun. There are often kids around the gym as well working out with their parents. It’s just a very lovely family friendly place.
My main/​only complaint would be that the teachers for the group classes can be a bit disappointing. I’ve spent the past 2 years exclusively taking group classes vs. «working out» in a typical gym environment. So, I suppose my standards could be higher than the average person. I love Zumba but I went to one night time class and just couldn’t deal with the teacher. She put way to many moves in to her songs and made it confusing for those not familiar with her routines. Zumba can be pretty simple if you stick to what the actual Zumba Fitness people are teaching. I wish they had more options of teachers for those evening Zumba classes in case the personality of the one constantly teaching doesn’t quite fit with your taste. I’ve also taken a few spinning classes and find that I get a better workout in on my own. The RPM class plays awful techno music that made me want to walk out immediately. The Interval Cycling class was awesome once when a pregnant lady was filling in for the normal teacher. Wish I got her name because she was great and her music was on point. The regular teacher plays music that has a beat that in no way correlates to the speed you are cycling. I find that incredibly distracting after having taken spinning classes from great professional teachers that take the time to pick out music that actually pushes you to keep going. She has even run out of music at the end of class. I mean… you know how long the class is, how hard is it to pick out the music to fit that time period? I do it for my own workout on a regular basis!
So, to sum things up: if you are looking to take inspiring classes this might not be the spot for you. If you want a good value for the money to use cardio and weight equipment and a great environment for your kids this IS the place for you!

Really a great place. We have a family membership. The kid plays basketball in leagues. Wife works out at various classes. I use the gym and pool. Since they re-​did it a couple of years ago, it’s clean and modern.
After a few years at 24 Hour Fitness, I greatly prefer this much smaller, cleaner, less crowded facility.

The Southwest Y is great overall. The facilities are really nice and extremely clean. The professional staff is wonderful. Some of the lifeguards and childcare staff are young and inexperienced and could use a bit more professionalism, but overall, everyone is very nice. The front desk staff is always helpful and friendly.

I have been debating for over a year on joining the Y. I hesitated since I really did not want to pay for a gym membership, but I discovered that my employer, PAREXEL (the best employer in the world) offers a gym benefit of $ 150/​year and that encouraged me to make the move to join the Y. Plus I can pay for my membership with my Health Saving Account! So, I am saving mega-​bucks!
I am a person who deplores children. Why? Because «some» parents let the children run around like wild dogs in the summer and spring break and fail to get them involved in fruitful and enriching activities. The Y has youth/​children programs and I love it! Why? Even though a person has to pay for the programs, the Y has financial assistance programs so REGARDLESS of your financial situation your child can participate. No excuses parents. Have your child or children release some of that energy at the Y.
The same goes for memberships. If you are not able to afford their low cost of membership, there is financial assistance. That is fantastic as there goes that excuse.
Now for the actual facility in Southwest Austin. There is an indoor/​outdoor pool. I think the outdoor pool is a lap pool. The cardio equipment is great (treadmills, bikes, elliptical, etc.), weight area, indoor track, fitness classes including Body Pump (Oh yeah!) and Spinning Classes.
After much thought and deliberation I decided to become a contributor to the Y, since I hate children without viable means for their bountiful energy, and the Y is at least making an effort to provide outlets for the little devils so they are not driving me nuts in the summer and weekends.
Check it out!