Blue Ash Recreation Center

This state of the art facility is a dream for blue ash residents and individuals who work in the city of blue ash however, one of Cincinnati’s best kept secrets is that you don’t have to live in Blue Ash to take advantage of their top notch group fitness classes! I’ve tried a lot of gyms /​studios in the area and these are honestly my favorite.
For ~5 dollars as a walk in fee, you have access to a wide variety of boot camps, circuit training and spinning classes. I haven’t had a bad instructor here yet and everyone is so friendly. If you live in Blue Ash, it’s just your luck as you have access to the entire fitness center for $ 50 per year! How great is that?

Love Blue Ash rec center! I work in Blue Ash and visit at least 2 – 3 times per week. Everything you could ask for in a state of the srt facility. Lots of programs, personal trsining and they have a great café at lunch time. Type of gym where you want to come back!

I am big into weight lifting and this place has everything I need. It does get a little crowded at times but the place is the biggest city gym I have ever seen. They have a huge pool for all the kids in the neighborhood which is nice. The staff is SO NICE and friendly.
They have two basketball gyms which are in good shape. The one is only like 6 years old? They have batting cages downstairs and they have some nice meeting rooms!
Overall I love this place and it makes me want to stay living in Blue Ash.

This place has the nicest gym equipment and facilities I’ve ever seen. $ 50 for a year? Yeah, this rec center is great for native Blue Asher’s. Wouldn’t go in the evening though because it gets super busy.

The Blue Ash recreation center is a very nice facility. I only wish we were residents so we could take full advantage. Luckily we have friends who are residents, and the summer swim lessons are open to non-​residents. The outdoor pool is awesome! The water slides and activities are so fun and kid friendly. The entire facility is very clean and well kept. Summer tennis programs are also great. There’s a park and running path around the rec center, so I could run while my kids were having their lesson and let my younger one play at the park. Overall a very nice facility!

Great rec center.

The game room, climbing wall, and café are finished and they look amazing, the whole place has some new accents: like motivational posters in the fitness center and letters frosted in the glass on the studios and locker rooms. The game room looks amazing! They have a Wii and so many other cool games, there is almost always something open to play there. I haven’t tried the climbing wall yet, but you need to make an appointment to have somebody certified as a belayer before you go, and it’s not free, you can buy passes for certain amounts of time for unlimited access, but you need to BYOB (bring your own belayer) unless they started providing belay staff. Check it out!

Having lots of friends from Blue Ash, I’ve been to the Blue Ash Recreation Center a number of times over they years, mostly to play basketball or to swim at the pool. You have to be a resident to be a member, although it helps if your friends have guest passes.
The pool is great, and when the «Rec Center,» as its known, opened in 1979, the pool was second only to Coney Island as the largest re-​circulating pool in Cincinnati, according to the City of Blue Ash’s website. The outdoor pool (hours vary from inside) is a heated Olympic-​size pool, but what make it stand out are the two 145-​foot twisting water slides, and the awesome children’s pool.
The Rec Center is also known for its basketball, having two gyms, one of which is 10,000 square feet. I once read in a book that the Rec Center is one of the best places in the area to play a pick up game. Throw in two racquetball courts, a fitness center (and very popular jazzercise classes), locker rooms, a game room, babysitting facility, two large meeting rooms, eight outdoor lighted tennis courts open year-​round, and a baseball and soccer field in the back and that makes for a great Rec Center. At least it once did.
The Blue Ash Rec Center was the predecessor for many great recreation centers to come, including the one out in Mason which opened in 2003. With its most recent renovations coming in 1994, the Rec Center isn’t all that special anymore, even if its membership is still high. Blue Ash saw that and is currently in «Phase 2» of its latest renovation project which will include «a new fitness enter, indoor track, locker rooms, gymnasium, family area with café, game room and a full basement under the addition to the current building,» according to an article in a local paper.
For its first 15 – 20 years of existence, the Blue Ash Rec Center was a 5-​star place. It’s still great for the family but it has dropped in recent years as bigger and better places have been built. When the construction comes to its end next spring, I’d surely bet that the Rec Center will be back to the 5-​star level.