New York Health and Racquet Club

Gym is alright but overpriced. Cancellation is easy but the fee structure isn’t super clear. You have to give 30 days notice and if your billing cycle occurs within those 30 days you have to pay for another month. They don’t simply prorate it for up to 30 days.
This was not made clear to me upon signing and when I brought that up Kristoff, the assistant gm at the venue, insisted that they did (he wasn’t the one who signed me up) and was pretty rude in general.
Outside of that interaction I found the gym to be satisfactory.

I love this gym. I’ve been a member of Equinox and a bunch of smaller gyms throughout the city and this beats them all, hands down.
First of all, the equipment. They have anything you might want. The second floor is the cardio floor, with treadmills, row machines, stationary bikes, and – my favorite – boxing equipment, including three different types of punching bags, a speed ball, and a boxing ring. There are also gloves to borrow but they’re kind of gross. There’s also a TRX station. The third floor has a half-​sized basketball court, a squash room, and a racquet ball room – you have to book and pay extra for squash and racquet ball. The fourth floor has weights and weight machines. The basement has a saltwater pool, two jacuzzis, a steam room, and a sauna.
There are a lot of freebies. I’ve gotten two free personal training sessions, a free boxing class, and a free swim class. They are a bit pushy to get you to sign up for one-​on-​ones afterwards but once you say no they don’t bother you.
They also have classes. I would say the classes aren’t as good as Equinox and don’t happen as often. However, I’ve been pretty happy with them. I usually don’t use the class option though.
A few points for improvement: more cleaning staff and longer hours on the weekend would be nice.

If you want of pay over 1000 dollars a year and be treated like dirt this is the club for you. The managers are useless if you report anything to them and they will always make you feel like you’re the one that’s wrong. Half the machines are never working. Customer service is non existent here and there is no respect for it. I was hurt twice at their gym and no one cared. I had to ask for ice and then it was thrown on the counter and the workers started going about with their chatter not even caring if I was ok or not.
It used to be great here. Totally downhill in the last few years!!!

One of the best gyms around! This gym has three stories of machines and class rooms (including a boxing ring, a basketball court, a cycling studio, and a yoga studio) and a saltwater pool with a sauna and jacuzzi. I LOVE shooting hoops but the basketball (half) court is almost always busy.
Because of the numerous machines, I’ve never had to wait for a machine to use. The treadmills they have here are REALLY cool as they come with a giant screen on the dashboard where you can choose «where to run» whether its an outdoor trail or a beach — which really makes the running on the treadmill quite a bit more enjoyable.
There are also plenty of areas for stretching and the yoga studio is open even when classes aren’t in session for when I want to do a bit of yoga on my own.
Overall very clean and spacious!

Typical terrible Manhattan gym. I’m the type of guy that is usually satisfied with the typical chain gym in the suburbs, but I’ve never found a gym I’ve liked in Manhattan. This is better than NYSC, where the employees were useless and I was always afraid to leave my laptop in my (locked) locker. The locker room attendant gives me a bit of security in that department.
I’ve never been approached by a trainer in over a year, but I’m a big dude and probably don’t look friendly in here.

I finally quit NYHRC. What a relief!!. The club is old and dirty. Locker rooms are crowded. What bothered me most was NYHRC’s policy of pushing members to pay for training sessions — trainers have to meet quotas. As a result, trainers are obnoxious and pushy, and they actually can get really aggressive if you to work out with a buddy since they want you to hire them. Much better options downtown with several newer clubs in the area. Steer clear.

I LOVE this gym! And I am not typically a gym person. I usually find them sweaty and intimidating, but this is SUPER clean and most people are very friendly.
Pros:
— Join one gym, you can use ALL of them at no extra charge
— Pools at all but one gym
— Clean facilities (really nice locker room here)
— All classes included, and there are a ton of them!
— Great personal trainers
— Price comparable to NYSC, which you can only use one location, no pools, no classes included
— open late
— You can join at a membership where you can cancel anytime, great to try the place out.
— Most months, it seems like the sign up fee is waved
— lots of cardio machines, I’ve never had to wait.
I can not recommend my personal trainer, Charles enough! As someone who was not excited about going to gyms and was always uncomfortable with ‘meat heads’ or ‘gym rats’, it took me getting ready for my wedding to join a gym and get a personal trainer. Charles is the nicest, most positive person! Instead of someone yelling and demeaning you, he is encouraging and explains the science behind each exercise you are doing which has really helped me understand how to properly move and hold myself. It helps a lot to work out with a person who is clearly more excited than you are to be at the gym at 8am.

Decent facility, but feels very dated. The locker rooms feels like an old Elks club or something.

Not a bad gym but I had to cancel when they changed the playlist and I no longer got to hear One Week by Barenaked Ladies every day at 1:38.
Canceling wasn’t too difficult by gym cancellation-​standards. You can do it online and you have to do it 30 days in advance or you have to pay for another month. For instance, I canceled today and I still have to pay for November. Every gym does that, though, so no big deal.
The gym’s pretty clean and the trainers don’t bother you too much. Just put on your headphones, play your BNL, and they’ll get the message. The classes are good, if a little too full sometimes. It’s $ 105/​month if you don’t have a corporate membership. That’s maybe a little high, but you can decide for yourself. They have: classes/​towels/​steam room/​sauna/​jacuzzis/​racquetball/​basketball court (small)/pool. I would say the equipment is adequate. I’ve never had to wait for a treadmill.

This place always seems to be under construction. on the 4^th floor they boxed off a huge part of the empty space on which people use to do training sessions with free weights and rope, now they just do it in the aisles in front of the weight machines… Making it ridiculous for everyone involved. Also over hearing the trainers call some poor dude «Nancy» and «Mary» was pretty lame. Usually around 8:45 the place clears out and is actually usable. They need to be open past 6 on the weekends.

Pros: Nice looking lobby, boxing ring and punching bags (BYOgloves unless you like using nasty communal ones), nice steam room, windows in weight rooms, a good number of classes.
Cons: Only one arc-​trainer (and none with arm motion), Shower room floors collect water and feel slimy, many machines seem to have tv monitors but no place to plug headphones, trainers seem aggressive, and a lot of the classes I’d like to take are in the middle of the day instead of after work.
I don’t notice that there is a tip jar in the locker room any more, but people still give the attendant money sometimes and I’ve seen her counting tips. It’s unclear whether (or for what service) tips are expected, and I’ve been feeling a bit awkward. To be fair, the attendant is still very sweet even though I haven’t given her any tips as of yet.
With all of the above in mind I still think it’s a pretty solid gym if you work in the neighborhood.

General manager never wants to cancel your contract… ridiculous
And they continue to charge your credit card even if you call, send emails or tell them in person.
They kept charging my credit card and without any type of notification and sent the bill to a collection agency. When I called the collection agency they told those charges had been recalled by the manager.

This review is for the personal training aspect of the gym. There are really no words for how terrible my experience was — and I tried two different trainers. About me — reasonably in shape, just looking to take it to the next level before my wedding. Had never trained with a personal trainer before, so didn’t really know what to expect. WOW. What an experience.
Trainer number one was so ridiculous that even now, months later, I still have a hard time believing it happened. She never assessed me or asked me what my goals were, she told me that to lose weight I had to eat white rice and carrot juice *and that was it for the day*, and — here’s the awesome part — *I WAS TO BLAME FOR BEING PHYSICALLY ABUSED IN THE PAST*.
I followed up with the manager, who apologized and offered another free session with a different trainer. In my opinion, «We won’t charge you for being mentally abused for an hour» really doesn’t cut it. But anyway, I gave it another try.
Trainer number two was more reasonable, I’d give her two and a half stars. Heck, after the last one, she could have simply made me run on a treadmill for an hour calling me the Cookie Monster and it would have been an improvement. But she wasn’t certified, didn’t have me use any equipment that I don’t have at home (this could be a good thing, but then why am I paying for a gym membership?) and had no recommendations whatsoever for a nutritionist or dietician «OMG! Like, this is my job so it’d be a good idea for me to know one of those!!!» Uh, yeah lady. If you’re going to charge me $ 100 a session to get my body into shape, you better know a little more than this.
Classes there are pretty good, the pool is okay if you can get some space to use it, and you don’t have to wait for a treadmill — but after this training experience, I to this day have to go to the gym afraid when I run into these freak shows.

I am surprised this NYHRC has gotten such mediocre reviews. I guess it really is hard to go off of reviews when picking a gym to call «home» as a lot of factors are weighed differently by different people.
So here’s my background: I workout regularly (3 – 4 times a week) mainly during the peak hours on the weekdays — treadmill, free weights, and the occasional group fitness class (mainly in the form of spin). My previous gym was Equinox (I had a corporate membership which made it affordable), so I have gotten quite use to the gym-​spa atmosphere. I also spend a great deal in the locker rooms as I am always running off to somewhere after my workout so I make full use of the showers and amenities. Since I have a corp membership which allows me to bounce around, I started off at the Astor Plc location, then moved to the Park Ave location, and now I think I am going to stay put at Whitehall St. I think if you are trying to pick a gym, it’s best to figure out what you value most in a gym and see if you see those things talked about in the reviews. I’ve read reviews where people say that Astor Place is their favorite location of all the NYHRCs and I’m like… really?!? But again, different strokes for different folks… onto my review.
These are the things I think the Whitehall St NYHRC does great:
Shower Facilities/​Locker Room: I don’t know why some reviews say that locker room needs updating… I think it looks fine. It’s laid out a lot better than both the Astor Place location and the newest location in Flatiron on Park Ave — those locations always had weird nooks where the lockers would be. Also — the locker room is on the 1^st floor so you don’t need to go up/​down a flight of stairs when you walk in just to get to the locker room. You get full lockers with hangers (something you don’t at Astor Place) and the whole space is very bright and clean. They have a separate little section with mirrors and blow dryers, and 4 toilets in the back, sectioned off from the locker space. I appreciate that there are orchids and other pretty plants put out to convey that «spa» like feeling. Also appreciate the classical music they play instead of the blaring top 40’s on the 2^nd floor. The showers are located one level below the locker room. They are clean with great water pressure and have those nice big flat shower heads (nice touch). The steam room is HEAVEN, and gets steamed more often than the one at Equinox. The only thing to note is that it’s turned off during the weekend :(The Park Ave location facilities is also very nice as well, but it’s so weirdly laid out and crowded… and also no steam room — Whitehall St, you take the cake on this point.
Cardio Equipment/​Main Workout Floor: This is on the second floor and by far the most spread out, non-​claustrophobic space to workout in compared to the other 2 locations I’ve been to. You have all your standard cardio equipment grouped together, a large spin studio, a boxing ring, several boxing bags, row machines, and a large general area for mat work/​stretching. There are also TVs lining the perimeter of the space, but I find that the treadmills are waaay too close to them (i.e. I can see the pixels when I’m running!) For someone like me, I care about space. I don’t want to be doing pushups next to someone lifting 100lbs right over my head. This floor has more than enough space where you can do whatever you want in your own space and time. The only draw backs are: no windows so no natural light, and the music (top 40’s) is flippin’ loud.
Classes: I really like the classes at NYHRC. I would say that they are comparable to Equinox, especially the spin classes. Russel Smith is GREAT, and I’ve had a much harder workout in his class than I did with any other instructor at Equinox. I haven’t been to much else (did an Arms, Abs & Assets class — was pretty good) but have seen the other classes going on and they all look packed, engaged and full of energy. I’m looking forward to trying out some of the yoga classes! The class studio is on the 3^rd floor behind the squash & racquet ball courts. I like that it’s not out in the open so a million people working out can watch the class squat in unison. That’s weird: P I don’t play racquet ball or squash, but I always see the courts being occupied so that’s a good sign!
I can’t really comment on the weight room (which is supposedly on the 4^th floor). But if there is an entire floor dedicated to weights, then it must be pretty spacious — but again, I’ve never ventured up there as the 2^nd floor has several sets of dumbbells which is all I’ll ever need.
I originally signed up at the Astor Pl location as my work is literally around the corner… but I will continue to go to Whitehall St just because it is so much better in all the factors I consider important. Also — as a Brooklynite, this gym is right next to the R, which is the train I take home anyway!

i’ve been coming here for the past 5 years and this is my favorite location because it’s the closest to where i live. i also love the huge open space on the second floor for me to stretch and do what i want.
i also love how it’s slightly empty in the evenings and on weekends.
the place could use a little updating though. the showers and locker rooms are meh… the other locations are nicer.
what is bad about this location are the personal trainers. they really come and hound you for your business and interrupt your workouts. i don’t like how they’re so hungry for business.
i did a sign up for a free personal training session before and it was the worst mistake of my life. after your session, you have to sit with the manager and he tries really hard to sell you the package. he calls you and hounds you like crazy and doesn’t let go. this one time, after i said no and i needed to think about it and asked for a pamphlet to look at it, he said no. he didn’t want to give me one because i was going to waste it since i wasn’t signing up. i felt so offended and reported him. beware of him. he’s since been move to the 23^rd street location. he’s in his mid thirties, at least 6 feet, black, bald and built. he’s also very rude and fake.
other than that, this location is great for working out. i’ll keep coming back until it’s closed.
but nyhrc, if you’re reading, please remodel and update the location.

Much like Ke$ha’s head, I love this place because it’s completely empty.
Now, to be fair I only go here on the weekends but usually I have the run of the place. I can run on 20 different treadmills… tune all the TVs to an infomercial with Valerie Bertinelli hawking skin care products. I can drag all the weights onto the floor into my private workout area and nobody comes by and says «hey bro, you done with those 75 lb* dumbells?»
The place is always clean when I go, locker room, shower, gym floor, equipment, etc. They have a lot of machines… plenty of treadmills and ellipticals and then plenty of weight equipment up on the 4^th (or is it 5^th?) floor.
I’m betting that during the week it’s super packed, so take my review with a grain of salt. But if you want a gym where you can spin around and around until you get so dizzy that you fall down, but when you do, nobody sees you because nobody is there, then this is the place.
Oh and they have this super cool fish tank when you walk in the front door. I heart those fish. so peaceful and pretty, just like Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
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*okay, it’s usually the 30 lb dumbbells but since nobody’s there to see me, they don’t know that I can rip out some reps with 75 lbs!

Well-​equipped gym, especially considering its location — it looks to be the southernmost gym in Manhattan (which means that if you live in Brooklyn, this is the HRC location you’ll most likely want to attend). There are four main floors — one with a pool and saunas, one cardio floor, one floor with basketball and raquetball courts and one floor with a focus on weight training.
I’ve never been in the pool or saunas, so I can’t really say they’re good or bad. I like the idea of having them, though, in case I ever decide to start using them (the Eucalyptus room sounds like an interesting hang). The cardio floor is mostly treadmills, elliptical machines and bicycles, with other random machines scattered around. There are televisions near the machines, though some of the treadmills have their own built-​in TVs. A boxing ring and bag area, classroom and workout/​stretching area caps things off. This floor gets crowded right after work, but even so, I’ve always been able to find a machine to work out on (even if it wasn’t the exact type I wanted).
Floor three is where the raquetball and basketball courts are. This is another area of the club that I’ve never really used, but it seems popular, and there are leagues you can join if that’s your kind of thing.
The weight training floor is where I spend most of my time, and is roughly divided in half — one side is machines, the other is mostly for free weight and cable work. On the free weight side, there is a power rack and a squat rack, two smith machines, a large cable multistation (including crossovers) and an area near the dumbell rack with adjustable benches and seats. There are also some Hammer Strength plate-​loaded machines scattered around, including High Row and Incline Bench machines. Over on the other side of the room, there is pretty much every type of isolation machine you could want. There are also some cardio machines in the corner by the window, including treadmills and a stair stepper. Random things like kettlebells and a few bins filled with esoteric exercise equipment round things off.
Overall, this place is more than adequate to get your Arnold or Megan on. It’s no David Barton, but the machines are clean and seem to be well-​kept. Staff seems friendly, but I’ve never really talked to them or had a trainer there. Gets crowded between 5PM and 7 PM, but so does every other gym, so you just learn to adapt your workout if you can’t get the station you want. The gym is now open on Saturdays and Sundays, and it’s pretty empty on those days, so you can always try visting then if the after-​work crowd puts you off.
Ah, almost forgot — the music they pipe in here is heinous. I once asked a trainer about it, and he said that they play a lot of really old, awful pop music because a lot of older people join gyms right at the time they start falling apart physically, and that type of music is apparently what they’re most comfortable with.
Whatever. Either bring an MP3 player, or throw up the devil sign for some Fun Boy Three.

If you want to get treated like dirt by desperate sales people, actually stemming from the management, join this club.
Everything will be ok until you try to leave. It doesn’t matter who you are. I’m was a charter member at this location for 4 years and I personally helped sign up two friends who where here for the summer for a no commitment monthly membership and saw them both get shafted when they tried to go. I still get letters 8 months later to my address from collection agencies for one of them.
When I tried to leave and saw for myself what was going on, they tried to hook me for another month on my no commitment monthly membership. I threatened to use up all their supplies if they choked me for another month, and they kicked me out and blacklisted me.
Read their contract when signing up and just cross out the parts that will scam you, such as 30 days notice (resulting in an extra $ 120) to cancel a no commitment membership.
I voiced my concerns and offered to discuss this in person, and I got a browbeating, moral high ground letter… all because their monthly membership contract was a fraud.
Below is the reply I got back from the VP, 4 days after my original email to Ashley… (nice, huh?) He accepts no responsibility for their absolutely crap contract and treat ME like a criminal. Aren’t we SICK of this?
«Ashley had already asked me if she could cancel your membership earlier and I had approved that cancelation. Before she could send you a reply, you’ve responded with this garbage… refrain from contacting Ashley again.
We will forward your response to the local police precinct. Your e-​mail could conceivably constitute harassment. Step back into our club and we’ll have you thrown out. Continue coming in, and we’ll have you arrested.
Since you’re not honorable enough to live up to the terms of the contract to which you agreed, we will cancel your membership right now. Frankly, we don’t want or need anyone like you in our club. We will respond in kind to any posts regarding our business.»

I joined this gym mostly cuz I have a Corp deal with them and end up paying a measly 27 beans a month for membership…
Downfalls: old equipment, ratty towels, not so great group workout schedules.
Perks: right across the street from work and few blks from home, never a line for machines, clean sauna, ample showers and blow dryers as well as locker space, spin class and bootcamp is hardcore!
Worth regular 100 $ for membership I think not…

It’s a corporate gym so it’s not as fancy-​glam as the other HRCs (ie 23^rd st). The facilities are old but maintained. Machines are in good condition. If one isn’t working, that’s clearly indicated. The people are friendly. It’s busiest from M-​W around 6:30 — 8:30pm, in my experience. Empty on the weekend which is fantastic. Not open on sundays thoguh (I heard this is gonna change). Class selection, not so great, unfortunately, you’re better off going to their other locations for this. Pool is also not that nice. If you’re gonna get a personal trainer, I recommend Mario, he’s really cool, supportive and listens to your concerns/​needs.
Overall, this is good for a no-​frills workout.
*note — Their cancellation policy is a pain, you have to go to the actual location to pick up a form. Why they can’t make these forms available online, I don’t know. So I went one step further and scanned a copy of the form, so if anyone is interested in getting it and can’t make it to the location, I’ll email it to you. I’ll be happy to help a fellow Unilocaler out!