Great place with wonderful, helpful people. A fun, safe, integrated workout, that allows and…read morepromotes the use all my skills ..

This place has a great strength training, set up in addition to the rock climbing facility. My…read morereview is based solely on the strength and conditioning side of the gym. It's an excellent gym, but it's a little pricey since the fee includes the rock climbing access, which I do not use. Overall, it's a very good gym for strength training and I plan to be back regularly.

I'll miss this place. Honestly, going off quality alone, the RSF is a very high quality gym with…read moremultiple rooms for anything you want to do, including combat sports like boxing or martial arts, basketball, squash, stretching rooms, group fitness rooms, and an Olympic-style pool. To be honest, I don't use all of those very much, but I use the weights a lot, and the weight rooms are also amazing. There are about 3 weight rooms, with most of the machines you'd ever want as well as 10 full power racks, so about 10 people can bench at a time and 20 people can do other barbell movements, not to mention the abundance of additional floor space for deadlifts. Where the RSF shines above commercial gyms is the availability of equipment. There are an insane abundance of plates, including 2.5 and 1.25 lb plates for micro loading and plenty of clips. There are also yoga mats, stretching equipment, barbell pads, and lifting belts that can be borrowed from the staff. The gym is also always very clean. The only negatives about the gym is that the staff are a little stricter than commercial gyms, such as that people always have to use clips, though this is fairly sensible. The bigger downside is that they don't allow any Olympic style movement (snatch, clean and jerk, etc.) so if you're interested in training these at all, this might not be the gym for you. Also, it often gets a little crowded during the school year peaking at around 5-7pm on weekdays (after classes get out), but that's expected, considering that there are like 30,000 people who have a membership to the gym at a given time (students of the university receive free access). Overall, if you are a student or otherwise have free access to the RSF, it really is a 5 star gym for most purposes, but as an outside person purchasing a membership, it'd probably be closer to 3 stars just because the membership is quite expensive and it often gets crowded.

This review is long overdue form my time at Cal, but I went to RSF throughout my time at Berkeley…read moreand loved it. It was fairly good and clean gym, they do get super busy in the evenings and have time limits for machines (during busy times), but oh well. I did take taekwondo there too, though though I wasn't too keen on the teaching style. I did love the equipment, mostly running, used the pool, and it was fairly decent experience overall as a student

I've been a member for 8 or 9 months now, and I absolutely LOVE Bridges. As a new climber, I felt…read morelike the lower-graded problems were accessible, but still interesting, fun, and just the right level of challenging. Now that I've progressed to around V4 and visited other gyms (Benchmark, a few Touchstone locations), I've been really appreciating just how creative the routesetting is at Bridges. If you like the puzzle aspect of bouldering and lots of interesting and satisfying coordinated movement, you'll definitely love it here. They set a couple new walls every week, so you'll never run out of projects. There's a huge cave that's basically parallel to the mats, a chimney, a dedicated slab corner, a rotating wall of competition-style climbs, and a separate front room for beginner climbing. They also have a well-stocked weight room, cardio equipment, saunas, an upstairs lounge area, free beer and hop water after you're done climbing (!!!), yummy snacks for sale, and great yoga, climbing and fitness classes. There's also a few partner gyms that offer free monthly day passes for Bridges members, though I haven't checked any of them out yet. The biggest highlight is that the community at Bridges is AMAZING and so supportive, no matter what grade of problems you're working on. I was too intimidated to even work out in a regular gym before this, but everyone I interacted with at Bridges was very encouraging and made me feel welcome, and now I see friends and have people to climb with almost every time I go. The front desk staff are super friendly and fun to chat with (S/O especially to Anni and Star), and as a queer person it's great to feel represented there. I do wish the mats were a bit softer, as it's a little too easy to tweak an ankle if you don't fall with ideal form--but that's literally my only complaint. Seriously, if you live near El Cerrito and are interested in bouldering, this is the place!!

The service was helpful and polite. The environment was really nice and beginner friendly. The gym…read morewas scattered with plenty of different options. The only confusing part is understanding the levels, since the colored tags were a range of what level it may have been.

Best climbing gym around! I pretty much only Boulder but the…read morespace is huge and there's a wide variety of problems for all skill levels. Healthy mixture of top outs and holds to finish! Good rotation of problems! The workout area has a lot of space (though it can get crowded 5-7 midweek). Staff is always friendly and helpful.

I've been here a few times and it's always so mesmerizing looking at the sheer size of the gym/rock…read moreclimbing walls as well as it being 2 floors for bouldering! Their traditional part of the gym with weights had a good selection of accessories and equipment. I love how there are big areas for both top rope and bouldering. I can't imagine how it will be during rush hours as I've only tried to go on the off hours. I usually chance it and park on 20th street instead of parking in the lot as it can get pretty tight. Everyone I've interacted with was pretty nice and efficient! Definitely check it out if you're in the area- it's so pretty'. Theres also a coffee shop on 20th street too if you need a pick me up!

Welp, this location is itty bitty. No parking. And limited equipment, but it'll get the job done…read more The staff was super nice. The lady answered all of my questions, and she was willing to show me around but I politely declined. The free weights go up to 60lb dumbbells. There's a dual cable machine near the 3 weight benches. There's a TRX band, sand bags, and twos sets of the small dumbbells. I just needed an hour bench workout, and I got it. The location is just off the main strip. A little walk around the area was nice. I found parking one street over in the residential area. The roads are tight and parking can be hard to find, but this place did good by me.

The Albany branch is very good: friendly and helpful staff, all the cardio and weight equipment you…read morecould want, a great air filtration system, and many classes offered in the gym. The not so good is about poor customer service from the East Bay central office. They're not accessible, transparent, responsive or professional. I submitted an inquiry about certain deliberate, repeated and disruptive member behaviors, including a question about what help other members could expect from desk staff. The central office agreed it was disruptive, said they'd do XYZ, and then....no action, and silence for over half a year, unresponsive to a few follow-up inquiries. Then recently the Y central office emailed me that, in their experience, my experience didn't exist, never mind their earlier acknowledgement, and that it was up to me to suck it up and somehow deal with it. I am so disappointed with the East Bay YMCA member "services" crew, and with the complete lack of effective communication and recourse channels.

If a blind man with his white cane can run around this track, you can too. The beauty of this track…read morelies in its minimally tempered nature - you'll find real sand and dirt in your shoes after a run rather than the little rubbery bits from a synthetic running track. It's not ideal for running in the rain (or during those times when the soccer field sprinklers come on), but on most days you can enjoy majestic views of the bay and lower Clark Kerr. You don't even have to bring a water bottle since there's a fountain inside! They've since removed the bleachers that were on the grass area, but there's still a wooden table and metal bars of varying heights that you can use for stretching, sitting, etc. If you're not feeling lying on the grass for your exercises, another option is the big wooden bench near the entrance with the turnstile. The most crowded I've seen the track is during the early afternoon or late morning, but it's never packed to where you have to fight for imaginary lane space. But don't feel intimidated by this being a "track" - people of all fitness levels and ages frequent the place and you'll fit right in. :)

Well maintained dirt track with beautiful views of the bay. There is a drinking fountain and a few…read moreplaces to rest between laps.

Touchstone gym located in downtown Oakland…read more This is a more small and intimate gym in comparison to Pacific Pipe. There is a small Boulder section, top roping, work area, weights, and workout area. The staff here is super friendly. My friends took the intro to climbing class here and they really enjoyed it. The staff was really helpful in teaching them the ins and outs

I love the structure. Super fun, climbing competition. Great stuff. Super fun…read more I came for the 2024 climbing competition. I had such a great time so glad I came. This building is gorgeous and so fun so aesthetic. The staff was super friendly. When I made a joke about my chalk, they were receptive and fun. Their store was pretty well stocked. Grab myself an adorable, red crop sweatshirt. They're set up was very organized. Literally zero drama. Highly recommend, and I'll be back.

As a long-time avid beach volleyball player, I soooo miss the beach after living in Santa Barbara…read morefor 20+ years. That said, it's great to have these two courts on the Clark-Kerr campus (UC Berkeley announced the addition of sand volleyball as an intercollegiate program this year). The sand is not super deep and has a very chalky, yet rough texture, but hey... who's complaining? Not me. They have recently replaced the nets and it's now easy to change the height of the nets. It's really a beautiful spot with a canopy of trees surrounding the courts. Tilden Park borders this area so you can always take a walk afterwards to check out some nature. To find the courts, go east on Dwight Way (up the steep hill) and turn right on Sports Lane. Follow the road past the Golden Bear facility on your left and soon you will see a short driveway on your left, go up this driveway and the courts will become visible at the top. The parking lot requires a permit (I believe it's $2 for 3 hours) but the permit machine has been broken for some time and there is a sign saying that no ticketing will happen. Beware of leaving valuables in your car as break-ins can, and do, occur even while the owners have been nearby. There is no way to reserve the courts for personal use. It's just first-come, first-serve so you take your chances. Generally people just wait until the group before them is done (most play is 2 on 2). On rare instances, groups rotate in and out (if the first group is willing).

Came here during winter break to get some plyo done. It was fenced off. Might be closed down nowread more