I will preface this review by saying that I never tried the group fitness classes or the pool. I only used the main workout room on the main floor and the small workout room in the basement.
Okay, so I was a member of the Manchester YMCA for 7 months before I moved from New Hampshire to Houston. My move and seeing YMCAs in another city has made it obvious that Manchester YMCA is behind the rest. The YMCAs in the Houston area are megasized and modern with mini tvs on every piece of cardio equipment. They also have large parking lots which brings me to my first complaint about the Manchester YMCA: the parking situation. Because it is located downtown, there are only 2 options for parking: a limited number of street parking and validated parking in the Brady parking garage down the street. With all the snow and ice in the winter and the seedy weirdos that walk around downtown, I decided to do early morning workouts at 4:45am so that I could easily get parking on the street and avoid the parking garage. That early in the morning there is a group of about 9 "regulars" that come consistently each and every morning. Everyone is nice, including most of the women that run the front desk. Toi is by far the best worker... She is helpful and always has a ready smile. There are 3 main workout rooms: the large main room on the main floor with cardio equipment and weight machines, another much smaller workout room also on the main floor (mostly used by women... I think because the cardio equipment pieces are pink lol), and a medium sized workout room downstairs on the way to the locker rooms. They also have a very large basketball court, a fitness room where they do the group classes, and a pool. I never used those last three, but the pool looked great for lap swim.
I did most of my workouts in the medium sized room in the basement. During the winter months barely anyone went downstairs except for the locker rooms and therefore, I had the room all to myself in the mornings. By summertime, it got packed. Since I was usually the first person in the room each day, I got to see all the trash left behind by the last people the night before. My second complaint is the lack of responsbility on the parts of the members to clean up after themselves. On a regular basis I found towels left around, candy wrappers (?!!), plastic water bottles, and newspapers thrown around the room. One morning I even found an unused MAXI PAD stuff in the cup holder of the treadmill!!! That was the last straw... I went upstairs and showed the woman working at the front desk what I had found. I told her that whomever works out at night leaves his or her trash and also hides the tv remotes, and that that shouldn't be allowed. She just smiled and said it wasn't up to YMCA members to clean up after themselves.... Um, I thought that was like rule #1. But whatever... Just know that this place is not the cleaniest and to disinfect before and after you use a machine. They also have a bit of a spider problem.
I guess for the price and the fact that you don't have to sign a contract, the YMCA Manchester is better than other options in the area. But go take a look at YMCAs in other cities and tell me you don't feel a bit jealous.... Go ahead, I'll wait read more
