Too Rich for my blood

Reebok Sports Club New York
160 Columbus Avenue
3 day complimentary guest membership
Yoga Classes Attended - 2
Total Cost - $0.00


I stumbled upon this deal on the web through one of those gmail-based ads that reads your emails.

I spent about 8 hours at the club over my 3 days on two seperate trips. The first trip I focused on the gym. It's a really nice gym. Really big. Really clean. Almost sterile.  I mean they literally have people whose sole job is to walk around wiping down machines.  They have a nice TRX station thats open to use. A huge free weight room.  Any machine you could imagine.  An outdoor track 5 stories up. A swimming pool. A roof deck. 2 huge basketball courts.  Great locker room amenities.

I did not like how the gym was almost sterile in a cold, unfriendly way. There was no music playing. People were very wrapped up in themselves. I saw a woman texting in the middle of a yoga class. I heard a guy complain to his trainer about his AMEX card being declined which was "ridiculous" because he spends "hundreds of thousands of dollars a year on it."  I saw somone who was identified as a TV star by a woman to her children. He was playing basketball. Wow. I think it was Jeff Fahey.

The trickiest part of the gym for me was figuring out the lockers and the "digilocks." I brought my own lock but was met by a flat door with this thing on it.  I tried pressing all sorts of buttons but couldnt get it to do anything. I became convinced that it was a members-only based lock system and I was out of luck. As I prepared to carry my wallet and iphone with me in the gym and leave everything else unlocked, I started googling "how to lock lockers at reebok sports club new york" on my iphone but no good hits were coming up. Finally, I just asked the guy next to me and he said press C,make up your own 4 digit code, and then press the lock key.  Wow. Things are so simple when you ask for help.


Anyway-  to keep on topic -- the yoga.
The classes at reebok sports club take place in the mind body center, right near the snack bar/lobby:

It has that same vibe to it. Very clean. Very bright.  Very earthy like colors..   The mats were really nice and clean as was all the equipment - the blocks and blankets and stuff. The crowd diverse - a few guys and lots of women.  Everyone in general was a bit older - there was more of a 40s-50s vibe here with a few outliers


The first class I took was "Vinyasa Flow" with Karen.  She was good she introduced herself to everyone individually before class and asked about injuries.  That allowed her to remember names during the class and give individualized pointers which was cool. The class was a typical vinyasa class - but a bit long about 90 minutes. It was moderately strenuous, I barely broke a sweat, but the room was really cold. We flowed through postures quickly and I am getting more and more familiar with the vinyasa flow.  I tried to do crow and managed to take off for a few half seconds. This is progress for me.  She talked about making space, polishing ourselves with yoga, pushing out the bad and allowing space for the new. Typical, but good yoga-speak. She played a lot of music the whole time and definitely played Coldplay more than once. She teaches at a place called Exhale on Central Park South which seems pretty high-end/spa-like and not a place I would normally hit up - though it has a beginners deal.....

I knew there was a "Core Flow' yoga class right after and it sounded kinda sweet - maybe more strenuous, faster paced, different. So instead of leaving after the first 90 minute class, I stayed and attended another! Kind of crazy I know but I didnt have too much shit to do and I really wanted to "abuse" my free membership to the fullest.  The second class actually held postures a lot longer. This was a surprise to me because of the name.It was pretty hard!  It was a lot of the same typical vinyasa postures just a focus on holding them longer - 30 seconds or a minute. This forced me to focus on breathing to stay in the postures. It was really good. And really different. I think I like this better than the flowing short pose vinyasa. I like the deep, strenuous stretch.  She talked a bunch but my mind had pretty much turned to yoga goop by then after 3 hours of yoga and I think I fell asleep in savasana at the end.

However I awoke refreshed and pushed through an hour of cardio before retiring to the luxurious locker-room and taking advantage of the spotless sauna and steam room,  clean showers, body lotion, mouth wash, shaving cream, deodorant.  I really tried to take advantage of this place.

Then I stopped in the lobby area for a quick and well deserved smoothie before heading out into the rain and back to work. The smoothies were good and slightly overpriced but the girl gave me the extra she made at no extra charge or request.


Reebok Sports Club costs about $220 a month. It's a great deal if you're really rich, live on the upper west side and like that sort of pampering and environment. I pay $90/month for Crunch and while Crunch doesnt have all the amenities that Reebok does, it does have all the same machines. Crunch also has a cooler vibe with younger people that I can feel more comfortable around.  I plan to try some yoga classes there soon too.



All in all it was a great 3 day pass and I never even had to sit down with the membership guy. Just a few emails.  All in all, a great $0 spent.