12th Street Gym, Neighborhood Bang for your Buck

The 411

12th Street Gym is a budget-friendly option for those in the midtown village 'hood and beyond. In order to keep prices low, there aren't many bells and whistles but they have a wide array of equipment and classes suitable for novice to certified gym rat.

The gym has all the standard cardio and weight machines as well as a range of your traditional group-fitness options. Across the board, the equipment is a mix of up to date and shall we say, retro?

They also have a small pool, which is being totally remodeled and upon completion, will continue with the regular offerings of aqua aerobics, open swim, and lessons for both kids and adults. Due to it’s small size serious swimmers need not apply.

Classes

12th Street Gym offers a lot of group classes from spinning, which was packed on a random Thursday at lunch hour, to Barre, Zumba, yoga and various cardio and conditioning options.

Vibe

There seems to be a diverse membership with a local feel.

Space

On the first floor you will find underwhelming - yet clean - locker rooms with monthly rental options ranging from an extra $39.00-$119.00. There are about 4-5 showers that have soap, shampoo and bath towel service for an additional $15.00 a month. There is also a cafe with a very limited menu, mostly offering protein shakes and various power bars like Quest and Combat.

Up a half flight from the cafe is a full-size indoor basketball court, which hosts pick up games.

In the basement is a co-ed sauna and steam room, along with the pool; as noted above, all of which are currently under construction.

Upstairs is a labyrinth of separate rooms connected by stairwells and hallways, containing free weights, cardio equipment or group fitness studios. It's a very confusing layout that will take some patience (and maybe Waze) to figure out.

Each room is dedicated to a different fitness genre, for example cardio rooms full of Star -Trec treadmills, ellipticals or bikes and weight rooms for different body parts. I.e. a room for upper body connected to a room for lower.

The studios for group fitness classes are quite nice.

$$$$

Dues are yearly and range from $278 for three months to $489 for a year and $798 for 2 years. At $489.00 a year, that's only $40 a month - roughly $1.33 a day. I know you spend more than that on coffee. To make it even more appealing, the renewal dues decrease significantly.