34th and Park

I approached, walked in, and was totally prepared to hate this location.  The men's locker room was confusing to get to, it was very crowded with way too many people doing cardio, and I was confident that there would be a bouncer outside of the locker room asking to see proof that I was member of either the "Jersey Shore Hair Gel Club" or "Long Island Fraternity Association."

I was pleasantly surprised to find that I was wrong.

This club was actually pretty nice.  My first impressions were all bad: it was too busy, the locker room was a thousand degrees and humid, there were no dividers between urinals (pet peeve), the general layout didn't seem clear at first, and the clientele was very straight and very "I'll just down a whey protein drink with a beer and call it muscle" focused.  However, the club is large, there is plenty of cardio for all of those after-business folks, and although the weights are scattered about in a few different spots the layout isn't all that confusing.

No one was mean and everyone stuck to themselves (perhaps because the girls were too focused on staring at the guys, and the guys were too focused on staring at themselves in the mirror).  I didn't have to wait for any equipment.  Upstairs is a small area for stretching and a few ab machines, and the rest of the gym is on one level (including the studio and additional free weights in the back).  The locker room was on the smaller size, but surprisingly not busy; I have a feeling the regulars at this club work and live in the area and don't utilize the locker rooms much.  Just a guess.

Not everything was peaches n cream.  The temperature in the locker room DID go down by the time I finished my workout, but it still had that extra-moist quality to it.  There were plenty of showers but they are the darkest showers I have ever experienced.  If there were ANY LIGHT back in the shower area I would probably say "these showers are large and nice!" but instead I was left thinking "why don't they provide waterproof flashlights?" and "lord have mercy if this were a gayer gym they'd call this the backroom."

My grade: A-