Berkeley YMCA — Attraction in Berkeley

Please note my review is not about the whole YMCA, but about their yoga class. The other facilities of the Y are actually great, and I'm glad to be a member. But on to my review of yoga instructor Scotty M...

I took my first yoga class at the YMCA and was appalled. First off, the class itself was pretty mediocre for my level; I get that the class was noted as "all levels" but ultimately, it was below my skill level and I just didn't get much out of it. The instructor, Scotty, seemed to have no plan and had to pause for at least 30 seconds in between every pose while we all waited for him to come up with what to do next. Come savasana (corpse pose) at the end, I decided this class just wasn't for me and wanted to leave.

I get up as quietly as I can and put away my mat. I turn to tiptoe to the door, and Scotty says, "Please don't get up and leave." At this point I'm confused, since 5 people have already left and he didn't say anything to them, so I assumed this was an acceptable thing to do. Not wanting to disrupt the class any more, I continue tiptoeing to the door. He repeats, "I'm asking you not to leave," and I whisper, "I'm sorry, I need to be somewhere." He says, "Don't come back." Excuse me?

I have never been told to not come back somewhere. Literally every yoga class I have ever been to, people are allowed to come and go as they please. What if I have an emergency? Have to pee? Have an important phone call? Are we held hostage? Is the door locked? Are we not all adults here?

I completely understand that my leaving can be disruptive to the rest of the class. But I repeat, I made every effort to be as quiet as possible, and it would have taken me all of 5 seconds to get my things and be out the door. Instead, Scotty tried to make an example of me, after others had already left, and turn this into a completely rude and hostile interaction. If anyone was being disruptive here, it was him. The professional way to handle this was to let me leave quietly like an adult, but instead he seemed to have a big ego trip and got mad I didn't stay for his whole class.

Look. This isn't Esalen. This isn't an ashram in Rishikesh. IT'S THE YMCA. It's a free class in a metropolitan location that I try to fit into my busy schedule, and sometimes I'm going to have to leave earlier than I thought. But in this case, to put it bluntly, I wanted to leave because his class wasn't good; I gave the excuse that I "had to be somewhere" so as to not turn this ugly, but obviously that didn't do any good. At the end of the class, I realized this wasn't for me and I wasn't going to sit there for 20 more minutes doing nothing (every other yoga class I've ever taken only allotted about 5-10 minutes for corpse pose; 20 minutes is just ad nauseam in my opinion.)

I was so stung by his remark that I just slipped out of the room without saying anything back. I felt attacked. When you think of a yoga instructor, you think of someone happy, kind, accepting, understanding, positive, gentle, spreading good vibes. Not Scotty. He is rude, egotistical, and quite frankly a grouch. His class was not a welcoming environment. I will...

I wanted to update my review for the YMCA. I don't think my review from before applies in any way after COVID because the members and the gym are so different. I just joined the gym again after 18 months on a medical hold.

Here's what you should know returning the the YMCA: It's still strict, you will need to wipe down before and after and adhere to their policies even if they make little sense or aren't enforced equally. Respect the community and facility. The gym is not getting deep cleaned at least not the machines and they are wearing out even though many are new from the last 5 years. They installed ventilation so the gym no longer smells like sweat and the windows are always open now but this means no AC. No towel service anymore but you get your own disinfecting bottle which you'll need since you have to wipe before and after. Rooms have been broken up into a machine room, a free weight room with 4 racks and the old child gym has thankfully been turned into a room with 10! yes 10 squat racks!! That means they increased their rack capacity by like 220% great move! No locker rooms or showers.. weird because CC county has them open but this helps lower gym capacity. People mostly following the rules but some are not wearing masks right. Probably the gym has a high concentration of people who never believed in any of the COVID rules anyways. New online system is nice and gives a record of going to the gym but does not show capacity of the Berkeley YMCA weirdly. It is not really crowded mid day at all. It's desolate. Some days staff was extremely limited no personal trainer on duty and only one staff member in the front. They seem to have added fans all over each room that have some component to neutralize virus particles with blue light. There is also some kind of machine in the stretch area.

My suggestions to the gym after a few days of being back Deep clean the machines Remodel the bathrooms to add more bathroom capacity on the main level. Replace more floors with sound proofing and dampening materials when possible. Fix the lightening in the new rack room it is falling out of the socket.

I personally really missed going to the gym and Bowflex 552's at home and step aerobics is just not comparable to the literal fitness buffet this place offers. I actually spent more last year on fitness equipment than what it cost for the gym (Weights $380, Aerobics board $110, Bike repairs and parts $600 vs $540 for a 1yr membership).

Whats it like going back? Well the first few days my body felt like it was on drugs from working out again. I hurt in regions I forgot existed. Food tasted richer and time seemed to slow. This place can be like a magical temple of the mind and body if you make it that. It is legendary. Good luck to the Downtown Berkeley YMCA and hoping it 50 more...

I come here exclusively for the workout room. While it's very convenient for me since it's very close to my apartment, there are a few things about this Y that I feel like need to be improved. I probably wouldn't go here if it wasn't a 5 minute jog away. The first issue I take is the poorly stocked bench weights. When I go around 4, the bench weights never seem to be in the right place, and they seem like they could use a few more. I constantly need to take plates from other stations to get the weight I want. The second issue is that there even are bench stations. These 4 bench stations would be much better off as squat stations that can be adjusted to be bench stations. The reason being because the 4 squat stations they have almost always being full when I get there. Maybe that wouldn't be a big deal if it wasn't for issue number 3: high schoolers. I'll admit, this is mostly unique to when I go, since I go very close to the end of school. Unfortunately, I don't have much of a choice to go another time; I leave for work at 6:15am, and I'm the cook of the house, so I should be back at home around 5 to get stuff going. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad that the youth are that go here are developing healthy habits. The issue is, they spend so much time doing one exercise with way too much break in between. They easily get distracted by other high schoolers, they all crowd around each other, and often half of them aren't working out and aren't even properly dressed. This should be unacceptable. If you aren't working out, you shouldn't be in the work out room. If you are taking more than a couple minutes between sets, then you are spending too much time goofing off. Some high schoolers are working hard and aren't goofing around, but a huge majority have no respect for any of the other members' time.

I don't want to hate on this Y too much. The staff is always very kind, and I like the equipment there. They just need to buy a few more plates and clear out some of the people that are...