PureGym - Formerly Blink Fitness — Attraction in New York

Blink decided to limit guest access to 4x per month for existing green and blue members. And no new blue members will have guest privileges. SUCKS BIG TIME for loyal members!! Guest should have access at least 20x per month. BTW, stock up on equipment clips and wipes, clean the bathroom and repair the oft broken toilet and faucets! SHAME ON YOU BLINK!!!! Been six months since my first review and 2 months into the 2025. Many new members but same old issues persist. While there was a brief period of time where dirty wipes, empty plastic water bottles and un-racked weights etc were taken care of consistently by the staff, they are now a collective noticeable problem again. Inconsiderate gym members are primarily to blame, but the Blink associates, not just the regular cleaning crew, must do walk-throughs during their shifts to help handle it. Members also ignore the clear posted signs that prohibit placing anything on top of the floor lockers. Staff should simply toss those items away. Lastly, please do not allow any member to obstruct any part of the entrance, stairs, stairwell etc such as locking their e-scooter to the railing. It's a building and/or fire code violation. One particular member has been doing just that for at least a week now. Break that lock and discard that fire hazard. See attached photo. My primary spot is Jackson Heights with Woodside and Astoria as bonus sites. While all of those branches have upgraded their equipment, I notice that Woodside has kept a few of the older models such as the Life Fitness treadmills, which are wider and of better quality. But within a couple of months after their arrival, many of the new treadmills have developed some QC issues such as slipping belts, control panel button malfunctions etc. Woodside still has at least one Bosu ball ab stand which I prefer. I am perplexed as to why Jackson Heights got rid of its two Bosu’s, which were not taking up much space, and replaced them with only a single ab/pull up tower. I am also not a fan of the new elliptical machines as they are noticeably more circular than elliptical in their motion. Plus, the handles appear to needlessly draw your arms inward and, as a whole, the machine itself feels wobbly. In terms of gym etiquette, all three locations are more or less the same. You have respectful, considerate members. Then there are those “Knuckleheads” that: spend a great deal of time on their phones while forcing members to wait to use the equipment; loudly play their music/video without earphones; leave dumbbells and weight plates all over the floor and not re-racking them when done; leave wipes and their plastic water bottles everywhere; wear barely covered tops so their sweaty skin can slobber all over the gym; place their personal belongings such as gym bags in the middle of the floor/walk areas; do not wash hands after going to the bathroom; create a mess in the locker room and by the sink areas; take selfie photos/videos in the locker room and bathroom; bring their dirty street scooters into the gym and locker rooms; use the precious few benches as their personal picnic table and rest stoop; hog machines for themselves and their friends who are not even in the gym yet {this one is especially problematic at the Woodside location, which I suspect will eventually boil over into a full-on fist-fight}. While the cleaning staff generally does a very good job, the other Blink employees should at the very least do regular walk-throughs to re-rack weights (Yes, they used to do this when the gym first re-opened after the Covid closures). Now, what I see are employees simply lounging around on their phones and using the equipment during their break-time or when off work. They have to care more. Having said all that, I do sincerely hope that Blink’s bankruptcy filing will not result in closures of these neighborhood facilities. PLEASE STAY OPEN and IMPROVE THE GYM EXPERIENCE...

I use this place regularly but just went Sunday afternoon till closing and it’s gotten worst than before. There was a really big 4” bug walking around the water fountains, then saw it crushed under a dumbbell in the center of the place, told attendant but it was still untouched for hours until closing (health violation?), cable machine fell apart when I used it (also showed attendant who didn’t do anything, a liability issue), toilet stalls disgusting - littered with soiled paper and pee, weight scale useless wildly inaccurate, no one puts the weights back - and it’s still pretty crowded with racks, benches and most dumbbells taken. Oh, foam rollers are all missing but were there the day before. Otherwise, friendly staff and usually busy cleaners. On hoarding dumbbells: why not just post some rules prominently, like put it back when finished, use only what you can hold, and within 20 min, violators subject to expulsion? Simple easy fast fix. If more space is needed, shrink and relocate the entire front desk section to the elevator area for entry, or the storefront adjacent to the stairs that’s empty, and since theres 2 exits for the building, use the stairs for exits only?

Update oct 2023 - upgrade just 1 star There’s improvements! now a v large area for stretching and floor exercising and sometimes group lessons for trainers and they added another rack of free weights, but it’s still a pretty small gym easily overcrowded without the space for classes or group activities. It’s cleaner than my previous posts and I don’t see the water bugs crawling around anymore. Due to bike and scooter thefts the locked the Roosevelt at exit - apparently thieves just carry away the bikes parked at the front door area in view of the cameras and usually locked by owners, because they know the police don’t care (low level property crime without anyone hurt so will be freed by judges.) there’s only 1 traffic pole outside so there’s always a few scooted and bikes parked near the entrance. Finally they put in two deadlift stations that have wood platforms to absorb the building shaking banging when the weights are dropped. They apparently took a bunch of machines out for more space but it’s still way too congested as the basic problems of too many people so machines and benches are always occupied, made worse and no one putting back the weights they use still persist. The bathrooms are not as filthy as before as they seem to be cleaning more often. The street hookers on the adjacent Roosevelt Ave are now hanging around this street but they don’t bother gym goers but does make the place seedy, and it’s already a bottom budget gym, so even more low class. The staff are the best part- always friendly and usually helpful. Too bad the kids that frequent this place are so inconsiderate. Of course it’s a bottom of the barrel budget near projects so it’ll be crowded to standing room only with riff raff when busy. Retro in Rego park has the same problem, but not new york sports club nor gyms...

UPDATED REVIEW 2: I’ve now been to four other Blink gyms, 1 in Brooklyn and 4 in Manhattan. This is hands down the busiest, even though it actually has more squat racks, lift platforms and leg press machines than any other gym I’ve been to. The biggest difference I notice though is in the gym culture — all stuff I mentioned before. Can’t force people to have good etiquette. If I were managing, I’d replace cardio machines with more dumbbells, add a squat rack and smith machine.

UPDATED REVIEW 1: The gym managers have made two improvements that have really made a difference. 1) There are now 2 dedicated deadlift areas, including a deadlift bar and one more barbell (only one area pictured here). It can still be crowded but this really made a difference. 2) they’ve changed the layout and the gym doesn’t feel quite as crowded anymore.

I spoke to the front desk about stolen clips (I counted 13 missing clips last Sunday) and they’ve been trying to stop it. I don’t understand why someone would steal them and render most of the machines useless. Nevertheless, I do think it’s on Blink to make sure whoever’s doing it gets banned from their gyms. Try signs, cameras, lockable clips.

OLD REVIEW: I’ve gone to this gym regularly for quite a while now. It’s almost always busy. Equipment is often broken. People hoard dumbbells and barbells. I don’t blame people as much as I blame the environment — when you’re given scant and often broken resources, you either share or adopt a hoarding mentality. Management can implement simple, inexpensive changes to improve the situation. Encourage sharing, putting weights back properly, putting stronger safeguards to make sure people don’t remove clips from machines (see photos), encourage proper usage of machines. I give them credit for rethinking the layout of the space recently and while that’s helped, I don’t think it’s enough. It’s hard not to blame the clients but if you allow people to behave like this gym is their own living room, some really will take advantage. Yesterday was awful — I came in for 40 minutes yesterday and did only 3 exercises because there were so many stolen clips. People were walking from machine to machine, taking what few clips were left with them. Craziest thing I ever saw here though was a guy using the Roman chair as a land mine. I wish I had a video but I could barely believe what I was witnessing. I’ve seen many of these complaints echoed for a long time on posts with other great suggestions, like eliminating some cardio machines for resources people use more. Please show your customers you care about their experience here.

There are still broken machines (currently two cable pulleys and a leg press machine) and some others constantly feel like they need some TLC. It’s barebones but I get that they’re trying. For how many people use this gym, it’s worth doing more regular maintenance and encouraging good...