Method Climbing Gym — Attraction in Newark

This is the best climbing gym in the area. I am not an advanced climber, but I have been to enough gyms to know that this one is a league above the rest. They have difficult and technical bouldering routes. However, it is not discouraging because other people are more than willing to give you tips and advice to help you “solve” the “problem” (plus: it’s no fun if it’s too easy). They have a variety of difficulty levels for bouldering. This is NOT just a climbing gym. They have a FULLY EQUPPED “regular” gym in the middle of the space. I will try my best to describe it. They have stuff for calisthenics (kinda like a pull up bar jungle gym thing), gymnastics rings, punching/kicking bag, spring machines (it’s treadmill that does not use power but instead is curved to fit a natural stride), rowers and ski machines, sleds (the one that you push across the turf). AND they have plenty of barbells, squat racks, plates, free weights, and kettle bells. They also have foam rollers and stretching bands for when you cool down. I’ve also had some legendary ping pong games here. And somehow (I never thought this would be possible) but I learned to slackline on the one they have here. It’s basically tightly-wound, flat, foot-wide, line that wobbles. Someone gave me guidance on that and now it’s one of my favorite things to do. Additionally, as a member, I take advantage of many fitness classes that they offer. Yoga seems to be the crowd favorite because it’s so popular and mainstream, but they also have Capoeira classes. I took one of these classes in undergrad so I kinda knew what it was, but the class is called “Capoeira Foundations” because it’s meant to give you the basic elements and rhythms. You just gotta get into it. It’s so much fun. The instructor Chris (call him his Capoeira name though: Calado, which means quiet) is such a great coach. He gives one-on-one advice but also just runs a fun yet challenging class. We do a lot of partner games and each class focuses on such a variety of aspects of capoeira from cartwheels to floor movement. It is a “martial art” but it is safe because there is no actual contact. I end up laughing and giddy so much of the time because it’s such a playful martial art with great music and rhythms. They are always added new programs and listening to their members, so I cannot wait to see what this place can...

I only came for the weight room. They have quality power racks and bars, with Olympic style plates, and all the gear you need for serious weightlifting. They even have a glute ham raise and trap bars. Not only do they have two full racks but you can also set up the pull up bars as half-racks and they even have squat stands available too. There's no shortage of places to squat and bench press here. Amazing.

Confusingly, the gym is in the basement. The upstairs section that you see from the street is a cafe. The cafe is also extremely nice, with bathroom and Wi-Fi and plenty of seating.

The climbing section of this gym, and the main focus of the facility, is just enormous. I've never seen so many climbing walls in my life, seems like every single wall from floor to ceiling is set up for either bouldering or climbing.

The gym has bathrooms with lockers and showers. Though compared to the massive size of the facility, the bathroom feels a little disproportionately small. There's a conspicuous lack of towels, which is a little inconvenient considering all the chalk, floor dirt, and sweat you're gonna accumulate especially on your phone if you're tracking your lifts.

The entire gym floor has good WiFi coverage. The clientele and staff seems to include a large proportion of students from the nearby university. The staff are extremely nice and helpful.

The billing for the gym has a variety of monthly rates and you can purchase a set number of visits, weeks, or months of access. Prices are in the ballpark of $96/month. Thank God they don't use those horrible commercial gym membership scam contracts here. I haven't tried to cancel my membership yet but it seems like it should be easy and the billing doesn't appear to have any commitment required. When you arrive at the gym you just check in via the computer terminals by looking up your phone number and clicking "check in", super easy.

They have drinks for sale, but it doesn't seem like they stock any sort of energy drinks which is a bummer. Please get some of the sugar free Monsters 😁 Edit: they do stock sugar free energy drinks but they appear to sell out quickly

Overall this gym is pretty amazing. Never in my life have I seen such a massive, expertly equipped facility that is so user friendly. It seems too good to be true....

I'm a 5 ft 3 experienced climber based in the UK, climbing up to V5. I visited here once on my way to Newark airport.

The good: good cafe friendly staff boulder problems are not cramped together range of training tools, including a Moonboard and Kilterboard a short walk from Newark Broad Street station not busy when we came (on a weekday afternoon) good value: $15 dropin on a weekday afternoon a bunch of really nice problems by a guest setter.

The bad: each bouldering circuit spans 3 grades e.g. V4-V6, which IMO is overly wide. There was a lot of inconsistency in difficulty. In my view circuits spanning 2 grades e.g. V4-V5 are preferable and encourage more consistency. problems were very, very spaced out, so there were surprisingly few problems in the wall. Unless they are resetting almost daily I cannot imagine that there is enough to do here to justify coming frequently. many problems were reachy and thus harder for the short. IMO short beginner climbers would find at most a dozen boulder problems that they could do, whereas a tall guy would have twice that many. lockers are surprisingly small changing rooms have showers, but do not provide towels.

Edited to add: I see there is a defensive response from the gym below. In one case a gym coach was watching as I tried the reachy move and he assured me that my beta was correct - the move simply IS reachy. Moreover, I asked about who set what and was told that they alleged female setter had not set a single problem that was in the gym on the day we visited. If you respond to customer feedback with this kind of attitude then you are never going to learn from or correct your mistakes. 4 stars downgraded to...