Minoru Centre for Active Living — Local services in Richmond

My primary purpose of going to aquatic centres these days are to access the sauna and/or steam room. It's a wonderful way of detoxing, healing joints and skin, meditating, and refreshing, especially when you take a cold shower immediately afterwards. I often go to Killarney or Hillcrest to do a weekly steam session, but I'm going to start coming here now, because it's a lot better overall as Minoru offers the full complete cleansing experience that you can't get anywhere else. To break it down:

-The Jacuzzi is a 10/10, as it's very deep and hot, with no dumb ramps for kids to lie in, blocking the path. It's really nice and comfortable, making one feel like a happy snow monkey in a hot spring - like at the start of that move Baraka.

-The Sauna is a 9/10, as there are two of them, with one for quiet meditation. I will say that I would like them to be a bit hotter, but they're very comfortable and spacious, and you can comfortably sit in them for a long time. The quiet sauna is lovely for meditation, as the heat helps to clear the mind and induce visionary experiences.

-The Steam Room is a 9/10, as it's like if the Hillcrest steam room didn't suck. The heat is a lot more consistent, and it has a nice amount of steam without being too overbearing. Killarney does still have the best steam room in the GVRD, but know that it's like an Instant Pot, where you are being steamed to your very core in the very depths of hell. Minoru in comparison is rather like a well designed rice cooker that evenly steams every grain to perfection. I was able to stay in the steam room safely for up to half an hour without being frustrated that there wasn't enough heat or feeling like I was dying from heat exposure (though sometimes I really do like that).

-The Cold Plunge is a 10/10, because it's the pièce de résistance that ties the whole experience together. This small pool is kept at the temperature of a lake in early spring. Beyond a simple cold shower, this is the kind of cold immersion you want after a sauna or steam. To say that I felt a flood of serotonin for sitting in it for a minute would be an understatement - I felt bloody Nirvana!

In conclusion, sauna, steam, and cold plunge sessions are rapidly growing in popularity for their therapeutic effects. By going between heat exposure and cold exposure, I feel my mind, body, and spirit cleansed and lifted.

For me, it reset my limbic system and relieved all of my anxiety and depression in a way that no pharmaceutical ever has. I felt an instant release of all stress and anxiety, with a light joyful feeling throughout my entire body, and the effects lasted for a long time. Of course, it might affect everyone else differently, but with cold exposure I've personally found it to be one of the more effective treatments for my longstanding issues of stress, anxiety, and depression.

While it's important to not believe in any panacea for those challenges, and proper treatment is often a range of activities tailored towards the individual's unique needs and challenges, I would personally recommend doing sauna and cold plunge sessions to those who might be struggling at the moment in what is an increasingly stressful world. Of course any exercise and activity helps with exercising the body, flooding the brain with endorphins, and keeping one's mind off of potentially stressful situations they might be dealing with.

Along with reducing stress and making my skin feel fantastic, it truly does give a better feeling than any drug could provide, especially if you exercise beforehand. Minoru is the best place to do a sauna and cold plunge, as the facility they provide is more extensive and is of higher quality than what most spas would charge $30-$50 a session. At Minoru, you pay $7.85 and you can stay a lot longer.

Do yourself a favor if you're stressed, depressed, and feel the weight on your shoulders. Exercise, detox, cleanse, steam, sauna, and cold plunge. Your body is your reality, so treat it well, and your reality...

They've slowly removed all the restrictions they put in place at the Fitness Centre, and physical distancing is no longer necessary. All the cardio machines are available, and they have started bringing out more equipment.

Although they provide cleaning supplies for everyone to use, it doesn't look like it is mandatory to clean the equipment that you use before or after. I hope they continue to keep the cleaning supplies available. It's gross enough to see greasy hair product stains on the benches or knowing that people didn't wipe up their sweat.

The one area that this facility could really improve upon is the cleanliness of the gym floor. There is a lot of hair and dirt everywhere.

(June 2021) Nice, spacious facility! Staff at reception are very friendly :) I use both the pool and the fitness centre. For now, attendance is limited which is really nice. Online bookings open the week prior on Monday morning. Lane swimming time slots are booked up extremely quickly as do the early morning time slots for the fitness centre.

POOL Great music! Lots of available lockers for your things (refundable 25 cents per use) or phone/wallet/keys (free).

FITNESS CENTRE Love that each person MUST use the provided spray bottles and towels for wiping equipment BEFORE and AFTER use. They were slow to implement mandatory masks inside the gym, and I have never seen fitness attendants enforce proper mask wearing (or physical distancing) now either despite the posted signs. (I contacted management about my observations but I got a defensive response in return and basically said "people can't read signs"). Thankfully, most people are respectful. It's always the same handful of bros that can't seem to handle wearing masks while working out.

There is always one fitness attendant present and they often clean the mirrors or equipment that isn't in use. I wish they would do a better job of sweeping as there is often hair and dirt everywhere, especially around machines or in the room for "light" workouts.

The variety of cardio equipment is great! There is some wear and tear that should be looked at as items like the upright bike and ellipticals as they feel wobbly, like some screws could be tightened.

The variety and availability of strength training equipment is so-so. There are three benches and two sets of free weights in the free weight area. There is no pull-up machine. Unfortunately, what they deem to be "lighter" weights are off in their own area. There is one TRX which is in a terrible location and is not set up properly. I've spoken to two fitness attendants and contacted management about it but they have no desire to move it or re-set up it.

I also dislike the setup of the strength training area because everything is extremely spread out. You really get your steps in, I guess. Want to use a BOSU or a ball with free weights? Gotta walk from one end of the gym to the other. Need both the 12 lb and 15 lb free dumbbells? Gotta go from one of the gym to the other. Want to do some interval training with sprints between your weights? By the time you finish your sprint and go back to your weights, your heart rate has already dropped. If we were permitted to work in our sets with others, it might be easier to handle, but if you walk away from a piece of equipment, you're either hogging it, or someone else will use it, thinking...

Recently, I've noticed that the treadmills are showing signs of wear and tear, with some making noise, possibly due to worn-out bearings, and others having broken speed handles that have been temporarily fixed with tape. Considering the membership fees, which have increased, I kindly request that we consider investing in new treadmills. This would not only enhance our workout experience but also reduce the need for frequent repairs.Thank you For the past few months a cold wind has been blowing Inside through the vent and its freezing. You start shivering because it's so cold. Many people have told the staff about the issue but they're saying that it's controlled by the city not the gym. They said they already told the city about it but nothing has been done.

They provide cloths for cleaning the machines after use but it is usually empty and only a couple workers actually wipe the machines and cleans but some are just on their phones behind the counter.

It is a very nice place with many things to do. There's a gym with a treadmill and many different machinery that over looks the pool. The pool has a slide, cold pool, hot tub and a sauna. The locker is very secure and all you need is a quarter and it gets returned to you after. The downside is inside people spit and blow their nose in places they're not supposed to. And it takes forever for machines to get fixed. For example the steam room has been closed for the past few days, the treadmill has been out of order for 4 weeks. And it takes them a long time to repair it. But it seems everything breaks everyday here, and it's so Inconvenient for everyone. The showers beside the sauna has been out of order for a month. And the cold pool has been out of order for a couple days and no one knows when it'll get fixed.There is water coming from the ceiling in the mens change room There is always something going wrong even though this is a brand new building. The stick on most of the treadmills that control the incline and speed has been broken for the last three months. And it takes a long time for it to...