Carla Madison Recreation Center — Local services in Denver

Carla is a community-based rec center in the heart of Denver, and I love it here.

Pros. For a $30 per month fee, and $15 per month to register a second household member, this gym is a steal. Access to other regional gyms and fitness classes included. Let's talk about the yoga teachers. Karyn and Gary are extraordinary. As a former yoga teacher, time and time again, I am impressed with the way these two instructors guide such a variety of ability levels. As a former swimmer, two pools within the center is the move. One pool has a slide, lazy river, and deep end for toddlers to play and aerobic exercise. The other pool is for the hardcore lap swimmers. Nobody has to fight for pool time. Also, the morning sunlight in the lap pool is amazing. The amenities are for all ages and ability levels. Denver East students use the machines and basketball court and, honestly, heck yeah! Why would you not for $30? Personally, I would rather have people playing basketball than people partaking in illicit activities on Colfax. I love to see individuals of all ages using fitness for health. Older age does not give you a right of passage to a gym - sorry, folks. Comes back to the point that this is a community-founded and -based gym. There is a rock climbing wall where you can learn to belay for free and you can also rent out the pool for kid parties. Shoutout to the front desk staff. They answer all my questions and concerns. It's not easy to run a gym off Colfax during a drug epidemic, but the staff handles all people with respect because Carla is community-based gym.

Cons. Closed on Mondays. Opens later and closes earlier on weekdays. This is tough for healthcare workers working 12 hour shifts. Five times I have walked to Carla on a Monday only to find it closed. face palm Fitness studio is closed between classes. To avoid the catastrophe of getting stepped on while stretching/rolling/ab workouts near the basketball court, this space should be open. It is unutilized space. Yoga classes with Gary are overcrowded. It is time to start checking the list of who pre-registered for the class at the front of the door to improve quality and safety.

I have never reconsidered my membership in the year and a half I've attended Carla....

When visiting the Carla Madison rec center today I experienced something that I hadn’t previous at any Denver rec center, which is that adults have to get out of the pool also when they have a safety break. When I go to Central Park Rec Center , they allow me to walk in the pool while they’re doing safety breaks.

When I asked the manager or whatever his position is in this company, Chris Valdez, why the rules were different at the two rec centers? He proceeded to tell me, “well, we see a lot of kids at this rec center more than they see anywhere else” (Mind you I have no kids with me and I am a single person, just trying to walk laps in the pool). Secondly, “we prioritize birthday parties here on the weekend ,we don’t prioritize leisure workout.” But that does not explain why the rules are different between the two rec centers and it doesn’t make sense why someone who pays a membership to come here would have less priority because they are not paying for a pool birthday party on the weekend. Absolutely nothing in the rec center that says we’ve prioritized birthday parties on the weekend. and if they did, they shouldn’t offer open swim between the hours of eight am and three pm. But that isn’t even what I wanted to talk to him about ,the simple question is, why are the rules different at the rec centers when they’re all run by the city!!! So maybe somebody else that works for the city can answer this for me since Chris Valdez is only worried about the money they make from the birthday parties on...

More of a high schoolers playground/gymnasium. There will be high schoolers there majority of the day all year round to where they’re pretty much unavoidable; it’s just too packed. (So do not even think about trying to use the basketball court bc of this, which I’m pretty sure they only have counterfeit basketballs that literally don’t bounce anyway) No separate workout room to stretch or do any mat/ground exercises. Well they actually do have multiple rooms but it’s for group fitness classes only and you can’t use it outside of that for whatever reason. Very small and limited amount of exercise equipment for how large the facility is. Their exercise mats are very dirty and smell so bad it’s better to just use the floor. This is likely related to the amount of people they let walk around and exercise barefoot and you essentially will never see anyone clean the machine or mat or anything after they use it. Wipe a mat down and you’ll be shocked at how black the paper towel gets. Unfortunately a lot of men here give creepy vibes and it’s best to just get in and out as quickly as possible. I had to change the time I go after having to tell a guy not to touch me multiple times. Staff is nice enough but let’s the kids do whatever the want and play recklessly on the court and since the east side of the basketball court is the only place you can stretch or do any floor exercises you are pretty much guaranteed to get hit in the head by volleyballs,...