Movement RiNo — Local services in Denver

My second favorite of the Movement gyms in the area. I love the traverse walls, they definitely challenge your endurance as they are really large and take some time to get through. Also enjoy that the top out boulders have a variety of heights, helps you to work up to conquering the larger ones. And it’s really cool that the cave section has lower level grades to give everyone a chance to work on overhang climbing and building that upper body strength.

I personally go early in the day so I’ve never had an issue finding street parking, but I can understand the frustration from those who go at peak hours since you are paying quite a lot to not have a dedicated parking lot, or honestly a garage since this is RiNo after all.

Two cons for me would be the setting here seems harder than other Movement gyms I’ve been to, and they don’t specifically label grades but instead use colors to indicate a general range. I can see why some might like this, but it makes it hard to know what level you are climbing at here compared to say Englewood’s gym.

My other con relates to the facilites. There is no sink other than the ones in the bathrooms, which I’ve honestly never encountered at a climbing gym before, usually there is one next to the water bottle filling stations. Yes they have big containers of hand sanitizer, but people want to wash their hands and get the chalk off before gathering up their stuff. The second part of this con regarding facilities is the lack of a foot washing station in the locker rooms. Again, every climbing gym I’ve been to out here and on the East Coast has this. Sometimes you don’t need to take a full shower at the gym, but you want to get your gross feet cleaned off before shoving them into your sneakers to go home, that way your sneaks don’t wind up stinking as bad as your climbing shoes.

I’ll keep coming here for the positive reasons I listed, although not as much as Englewood which doesn’t have...

Pros: Great gym overall, clean and spacious. There is a good variety of routes that are changed up at a good pace. The front desk staff has always been friendly and helpful. There are two relatively large areas devoted to weights and gym equipment. The main room has most of the equipment and can get rather busy, but the second room (with much less equipment) is usually open. The second room is mainly used for group classes and CrossFit type of stuff. Towel service is a nice little perk They offer a variety of community nights, such as LGBT, Women, and Black History are a few I've seen. Having Improper City (Coffee and cocktails) next door is fantastic! However, improper needs to work on their Breakfast food offerings, evenings are great with food trucks out back. This is another area where Movement could offer a little perk for their members, maybe free (or discounted) coffee in the gym?

Cons: Price, they are raising rates on 3/1/19. The current cost is on the upper end of what I wanted to spend on a gym membership, with the increase I am questioning the overall value. The locker room is a little small for the size of the facility. Movement often runs classes for an additional charge. I can understand a super special, more personal training oriented package, but I would like to see more of the offerings free of charge (especially with the looming rate hike). Although movement is a good option if you are looking for a climbing gym with other fitness options, it does come up a little short; they could use a greater variety of equipment, other class offerings (such as spin), and some of the other fringe benefits of other gyms,...

This has been my home gym for almost four years, so it’s a bummer to say this but aspects of this gym have eroded so much during that time that I barely have desire to even go here anymore. Two main things being 1) the crowds and 2) the CHILDREN… I know people complain about the crowds a lot already, but that’s because it’s bad and getting progressively worse. I’m genuinely not sure if there is a time of day anymore when it’s not crowded here, because I’ve tried mornings, weekends, middle of the day on weekdays, etc. and I’m overwhelmed 95% of the time.

And the culture around bringing kids here has become very out of hand. Parents bring their kids here like it’s a playground. And staff does nothing about it. It’s become alarmingly more common for parents here to go climb or sit somewhere on their laptop while the kids do whatever… It’s bad at all Movement Denver gyms but RiNo is somehow the worst. I’ve confronted both staff and parents when I see truly dangerous stuff, like a kiddo/group of kids using machines or running around. I feel weird continuing to speak up because I don’t want to be a nark, and it shouldn’t be my job to enforce gym rules. But this behavior becoming the norm is just not okay; it’s unsafe for everyone and creates a stressful environment. I imagine this happened partly because childcare is no longer offered (it wasn’t “financially viable”). Whatever the reason, I hope Movement takes action to try and...