Jackson Heights Life

Thanks Erica. Crossfit LIC is actually even farther than the Astoria location. If I had a car, I'd definitely go to either of them, but it's a bit of a hike on the bike, and coming from 81& 34th, it will take a while to get to on the train as well. I work in the Lefrak/Corona area, and there aren't any decent options out there within walking distance either.

It's crazy that Astoria has sooooo many gyms of varying price ranges and quality, many within walking distance of each other. JH seems to only have EFN Zone and that place on Northern in the 70s :-(. I also noticed that Bayside has 2 Crossfits within a couple blocks of each other. How can we get something (I'd take a decent Planet Fitness or NYSC) in this area?

I heard about those playgrounds. I'll take anything in this area.

True, dssjh. There are plenty of places in JH to eat, but few to work off all the good food!

I checked out Retro Fitness today. Not a bad bike ride, and they're open 24 hours. The price is right, and the facility is still new and clean, so I guess I know where I'll be until something else opens up here.

Retro seems to offer one or 2 classes/day either at 7 and/or 8pm if I remember correctly. I saw Zumba and Kickboxing on the schedule, but I don't remember if they offer anything else, since I wasn't really looking for other classes. I wish there was something early in the morning around 6:00 or 6:30, but I'll take what I can get. I'm going to try out one or two of the classes this week.

The locker room is clean and bright and doesn't seem like it gets much use. The main users are probably local residents who walk/drive/bike in. I didn't look for towels, so I'm not sure they offer them. I'll have to check the next time I go. I signed up for a 1 day pass online but they gave me a 3 day pass when I went in. The staff was pretty friendly. For $20/month you could do worse.

I was about to sign up for RetroFit and decided against it. I didn't like the fine print on their contract. Sixty days notice of cancellation is a bit excessive, as most places only require 30, and you can only cancel AFTER one year unless you've died, moved more than 25mi away or have a doctor's note.

In also find it annoying that they have a $99 initiation fee AND a $20 processing fee if you're using a credit card AND an annual fee of $29 in addition to your dues. The annual fee is ONLY disclosed in the fine print. Averaged out over a year, this brings your total to roughly $31, which is still cheap, but I've got a thing about places that charge these extra/hidden fees.

You could pay in full ahead of time, but they have language that it may be "financially risky" to do so. Maybe that's just overlawyering on their part, but I have never seen that in any other gym contract I've signed.

After reading reviews for other branches on Yelp, it seems that most people don't read the fine print and then get surprised and aggravated by these terms when they need to cancel. It's still cheap, but I'll pass.

Back on the search...

I would prefer to pay upfront for 6 months (or a year) rather than hand my credit card over, and authorize monthly payments. These automatic payments can be hard to stop (lots of horror stories about big franchises taking additional months to cancel a membership, or charging a cancellation fee, etc). If I join a gym, I'm going to exercise, period. I am certain that a year from now, I'll still want a gym. So paying upfront is only a risk if the gym sucks, or goes out of business. I can usually tell if the gym is no good (and I can tolerate a crummy place, if there are no other choices). Health clubs are a big source of consumer fraud (pre-sales but then the gym never opens, etc) so there are laws that are somewhat protective. If the facility is big, it's unlikely they will go out of business, but these gyms seem to be the type that are hard to cancel (look at reviews on Yelp or Google for horror stories). So, I prefer paying upfront.

Since you guys are talking about going outside of Jackson Heights, I liked the gym called Phyzique in Woodside (I only visited). Not huge but medium-large, clean, good selection of machines and free weights, near the 7 train 52nd street station (located on 50th street just above Roosevelt). I don't recall if they have a separate room for aerobics (I mainly use the free weights)  -- sorry about that, aerobics folks. Maybe call to ask. Worth a visit in-person. They have treadmills, bikes and steppers if I recall. Nice facility. I was there in the afternoon (it was quiet) but like every gym, I suppose it gets busy between 6 and 9pm.
http://phyzique4life.com/

I also liked Big 6 Gym in Woodside (on Queens Blvd) which is large, very well-equipped, and they do have aerobics classes. Again, I only visited during the daytime. You can expect an after-work rush. Formerly a Golds Gym or maybe World Gym (?). It's in the Big 6 mall.
http://www.yelp.com/biz/big-six-fitness-woodside

(I didn't want to promote these gyms too much, because they are not within the confines of JH. But since I see other people mentioning Sunnyside and Astoria, I thought I would mention them again.)

I want to move to the area, and a good gym within walking distance is non-negotiable, so I've been visiting different facilities to see what they offer. It's a definite drawback that JH doesn't have more. I'll check out Retro Fitness at some point soon!

I started going to Urban Jungle. It's a 13 minute bike ride from JH in the 80s. The hours aren't bad. It kinda makes me miss Crossfit though.

Wow, just realized I started this thread 5 years ago.  And we still have no NYSC in the neighborhood.