Williams YMCA

Nice gym. It is definitely old, and could stand a renovation, but heck, all I am going to do is go and get sweaty there anyhow. They have a good selection of cardio machines, and a fair selection of Cybex machine. The free weights room is upstairs from the cardio floor.
They provide free towels, have a basketball court and some pretty long-​in-​the-​tooth r’ball courts. Parking can be a chore, but they have a lot around back, and there is parking on McMillan.

basketball court, racquetball court, full gym facilities, pool everything you might want. Membership is sliding scale based on income so if you broke or a student it costs only $ 20 a month. Plus whatever membership money you pay is going to support the YMCA’s wonderful community support service. Basically if you live in an urban area and arn’t a member of a YMCA or YWCA you should join one becouse they do as much to help the community as anyone and you get to be a small part of that just by going there to work out.

This is probably one of the older, least renovated gyms around and I absolutely love it. Forget about the cardio room and weight machines; those are on a carpeted floor in an air conditioned room for pansies. Go upstairs where the well-​weathered iron resides on its black rubber floor mats. There is no air conditioning but there are grated windows and industrial fans with sharpened blades that will cut off your arm if you don’t finish your set.
OK, maybe it’s not that intense, but it does feel how a gym should feel: a little dingy, a little stale, and a proper place to sweat and grunt. I feel stronger just walking up the stairs to this muscular sculpting sanctuary. All you sissies can use those fancy machines at Urban Active; the real men are tossing around 45-​pound plates like frisbees at the Williams YMCA.