My Rye YMCA

Almost every morning I workout at the YMCA in Rye. My wife works out there sometimes too. And my son also take some classes there like swimming, gymnastics, sports, etc. They even have babysitting for my daughter.

For the most part the people are very friendly and it's a great value. We pay about the same price that I would probably pay for gym membership just for me. But all I use is the fitness center and sometimes it seems like you get what you pay for.

The equipment is certainly good enough to get a good workout, even though they are missing some essentials and some of the machines they choose certainly are poorly designed. More importantly, despite requests, no one ever seems to maintain and clean the equipment. Also, there are definitely some simple and inexpensive improvements they could make, but despite many recommendations, they have not done so.

The worst part about the Y is some of the trainers. Many of the members probably never worked out in a real gym before and therefore have no gym etiquette, but you would imagine that the trainers would. So many times I've seen trainers behave so inconsiderately it blows my mind.

It's always a pet peeve of mine when people lift right in front of the dumbbell rack so that they block the dumbbells. This happens a lot at the Y, but I never get over how many times I see trainers have their clients do it, or even trainers doing it themselves. They'll even setup the steps right in front of dumbbells racks, blocking the entire rack.

It also surprises me how many times the trainers don't put their equipment away, like weights, steps, etc. I don't know how they expect members to learn gym etiquette if they don't set an example.