I’ve worked out at a lot of different gyms over the years. College gyms; YMCA’s; Fancy private gyms; bargain basement private gyms; and 2 Jewish Community Centers.
At both of the Jewish community centers – but at no other gyms – there was an elite “gym within a gym.” i.e. for extra money you could have access to a nicer locker room, a separate exercise area, etc.
Is this unique to Jewish community centers? If so, why do they do it and nobody else?
The YMCA in my old town had that set up. A more elite gym with hot tub and nicer locker rooms within the regular gym. . No JCC I’ve been to (and its been awhile, though) had that set up.
I’ll go out on a limb that more private gyms are not a “Jewish” thing.
No, never heard of such a thing.
The YMCA that I’m a member of has the special locker room with hot tube and steam room for more money.
I belonged to Sports Club LA for a while, when I thought I had money, and they had this option for a nicer locker room and showers, etc. plus I think you could have a reserved locker - but there wasn’t a different workout area. And it was already a high-end place, I would be embarrassed to tell you how much I was paying for just a regular membership.
Roddy
:eek:
Ok, so it was probably just a coincidence. Thanks for the replies.
I guess it’s like having a first class section on an airplane. The gym perceives that it can do better by segmenting its customers.
Never heard of this. The closest I’ve seen is a gym near me that has an exclusive membership for people that work with personal trainers affiliated with the gym.
Our local Y has this setup but it’s not so much social exclusivity as the extra money primarily gets you access to the upgraded cardio room with nicer equipment and (I assume) less wait times during busy periods to use the equipment. There may have also been a whirlpool access offered.
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Sorry, I’ve been watching too much porno.
My local JCC has something like the set up you mention. I’m only guessing, but I believe it has to do with the segregation requirements of the sexes for the more traditional/Hasids.
The JCC by me doesn’t have a communal hot tub, sauna, or steam room. They are all located within the more expensive locker rooms.
In the mens’, there is a separate workout area but it doesn’t have much. Just a couple treadmills, a pulley weight stack on one wall, and maybe one elliptical machine.
Each (locker room) is entirely self contained so that one could exercise, hot tub/sauna/steam room, etc. while not being in the presence of the opposite sex.
The pool also has specific men/women only times as well.
I always get the feeling that brazil84’s threads have some sort of weird undercurrent.
Do you have a large modern-orthodox or Hasidic community? I’ve never seen that where I’ve lived. Interesting.
I thought is was a Mafia thing.
Some of our (UK) local authority run gyms had this set up. Now they have outsourced the gyms and pools to a private company but it probably still applies (or what would they do with the nice facilities).
A JCC gym is kosher. The elite gym within the gym is kosher for passover.
That’s a joke, don’t go around repeating it as if it were true. At least I think it’s a joke.
The JCC I go to has the elite “Spa” or locker room. I got to use it once when they were working on the peon locker room. Nicer lockers, soap and shampoo in each shower, towels supplied. Certainly not worth the extra cost. At least not to me.
I joined a high-falutin’ club a year ago and they have a separate ‘Big Shots’ locker room that has a hot tub and a few machines for their exclusive use.