Briargate Family Center YMCA

It's great! Wonderful facilities. Very clean and the machines are all working. The pools and hot tubs are great too! All the workers there are helpful and knowledgeable. For the price, you get everything you could want to get a good workout. I wish there was a sauna or steambath. But there's likely a restriction about that because there are kids around.

I read the last review and felt saddened that the woman posting the review had such a negative experience. My heart goes out to her. I hope her review was read and adjustments have been made. We have been going to the YMCA for seven years now and not had an experience like that on the phone or in person. I like that we can use our membership nationwide and when we travel, we do use it. We also use other YMCA's in the area depending on our needs. The YMCA at 1st and Main has a lot of new machines and weights. We primarily use Briargate because I use the pool and the weights/exercise room. I love that this is a family friendly environment. People are dressed appropriately and kids are treated kindly. They have a lot of handicap accommodations and I see them being used quite a bit in the morning. The pool is very crowded in the early mornings but from 11-4:00 pm or 6-8:45 pm is a great time to go. They have great water aerobic classes which people seem to really love. The instructors seem like a lot of fun. They also offer E-gym which is nice for people who want to do a resistance training program but need one designed for their level. I would ask to work with Johnny. I love how clean the YMCA is. You regularly see trainers and staff members cleaning off exercise equipment and weights. There is always cleaning solution and paper towels for your own personal use and hand sanitizer. There are volunteers that are regularly helping with cleaning and the lifeguards here work hard. When not sitting in a chair, they are regularly cleaning the decks, gutters, windows etc. They have a professional cleaner at night and in the mornings, there is someone going through locker rooms and cleaning those areas. I have not taken any of their classes or had my children participate in any of their programs but I regularly hear positive remarks from members about how much they love the classes and programs. I hear quite a bit about how fun the spinning, body pump, yoga, and rhumba classes are. Pickle ball is a big thing here as well and the people involved in that are very friendly and always looking to recruit other individuals. If you attend regularly, the staff members get to know you and your family. My kids have sat out in the common areas and have done homework (free WiFi) and the staff will check on them and keep an eye on them for me if I'm in another room. My children have told me they feel they can go to any staff member and that they will help them. There are separate locker rooms for youth patrons and there are also family changing rooms and handicap changing rooms. This is a non-profit organization so it means that members take care of the equipment and the facilities. Discounts are given for military and you see a lot of military families here. There is also a nice park connected to this Y where you can let kids and pets run. There is also a small skate park built in the park. Hours are more open now that Covid restrictions have been lifted. Call for hours for lap swim or open swim. During open swim they will usually let the kids go down the water slides at least once an hour. They also have swim lessons as well as private swim lessons. They keep the parking lot pretty clean, especially with snow and have multiple handicap parking spaces up front, especially in the mornings. Overall, it's a five stars for our family.

Not enough equipment. I always am waiting for a squat rack or the only deadlift station. The staff is great and super nice. Canceled my membership due to lack of equipment, no photography allowed while working out (posting workouts is part of my job) and the closure on Friday's mid day every week.

25 Jul 22 - I have been going to the deep pool at the YMCA now since I joined about two weeks ago. I first did a water aerobics class that Chris teaches but decided because her classes were a little too hard for me so I decided to swim laps to get in shape. I was a member several years ago when I first moved here but then when Lifetime opened I joined and it was great the first year because it had a great manager. Lifetime kept getting worse even though I complained about how dirty their ladies room was by the indoor pool and their prices kept going up every year. The YMCA is much cleaner now than it was years ago and everyone is a lot friendlier than they were at Lifetime. They have a great friendly Director also that goes around checking the facilities and knows most of the members. I love the deep pool which is also very clean!

I'm not even a member of the Y but my dad, who is 85, is and they treated him SO nice when he visited from out of town. It took a little bit to figure out how to transfer benefits so he could take a painting class and check out the line dance classes. I just appreciate the woman at the front desk who was so patient and sweet. A little goes a long way!

Our family enjoys this gym! Two large pools. Two gyms, lots of equipment, nice child care. My 8 and 10 year old boys love that they can work out with us and not be in child care. We enjoy running the track together.

I enjoy the gym. It has everything I need and is not crazy crowded. The cost is not too shaby. That said the hours are terrible. I consider moving consistently just for that reason. They said they had that for covid. They never changed back and that is unfortunate. As an example, Sunday, it is open for 4 hours. Noon to 4. The rest of the week is ok, but only open to 8 or 9pmI would give it 4.5 star if they had reasonable hours.

Rude for no real reason.Showed up, started walking by the doors without scanning. No big deal, I'm not a member and just wanted to check it out. Was informed I need to scan. Told the old man with glasses behind the counter I haven't been a member since 5 years and maybe need a walk through. He replied a jumbled and mumbled response and told me to sit and wait. I said like ten minutes or what and he said " yeah whenever" or whatever I really couldn't hear him because he didn't feel the need to speak up for me. Literally just walked out, way better places to go for me. Just really odd experience, and snappy and rude and only spoke up to be rude and un helpful.

Very few know that the YMCA offers Gold Star family memberships for those families who have lost a loved one like I lost Phil. Today, they knocked it out of the ballpark by giving Brian and I a six month membership.They offered this membership not knowing that I was working my second job (teacher was my first job) as a swim instructor at the very Y they gave me this scholarship for 11 years later. They did not know that three of my children worked at this said Briargate Y either. Exercise is one mental health strategy for dealing with the storms of life and it is critical to my mental health.It may not be the fanciest gym, but it is my gym--still.

Actually, this review gets 0 Stars. And I have never left a negative review in my life.... ***A staff member yelled (multiple times) at me when I called to inquire about possible alternative registration options for the Halloween Monster Bash.**** The individual who answered the phone could not answer any questions and became increasingly agitated when I asked if there was, perhaps, any alternate options to having to become a member in order to register online for this "open event." He then escalated to yelling at me, multiple times. I ended up having to finally hang up on him as he would not let me speak, nor would he respond to my request for him to dail back yelling at me. Needless to say I will not be getting a membership at this YMCA, nor can my family and I trust that the staff here is trained to, (or able to,) behave in a professional manner. And, most importantly, I could never trust any of the rest of the staff to teach, coach, or in any way work with or care for my children after such an abusive, and personally triggering, conversation with this front desk staff. Personally, I cried after this call for quite a while...and I am still shaking. To management and owners: Please train your staff. This type of behavior is just not ethically or morally responsible. I originally called to just to ask some questions, and hopefully register, pay for, then come enjoy an open family event, and hopefully introduce my disabled kids to the environment in a fun and safe way. However, instead, I am walking away with triggered PTSD, and my disabled children being told they can't go to the Monster Bash tonight because there is no way to register, and no one will help us do so. And I also have to tell my kids that, now, we cannot become members at the YMCA because it does not seem like the staff would be safe.