Northwest YMCA Pima County Community Ctr

Time for an update. The NW YMCA maintains its high marks. Well maintained facilities. Great cardio, circuit and weight equipment. A gym the size of two basketball ball courts. Smaller exercise class rooms, a pool and child care facilities. Many programs for all age groups. Friendly, educated staff. I use the Y for exercise. And while there are closer for profit gyms to my house, I support the Y's non profit mission. For example, the picture I posted with this review is of the Y's solar energy shade structure. An example of people oriented, forward thinking and economic sense. Thanks NW YMCA!

Great gym with class options all throughout the day. Christi Jess and Julie are awesome with the 5am crew! Spin and boot camp. Class changes everyday! Jenny is great with bodypump and Desiree is fab in barre and low impact high intensity cardioClass. Definitely something to check out. I pay $50 and it's a great value for all they offer. They also have pools, a weight room plenty of cardio machines and other machines. I've been coming for the last month and have enjoyed all these classes.

They have great preschool programs for swimming and sports. The app is also great to find programs near you.

My son and I started going as of Jan 2024, and it's been a great experience everytime we go! We've gone both In the mornings, evenings, and weekends, and for the most part, even on their busier days, there's still plenty of space and equipment to get a good wo in. We look forward to going everytime. Cherry on top is the mountain views while you work out! Overall welcoming environment and a great value when you can workout as a family.

The lap pool here is clean, the staff are polite, and other swimmers are generally friendly and respectful. You do not even have to join the Y to swim here, you can pay $3/each day you swim, but I did because after going a couple of times, I wanted to support the facility. The morning water aerobic classes take a chunk of the swimming lap lanes, and they are given priority, but the pool and the community make it worth being a bit crowded. I am a member of another, larger lap pool and have found this facility (the Y) to be far cleaner (pool, restrooms) and far more comfortable. There is nobody hawking your lane because they have it scheduled for a given time. No stink eyes or pretension. People are supportive and kind and that is worth its weight in gold to me. I only go to the other pool on Sunday or if my swim at the Y was heavily interrupted by moves for classes, but that is my choice and not necessary. This is, without reservations, the best place to swim laps in town.

Couldn't ask for a better gym. Great place for seniors wanting to keep in shape. Excellent staff who are always helpful.

I've frequented the Y on the east side of Tucson as well as two in the Cincinnati area and this Y is by far the nicest, cleanest, and has the friendliest staff. The exercise classes are not so difficult that you can't keep up, and everything is well maintained. My only cons would be that the awesome slide at the pool is hardly ever open (I know Covid has been a factor) and the kids sports teams are not very plentiful and are not run well. The Anderson Y in the Cincinnati area was so into kids activities and even had their own Y swim team run by the facility... we were disappointed when we moved back to Tucson at the lack of kids' lessons and teams here. The swim team at this Y is hard to get into and is run by an outside entity (county or state?).I'd also love to see a TRX class added for adults, otherwise we are happy to be at this Y and will continue to be members. Definitely worth the dues.

So I've been a member now for 3 weeks. what I've noticed is lots of kunsupervised kids.. Parents unloading 3 or 4 kids in the parking lot and disappearing.. Navigating kids camping out on Circuit machines in the gym is annoying. 6 or 7 teenage boys gathering around teenage girls like bees to a hive is annoying. 3 of the new treadmills are out of service. Aged upper body cardio machine. A lateral cardio machine would be great. There are 45 treadmills and ellipticLs though. I don't see one adult staff.

The best option in town, childcare is great, classes are fun, non competitive atmosphere, the building is not inspiring at all but that isn't their fault- plenty of clean and nice equipment!

Before I get into things, I just want to say I'm a pretty avid exerciser, so some of my critiques here may seem harsh. If you're just looking for a friendly place to start getting active and a little more able-bodied, this place probably has what you need.I've had some good workouts at this gym, but there are a few things holding it back.First, the good: the desk workers are super friendly --minus this older lady, who is a rule freak and will have a heart attack if she sees you grabbing a towel, also on the desk, before you beep in; it's not like I'm going to rob the place if I don't beep in or something, so I'm not sure what the constant panic is. But okay, getting too negative here. The rest of the desk attendants are really friendly. Some are only in high school but they have great customer service skills if you have questions.The locker rooms are another good thing. They're not very modern but they're clean and usually pretty vacant. Showers are individual and curtained if you're not into grouping up. I'm not sure why other gyms still have this set up, but the Y at this location is private with your nakedness. The workout area is both good and bad. They have a ridiculous amount of cardio machines. Ellipticals, treadmills, bikes, etc, and tons of TVs to watch while you grind away. They also have a ton of stack machines to work individual body parts. I understand this is the fitness industry's bread and butter, but man, I hate to think of the money they put into all that stuff; I've only seen the cardio equipment 1/3 full, and the machines are almost always vacant. These wide availabilities are nice because you can hop on a machine whenever you want, but I can't help but think how nice it would be to have a few more squat racks or deadlift platforms or bench presses. Let's be honest; if you want to look good and perform great, you're not going to be on the elliptical or doing the pec deck. You're going to be doing simple effective strength training with barbells and dumbbells, and unfortunately, the serious exercisers must fight tooth and nail to make sure they can get their planned workout in.The worst thing about this Y: they have one power rack. One. And that means only one person can do barbell squats--unless you so happen to find someone lifting near the same weight as you and awkwardly work in with them. What's even worse is often the person utilizing the power rack is doing lunges with only the barbell, or worse, inverted rows. And then there's your untrained older lady (or sometimes guy) doing quarter squats with caved-in knees when they should really be leg pressing 50 pounds under control. Oh, but the absolute worst are these girls who do glute training circuits. They'll start with squats, move away from the power rack and do hip thrusts, then do some ineffective cable pull through, and finally make it back to squats. Ugh. I'm sorry but this place needs weekly seminars on patron etiquette. And what's also pretty sad is there is always at least one trainer walking around doing nothing. Just "supervising." I can't tell you how many times I've seen a brittle old guy doing something with horrible form or not using the equipment correctly only to see the trainer look the guy's way and then keep walking. And there seems to be a lack of enthusiasm when they're training people as well. From what I've seen (granted I haven't been there during all working hours), two trainers--this younger guy with a beard, and this woman with curly hair--seem to have weight training nuance and care about what their clients are doing. This place will always have a place in my heart, as all gyms do that I've spent a lot of hours and sweat in, but a few changes could go a long way. If you're a serious lifter or someone looking to push yourself, there are better options.