Good places to work out? (Duluth, Tower: hotel, YMCA, college)

[ornxx005]

Any recommendations on good places to work out in the area? I'm pretty unfamiliar with the Miller Hill Mall area, so maybe there's something up there??

I've been going to the Anytime Fitness on Superior street near the Super One, but it's tiny and usually packed with college kids (I thought they had nice big gyms at UMD and Scholastica?) I've driven by a couple Snap Fitnesses but they also look like little hole in the wall gyms.

I moved up here recently from the Twin Cities, and I'm guessing I'm not gonna find a big 'LA fitness' type gym, which is unfortunate, since I paid $35 a month for a huge gym with a locker room, shower, sauna, pool, hot tub etc down in the cities and now I pay $38 a month for a gym one-twentieth the size with none of the amenities.

So...do I just need to get used to the fact that every gym up here is small and usually crowded?

[HuskyGrad]

Originally Posted by ornxx005

Any recommendations on good places to work out in the area? I'm pretty unfamiliar with the Miller Hill Mall area, so maybe there's something up there??

I've been going to the Anytime Fitness on Superior street near the Super One, but it's tiny and usually packed with college kids (I thought they had nice big gyms at UMD and Scholastica?) I've driven by a couple Snap Fitnesses but they also look like little hole in the wall gyms.

I moved up here recently from the Twin Cities, and I'm guessing I'm not gonna find a big 'LA fitness' type gym, which is unfortunate, since I paid $35 a month for a huge gym with a locker room, shower, sauna, pool, hot tub etc down in the cities and now I pay $38 a month for a gym one-twentieth the size with none of the amenities.

So...do I just need to get used to the fact that every gym up here is small and usually crowded?

Take a look at here: Arrowhead Tennis & Athletic Club

[ornxx005]

That looks great, I will have to look into that, thanks!

[snofarmer]

I have a shovel and a block worth of sidewalks to be shoveled if you need a work out, I'll even pay you to work out.


the Arrowhead Tennis & Athletic Club is a good choice, it's a little out of the way but it's not a meat market ether.

[aluminumpork]

Depending on what times you go, the YMCA offers all of the amenities you mention and after the recent renovation, it's a beautiful facility. During usual busy times (noon, 5PM - 7PM) the gym itself is pretty packed, but otherwise not too bad.

[Duluth07]

I am an expert when it comes to Duluth gyms. Here's the lowdown: the YMCA is great but parking isn't; their only downsides are that they open at 9am on Sundays (I'm one of those early-early workout people) and they close on a lot of holidays (many of the Y's these days try to stay open every day, if only from 8 to noon)...the fitness center at Essentia is stuck in 1996 with old equipment and the same crowd but they're supposedly renovating, and should be finished by September or October. Downside with that is, unlike the Y, you can't use the membership anywhere other than the Essentia Fitness Center. Anytime Fitness opened a new location on 15th Ave E & Superior Street about a year ago, to avoid the kids it's best to go in the morning (they don't get up that early). Downside with that is there are no lockers and no fans if you like to hit the cardio machines hard. My best experience for Duluth has been at the new Anytime Fitness...hands down. I don't like sitting around all day on Christmas, New Year's or Memorial Day when all the other gyms are closed and it's nice to have a place to go to whenever you want. Your membership is good at all Anytime Fitness clubs - just like Snap Fitness. I went to the one in Lakeside, but they have almost no lower body equipment - no leg press, no squat racks, nothing. It's a flimsy, hotel-style line of watered down Cybex equipment. Not impressed.

I haven't seen Arrowhead Tennis Club & I never really went to Superior to see what was over there - I hear that Phy Ed Health Club on Tower Avenue is very nice, but when I lived in Duluth I was downtown & car-less, so that wasn't an option. But I'd recommend checking those places out when you have time. Good luck....

[knke0204]

I liked the SNAP Fitness on Central Entrance by McDonalds. Clean and usually pretty empty