Paul Heyse

Review of Union Fitness Collective

I had previously expressed dissatisfaction with th...

I had previously expressed dissatisfaction with the availability of movable benches and the gym culture, and I am happy to say both are no longer pertinent.

First, it looks like the gym management went out and bought an additional bench or two, which has improved the availability of benches dramatically.

Second, on gym culture, I had a number of passive aggressive comments come my way which I chalked up to a group of regular patrons who are possessive of the equipment.

However, it turns out these weren't just random individual patrons. About a month back all of a sudden the usual gym crowd was maybe 1/3 of its typical size and none of the patrons who had made passive aggressive comments were in attendance. I had previously assumed all of these people were working adults and that their wearing of Pitt gear was just coincidental. However, assuming it wasn't a coincidence that all of them suddenly were absent I looked up Pitt powerlifting, found their instagram, and yup all of the people who acted passive aggressive are members of this powerlifting club. Not to mention their members made up 2/3 of the 5-7pm peak hour attendance.

First, what athletic team piles into an independent gym at peak hours? I was involved in college athletics, and we either used our own space or reserved another space in advance. I would never imagine packing into the school gym, nevertheless an independent gym whose clientele is going to be working adults with heavily constrained schedules. Now I understand why I saw a couple of people back in Jan/Feb who were clearly at aleast late 20s or early 30s come in and then leave exasperated there were no benches. These may have been (previously) regular patrons surprised to find their gym taken over by a college athletic team?

Second, it's an individual sport. They couldn't have spaced themselves out into a 5-7pm and 7-9pm block? That would have resolved all of the constraints with gym equipment. Most of them left by 7pm so it's not as though they were bumping up against closing hours. Given that they are students, I would expect that their schedule is flexible enough to accommodate that. All of this was aggravated by the fact that these people were there every day. I come in maybe 3 random days a week and the same Pitt powerlifters were always there, no matter what day. It was doubly aggravated by the fact that their workouts seemed to correlate. There were clear team bench days, squat days, etc.

On top of all that, to act like they own the place and make others feel unwelcome?

Fortunately for Union Fitness, the gym seems to be filling with people not associated with Pitt powerlifting over the last month since that group stopped coming in such overwhelming numbers. Pitt reopening gym facilities may make it a moot point going forward, but if they stick around I would recommend management sit down with them and stipulate how they better share the space. I am surprised that they were even allowed to come in as a group like that. My understanding is that most gyms exclude athletic teams coming as a monolithic group to avoid the exact situation I described above. Inevitably there's gonna be an us vs them sentiment that sours the experience for others.