adventures in fitness # 6

So this morning I decided to take the plunge and go to Extreme Fitness at Yonge and Dundas. This is touted as the newest of the Extreme facilities, and it's in the newest "destination" in the downtown core. I was all excited and eager to see this gleaming new palace of fit, so I scooted up to Dundas on the subway and hopped off, heading onto the concourse of the Toronto Life building ("When did that land?" my nephew once asked, looking at it's lit-up exterior facade a few blog entries back). From the concourse I went down a level and into an unfinished part of the building. Then around the corner. Then down another level. And lo I arrived in this very small space with exercise equipment haphazardly strewn about and men in hard hats still driving about the floor space on scissor lifts fixing the overhead lights. "What you see is what you get," said the girl at the desk.

I was stunned. This felt like a hotel gym, just a half-assed attempt at a gym. There was not a proper locker room, and there weren't even showers. I wasn't too bothered about the shower thing as I was heading home right after, and I think that the lack of that facility is going to make this a handy quiet place to work out for the time being, if not a bit surreal. I worked my shoulders, my chest, my back and my legs today, but I found myself finishing early for some reason. I observed everything I had been taught about my workouts, going slow and doing so many sets, and I even upped my weights but still I was done quick. And without anything else to do, I hopped the subway and came home.

Verdict? Novel. I can see how it will develop into a spacious facility - they even have this big map of all their hopeful features so you can look at it and feel like it's just a matter of time before the gym burts into its fullness. It's got plenty of overhead room so you don't really think about how you are three levels below street, and actually two below the subway. But I wonder, are the clientel really going to be as patient as that to wait for it to be finished? I'll still stop in regardless for a quick workout after work with what's left of my strength (and that's going quick I fear), but the dedicated with more likely take their membership cards and go to another Extreme Fitness until the rumours of this one beign complete make the rounds.

Tomorrow I will go back to the Yonge and St Clair gym my membership calls "home".

That is all.