SFU Fitness Centre

Love this gym. I’m not into a dictatorship, but the mandatory gym fee for all SFU students is a good one. Fitness makes people better in all walks of life.
+ Unlike most gyms, this gym has a fair balance of free weights, machines, cardio machines and stretching/​yoga areas. It makes it a whole lot easier to be holistically fit. The staff have helped me with lifting technique when I asked. They also clean the machines frequently, so this place is cleaner than many other gyms.
+ Access to pool, Olympic sized track and field and gymnasiums.
+ They have a question and answer board. The star board where you can track your visits and the daily quote are motivational.
— It can get extremely busy. I’ve waited for an average of 20 – 30 mins for a squat rack on many days. It’s usually free early mornings.
— They need more squat racks.
— They need an Olympic lifting gym. I don’t know why we don’t have access to or have our own. The athletes have their own Olympic lifting dungeon with bumper plates.
— They need to open up the heavy bag room. It’s kept locked for athletes only.
If they took care of the above minuses, it would be a world class gym.

I’ve been to my fair share of gyms and this one is organized, and laid out nicely. Each machine has enough space around it so that you don’t feel cramped.
The upstairs floor is the cardio floor. 12 treadmills, almost as many ellipticals, stairmasters, and rowing machines. Some of the new treadmills and ellipticals have wi-​fi so you can watch YouTube or browse just about any site, and has usb ports for your phone. There’s a little section at the far end for stretching which includes a weight rack, mats, and several weight machines.
One half of the lower floor houses (cable) weight machines for just about any muscle. The other half of the lower floor is free weights. This floor also has a larger section for stretching and mats.
The etiquette here leaves something to be desired. Many people don’t follow the sign-​up policy for the cardio machines but it can work to your advantage if the machines are all taken. Find one that hasn’t been signed-​up for, write your name on the board, and kick the person off. Every so often there’s THAT person who doesn’t put the weights away properly by leaving them strewn on the floor or puts them back in the wrong spot. The staff don’t really do much of anything, they’re like Wal-​mart greeters: they say hi when you walk in and that’s it (other than changing the towels).
It’s a clean, well equipped facility that training Olympians use. You can’t really argue with that.