YMCA of Central Ohio

Basically, it’s as good as it gets for an average Y.

Around this area you have three real options for gyms. The Y, Urban Active, and Lifetime. The king of gyms, of course, is Lifetime. So it sets the benchmark.
This Y is getting a bit dated. The equipment is fairly old… where are the freestyle elliptical machines? Many of the machines have poor user interfaces that are hard to navigate making it hard to find out how many miles you have went or how many calories you have burned, and many of them don’t have heart rate monitors built in and will throw a fit if you don’t have a mobile one connected to the machine if you select certain programs. The freeweights and weight machines are too few in number. They have TV’s with each channel having it’s own radio frequency… who carries a radio these days instead of an iPod? Seriously? The Y ranks last in equipment… Lifetime, Urban, then the Y.
The Y does offer free towels for yourself and cleaning the equipment. The pricepoint of the Y… around $ 750/​yr for a family… tends to weed out some of the trailer trash that attends Urban ($ 20/​mo) who are notorious for not wiping down the machines after using them. They also have a better pool than Urban as well as a hottub! You can even get free cups of water and coffee. As with any gym there is an assortment of free classes to take to get your butt in shape. The Y ranks second in amenities. Lifetime, the Y, Urban last.
Overall I enjoy the Y. It’s hard for me to find a clear winner between the Y and Urban, but if you have kids the Y is definitely the winner. They have summer camps, swimming lessons, and an assortment of family oriented activities that Urban lacks. Lifetime is still the best offering the best of both of these gyms combined in a cleaner, better maintained environment.