Hemenway Gymnasium

If you are a Harvard employee, you can use this gym for roughly $ 2.50 per month. So, essentially it’s free. It’s the law school’s gym, so it’s better-​equipped than the others, and not as smelly as MAC. The individual TVs are a very nice touch. Towels are free. As for crowding, I’ve never had to wait ages to get a machine, and people are generally good-​natured if you’ve signed up for what they’re on.
If you’re just looking for something simple and don’t need all the luxuries (???) of places that charge you hundreds a year there’s no reason to not use Hemenway.

The Harvard student, faculty, and staff population has steadily increased, while the number of recreational facilities has remained the same… which means this gym is consistently crowded, making members irritable and frustrated.
Pro’s:
Nicest gym on Harvard Campus
Great location
Con’s:
Consistently overcrowded
You’ll never catch a staff member cleaning the equipment during the day

Eh, it’s fine.
Sometimes I love this place (when it isn’t crowded), but sometimes I can’t stand it (when there are people everywhere). It’s basically free for Harvard employees ($ 30 a year– not including classes etc), and it’s on my way home from work, so it would be hard to justify going anywhere else. So, I deal.
I like the open concept of the place, it’s pretty clean, and the machines are overall good, but it’s also very small. That’s fine when the students aren’t around and it isnt crowded. But when it’s crowded, it’s REALLY crowded. I like to go straight after work, because I can’t motivate myself at 6am or later in the evening when I want to chill. Unfortunately 5pm is a very popular gym time, and it can be hard to find an available locker/​space in the locker room to get changed. The women’s locker room gets very cramped. You might have to wait for a treadmill, but that might just be a winter problem. Also some of the people in here need to chill. No need to run in front of me and get your ID swiped first. The gym isn’t going anywhere.
Overall this place is fine, and I’d much rather work out here than pay over a thousand a year for other gyms out there.

I just recently signed up for the Harvard athletic facilities, and so far I’m a fan of the Hemenway gym. Considering that as a Harvard employee a year long membership is a whopping $ 24, I think it is money well spent (not to mention that health insurance will reimburse you…).
Granted, it’s the summer so there are no/​few students, so my opinion may change in a few months. But I only go when it opens (6AM over the summer during the week, 9AM on weekends) and it has never been crowded. There is plenty of cardio equipment — like a dozen treadmills, seems like more crosstrainers and ellipticals, half a dozen bikes, couple of stair machines and row machines.
There is a definite lack of weight machines, with most of the lifting area being dedicated to free weights. But there are 6 or so benches for the dumbbells (of which there is a great selection from 5lbs to like 80lbs), and then a whole slew of benches and machines for the plates.
The locker room is well maintained with plenty of lockers and a big shower and changing area. There are also cubbies and free «wallet lockers» (like what you would see at a skating rink or water park) on the main floor of the gym. There are also free sweat towels aplenty.
My biggest complaint is the fact that practically no space is devoted to stretching, with only a small corner of the main floor and a small corner of the top floor (each enough room for 3 people at a time) with mats, foam rollers, balance balls, etc.
Another small complaint is that the crowd mostly seems to fall into two categories — ultra-​fit-​super-​serious-​exercise-​freaks, and awkward-​nerdy-​weirdo-​spastic-​grad-​students. The former group can get annoying because they work out with such intensity that you don’t want to get in their way, the latter group gets annoying because they just take up valuable space and occupy machines you could be using for a real workout. I don’t know which of these two groups I personally fall into, I’m sure each group would certainly classify me as a member of the other!

Hemenway is dangerously crowded, the treadmills are often broken or their tvs don’t work. Plus, working out with law students sucks — they’re competitive and rude (about petty things like getting on one machine instead of the other). It’s especially frustrating to actually get to the gym and for there not to be a free machine for hours since the gym allows people to sign up for the machines in advance.

The one thing this gym has going for it is the location. The weight room is dangerously crowded and is short on free-​weight equipment. The rules against Olympic lifting and the lack of space for many types of weightlifting limit what you can do on this gym.
While I’m sure Hemenway was intended as a boutique gym for law students, Harvard needs to think about expanding and improving its gym offerings. If only that were a priority for the couch-​potato administrators in University Hall. Oh right, they and the faculty get paid big bucks and go to their own private gyms…
Also, I think this place is run under contract with the Sports Clubs company (BSC/​WSC/​NYSC, etc.). Not sure how well that system works.

Because Hemenway is the nicest gym on campus (which, let’s face it, isn’t saying much since the only comparison is the MAC which seems to consistently smell of sweaty feet and, thanks to the recession, is open irregular hours) this place is *always* packed. The crowdedness has led to the sign-​up sheet and, as any gym-​goer knows, the sign up sheet only leads to problems. No one wants to go to the gym to work out on a cardio machine for 30 minutes (it’s just too short), and no one wants to have her workout interrupted by a Type A time-​keeper who has discovered that you are thirty seconds over time. So yes, this is as good as it gets on campus, but it’s just not that good– and now that there are so many economical gym options in the area, it might be worth it to investigate something else if, like me, you like to put on your ipod and just sweat without people bothering you.

You know its there, on your thighs, arms, stomach. You see it every time you walk out of the shower, every time you buy a pair of jeans or a shirt, every time you try chatting a girl/​boy/​ladyman up. That bit of fat wakes you up in the middle of the night like an Edgar Allen Poe character, clawing at your face. The diets don’t work… mainly because you can’t stop chowin’ down on burgers and fries.
If you are a Harvard student, then this is the place to workout. Part of the Law School Campus, this gym has everything you would want to drop the weight, bulk up, or get ready for that marathon. This gym has complete sets of strength and cardio equipment, a studio, squash courts,. The cardio equipment run on thirty minute sessions so if you come between you might get pulled off by someone wanting the machine, painful if there are other open machines. However, the decorum is much better than the MAC, where the undergrads don’t always wipe down the machines or get off in a timely manner.
The equipment is in great condition and the staff is very helpful. Additionally, if you are two lazy to come up with your own program, you can join a class. Harvard offers a number of classes at Hemenway, including yoga and spin classes.
Bottom Line: Come here and shed those extra pints of ice cream.