Heman Park Centennial Commons

This community gym has got a lot going for it, but it’s not quite perfect.
The things I like about this gym are:
1) Plenty machines so you never really have to wait for one
2) For a community gym, it’s really very clean and the premises are quite grand
2) Airy, open space with a view out onto some grass rather than, say, a busy road
3) Very good membership rates, especially for local residents — we pay $ 40 a month for the two of us
4) There’s an indoor running track
5) A somewhat decent selection of classes
6) The clientele is generally low key rather than scary muscle men putting your work-​out to shame
Things that I feel are a problem:
1) The Sunday closing time of 5pm
2) The scales are often broken
3) The people who work there don’t really have a clue what’s going on. I had to change my bank details for the monthly payment, and it took me the best part of a month to find an employee who could actually handle this task
4) You have to give 3 months’ notice to cancel
5) There’s no pay-​as-​you-​go for classes. You have to pick one time that you’re going to come every week and sign up for a whole «session» which goes on for 10 weeks or so, and pay upfront for the whole session
6) There’s no Body Pump class — a personal favorite of mine
7) Sometimes the «low key clientele» like to stare at you as you puff away on the treadmill because all they’re doing is walking at a 2mph pace, so they need some entertainment
Looking over the two lists above, it seems as though there’s really more negatives than positives, so it’s somewhat surprising that I’m giving this gym 4 stars. I think what saves it for me is the low monthly price and the fact that it’s a no-​frills, let-​you-​get-​on-​with-​it kind of gym — they’re not constantly trying to sell you a «premium» membership, or get you to refer friends, like some other gyms — and what you see is what you really get as far as membership is concerned. It’s just a good, honest place for the locals to work out.

Ok, Centennial Commons I will from here on out be referring to you as the «U-​City Gym». Sorry, get over it. Nice name and all, I like it, but for my purposes here, you are a gym. First I will talk about why you aggravate me. Then I will discuss your good points.
And as being a gym, maybe we could start out with having a few rules. You know, those things that many people put in place to restrict actions of others to make everyone more comfortable and have a good time? They are called rules. You might want to look into having some. For example:
1. Unsupervised children should not be running around the track.
2. Unsupervised children should not be standing around the track.
3. Unsupervised children should not be playing with the balance balls around the track.
Do you see a theme here? Let me instate another rule or two:
4. If you are running around the track while your children are goofing around they are unsupervised.
5. No children in the work out areas that are not working out.
Seriously though, I know this is the fault of bad parenting, but why are you letting them get away with it? People pay to use this gym. Those kids do not have memberships and I am going to start punching their parents in the face. So U-​City Gym, if you do not want to clean up blood, you might want to start to enforce some «where children are not allowed» rules.
Next rules:
6. Two televisions cannot be set to the same channel.
7. The plugs on the machines for the televisions should actually work.
Come on guys, some of this is just expected. And common courtesy. Don’t change the TV to a channel that is on 3 televisions down. Yeah, I am talking to you guy with the remote, don’t be such a jerk.
One more bad thing: there is this one super creepy guy who just sits on the bike pedaling slowly for an hour or so staring at people. And he is on the bike I like to use. If you are using the gym to creep on girls and get away from your wife to watch sports for an hour or so that is fine with me, just use a machine no one cares about please.
Good things about this gym: It is super clean. There are no fights for locker space. I can almost always get the machine that I want. Although I would like them to review the spinning cycles they have and maybe get rid of a few of those for something else that maybe I would use more, or at all. Since I only ever sometimes see one person on one of them.
There is really almost never a wait for a machine, unless you are super picky about which model you are using. They have a pretty wide range of options so you should at least be able to get your cardio on somewhere in here. They also have personal trainers that you can sign up to work with which I have seen in action but not done. If you are into classes, they have those too.
There is also an indoor soccer field, a huge gym that gets used a lot for local kids teams, a mix of weight machines in the main fitness area, as well as additional free weight options off the side near the locker rooms, meeting rooms and an area to toss your kids while you work out (hint, hint).
The place advertises itself as «state of the art» and it really in terms of the facility holds itself up to that standard. I like going here. A lot. In terms of price, I think it is pretty fair. And you are not going to be surrounded by a bunch of work out maniacs, just people who like to go to the gym.