Sneak Peek! Vent Fitness – Guilderland

If you’ve stepped foot in Vent Fitness (formerly Golds Gym) in the 20 Mall in Guilderland in the last 5 years (and possibly before), you may have been depressed by its appearance. I became a member in January of 2008, and I can tell you, with the exception of the FocusMaster room, just about everything looks the same today as it did then, and most of the equipment is in various states of disrepair.

Well, times have finally changed.

On Monday, an all new wing of Vent Fitness on the opposite corner of the 20 mall will be open to the public.

I was there last night for their open house, and I got to see my new fitness home. It’s very modern.

They had some food from the Recovery Grill next door. I hit the pretzels with Hennepin cheese sauce a little hard and the Buffalo chicken wontons a little less hard. There were some veggies with hummus and dip for fairly obvious reasons.

As you pass the check-in counter, there’s the daycare center to the right, and it looks like everything inside is new and shiny. Then, you pass the shake bar where there are TVs that will feature the menu.

On your right, there’s a “Renew” area, where members can take advantage of these crazy looking massage devices or tanning booths.

Then, on the left is something a little weird.

It’s an oxygen bar with 4 different flavors of oxygen enriched air. I tried it out; I’m nonplussed, but it’s definitely something that’s eye catching and unique. Hey, if I ever want to try it again, they gave me the $5 nose piece for free last night.

Then you reach the actual gym area.

Everything is brand new. The difference between the old and new sides of the gym reminds me of Rocky IV. The old is like where Rocky trains in Siberia and the new is state of the art equipment Ivan Drago uses to get into fighting shape. (If you haven’t seen Rocky IV, please go watch it.) All of the equipment is state of the art. And all of my pictures showcase the main floor, there is a mezzanine with even more cardio equipment!

There are other areas devoted to group training. I passed a section with a bunch of bikes for spinning. And the FocusMaster area, which you know I’m most interested in, is located at the back of the gym, just past the free weights.

(How they are going to pump the inspiring music into just this one area of the gym is a mystery to me, but I guess I’ll find out on Monday.)

There are a few other things, like a supercharged water station that requires a special canister.

And there are little seating areas with TVs where you can squat for a quick bite to eat.

Having been a member for over 5 years, I am very excited that my membership fees have gone into very major improvements, and I am very eager to use the new gym next week. Although, I will say that, even before training at Vent, I’ve always belonged to gyms that had that Rocky IV dinginess to them, so I’m sure it’ll take my mind a little time to get used to things being so new.

Apparently, this is phase 1 of a 3 phase upgrade to this facility. So it sounds like there is much more coming (hopefully) soon!

Memberships start at $10/month.