Pfitzenmeier

This year Pam and I both joined the Pfitzenmeier Fitness Club. In the U.S. I have belonged to a variety of gyms. The year before we left I belonged to the Weston Fitness Center which was on the same block in Philly as my office which made it convenient. From a facilities standpoint though, it was pretty minimalist, but nice. The Pfitzenmeier on the other hand is very well fitted out with some very nice facilities and equipment, but there are some interesting differences.

The Pfitzenmeier is on two floors. When you enter the front door you immediately walk up the stairs to the second floor. On the second floor is weight training equipment and rooms for fitness courses. Downstairs is mostly aerobic equipment, and they have a lot of everything and also a back fitness area that I have not ventured into.

Upstairs the machines are all made in America and are from the manufacturer, Cybex. The interesting thing is while the equipment is made in America, the instructions are in German, the warning labels are in English and the markings are in Pounds and Kilos (on a few pieces just pounds). The equipment is in good repair. There is also a lot of equipment and for some pieces there are up to three units.

There are three course rooms. In the back is the yoga and Pilates room, there is a Spin room and general purpose course room and they have a full schedule of courses. Pam has started taking a Butt, Thighs and Tummy class on Sunday mornings and I have started taking the 90 minute spin class on Tuesday mornings. Pam’s class involves lots of apparatus and moving in the correct direction at the right time. Pam’s class involves a lot of moving in the right direction and use of equipment, I am sure I would turn in the wrong direction and hit someone with something and that would not be good. Spin class is simple…you sit down, you peddle, you sweat and then when you’re done, you clean up the sweat. I am really good at sweating.

One thing I really hated about the Weston was that I needed to have a lock to close the locker. In a year, I lost at least three locks by leaving them on the locker when I left. With Pfitzenmeier, I do not have this problem. The membership card has an RFID tag inside. The card unlocks the gate to let you in and out of the gym and it locks and unlocks the lockers. The locker rooms are brightly lit and clean. The lockers are pretty nice but could be a little larger. In winter the locker gets filled quickly with your coat. In the men’s locker room there are two tanning machines.

Just past the showers (which are….shall I say it, showers), there is an opaque glass door. Through the door is the sauna area. I had not been there until this past Tuesday (12-2). These rooms are indeed coed and Pam and I are unfamiliar with the Rules there. I also had a bad experience when skiing in Switzerland back in 1989, a bunch of us from the ski club and a couple Canadians were wearing swimsuits and we got yelled at….we were not following the rules.

This time I had a sauna mentor….or so I thought. Tom Otter came for the spin class and was going to show me the ropes in the sauna room. In fact it is not that difficult. First you take a shower to rinse off. First was the really hot sauna, I did not see the thermometer, but it was hot and I sweated a lot! After a stay of about 10 or 15 minutes and I showered in cold water – this is supposed to be good for your circulation. Then we went into the steam room…not as hot as the hot sauna and there were already a couple people in there and it is not a big room. I sat across from Tom and looked at the person to my right and realized, yes this is Coed. We stayed in there a little while and then did the shower thing again before going into the not as hot sauna, about 60 Celsius (about 110F). I did not see a whirlpool there. I need to look around the area further because while the heat and steam is nice, I really enjoy the whirlpool.