Universe Gym

They’ve ignored multiple requests to cancel my membership.

An actual gym!!! I travel a lot (200+ days a year) so it’s always hard to know what I’m going to find in the local area. This was perfect! Only $ 5 for a day pass. Tons of free weights. Friendly staff. No waiting between my circuits. Had the entire downstairs to myself. Gritty feel and iron weights made for a kick-​ass workout!!! Loved it.

Universe Gym is a great place to go if you’re visiting in town or a regular. I was spending a week in Brunswick, and Universe Gym’s 5 $ day pass was a big selling point for me. When I got there I was slightly underwhelmed, but honestly, it was exactly what you want out of a gym. They had plenty of cardio and yoga rooms, with a good weight room in the basement.
Universe Gym is unlike Planet Fitness, as UG is family owned, and focused on the people truly trying to get a good workout. Every staff member was very friendly, and I can’t wait to visit again.

This is more than a gym, it’s a community co-​op. I don’t use equipment, I am big into fitness classes and you’ll absolutely find that here! Maine State Ballet is running a satellite studio here beginning Fall ’13, and in addition to those classes you can take pilates, yoga, ballroom dance, kid’s tumbling and more. They have an excellent after-​school program, and a pretty brilliant place to host a children’s birthday party.

I had no idea what to expect when searching for a gym during a business trip to Wiscasset, Maine. Here I was in a hotel with 2 treadmills and an elliptical. This wasn’t nearly enough.
I had to take to this wonderful internet tool called Unilocal in hopes of finding a good place to work out.
Universe gym had zero reviews but I saw it was located pretty much directly along the route back to my hotel each day and my only other option was a World Gym with 1 Star and several reviews so that was definitely out of the question.
I guess the best place to start here is by letting you all know that this place is an old elementary school that shut down that was converted into a gym. Trust me when I say that fact is very evident when you are in there. You can clearly distinguish where the school office was and one of the bathrooms still had paintings of «Sesame Street» characters. Having to run from the basement to the third floor in order to move from freeweights to machines really ends up being a workout in itself.
The equipment itself is pretty old (probably bought for cheap off some gym that was closing) and occasionally I picked up a dumbbell that would leave a nice layer of brown residue on my hands. The locker rooms are very grimey and I didn’t really feel cleaner after taking a shower there.
So now that we have established the fact that this place consists of worn down equipment and isn’t your typical set up for a gym, I must say that the people here were extreemly nice. The owner told me I could work out there for $ 5 /​day and I am sure that real members probably pay under $ 25/​month. And they took credit card which makes it much easier for me to expense this later. I also noticed they offer classes in a large open room that they have that seemed to be their old cafeteria/​auditorium.
So, yeah, this place is a little gritty and never in a million years would it make it in the big city. But for rural Maine it sure as hell did the trick. Reminded me of my high school no thirlls gyms. After moving to the city I have become used to a certain type of place but, if I ever get stranded up there for work again, I wouldn’t hesitate coming back here for the steep price of $ 5 per day.