Simon Recreation Center

Decent amount of equipment. Never had a wait for a treadmill or elliptical — even during prime hours. Weight area can get a bit congested though. The hours are not good though — summer time they close at 9pm — would be nice if they were open at least til 10 or 11 pm. The outdoor pool would be nice to lay out but the chairs are absolutely pitiful and probably decades old — so uncomfortable — they ought to invest a bit of money to get some new chairs.

THIS PLACE IS DA BOMB. The SRC has it all from fitness classes and a smoothie bar to a bouldering wall and tons of machines! The staff is also pretty cool. Great energy from students, but community members are welcome as well! Swing by for a workout with a friend!

One of the best undergraduate gyms that I have seen in a long time. Luckily, we as grad students benefit from access to the gym as well.
I’ve tried most areas of the gym and have always had a great experience. My place is the track upstairs because it is around the basketball court where there are always games going on. It makes running 30 – 60 mins much more bearable as you’re distracted and I often get to watch my friends play bball, soccer, volleyball etc.
I’ve also taken a Latin dance class and sat in a hip hop one and watched a couple of Zumba and spinning classes in action as I was passing by. The teachers are great and I loved taking Latin Dance as Alex really pushed us on technicality and made us do flips and spins that I probably wouldn’t have wanted to do otherwise. It’s a great deal too!
The bottom floor is a fully equipped gym with the newest treadmills, ellipticals, bikes and well kept weights. There are also many mpr rooms that we have used for dance practice/​flash mob practice as well. Don’t forget about the racquetball courts and squash courts available to you on the first floor.
Lastly, the staff are really accommodating, they go out of their way to help you, make it easy to reserve courts and are just plain nice when they greet you. The best! Come to simon rec if you can, it’s a great place for fitness

Yes. I have been here throughout undergrad and graduate school. Friends from undergrad that have since moved do not necessarily miss St. Louis. However, literally all of them miss the Rec!
Keep in mind this is a gym for students and alumni, with an emphasis on students.
The staff is amazing, cooperative, and friendly. There have been some situations few and far between where I raised my eyebrows at the staff for their judgment making, but they always erred on the side of professionalism — a place where it is difficult to argue against their opinion.
This gym has it all. I’ve always made working out a part of my lifestyle, but have gone through different phases of what I wanted. Weights, triathlon training, and playing basketball are more than anyone could ask for here. It’s a great gym that did not cut any corners post renovation in 2007ish.
Not to mention they have all classes you could ask for. Dancing, karate, fencing, cycling, yoga… blah blah blah if you want it they got it!
Insert motivation, destination SImon Rec Center!

Really big gym.1^st floor is big area with main equipment.
2^nd floor is a basketball court and swimming pool.
3^rd is a running track that overlooks the court and more equipment.
They also have smoothies for $ 4 that are really delicious and healthy.
Must be affiliated with SLU for membership.

New treadmill upgrades!
I’m not sure how to feel about the replacement treadmills, I kinda liked the trivial features of the one’s they had. They are going from a Star Trac to a fleet of Woodway’s. While I’ve read Woodway’s are better for runners, hence their «for the long run» motto. I’m not a fan just yet.
I dislike that there is not a built-​in fan on the dashboard. The air circulation in the gym isn’t the best at keeping me cool when I’m running. Now it’s even more apparent on the Woodway machines because they don’t have this fan feature I enjoy so much. After a sweaty workout, cleaning and wiping down the machines is more difficult because the dashboard is not a flat surface, it’s full of nooks and crannies. It’s also difficult to hold on to if you’re walking briskly on an incline. Then there are the treads, which feel weird to me. The treads are slit rather than a seamless track so it’s more like trail running with a little more of a bumpy ride than a smooth surface. I just don’t know if I can deal with this change. More of a rant than a review.
Other than that the rec center has been great. Only a few more weeks, guess I’ll just have to sweat it out until then.

Really excellent facility… and fairly new at that. I love coming to workout here more than using the diminutive gym inside of my apartment complex. It’s good for days when I don’t feel like braving the snow to walk to Simon. But anyway!
They have 3 levels… Laclede St. entry that leads down to where most of the machines are, and tooons of weights both freeweights and machine-​style weights. They have a juice bar where you can get smoothies and powerade type of drinks. I usually just get bottled water and a banana and the occasional zero calorie powerade. Yay.
The 2^nd level is reached most easily from their West Pine entrance. When you walk in you will see locker room doors, a gigantic basketball court, and a desk to get equipment from.
They have a 3^rd level with a track, more workout equips like treadmills and ellipticals, and more weights… and you can overlook the swimming pool from the 3^rd level. It’s pretty cool.
I like the ample amounts of sweat towels, rags for wiping down machines, hand sanitizer, etc. They have medicine balls and inflatable exercise balls as well as mats for stretching out on. Very nice. I like the fact that there is pretty much TONS of everything just laying around so there’s no needing to «beat» people to stuff you want to use.
The swimming pool is very large and very nice, you just have to be careful about when the swim team has practice so you can actually use it. They have a hot tub too but it’s never very «hot» and I feel kinda grungy after using it lol. (Cause so many students have used it, probably without showering first!)
The locker rooms have a nice sauna which I looove to use post swim or post workout.
They have racquetball courts too, and vending machines.
There is another locker room on the bottom floor which I only recently discovered (lol!) and they have tons of private rooms for aerobics classes and spinning, etc. They also have DANCE classes! I am sad I didn’t get one of the slots this time around! Oh well!
I really do miss this one type of machine they used to have, though… it was sort of like a combination of a treadmill and an elliptical where you had one tread conveyor thing for each foot and it had a slope function too. I think they must break easily so the staff decided to just get rid of them. Made me so sad because it was one hell of a work out. I have no idea what they’re called but if someone knows feel free to message me, because I’d love to get one of those someday when I can afford to buy my own house, haha.
Oh and you can also schedule massages here!

After almost two years as a grad student at SLU, I finally figured out I (or my employer, rather) was paying for a fitness center membership. Wow.
Simon Rec Center is super convenient for me before or after classes and has what I need. At least during the times I go, it doesn’ t seem overly busy, leaving you to wait for a machine.
Though I haven’t used them, the rec center has a pool, indoor track, basketball courts, multipurpose rooms, saunas, racquetball/​handball courts, juice bar, bouldering wall, 2 outdoor pools, etc. on top of your usual fitness equipment, weights, and classes.
Membership is available to students, alumni, faculty, and staff.