For a big university, this gym is pretty dismal in my opinion. It is old and the weight rooms are small, lack enough equipment, and are invariably crowded. It does not have adequate AC, which for a bay area establishment isnt a shock, but its a gym that is usually pretty full, so it gets a bit hot and humid. You have to swipe your card to enter both the locker room and the main gym area, so you have to have it on you which increases your chances of losing it during activities.The school also uses it for functions at patrons inconvenience. The basketball arena is attached and sometimes you run into the players, which is kind of cool, but also seems kind of cheap. I was told they have tests in the main court, which just seems cheap and high schoolish, but maybe thats hearsay.It is a no-frills gym in which you may have to alter your workout plans to deal with the equipment demand. There may be a wait for the cardio equipment, but you can generally get that done easily if that is what you plan to do.To me, it seems like the university is doing essentially the bare minimum with its rec facilities. Comparably-sized schools often have a really nice main gym and a few other smaller gyms to deal with demand and ease access for students on different areas of campus. I was a bit taken aback for a university as storied as Cal, but maybe it is just too expensive and hard to build in the bay area.

Pretty bad honestly. No other campus of this size has such humble offerings.

Good pickup, my first game here a kid tried to fight our team. 10/10, very competitive. Gym is ok.

It was great! All of the workers there were very helpful, they were organized, and they made the process easygoing, no stress, no worry, in and out.

Great place to work out and have fun

Great place to work out. I love the group exercises. Make sure to avoid the peaks though, as it can get pretty crowded late morning and early evening.

Good gym, equipment is new and the climate control is good (no tropical humidity as 24 hour fitness and other facilities have). Has a great weight room with multiple benches, machines, and mirror and dumbbell collections. Great working out with fellow students and the atmosphere is great -- it will keep you motivated when students are like you are working, not fooling around, in the gym.

Pretty good space, but they have the constant presence of UC bureaucracy.Example 1: lockers don’t auto renew, even if you’ve been there awhile. Miss an email and one day your things are in a plastic bag in a side room somewhere.Example 2: Some trainers were not getting their paychecks. Could see it affecting morale.

Its cool because theres a lot of stuff. There are indoor raquet ball courts, many basketball courts, some of those basketball courts turn into badminton courts, a stretch room, a dance room, a martial arts room, free weights, machines, so much. The only reason why its not 5 starts is for the amount of people that come in sometimes the gym equipment is full. There are sometimes even lines to enter the gym room.

I love the passport service without advanced appointment and line. You can even get the same passport service on Saturday. The location is great for seniors and children because they can sit down to watch some TV and use restroom. In contrast, US postal offices or any other passport agency does not have such good service for kids and seniors.

Decent selection of equipment and not usually too crowded

Giving the facility a 4 because the building itself is pretty old and not all that appealing but in terms of recreation I’d give the place a 5.Memberships open to students and the general public.Facilities include:1 large weight room, 2 smaller annex weight rooms. Squat racks, dumb bells, all your other weight lifting needs.4 full length basketball courts on first floor, a few more courts on the 3rd floor.Note: some of the basketball courts are transformed to allow for badminton, volleyball and other activities, see schedule!Racquetball.Ability to rent out balls and equipment such as rackets/paddles, etc.Locker rooms, with a new addition of a gender equality locker area with easier access for handicapped.Locker rooms and gym area offer a free towel service (small for workouts, full length/ large for showers and swim area).Olympic pool.Access to other sports facilities on/near campus.A food/nutrition shop on the ground floor.Get your membership at the Bancroft entrance. The membership center is also able to process other transactions such as passport renewals.

Good place to work out.

Love it. Very clean and most machines working. Good serious workout vibe. Not a meat market. Mostly student population but maybe 5-10% is 40 yrs +Friendly staff. No major complaints. Only one would be that the culture in the weight room is to dominate machines until you have done your three sets. Working in a set, in between someone else’s is not part of the culture there.

Busy! Come in the morning at opening or after lunch for the quieter - yet still packed - hours.Highly equipped, high capacity sports facility and gym, mostly used by Berkeley students. Complete with locker rooms, basketball courts, weight rooms, Olympic lifting facility, treadmills, racquetball courts. Connected to aquatics facility. Frequently holds University events - Caltopia, career fairs, and examinations - on the basketball courts.

Constantly crowded. Inaccurate compensation for unforeseen closures (they did nothing about all the cancelations due to fires earlier in the year). When I asked for a refund for COVID closures and fire closures, I was offered an extension of membership only for the (estimated) time of COVID closures - refund is only possible if you move a (fairly large) MINIMUM distance or have a medical condition, and provide documents to prove so. Why not simply provide the requested refund? Complete ripoff.Edit:Over a year later, Id actually like to expand on how much of a ripoff this place is. With an inadequate queueing system that mandates gym-goers to register 3 days in advance within ~1 second of when bookings go live, and with a limit of 115 people per appointment, this expensive gym membership is essentially worthless. What am I paying for if I cannot consistently book an appointment at a time of my choosing? The system in place right now is effectively a raffle or lottery system. What a joke. I do understand that were in the middle of an unprecedented public health crisis, however I will point out that many other fitness centers in the area function safely (i.e. within county public health guidelines) without prohibitively inefficient booking systems. I will be sure to sign up for one of those after my year long subscription (which I wanted refunded, and which RSF refused to refund) expires. I cant wait for that to happen so I no longer need to put up with RSFs garbage.

Packed with college students, seeing the incredible physiques on some of these young people is inspiring, but expect a wait time for weights during the school year. Staff rotates constantly, for many of them it seems to be a school job. The regular employees are 100% flawless and take their jobs seriously.

Decent equipment but always too crowded and dirty and crowded and crowded to make it worth going there during the school year. During the summer its a great free option for ucb students.

Its constantly crowded, but there are like 7 full on cages in the gym. I appreciate that this gym respects squatting instead of just having 10 racks to bench press like a typical LA Fitness might have.

Relatively cheap for non Cal Students and locals. personally too large for me, I wait quite awhile to get any equipment use and the equipment is pretty old. Up to you if you want to work out with college students all the time. I prefer smaller gyms.

The facility is great but the convenience store inside the facility will rip you off. They don’t have prices for the items they sell and charge you whatever they like. Someone needs to do price control.

Went here for a sporting event. Suggest planning ahead to find affordable parking. Did not expect the streets to be closed off. If you have a large vehicle look for parking that will accommodate. Can be difficult to drive in the area even at 10 p.m. at night due to traffic and many pedestrians. Some streets have crosswalks without a light, and non-stop pedestrians you can wait for a long time before you may drive in this neighborhood. so add extra time for parking and driving in this immediate area.

A full-featured gym that is free to use for UC Berkeley students! All students should take advantage of the universitys facilities!

Great facility for students and staff to workout. They just upgraded their locker rooms, so you dont have to worry about ever not finding a locker or lock. The cardio equipment, especially the treadmills, tend to be full during busy times, so I would avoid going there during those times if you definitely want to do cardio. The extended workout equipment/area seems to have made it easier for more people to use them at the same time.

The weight room is not even close to the size it should be to support all the students and guests who would like to lift. There are lines for almost all of the lifting equipment and this creates a very crappy workout environment. They put a ton of time and energy into all the different work out classes students can take but very little consideration is given to the vast majority of students who just want to lift. UC Berkeley could do a lot better.

Im giving it one star because Ive been to much better ones and I know things can be improved. First of all the gym is DIRTY. Ive been to many other gyms including one in a private school as well as commercial gyms. Ive never seen one that doesnt offer cleaning wipes. I couldnt imaging how many people have used one exercising mat without it being wiped. I dont wanna lay down on other peoples sweat cuz thats gross. Also the lay out of this gym doesnt make sense. A ton of people were exercising in the hall way on the second floor. Thats the worst place for one to exercise. They should have a room designed for people who just want to exercise on a mat! This is one of the best schools in the country and their gym can do better.

A very good gym. They just opened the new showering area. No longer have to shower in front of everyone.

Theyve recently added more squat racks, which has helped to alleviate some of the traffic. The dumbbells go up to 120 lbs. Unfortunately they have a few suboptimal features, like dodecagonal plates, so if you want to reset between deadlift reps for example, the bar torques around til the plates sit flat. Also, you cant take photos or videos or your form, and you cant do any explosive movements like clean and jerks or snatches.

As a student, its very easy to use all the facilities (gym, basketball, etc), and the area is very clean

Complete line of all things needed for strength training, cardio and recovery for those of us who normally dont train in water. Yes it appeared to get crowded during peak times, but Im usually in and out before peak time. Concept 2a and several squat racks made for a nice workout change up.

Bad use of space...Not enough equipment for the amount of people that come through this gym. Weight room is missing very important equipment such as calves machines. Older guests are always hovering over you to indicate they want to use the machine youre on although there may be another that performs the same workout in an adjacent room.

Not enough workout machines in the weight rooms for the amount of people that visit, even through non peak periods. Youd think for 30K people who go to UC Berkeley, theyd make a gym that can accommodate at least a fraction of that amount, not the case, they need to invest in larger facilities. But, its free...well, paid through my tuition...so we get what we pay for, I guess.

Lots of machines. Not too crowded. Get your gainz here

I have only ever been here for the zumba classes, which are very fun!

If you get into Cal youll love this facility!

Nice and friendly. Join group exercises or martial arts clubs. I did both and also learned tennis from here.

Great place to get your passport

Great gym in Berkeley. Probably the best for the money and equipment

Very good gym and sports facility for UCB students

Lots of things to do including classes but its always overcrowded. Its a good idea but there are too many people to get much done. The staff has variable friendliness too.

Fantastic gym with lots of amenities and organized classes. Make sure to avoid rush hour (afternoon after class)

Good facilities, including cardio, weights, outdoor pool. Many classes. Inexpensive compared to commercial gyms.

Always pretty crowded and invests more in throwing old machines then expanding the gym so you dont have to wait 30 mins for a bench.

Very well equipped gym, but not up to standards for what Cal should have :/ Running on the treadmill sucks unless you enjoy staring at walls and the basketball courts are always packed. Id recomend looking into the smaller gyms

Have a lot of good equipment, could extend the open swim hours though

Solid facilities. Pools are heated which is amazing.

Has everything you might need! RSF is awesome.

Local UC Berkeley gym. lots of undergrads but also provide good classes if youre a member.

Unfriendly staff. I get that there are rules but the staff here acts like theyre better than everyone

I was expecting a lot better from the top public school in the country, but this gym is terrible. The first thing I was hit with is there no bag policy, meaning I have to carry all my gym stuff around the gym in my arms. The weight room is way too small for the number of people going through there, and the place is just all around dirty. Now I realize why I couldnt find any pictures of the place online. Also if you want to do any Olympic weightlifting you must come at certain hours of the day and pay an obsurd price just to use the equipment. On top of this you are not allowed to use chalk or record yourself in this gym. Maybe Berkeley shouldnt put 95% off there money towards the athletes gym just a thought. Bottom line never going back to that gym even though I can use it for free, renewing my 24 membership today.

Lots of power racks, but no sauna or hot tub

Great facility. Very professional and great equipment.

A little bit crowded but lots of good group exercise classes and clean equipments.

Open late, the pool is nice and the facilities and equipment are many.

Pretty good except that there are no running machine

Great place to take a CS Final (when the fire alarm isnt pulled) and a great place to play basketball any day of the week. The other facilities are nice too.

Passport- If you need a place thats fast and open late to process a passport, this is the place. You will need a checkbook or money order.

Free for UC Berkeley students means that it can get extremely packed. Plan your workout strategically to avoid the crowd.

Great basketball runs weekday afternoons and weekend mornings

BEST place in the entire Bay Area to apply for a passport!

So close to the Berkeley City club, where I am a member, and get to use the RSF as well. What a treat.

It can get really congested with students at times but the equipment and classes are very good. Plus free towels, showers, hairdryers and day use lockers.

Good facilities but is usually pretty packed. Go on off hours for less people

Great place to exercise, but its usually very crowded

If you need a passport it is very convenient but the customer service is really bad, they are so rude!

Small, not overly busy.

Good basketball run here

Very overcrowded during peak hours but overall good gym

I love looking at myself in the mirror

Great for a school faculty and getting better

Great facility but its major downfall is crowdedness

This is the review for the passport acceptance facility. The last three weekends in a row I’ve shown up and they only have one person working. Every time the staff people say there should be three people working. Expect to wait well over 2 1/2 hours…

Really cool place to exercise

Great place to play basketball

Super good place to exercise!

Nice place for exercising with plenty of machines and staff.

Equipment might be older, but almost everything is in working condition and the value absolutely cant be beat - if you are a student.

Great place to work out

Gym is too small for the number of students registered. There was always a wait for all cardio machines -- as in you actually had to put your name on a list and wait to be called!

Great place good service

Great pickup basketball.

Good place to work out

Horrible. So small and overcrowded that they have to do a line outside and a one out, one in policy. They lack in basic equipment and the stuff that they have is from the 1980s. 40 000 students are supposed to share this tiny gym. For 11 000$ per semester in tuition this is a disgrace.

This is a terrible gym. The lines are long - I often wait more than twenty minutes for a treadmill or a gym machine. The instructors are unprofessional and the place is crowded. As a new postdoc I purchased a season pass, but I will not renew it

Great if you are a student, otherwise quite expensive.

Not as nice as UCLAs John Wooden Center, but its miles above the YMCA.

A bit hard to get to but does do passport paperwork.

Crowded, but nice

Awesome spot

Plenty of machines and available equipment, but it does get crowded during the evenings.

Way too small for the campus. Could be about 16 times larger, based on the example that I previously went to a school with about 1/4 the student body size and 4 times the gym facilities. This means lines and general discomfort. This isnt even to mention the fact that Cal basketball games further crowd the place.

Poor facilities and broken equipment.

So many weaklings here at this gym.

I coming inside the building

Crowded but nice

Best gym.

Nice place!

Great equipment and facilities

Great classes

Good