Category Archives: Health/Fitness

My Gym SUCKS

Go read EmilyM’s rant on quitting the Park Slope Sports Club, which opened in April 2000 and is bursting at the seams:

“I’ve got to face facts: this gym sucks. As the neighborhood has grown, they’ve recruited more and more members without much expanding their facilities. They keep buying more treadmills even though everyone wants the elliptical machines. The weight room and stretching area are too small, but they put in a juice bar for some reason. They play their canned soundtrack too loud for people to comfortably listen to their iPods, even though 85% of members are using them. Most annoying of all, there aren’t enough lockers…” Read the rest…

EmilyM also started this thread in the Daily Heights forum:

LINK: Park Slope Sport Club

Van Helsing's 42nd Smash Week at Flatbush Pavilion; Next Act: Swimming Pool

van helsing-tn.jpgHow embarrassing to end it all with an albatross like this on your marquee… So much for going out in a blaze of glory.

The Flatbush Pavilion movie theater on Flatbush Ave. closed apparently due to lack of patronage on May 22, 2004, just weeks after the release of Van Helsing, which made #2 in Newsweek’s 20 Most Disappointing Movies of 2004: “Get the stake! This overstuffed, overamped Monster jamboree is a perfect demonstration that more can be so much less. You never want to see another special effect after director Stephen Sommers is done abusing them.”

If you missed the Van Helsing debacle, here are some choice quotes from IMDB:“Some of the actors apparently phoned in their performances… the real star of the film is the (you guessed it) special effects … The dialogue … is absurd and sometimes unintentionally, howlingly funny … everyone–vampires, villagers, heroes, even horses and cattle–go airborne sometime during the film … the gossamer plot is as deep as a kiddie’s backyard swimming pool …”

Oh yes. There is actually news. The rumors are true: Park Slope Sports Club (330 Flatbush Ave., Brooklyn, NY 11238; 718-783-5152) has bought the theater, and plans build a swimming pool in the space. For those of you seeking a gym (gymn?) with a pool, this project won’t be completed until sometime in 2006 at earliest.

BONUS: Check out the amazing history lesson here: Built by silent film comedian John Bunny and opened in 1912 as the Bunny Theatre; Served as an indoor mini-golf course and an XXX theater called the Plaza; Revived as a first-run house called the Plaza; sold to Pavillion Theater owner; at the time of its closing, was believed to be the oldest operating movie theater in the city.

Prospect Heights Women: One Third are Overweight?

BETHANY JENKINS and HUGH SON report in the Daily News: The city Health Department reports that 1 in 3 women in Prospect Heights, Bedford-Stuyvesant, Crown Heights, East New York and Brownsville are overweight; Brooklynwide, only 24% of women are overweight. However, the article fails to say how the Health Department defines “overweight,” and it’s not clear if “1 in 3” applies to those neighborhoods individually or collectively.

Bonus: It took not one but two writers to mess up the lead (as of 4:51 PM, subject/verb agreement error). But hey, Microsoft Word doesn’t give you one of those green squigglies when you type “Brooklyn woman are losing the battle of the bulge.”

Stairmaster or Trapeze Lessons?

Lava_news_photoMarie Carter in the Brooklyn Rail: "On a Wednesday night at the Lava studio in Prospect Heights (524 Bergen Street, 718-399-3161), three
students work on various techniques, including what’s known in the
trapeze world as the bird’s nest, the plonge, and the gazelle, while
others wait their turn, keeping warm doing handstands against the wall,
crunches, splits, or handwalking on the mat."

"The 1,200-foot studio is
on the ground floor and has a sprung wood floor, rigging pipes for the
trapeze, and 12-foot ceilings. One side of the wall is exposed brick … Johnson has lived in the upstairs apartment of the Prospect Heights
building for twelve years, since it was a raw warehouse space, and had
always envisioned a studio on the first floor … Recently
she had the opportunity to buy and renovate the building."

"Trapeze class is taught by Gagnee and Greiner
… Their acrobatic classes are divided into beginners and advanced … In addition to classes in tumbling and Iyengar yoga, there is a pay-what-you-can open workout for adults, kids, and teens separately and a family class …"

HOOPS – for kids

BballFort Greene Sports has spaces available in its 12 &14 year old basketball program. Contact Bob Byer or sign up in person at the Brooklyn School For Career
Development
gymnasium (510 Clermont Avenue, btw Atlantic & Fulton) Timeslot for the 14-year-old division is 3-4 pm Saturdays. Fee for the remaining 8 weeks of games and coaching is $90.   Players who show "tremendous skill" will play for a travel team.

Chanting, Non-Stop

Nav_wheelgirlCathy writes: "Paul and our boys and I have just returned from a wonderful week up at Kripalu … It is the tradition … to do three days of continuous chanting, round the clock, leading up to the turning of the year … carried out in a huge meditation hall, beautifully lit with thousands of blue lights and candles everywhere, dozens of musicians and chanters at the front leading hundreds of people through a repetitious chant of ‘Om Namah Shivaya’" …