University of Calgary Active Living

Fantastic experience: We were down at Bowness Park last Friday and rented a couple boats and the group working there from the UofC were amazing and so helpful! Just an awesome group running the Boat Launch, we had a great time and you were a big part...thank you! Sharmaine Bell and the group from EMBE Consulting Engineers Inc.

Fantastic experience: Amazing people and amazing facilities

Positive experience: It’s a bit too crowded most of the time and the change rooms are a mile away.

Positive experience: You can enjoy the pool, is big and relaxing.

Fantastic experience: Great facility, old but well-maintained. The administration staff is friendly, helpful, and caring. The caretaking staff also work diligently to keep the facility clean. Great place for activities like swimming, squash, badminton, volleyball.

Fantastic experience: They have awesome facilities. It gets crowded in the morning and afternoons but there's enough space to do your own thing at the second floor too if so you desire. Parking is paid but you can also opt to park outside the university for free, although that is a bit of a walk to do in winter. My advice is to get the parking pass which is cheap and covers the whole year.

Fantastic experience: Great gym at a fair price.

Fantastic experience: Grt

Positive experience: Gym is usually busy during the school year. Lacks a few equipments compared to your premium gyms in the city. Swimming pool is good. Love the wet sauna. Gets the job done.

Fantastic experience: Great place to enjoy sports or do workouts

Negative experience: 2 stars down from 4 because every single water fountain in the gym dispenses luke warm swamp water instead of cold refreshing water you crave.

Positive experience: All things are good about. I can't imagine that university has this much sports facilities. Though university should make badminton court separately

Fantastic experience: Amazing place for swimming , the only recommendation would be ( adding more evening hours for 25m lanes swimming)

Fantastic experience: They hosted the basketball nationals. Great event

Positive experience: Usually pretty good here, but today we reserved a squash court at the front desk for 6:30 at S10, but we were told by the people playing that they still had a lot of time left on their booking. Went back to the front desk again and he sent us to another court only for the same thing to happen again. Went back to the front desk and he realised everything was actually booked out. After 40 minutes of trying to get a court and going back and forth and interrupting other games it was pretty frustrating to just be turned away after paying a deposit.

Fantastic experience: Good assortment of equipment. Very friendly staff. Not too crowded, but busy.

Fantastic experience: Love to take my kids there for lessons

Positive experience: Fitness centre is great and I go here consistently. It may be a bit small but it has everything you need

Fantastic experience: Amazing place

Fantastic experience: Great facilities and reasonable price.

Fantastic experience: Hmm the place had a lot of gym equipments and weights but as a restaurant it is pretty solid

Fantastic experience: Nice large facility

Fantastic experience: Great place, facility is actively involved with every aspect of an athlete's life.

Fantastic experience: Nice place to workout and play sports. People there is very nice.

Fantastic experience: Way better than I thought

Fantastic experience: Great facility. Hard to find your way around.

Fantastic experience: Enrolled my child in for a basic badminton course in here. Very well organised

Positive experience: The place is huge...lots of places to get lost but a overall very clean

Fantastic experience: Affordable welcoming; Great activities and super facilities; Helpful team Everything gets booked quite fast so book as soon as registration starts Lockers are not free, need to use 25 cents to lock and use a locker Showers are still super hot

Fantastic experience: All indoor courts are in this building.

Fantastic experience: Great environment!

Fantastic experience: Great place to play sports, clean facility

Fantastic experience: Amazing staff

Fantastic experience: Amazing facility, helpful staff.

Fantastic experience: World class facilities

Fantastic experience: Honestly so wonderful. Andrew and Kayla are the most warm people I’ve ever encountered at a gym. I dropped my headphone in the StairMaster and thought it was gone forever. When I asked the front desk, Kayla willingly grabbed a screwdriver and sought to open the machine. Andrew helped out and his body was halfway into the machine when he saw my AirPod. Best people ever, so nice throughout the whole encounter and did not complain or show any feeling of irritation. These baddies were doing the absolute most. Thanks so much!

Fantastic experience: I play badminton in here.

Fantastic experience: Lots of stuffs to play Well equipped gym Racquet center with numerous room Good but not the best pool

Fantastic experience: Lots of stuffs to play Well equipped gym Racquet center with numerous room Good but not the best pool

Fantastic experience: What a great program. My wife and I took the Beginners X-Country ski lessons as it has been so many years since we last skied X-country (me over 20 years, when boots were leater and lace up) at Pocaterra Hut in Kananaskis. Amazing setting, great group of people and Neil was an awesome instructor. Patient and knowledgeable, we have the confidence to get out there and enjoy this sport. Can't wait to take the kayak lessons and other offerings. Super program.

Fantastic experience: nice facility, good equipment and usually not too busy. friendly staff and overall friendly environment. its s little on the smaller side for a gym, but they have a lot of equipment in the gym. theres also an upstairs area with a running track and more machines, which is nice because it helps with crowding. good gym!

Negative experience: I would recommend not registering your kids for any of the Active Living programs with the U of C. Due to the changing situation around Covid-19, U of C Active Living classes have understandably been postponed and restrictions have changed, which is not a problem, however U of C Active Living is unwilling to change their refund policy if you wish to withdraw from these programs due to the Covid-19 situation. I was told that if you don't cancel 14 days days prior to the start of the ORIGINAL program date, NO refund will be given. This is despite changes to program start dates/schedules, changes in program restrictions, and increasing public health concerns, where I would have expected some flexibility with their policy. If you do choose to register your child, please be aware of the inflexibility of this policy and don't get caught in a situation where your money will not be refunded like I did.

Negative experience: I wish there was "Negative star rating" for such place. Front desk representatives at " Fitness center" are EXTREMELY RUDE (specially the girls who are working there). One of the front desk girl replied me that "she don't want to deal with my problem". The girl representative at fitness center prefers "solving puzzle game" on their computer than solving "customer's problem" (As I have seen them playing games on their computer). They are just bunch of immature undergrad students(specially the girls who are working there) who don't even know "C" of "Customer service". They misuse of their power. Last week I was there 10 minutes before my slot and girl at front desk did not allow me to go inside. On the other side just in front of me bunch of people entered and it was the same girl who opened gate for them. I have seen so many times such kind of discrimination . The front desk representatives even allow their friends to go inside without prior booking their slot. I am really disappointed with service provided by fitness center. I was not expecting such kind of behavior towards alumni of UofC. I will not recommend anyone to join this "Fitness center".

Fantastic experience: Ren/Wren (not sure how to spell your name I’m sorry) at the front desk is super polite, helpful, competent, and knowledgeable. It’s quite rare to find staff like that at this facility. Always a pleasure working out here because of people like Ren.

Negative experience: Nov 18th, 11-11:15am One of the staff at the front desk is not competent and very unwelcoming. I go here at least 3 times a week since the beginning of the semester and never once have I been asked to prove my vaccine status until now. The girl was very rude and forced me to get my government ID as my UCID wasn’t good enough. When I came back, she was assisting another customer and she didn’t bother asking for his government issued ID, the UCID was enough. What’s the point of enforcing a standard when most people at the gym aren’t even wearing masks nor are you properly asking each individual for vaccination proof, only a few?

Fantastic experience: World class facilities

Fantastic experience: Great place to workout.

Positive experience: For the price the facilities are amazing. My two irritations are an extreme lack of lockers and the fact that they cost a quarter per key turn which is annoying if you ever need to return to grab something. I am confident the corporate institution of UofC could afford pay lockers that have timers on them. My other complaint is lack of cleaning in the bathrooms. I've never seen anyone cleaning them and feel they could use a bit more effort there given the volume of traffic moving through the place. Oh, I also wish the benches in the bathrooms were wider. They're way to narrow to put stuff on. Odd complaint, but super annoying. As far as how busy it is, yeah, it is busy, but it is a student center. It's great to see this many students committed to staying healthy.

Fantastic experience: Our family have used u of c active living facilities and taken multiple classes over the past 5 years. We have always had wonderful experience and are amazed by how involved and caring the staff are.

Fantastic experience: Excellent stationary bicycles

Fantastic experience: Client services have always been fantastic and the facilities are great!

Fantastic experience: Most friendly staff of any medical center I've been to.

Positive experience: I’m mostly satisfied with the gym, but it takes ages to fix broken weight machines sometimes, and there aren’t enough of them at peak times (which I try to avoid going at). My other complaint is that some of the new staff are extremely entitled. Look, this is a gym, we enjoy the friendly, casual athmosphere, so don’t ruin it. There’s one woman in particular who starts every sentence with “So just so you know we close at...” Yes, I know when you close as one can see by the gate that you already shut one hour in advance. My suggestion would be to just not work there if you already kick people out who just wanna do a quick 30 minute workout and leave on time. One more thing: please replace those damn stinky cloths to clean the mats and machines with with paper towels or something. It’s absolutely unhygenic and I think the machines are actually cleaner if you don’t use the stinky cloths on them after.

Negative experience: The staff are usually really friendly and very helpful, but the new hires seem to be passive aggressive kids who feel like they have to prove something to the world. I have been going to the gym for 2 years now and this is the only time I’ve encountered kids who would say ‘I am the authority’ or ‘We no longer provide that service here, go to the other desk’ ,when asked to book a squash court or when you want to utilize your paid passes for friends. Please be knowledgeable with your new jobs before acting all ‘authoritative’ and pretending that you know the rules. In the real world, it’s better to ask before you start assuming something just to prove that you’re right. Make sure you clarify/verify processes ‘cause that may cause you your job, lose a client, or even worse - get a patient hurt if you choose to work in the medical field. Not everyone who works out in this gym are students, some are professionals (even if they look like students). It’s better to treat everyone with respect, cause you’ll never know, you might end up working with them one day.

Positive experience: The facility is great. If you're here after 8am it's packed. There doesn't seem to be maximum capacity and when you're tripping over people on the way in that's not exactly inviting. There's a lineup for any powerlifting and when dudes are taking 10 minutes in between sets you're in for a long haul. I'm a staff memeber at the school so it's disappointing I have to switch gyms.

Positive experience: Pretty good gym, but the washrooms on the running track are outdated and seem to not have been cleaned for years

Negative experience: People always resting on the machines, can't even get in a decent workout. People here spend more time resting on machines than they actually workout.

Fantastic experience: This review is for the gym specifically - and the gym is fantastic. It’s the best gym I have been to for novices looking to get into this whole exercise thing all the way through to serious powerlifters, bodybuilders, and other athletes honing their skills. The equipment is always in good condition and they have tons of squat racks, benches, and Olympic platforms. There are normal rubberized plates for bench press and squats and actual Olympic style rubberized plates for lifts that will end up hitting the floor. There are a ton of free weights (including dumbbells up to 120lbs) and machines for those who are so inclined. There are a few sets of bars, including some really good ones. There are a lot of very knowledgeable lifters here and you will have the opportunity to learn a lot from those around you. There’s also ellipticals and treadmills and a track if you’re into that I guess. The staff is very strict about wearing shoes but lenient about dropping weights (which is great for Olympic lifters and heavy deadlifters).

Fantastic experience: Great facilities

Negative experience: I was signed up for a one time class and unfortunately had car issues and was not able to attend. I asked if I could attend the next offering (which was not yet full) and was told they would not accommodate me because there are many transit lines to the UofC. Coming from Okotoks, this wasn’t an option for me and after exaplaining this, they promptly stopped replying to my correspondence. I won’t be taking another course here.

Positive experience: Excellent facilities!

Positive experience: Usually very crowded with students during peak hours. This school gym has a large area of free weights, machines, and a running track on the upper floor. All the equipment are well maintained and relatively new. Although busy for most of the day, you can avoid the crowds by going in the morning to get a good workout in.

Positive experience: Great place to workout. It has its issues but these are usually resolved promptly.

Fantastic experience: Tons of equipment but always busy.

Fantastic experience: Played volleyball intramural here, great experience

Negative experience: They make it very difficult to transfer classes once you are registered. The staff are quite rude on the phone. Very unaccommodating, will not be signing up for a class here again.

Positive experience: Staff is usually very helpful, all the facilities you could need for a workout

Positive experience: It's either very crowded or empty

Negative experience: Gym was extremely busy with every piece of equipment being used. Also smelled rather bad.

Positive experience: It sucks

Positive experience: Excellents équipements sportifs

Positive experience: Average facility, friendly staff, and knowledgeable trainers. That being said, you must be aware of the following. 1. Parking at UofC is prohibitively expensive. 2. Lockers in this facility are quart operated. You may need more than 2 quarts (attempts) on average to get the key out. 3. Online registration system is separate from University's IT system. Instead of your UofC email or student ID, it asks you to create a new account. 4. Once registered, you cannot withdraw from a program once it is started. If you do not like it, just live with it. They should allow add/drop facility for the first week of program. 5. Heating around swimming pool and changing rooms is inadequate. Swimmers shiver. 6. The place is crowded.

Positive experience: The ucalgary gym has tons of equipment and weights. The only downside is that it's almost always busy.

Negative experience: Have been working out here for many years. Facility and equipment are nice, however staff are not very friendly or welcoming compared to other fitness centers I've been too. Staff close the doors half hour to closing and flash the lights which contributes to the unwelcoming environment. Usually extremely busy on weekday afternoons. Unfortunately the mandatory memberships for students really hurts the potential for good customer service. Staff and patrons are very cliquey.