Get Your Swell On: House Gyms Part 1

Right now river house residents can take advantage of the nice weather and go for a run outside, or they can make their way over to the Malkin Athletic Center in their gym shorts. But what will happen when the snow gets too high, the cold too unbearable, and the MAC's 10 p.m. closing time too early? While freshmen have little to turn to besides the Law School's Hemenway gym, upperclassman can resort to their house gyms. That is, if they can find them.

This is the first of a series of posts showcasing (and judging) Harvard's house gyms. Each gym will receive somewhere between one and five stars. Today, following the jump, we consider everyone's favorite neighborhood: Adams, Lowell, and Quincy.

Adams House Gym (**)

Maybe it is a testament to Flyby's inexperience with the multi-building complex that is Adams House, but finding the house's gym along a subterranean path filled with beautiful murals was nearly impossible. After asking for directions, Flyby finally found the two-room gym, which is in the house's basement nearby the Mt. Auburn Street entrance. While Adams' is the only house reviewed today that split its cardio and weightlifting equipment, the layout failed to give this prison-like gym a sense of space. Instead, it felt hot and cramped.

The equipment in the weightlifting room had no semblance of order or organization. Both rooms had awkward and intruding pipes in the ceiling, making the spaces feel even busier. The gym lacked a television. In Adams' defense, the entire floor was nicely covered with green interlocking mats. The cardio room included three elliptical machines/cross ramps, a treadmill, a bike, an erg (Concept 2), and a stairs machine.

Lowell House Gym (*)

Thank goodness Lowell House residents live so close to the MAC. Their gym is simply underequipped. Most significantly they lack a treadmill and an erg. They don't have a television either. Their gym is in an unlabeled, converted squash court in C entry. They do have three bike machines, but two of them look like they're decades old. There is one elliptical machine/cross ramp, an assortment of dumbbells, two inflated balls for ab exercises and some weightlifting equipment. The gym is small and the floor has a smattering of exercise mats covering it.

To Lowell's credit it does have some quality exercise facilities outside the gym proper which were not included in this assessment. They have a rock climbing room, a basketball hoop in a squash court, and a handful of usable squash courts.

Quincy House Gym (****)

You can take an elevat0r to the Quincy gym. It's one floor below the entrance to the house office and sits next to the Bullitt Room. The room is clearly labeled a "Fitness Center" and requires Quincy swipe access to enter. Inside this very blue, mirror-lined room sit five elliptical machines/cross ramps, two treadmills, two bikes, well-organized dumbbells, an erg, and one television set in the corner. The room feels much bigger than both Lowell and Adams and had the most cardio equipment of the three. The only thing unbecoming about the Quincy House gym were the random tears in the gym's carpeting.  And that's why it tops today's list, with four stars.