Merritt Clubs Downtown Athletic Club

I moved to Baltimore about a year ago and was looking for a gym close by, I went to Merritt & was immediately welcomed and greeted by Shannon, one of the many warm & energetic employees of Merritt. Signed up right then and there due to the welcoming energy, and wide variety & layout of the gym. Throughout my year at Merritt - *all* the staff, but especially Barry, Shannon, Jeremy & the GM Tammy were always so welcoming, helpful, happy to see me, & lots of laughs had! I always leave more uplifted, energetic and out of breath than when I walked in. I would recommend this gym & membership to anyone living downtown Baltimore! Thank you Merritt & team!

I've been going to this Merritt Club for the last year And it truly has been amazing! The people are so nice and the Mixed Fit class is my favorite, versatile and so hip I love it! I like the fact that it has plenty of parking when there's no parking in The front of the building so you can park in the lot across the street or the garage. I have not checked out the swimming pool earlier yet but I will check it out this year.

So, its a mixed bag. Yes, the gym fees are pricey, but you do get access to all the other clubs with the outdoor pools, too. Its definitely crowded during peak hours, and the pricey fees do make *some* of the clientele act entitled and they monopolize space like they own it, but the staff are very nice and helpful. I will say, they recently updated the equipment, which we definitely needed. But the equipment they chose to update and remove entirely is... interesting. We still only have one set of hip add/abductor machines, which is always very popular (the abductor cables need to be adjusted, theyre loose and the starting position now doesnt even have your knees touching). There use to be two lat pull down pulley machines, now they have one pulley attached to the larger 'jungle gym' set up, the others are those weird machines that force your elbows out and dont really hit you right. They got rid of a lot of popular machines in place for more free-weight benches and 'free weight' style machines, and a lot of upperbody machines that already had a lot of options to use. Which is fine, but definitely feels like its more targeted to a certain demographic. They also rearranged the set up of the entire floor, its now crowded and you have to awkwardly step over machines to rack your weights (like the hip thruster in the corner - theres a calf machine blocking the space to rack weights) and its definitely a fall risk. They should move some of the smaller machines into the hall where they removed a bunch and now just has empty space. They also removed a weight tower so you basically have to go around stealing the plates/weights you need from other machines. Its a pain, especially when you need to add 5 or 10lbs. The new lay out also has the back extension in the middle of the gym floor, so youre facedown-ass-up with your ass pointed towards all the guys using the "jungle gym" set up. Not exactly the most female-friendly layout. It was great when it was right next to the hip-thrust machine since a lot of people use it to warm up before they do the hip-thrust. Its nice that they replaced the machines, but it would have been great if they surveyed what had long wait times and what is most popular and added more of those. A lot of the new machines they added arent very popular, so now there's more of us waiting for fewer things we like to use. And getting a workout in during busy hours is even more frustrating, so plan accordingly. Staff said they're still tweaking it, but it definitely has some way to go. It would also be amazing if they'd update the bathrooms. Its very outdated and not the most visually appealing especially when you compare it to the newer locations. And for the love of god, for the price that we pay for membership, could we upgrade the toilet paper? Its translucent 😂

I will say right away that I went to this gym both with my employer paying for the access and also a reduced rate because of being in town only for a short while: That said, even still I found it overly expensive. $100/month for something another cheaper gym couldn’t provide? The facilities were clean but dated and everything felt old and from the 90s. Staff was a mix. Some very friendly - some couldn’t be bothered with even being asked for kills jump rope. Men’s locker room always an issue with sauna. People going in endlessly on their phones, fully clothed, street shoes - all pretty disgusting.

While this is good advertisement for jeep, this is not good advertisement for Merritt. It's been a week+ since the snow storm in Baltimore and nearly 1/3 of the Merritt parking spaces have not been shoveled. I've been told they are waiting for the city to shovel it. Yet, it is not the city of Baltimore that collects my gym membership fee.