CARSA (Centre for Athletics, Recreation and Special Abilities)

Due to the COVID restrictions, you have to be swift to secure reservation. I believe I made a great choice signing up at CARSA since I've not really been into fitness for a years now. The group fitness are a great way to find your jam and build endurance towards your fitness goals

Accidentally left my clothes in a locker before the did their locker clean outs. Nobody at the front desk knew what to do even though I had already emailed CARSA beforehand. It was a race between campus security and carsa, in tracking down where my gym clothes where. It wasn’t until a kind staff member in the equipment section explained that there was a different between lost locker items and the general lost and found items. Nobody else at carsa and campus security had bothered to explain this to me, and kept saying that “they didn’t have possession of it”. Funny because their email reply said either campus security or CARSA’s equipment section would have my clothes.

The staff in the weight area are excessively egotistic and unhelpful who care more about looking good and being obnoxious than actually helping. The layout is awful, and the varsity athletes dominate the only good area of the gym. The only reason I attend is due to the convenience of location but if I had more income I would go elsewhere.

There are better gyms in town. Not sure why we have to pay for a day use locker when we're already broke students. Weightlifting area is NOT approachable. Upstairs gym is grimy. Usually not enough weights to go around. The class I took there was great but other than that it's not worth it.

Well organized for restrictions but slow to react to restrictions being lifted. Masks are still required while exercising which is not ideal and not in line with other gyms in Victoria.Would recommend this gym only if you have not yet been vaccinated.

Good pricing and value for students (although quite expensive for non-students), especially if you are one who stays in Victoria over the summer months. I think the highlight of the gym is that there are a large number of squatting racks, making sure you are never waiting too long to get your most important lifts in! I'd say the main drawback is that when the varsity section is closed the free weights area can feel quite cramped.

Great. Perfect spot for me to go during my time at school. Missing abundance in some key machines though, should be more leg extensions and presses. 4/5 dumbbells would gym again

Honestly wouldn't recommend it. Weights were all over the place, no one bothered to put them where they would belong. Even in racks of weights that's seemed like they should be full they might only have one set of any weight. Also their machines aren't made for people who are new to fitness as they don't offer many low weights to use on machines and the weights that are there have huge intervals (10 pounds to 30 pounds to 50 pounds) so it's hard to exercise safely. The treadmills also all sounded like they were about to fall apart, the one I used had buttons that didn't work as well. Oh and it was also pretty dirty, no thanks. One positive thing is it wasn't too busy.

This gym is GARBAGE in comparison to other big box gyms. I've regularly attended Goodlife Fitness/LA Fitness in Alberta and CARSA doesn't compare to those two for the fitness weight center. Machines are limited and layout is terrible. Even though this gym is built recently, the machines they do have are old, clunky and don't go up in proper weight increments (chest fly goes up in 12 lb increments with no way of adding anything lower). I've never heard of paying extra fitness classes let alone day use lockers, but CARSA tries to squeeze every penny from you. You need reservations to book a time slot, and if you're not frantically refreshing the website at the exact time they open, you will not be able to get a spot. You'd think that with the limited number of spots available per time slot would mean that there would be tons of space and equipment availability, but nope! Free weight areas are packed, cable machines are always occupied and you'll be struggling to complete your workout without having to walk back and forth to see what's open. I'm finding that I'm constantly changing what I'm working out just because the equipment I want isn't available. This isn't the state of the art facility that it claims. It's a joke. Once my 4 month membership is done, I'm out.

Their rules are very strict, and you can't feel yourself relaxing and exercising. I think going to the gym is a very relaxing thing. But their rules are too cumbersome. When you don’t go, they will send you an email to warn you. When your card is not available, they will not give you any help, just kick the problem to one card office. Even if the mistakes are caused by their own work, they will not say sorry.