DTLA Gym With Sauna Since 1880: Los Angeles Athletic Club

The Los Angeles Athletic Club, at 431 W. 7th Street on the corner of Olive Street, puts saunas, steam rooms and whirlpools in both its men's and women's locker rooms on the fifth floor. Membership starts at $245 a month, and there is a second way in for visitors: every overnight guest at the club's hotel gets full access to the athletic floors. Athletic facilities open at 5am on weekdays.

The club says it was founded in 1880, when Los Angeles was a city of just 11,000 people, and that it was the city's first private club. The current 12-story clubhouse at 7th and Olive was designed and built for the club in 1912. It is now recognized as a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument, and the front door still carries the winged foot emblem on the awning that the club tells first-time visitors to look for.

The guest list over a century reads like a film archive. According to the club, Charlie Chaplin lived there for several years, and Mary Pickford, Rudolph Valentino, Douglas Fairbanks Jr. and Olympic swimmer Johnny Weissmuller were among its members and guests. Olympic athletes trained in its pool. Today the same building mixes athletics with co-working floors, dining rooms and a boutique hotel.

The wellness page lists what is waiting on the fifth floor: men's and women's locker rooms with saunas, whirlpools, steam rooms, showers, vanity areas, a soundproof quiet room and a shoeshine area. It is the most complete locker-room heat setup of any downtown gym, and the shoeshine stand is a reminder that many members walk straight back to an office afterward.

A good routine is a swim, a whirlpool soak, ten minutes in the sauna and then the steam room before a long shower. The quiet room is there for a few minutes with your eyes closed before you get dressed.

The membership page describes six floors of fitness, group classes and sports leagues. The pool is 25 yards long and heated to 82 to 84 degrees Fahrenheit on weekdays, then 84 to 85 degrees on weekends for children's programming. There is also a full-size indoor basketball court along with squash and racquetball.

Members can reserve courts and group classes up to 24 hours ahead. The club describes its membership as a community that includes Hollywood legends, Olympic champions and people just like you, and on a weekday you will see suited members heading back to downtown offices next to hotel guests in running gear. Book courts the day before, because the 24-hour window fills for evening slots.

The Executive Membership is $245 a month, month to month, with an $895 initiation fee and a one-time $395 club credit for new members. Young Executive Membership, for ages 29 and under, is also $245 a month with a $400 initiation fee. A family add-on is $125 a month for either plan.

There is no walk-in day pass. The athletics FAQ states that the facilities are for members only, with hotel guests as the exception. Members can bring guests to the athletic and wellness spaces for $25 per guest, with limitations. Every overnight hotel guest gets full club access through a nightly destination fee, listed at $35 on the hotel page, which covers the fitness center, pool, classes and spa facilities, though not spa treatments.

Athletic facilities and locker rooms open Monday to Friday from 5am to 10pm, with lockers closing at 10:30pm. Saturday runs 7am to 8pm, with lockers closing at 8:30pm, and Sunday 8am to 5pm, with lockers closing at 5:30pm. The hotel itself is open to guests around the clock.

Weekday mornings from 6am to 8:30am are the busiest, when the downtown office crowd comes through. The sauna is quietest in the mid-afternoon on weekdays and on Sunday mornings. Skip Sunday late afternoon if a long sauna is the plan, since the athletic floors close at 5pm and you need the last half hour to change.

For someone who works downtown and will use the pool, courts and sauna several times a week, $245 a month for a historic club with a full locker-room spa is fair value next to luxury chains. The one-time club credit for new members softens the initiation fee, and the reciprocal club network is useful for frequent travelers.

It is poor value if you only want a sauna once a week. In that case, booking a hotel night for a special occasion, or finding a member to bring you in for $25, is the smarter way to try it. Visitors staying downtown for a conference should compare the hotel rate with a separate gym pass before booking elsewhere.

The club says the closest Metro stations are 7th Street/Metro Center and Pershing Square, and the hotel page puts 7th Street/Metro Center a two-minute walk away. Drivers use the club's garage on Olive Street, which connects directly to the building and is discounted for members.

After a session, Pershing Square is a few blocks away, and Grand Central Market is an easy walk for lunch. For something slower, walk up the hill to The Broad on Grand Avenue, the contemporary art museum the club itself recommends to hotel guests. On hot afternoons the walk uphill is better saved for after you cool down.

Address: 431 W. 7th Street, Los Angeles, CA 90014. Athletic hours: Monday to Friday 5am to 10pm, Saturday 7am to 8pm, Sunday 8am to 5pm. Executive Membership $245 a month plus an $895 initiation fee. Member guests $25 each. Hotel guests get club access through a nightly destination fee. Saunas, steam rooms and whirlpools in both locker rooms.

Use the Karpo APP to plan a downtown day around a morning swim and sauna, lunch at Grand Central Market and an afternoon at The Broad, all within a short walk of the club.