Flushing YMCA Gym With Sauna, Steam and Two Pools for $83

The Flushing YMCA lists both a sauna and a steam room among its amenities, along with two indoor pools, and the branch building, at 138-46 Northern Boulevard, has stood since 1926. Adult membership is $83 a month with a $0 joiner's fee, and the branch opens at 6:30am on weekdays. For anyone in northeast Queens looking for a gym with sauna and steam at a community price, this branch is the obvious first stop.

The YMCA's own history page traces Flushing's first branch to 1895, though that early effort closed in 1897. The current building came later. Ground was broken in December 1924, and the building was ready for occupancy in March 1926. A century on, it still serves the same purpose, as a place where the neighborhood swims, trains and gathers.

The branch's best-known chapter is in the pool. The YMCA notes that Olympic swimmer Lynn Burke, who won gold in the 100-meter backstroke at the 1960 Rome Games, trained here. Today the branch's competitive swim team, the Flushing Flyers, keeps that tradition going, and on weekday afternoons you will hear coaches on the deck long before you see them.

The amenities list names a sauna and a steam room alongside the indoor pool, racquet sports and table tennis. The official page lists a sauna and a steam room without describing either in detail. Having both under one roof is rarer than you might think among New York YMCA branches, many of which list only one.

A practical routine is a swim first, then a short steam to loosen up, a shower, and a final ten minutes in the sauna. Rinse before entering either room, sit on a towel and keep conversations quiet. If you are new to heat, start with five minutes and build up, especially after a hard set in the pool.

The branch history describes two indoor pools, which is why lap swimming, lessons and swim team practice can run at the same time without everyone fighting for a lane. The group fitness lineup includes Tai Chi, Spin, Zumba, HIIT and Total Body classes, and there is a weight room and cardio area for members who never touch the water.

Families get the most out of the place. Child Watch is listed as free for members, so parents can train while kids are supervised, and there is on-site parking, which is unusual for a New York City gym. The building also has more than 125 guest rooms, a reminder of the old YMCA model of combining a residence with a gym.

Racquet sports and table tennis round out the list for members who want something more social than a treadmill. If you only plan to lift, you may find the weight room modest compared with a commercial gym, but the pool, the heat rooms and the classes are what the membership is really paying for.

On the branch membership page, the adult rate for ages 18 to 64 is $83 a month with no joiner's fee. Seniors 65 and over pay $64 a month, and a Family I membership for one adult with children under 18 is $102 a month. Each membership includes six passes per calendar year to try other New York YMCA branches.

No public day pass price is listed on the YMCA website, so the realistic way to test the sauna is to join month to month. At $83, this is one of the lowest-cost ways in the city to get regular access to both a sauna and a steam room, a pool and classes in one place.

Branch hours are 6:30am to 10pm Monday through Friday and 8am to 5pm on Saturday and Sunday. The short weekend window is the biggest catch. If Saturday is your only free day, arrive close to the morning start, because family swim and lessons fill the building by late morning.

Weekday evenings after 8pm tend to be the calmest stretch for the sauna and steam room, once after-school programs and the early-evening class crowd clear out. Member registration for the Fall II program session opened in mid-October, so expect busier pools on weekday afternoons through the end of the year.

Skip this branch if you want sleek design and luxury locker rooms. It is an old, hard-working building, and it looks like one. Join it if you value a pool, a sauna and a steam room for a fraction of what a Manhattan club charges, and if you can live with the early weekend close. Lap swimmers living in Flushing, Bayside or Murray Hill will find it hard to beat.

If the 5pm weekend close is a deal-breaker, the Greenpoint YMCA in Brooklyn stays in business later on Saturday and Sunday evenings and also lists a sauna, though it has no steam room. Your Flushing membership includes six passes a year for other branches, so you can try Greenpoint on a weekend evening without paying anything extra, then decide which home branch suits your schedule.

Flushing Town Hall, a short walk along Northern Boulevard, is an 1862 building that now hosts concerts and exhibitions, so it pairs well with an afternoon swim. Queens Botanical Garden is about fifteen minutes on foot to the south and is a calm place to cool down after a long steam.

Main Street's food scene is the real reward. After a swim and sauna, a bowl of hand-pulled noodles or a plate of dumplings from one of the food courts near the Main Street station is the local way to refuel.

Address: 138-46 Northern Boulevard, Flushing, NY 11354. Branch hours: Monday to Friday 6:30am to 10pm, Saturday and Sunday 8am to 5pm. Adult membership $83 a month, seniors $64, Family I $102, all with no joiner's fee. Sauna, steam room, two indoor pools, free Child Watch and parking. The nearest subway is the 7 train at Flushing–Main Street.

Use the Karpo APP to build a Flushing afternoon around a swim, a sauna session and a dumpling crawl on Main Street.