How's that New Year's resolution coming? Still haven't joined a gym? No worries, the year is still young and cheaper workout options are available. The high-end gym Equinox, for instance, has gone and spun off a whole new low-cost gym, Blink, which opens Friday in the old Tower Records space on Broadway. And it is more than fair to call it bare bones. more ›

In October there was a rumor going around that Mike "The Situation" Sorrentino (of Jersey Shore fame) would be pairing up with The Plaza and possibly becoming a partner and the face of a luxury gym there. But apparently the posh hotel, and national landmark, had enough bad press from the Charlie Sheen incident, and now the NY Post reports that the reality fameball won't be G, T, or L'ing there anytime soon. In fact, he "has been barred from getting involved"! more ›

The Plaza hotel, in all its French Renaissance château-style glory, opened in 1907, and since then has become a National Historic Landmark. The Beatles stayed there, Truman Capote hosted his Black & White Ball in its Grand Ballroom... so of course the next logical move is to get Mike "The Situation" Sorrentino on board as some sort of face for the iconic building. more ›

Bruce Springsteen had an affair with a 45-year-old New Jersey housewife who ran next to him at the gym, according to court papers filed as part of her divorce proceedings. Weirdly, the Post reports she looked a lot like Patti Scialfa, his bandmate and wife of 18 years. more ›

The unwelcome houseguest accused of stabbing his Hell’s Kitchen host to death then taking off with his credit card, comes off as callous and unrepentant in interviews with cops. Justin Waller has pleaded not guilty to killing 41-year-old events planner John Lea, but according to recently released statements he told police “I just did it. I started sticking him with the knife. He didn't say anything to me, so I just covered him with the comforter and the pillows," explaining that "I didn't want to look at him. And I didn't want him looking at me." more ›

It's hard enough to motivate to go to the gym, nevermind trying to scam a free workout every time you need to feel the burn. 24-year-old Columbia Law student Julia Neyman (pictured) has dedicated herself to scoring a full year of free workouts, however—and of course, she's blogging about it. more ›

Better watch your gym socks! Across the city at least 41 thieves have been cleaning out health club lockers, where security cameras dare not film. Over the holidays there was a marked increase in gym locker break-ins, after which the NYPD released a poster bearing the faces of the suspected thieves. At least one of them has a gym membership (others buy day passes with stolen credit cards), and they’re expert lock-pickers, reports the NY Post. One woman who was caught demonstrated her ability to break open ten lockers in three minutes. Hardest hit have been NYC’s Equinox and NYSC franchises. In addition to cash and cards, "they go for high-end items like Rolexes, and they work all over town," a police source said. more ›

In his State of the Borough address tonight, Borough President Marty Markowitz will lobby to turn two Brooklyn armories into recreation centers with gym facilities. Currently the huge old buildings—located on Bedford Avenue in Crown Heights and on Sumner Avenue in Bed-Stuy—house homeless shelters, and, like the recently-opened Park Slope Armory YMCA, they may continue to do so. "The [YMCA] in Park Slope is just beginning, but I have a hunch in a few short months it's going to be jam-packed," Markowitz said. "Bedford Stuyvesant deserves it as much as Park Slope, and so does northern Crown Heights." more ›

In a jailhouse interview, former Giants star Plaxico Burress vowed to "play again," and said he still works out about four days a week even though prison is "not like LA Fitness or Bally's." He added: "I do push-ups, sit-ups...I made do." more ›

Here's another story about how you should never trust anyone you meet on Craigslist. Ever. A perp is accused of using 11 stolen credit cards to buy more than $80,000 worth of gym memberships at the Equinox in the Flatiron District. He then put them on Craigslist, where buyers shelled out between $600 and $1,000 for the memberships, which usually cost $2,800. But when the victims arrived at the gym for the first time, they were told their memberships weren't valid, the Post reports. Police were able to track down and arrest 21-year-old suspect Kedar Quashie because he purportedly used various aliases with different victims, but only one phone number. He was arraigned on charges of ID theft and grand larceny. Last month, a mobster reportedly Maced and robbed a man he first contacted on Craigslist. more ›

After many set-backs a new YMCA celebrated its grand opening in the 115-year-old Park Slope Armory yesterday. The 140,000 square foot space, which used to be a drill factory, will now host separate track, soccer and basketball events as well as weight rooms, fitness machines and exercise classes, according to the Brooklyn Paper. “It’s ginormous!” said Tess Lovell, a first-grader whose school will use the new facility as its gym. As for how the renovation was financed, NY 1 says The Department of Homeless Services gave $8 million, since a women's shelter shares the space, and the rest came from the borough president's office and the City Council. The new Y opens to the public on Jan. 30, and the best part? Like all Brooklyn YMCAs individual memberships costs just $40 a month or $72 for families. more ›

We've spent a good chunk of time writing about illegal advertisements, but few have been as large — or caused as much fury — as this billboard in the West Village. Ever since the Equinox Health Club wrapped its Greenwich Avenue building with seemingly illegal ads, preservationists have been up in arms, according to Curbed. more ›

Taking tips from the NYU freshman who snapped shots of Jude Law during a private work out session, the NY Post has now splattered shots of Kate Hudson working out all over their pages. It's actually sort of creepy. more ›

Five female employees at Battery Park Swim and Fitness say they were fired after complaining to human resources about a manager who ran the place like his own personal frat house. A lawsuit filed by two of the former employees, membership consultant Courtney McCallion and trainer/receptionist Maggie Alexander, contends that manager David Anglin was usually about as mature as Rodney Dangerfield on his fifth martini during their employ at the gym, and his harassment included such timeless flirtation gambits as bra-strap snapping and jokes about their cleavage. more ›

Maybe this is just a sign that we need to hit the gym more often, but whaaa? This was the scene earlier today at fashion designer Charlotte Ronson's gym, where bitches were hitting the treadmills hard to fit into their slutty whatever costumes. (Hope they toweled down those machines afterward.) By the way—overheard on Bedford Ave in Williamsburg last night: "Well, I need to find loud panties because I'm going as a slutty bee!" Be careful out there Saturday night, people. [Twitpic via Guest of a Guest] more ›

Almost two weeks after the story was broken by Miss Heather, the NY Post says they have learned that there's a scam artist running an illegal gym in Williamsburg. They spoke with the muscleman proprietor, John Suarez, who told them, "I can't own another gym, but I've got to make a living. I had a mistake six years ago. I'm trying to start a new life. It's not like I was scamming anybody." The problem is that he did scam 1,000 people out of membership fees for a gym that never opened in 2004, and then made a deal with state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo that he'd never operate a health club in the state again! To make matters worse for himself, when a Post photographer snooped around his new gym on South 3rd Street in Williamsburg, Suarez tackled him and damaged his camera—which of course brought on charges of assault, menacing and harassment. Following the incident he told the paper, "Things happen. I did what I had to do. And he did what he had to do." more ›

With most of Williamsburg's condos in purgatory at the moment, some are taking advantage of the empty spaces (particularly those gutter punks). Miss Heather informs us of a new gym that's opened up in the ground floor of the vacant 117 South 3rd Street condo, and the membership is only 29 bucks a month. Everyone wins! But wait, a tattle-tale tipster goes and ruins the deal, saying that while the building's retail space is rented to John Suarez, who is running a gym out of it called Cutting Edge, "there are many problems here." more ›

Police arrested a suspected serial gym robber who hit New York Sports Club and Crunch locations in Manhattan. The NY Post reports that John Perez of Queens "would usually get past security by using a gym member's ID that he had previously stolen...Then he would sneak inside the locker room, use a bolt cutter to break into lockers and grab wallets, cash, credit cards, ID's, Blackberrys and cell phones, sources said." The 23-year-old allegedly stole from the West 82nd Street Crunch three times and the Christopher Street location once, while also hitting the Chelsea, Upper East Side and Upper West Side branches of New York Sports Club. Perez was charged with 10 counts of burglary. Some robbers do like gym lockers: One man arrested earlier this year for a rash of NYSC robberies was arrested in 1979 for stealing from a Jack LaLanne gym in the Bronx. more ›

The latest dose of scandal served up to Alex Rodriguez in what has already been a long year comes from Kirstin Davis, who claims that she knew the slugger "personally and professionally" over the years. Friends and associates of the madam, who has claimed that Eliot Spitzer was once a client, say that the slugger pursued her with zeal while also taking advantage of the services of women who worked for her as a client. more ›

Everyone's been bit with the Bollywood bug in the wake of Slumdog Millionaire's Oscar wins. The Daily News reports on Sarina Jain's Masala Bhangra workout classes (which are held at various gyms throughout the city)—it isn't new, but it unsurprisingly has a lot of new students (attendance doubling since the movie started getting buzz). While it won't leave you looking like Freida Pinto, it will burn at least 500 calories, even if you don't do it gracefully. Practice at home (video) before doing this in public. And if Slumdog wasn't your thing, skip to 6:13 in this video for the more obscure The Reader dance. more ›

Actress Gwyneth Paltrow, who recently started dipping her toes into the world wide web, is now opening a gym in Tribeca (she's a part-time resident of downtown New York). The Daily News reports that she's partnering with her trainer/friend Tracy Anderson (who is also responsible for scary Madonna arms), but that "no other details on the gym are available yet." It's doubtful you'll be sweating with the star anytime soon however, she told Oprah recently that her favorite gym is the one in her own home. Paltrow has been taking a big screen break and won't be seen in theaters again until 2010, and the paper warns that if she's looking to "push acting aside in favor of becoming an Oprah or Martha, she needs to tie things together." more ›

Bally Total Fitness, the notoriously deceptive gym, has found a new way to screw over its loyal members. A reader informs us that "the Bally's Sports Club in Worldwide Plaza announced this week that, effective Dec. 15, it will no longer provide clean towels for members to use." more ›

A Manhattan gym is now charging $110 for personal training sessions that incorporate video games into the workout. According to the Post, trainers like Dorothy Evans at Gravity Fitness have started using Nintendo Wii Sport games like boxing, tennis, golf and dodge ball. Evans swears it can provide a full body workout: "You'd be surprised. It may have little to do with the real sports, but we get people's heart rates up to 140 to 150 beats per minute – although some of that may just be the excitement of the game." more ›

Yesterday around noon, an alert came through the newswire mentioning an "unusual rescue" at 145th Street involving a woman "pinned between two exercise machines at the gym." more ›

The case of the spin class smackdown has been sparking a lot of debate about proper workout etiquette. According to the Times, the noisy behavior of Stuart Sugarman – who was thrown against the wall during a spin class by a guy who was fed up with his vocalizations – is not at all abnormal. There are too many people grunting, cursing, and hollering “Let’s do it!” in gyms all over town, and also plenty of people who’d like to shut them up with brute force. more ›

Never mind the kids who are being murdered by violent parents or drugged to death by foster mothers, the Administration for Children's Services is busy checking up on the home environments of kids who skip gym class too many times, even though that's not technically a violation worthy of an ACS home visit. more ›

Not only are New York gyms poorly run, but the establishments that are supposed to make you healthier are doing the opposite. The Daily News reports on the germ-ridden gyms of the city in a fairly unsurprising article. more ›