Recreational Sports Facility

Negative experience: Stupid rules

Negative experience: need air conditioning

Fantastic experience: Good place to workout and meet people. Sign up for IM sports when you can.

Negative experience: Basic gym that is crowded and has old equipment. For the tuition we pay, this gym disappoints.

Positive experience: Great but crowded and expensive

Negative experience: Useless front desk.

Negative experience: Multiple broken equipments at any given moment, always crowded (the lack of square footage dedicated to weights compared to the number of student is quite mind blowing), and no Olympics lifts allowed ‍ (even though they have an Olympic lifts studio downstairs that’s permanently closed). The management of this gym is sad

Negative experience: Not enough equipment. Some broken equipment has not been repaired 3+ months later. Took 40 minutes to get through the line just to get inside. Use literally any other gym.

Positive experience: Not nearly enough equipment to accommodate the student body. Long lines. Some of the policies are draconian and arbitrary. I wish they had a sauna. The only reason I didn't give it 0 stars is because the facility does come with tuition, and beggars can't necessarily be choosers.

Negative experience: I paid 20k tuition per semester and got the worst rec center service among all public schools.

Positive experience: Great facility with plenty of parking. Clean and bright atmosphere. Deducted a star for homeless living in the parking garage

Negative experience: The Berkeley rsf has been one of the worst experiences I have ever experienced in my entire life. I traveled 1 hour from my house to come here just to stopped by the front desk. The front desk was incredibly racist to me and refused me entry. They stopped me from sneaking in the entrance even though I walked in after my friend. They then profiled me and asked me if I have my id card. Then they started getting extremely disrespectful to me and said I could tell them my id number which I obviously did not have. The rsf staff should all be fired from their job from stopping me from sneaking into the rsf. All my homies hate the rsf

Fantastic experience: My favorite gym of all time Was super cheap when I was a student, like $10 per year lol Afterwards it got pretty expensive, like i was paying around 90 dollars a month? But the facilities have everything that you would need , and the basketball court her super flushed out with a lot of activity there.

Positive experience: Need better opening hours (ie: open at 6:30 like they used to !)

Positive experience: Great gym with nice staff. The class I took here was amazing but it is a bit expensive. You get what you pay for!

Negative experience: The gym itself is good. I went there for years when I was a student. However the woman at customer service is a total ****, there’s no other way to say it. I have a disability and she treated me like I was a) stupid b) not worthy of her time. I’m talking about the middle-upper aged woman with grey hair. She shouldn’t be working in customer support with a “tough skin” like that. To put it nicely.

Negative experience: Way too busy at all times of the day. Campus admin really needs to construct additional workout areas somewhere because there are lines for almost every machine

Negative experience: Very small, poor service.

Positive experience: The pool is one of the best around The weight room, however...

Positive experience: 학생들내개 무료안 곳입니다.

Fantastic experience: All u need

Positive experience: nice equipment, but always very crowded and hard to exercise when all the machines are usually occupied with long lines

Fantastic experience: The building itself is pretty nice. Big facility, but could allocate much more space to weight rooms. They weight rooms they have are way too small for the amount of people it caters to, creating crammed conditions and long line for machines. The lines into the weight room can extend very far, making it hard to get in a workout if you prefer to lift weights. Would be a much better experience if there were at least one more room added with more general equipment (benched, dumbells, squat racks) rather than specific machines.

Negative experience: Had a very bad experience here. I was kicked out because I brought my son. It was the way I was kicked out that bothered me. It was done extremely aggressively and very rude. Very rude verbally too. When I told the manager that I don’t have a babysitter and if I can just stretch with my son, he rudely said: “that’s too bad” “get out now” he said. My son, me, we never went back. I was a student and it’s not right how they treated us.

Negative experience: Always a line even when they open at 7 am. Only about 50 lockers for a gym that asks to leave the bags out before entering. Disappointed.

Negative experience: Packed with cardio machines, and huge locker rooms that barely anyone use. Not enough weight lifting equipment for a college that is supposed to provide a gym for 40k students.

Positive experience: Nice swimming facility

Negative experience: Very inadequate facility for the size of the school

Negative experience: tbh pretty disgraceful in total. the weight room is way too small and needs more machines. the fact that there‘s need to have a „crowd meter“ is embarrassing. also atleast needs to be open 6-24 everyday.

Fantastic experience: Good

Negative experience: Really crowded, you have to spend a lot of time waiting

Fantastic experience: fire gains

Negative experience: Almost $40k in tuition and Berkeley can’t expand the gym…. Always crowded from 7AM to 11PM.. almost impossible to get in your squats. Plus does not open at 6am. But they can afford to give the chancellor a $50k raise ?? FIX THE GYM!!

Negative experience: The stories of unused cardio machines amounts to a solid chunk of Berkeley’s endowment. However, due to the lack of exercise machines, even when arriving at 730 AM on a weekday, one is guaranteed to wait at least 20-30 minutes for a single squat rack and will likely have to “work in” with someone else on every machine. TLDR bottom tier weightlifting facility yet super for cardio

Fantastic experience: The passport process was so easy and quick. Had an appointment and was out in about 5 minutes.

Negative experience: Don’t waste your time here if you’re anything but a student. It’s prohibitively difficult to even sign up for a membership and all their customer service offices and numbers are closed with no reason provided.

Positive experience: Machines are pretty outdated. Sports facilities are great! The weight rooms need some newer equipment, perhaps new lat pulldown and pullback machines. Legs equipment is lacking as well. No Hip abduction machines. Dumbbells and barbells are pretty worn down. Need more EZ curl barbells. No dedicated ab machines.

Negative experience: A campus gym not opening at 6am is unacceptable given the tuition students pay. There was a line just to get into the weight room by 745am and then when you get in, every machine has 2-3 people waiting in line for it. I'll update this when they open at 6am. Top tier university and I'll have to pay out of pocket for a local gym that can actually accommodate its clients.

Negative experience: Facility will be closed or have a delayed opening unexpectedly due to special events, etc. with no notice of closure anywhere except at the facility once you get there.

Negative experience: Staff is rude and conceited I got into an altercation with a life guard. He was a man about29 dark hair and sun glasses. He answered rudely that" he did not know where the entrance was". As I was trying to help some foreign students to enter your offices . So I raised my voice to ask others there at the pool, from the gate surrounding the outside of pool ,where I was : " does anyone know where the entrance is?" He got up and arrogantly told me " Don' t yell here, if you had any common sense you would find the entrance around the building" I was so annoyed by his nasty attitude and conceited demeanor that I told him to..........f.....off." Welcome to uppity Berkeley ! . What a pretentious nasty , " i am Gods Gift of a life guard " that bad attitude man is, who works at NCAA. Luckly I responded him the way he deserved. Train your staff in manners, they work for us.!!! bypasser, I

Negative experience: Too crowded all the time, and limited equipments available.

Fantastic experience: Incredibly helpful staff. Good facility! Good space. We were lost and they gave fantastic directions to a location far away. I wasn't aware of how good the facilities were, and look forward to going back.

Fantastic experience: Really excellent service getting our passport here.

Fantastic experience: We went for passports. Their camera had been stolen the night before- thankfully we had pictures ready. The time waiting thing on the app said 300 minutes- it’s a software/ service glitch WE WERE SEEN IMMEDIATELY. Time in and out with an appointment? Less than thirty minutes- with outstanding customer service and a way friendly experience. Super thankful RSF!

Fantastic experience: We went for passports. Their camera had been stolen the night before- thankfully we had pictures ready. The time waiting thing on the app said 300 minutes- it’s a software/ service glitch WE WERE SEEN IMMEDIATELY. Time in and out with an appointment? Less than thirty minutes- with outstanding customer service and a way friendly experience. Super thankful RSF!

Fantastic experience: Great place to work out.

Fantastic experience: Nice.

Fantastic experience: It was great! All of the workers there were very helpful, they were organized, and they made the process easygoing, no stress, no worry, in and out.

Fantastic experience: Good place to work out.

Fantastic experience: Best place to get a covid survey test in town!!!

Negative experience: Pretty bad honestly. No other campus of this size has such humble offerings.

Fantastic experience: Очень хороший комплекс

Fantastic experience: Great place to get your passport

Fantastic experience: Good gym, equipment is new and the climate control is good (no tropical humidity as 24 hour fitness and other facilities have). Has a great weight room with multiple benches, machines, and mirror and dumbbell collections. Great working out with fellow students and the atmosphere is great -- it will keep you motivated when students are like you are working, not fooling around, in the gym.

Positive experience: Decent selection of equipment and not usually too crowded

Negative experience: The staff are really unhelpful and incompetent. The facilities are constantly crowded. They deal poorly with unforeseen closures (e.g., they did nothing about cancellations due to wildfires). When I asked for a refund for COVID closures and fire closures, I was offered an extension of membership only for the (estimated) time of COVID closures - refund is only possible if you move a (fairly large) minimum distance or have a medical condition, and provide documents to prove so. I don't know why they cannot simply provide the requested refund. The cost of an RSF membership is much, much greater than its value. Edit: Over a year later, I'd like to expand on my poor experiences with RSF staff and facilities. The staff seem very confused and unknowledgeable about their own rules, and have difficulty communicating those to the customer; my typical experience was to be shuffled around from clueless staff member to clueless staff member, with my questions eventually being stonewalled by one staff member in particular, who was actively unhelpful. During COVID, RSF implemented an inadequate queueing system that mandated gym-goers to register 3 days in advance within ~1 second of when bookings go live; and with a limit of 115 people per appointment, and hundreds of people trying to reserve a spot, the system was effectively a raffle or lottery. While I acknowledge this was implemented in response to concerns over COVID, I also point out that many other fitness centers in the area functioned safely without mandating a useless reservation system. I signed up for another facility in the area and am much, much more satisfied with the value.

Negative experience: Pretty good space, but they have the constant presence of UC bureaucracy. Example 1: lockers don’t auto renew, even if you’ve been there awhile. Miss an email and one day your things are in a plastic bag in a side room somewhere. Example 2: Some trainers were not getting their paychecks. Could see it affecting morale.

Positive experience: It's cool because there's a lot of stuff. There are indoor raquet ball courts, many basketball courts, some of those basketball courts turn into badminton courts, a stretch room, a dance room, a martial arts room, free weights, machines, so much. The only reason why it's not 5 starts is for the amount of people that come in sometimes the gym equipment is full. There are sometimes even lines to enter the gym room.

Fantastic experience: I love the passport service without advanced appointment and line. You can even get the same passport service on Saturday. The location is great for seniors and children because they can sit down to watch some TV and use restroom. In contrast, US postal offices or any other passport agency does not have such good service for kids and seniors.

Fantastic experience: I have only ever been here for the zumba classes, which are very fun!

Fantastic experience: Small, not overly busy.

Fantastic experience: As a student, it's very easy to use all the facilities (gym, basketball, etc), and the area is very clean

Fantastic experience: Fantastic gym with lots of amenities and organized classes. Make sure to avoid rush hour (afternoon after class)

Fantastic experience: Crowded, but nice

Fantastic experience: A full-featured gym that is free to use for UC Berkeley students! All students should take advantage of the university's facilities!

Fantastic experience: Good pickup, my first game here a kid tried to fight our team. 10/10, very competitive. Gym is ok.

Fantastic experience: Good basketball run here

Fantastic experience: Very good gym and sports facility for UCB students

Fantastic experience: If you get into Cal you'll love this facility!

Fantastic experience: Great place to work out and have fun

Positive experience: It's constantly crowded, but there are like 7 full on cages in the gym. I appreciate that this gym respects squatting instead of just having 10 racks to bench press like a typical LA Fitness might have.

Fantastic experience: Awesome spot

Fantastic experience: Good pickup, my first game here a kid tried to fight our team. 10/10, very competitive. Gym is ok.

Positive experience: I coming inside the building

Fantastic experience: โบสถ์คาทอลิก

Fantastic experience: 공부도 체력이 중요. 건강한 신체는 맑은 정신과 집중력을 제공한다. 그러는 점에서 이곳 RSF는 헬스, 스쿼시, 수영, 배구, 농구, 야구, 태권도, 우슈, 댄스, 요가 등 다양한 운동을 모두 접할수 있는곳이다.

Fantastic experience: Good

Positive experience: The facility is great but the convenience store inside the facility will rip you off. They don’t have prices for the items they sell and charge you whatever they like. Someone needs to do price control.

Positive experience: Solid facilities. Pools are heated which is amazing.

Negative experience: Always pretty crowded and invests more in throwing old machines then expanding the gym so you don't have to wait 30 mins for a bench.

Positive experience: Busy! Come in the morning at opening or after lunch for the quieter - yet still packed - hours. Highly equipped, high capacity sports facility and gym, mostly used by Berkeley students. Complete with locker rooms, basketball courts, weight rooms, Olympic lifting facility, treadmills, racquetball courts. Connected to aquatics facility. Frequently holds University events - Caltopia, career fairs, and examinations - on the basketball courts.

Fantastic experience: Todo bien

Negative experience: Poor facilities and broken equipment.

Fantastic experience: Lots of machines. Not too crowded. Get your gainz here

Fantastic experience: So close to the Berkeley City club, where I am a member, and get to use the RSF as well. What a treat.

Fantastic experience: A very good gym. They just opened the new showering area. No longer have to shower in front of everyone.

Fantastic experience: Really cool place to exercise

Fantastic experience: Great place to work out

Fantastic experience: So many weaklings here at this gym.

Fantastic experience: Great gym in Berkeley. Probably the best for the money and equipment

Fantastic experience: Great facility for students and staff to workout. They just upgraded their locker rooms, so you don't have to worry about ever not finding a locker or lock. The cardio equipment, especially the treadmills, tend to be full during busy times, so I would avoid going there during those times if you definitely want to do cardio. The extended workout equipment/area seems to have made it easier for more people to use them at the same time.

Fantastic experience: Has everything you might need! RSF is awesome.

Positive experience: Packed with college students, seeing the incredible physiques on some of these young people is inspiring, but expect a wait time for weights during the school year. Staff rotates constantly, for many of them it seems to be a school job. The regular employees are 100% flawless and take their jobs seriously.

Positive experience: Giving the facility a 4 because the building itself is pretty old and not all that appealing but in terms of recreation I’d give the place a 5. Memberships open to students and the general public. Facilities include: 1 large weight room, 2 smaller annex weight rooms. Squat racks, dumb bells, all your other weight lifting needs. 4 full length basketball courts on first floor, a few more courts on the 3rd floor. Note: some of the basketball courts are transformed to allow for badminton, volleyball and other activities, see schedule! Racquetball. Ability to rent out balls and equipment such as rackets/paddles, etc. Locker rooms, with a new addition of a gender equality locker area with easier access for handicapped. Locker rooms and gym area offer a free towel service (small for workouts, full length/ large for showers and swim area). Olympic pool. Access to other sports facilities on/near campus. A food/nutrition shop on the ground floor. Get your membership at the Bancroft entrance. The membership center is also able to process other transactions such as passport renewals.

Fantastic experience: 很棒

Positive experience: Crowded but nice

Positive experience: They've recently added more squat racks, which has helped to alleviate some of the traffic. The dumbbells go up to 120 lbs. Unfortunately they have a few suboptimal features, like dodecagonal plates, so if you want to reset between deadlift reps for example, the bar torques around til the plates sit flat. Also, you can't take photos or videos or your form, and you can't do any "explosive" movements like clean and jerks or snatches.

Negative experience: Not enough workout machines in the weight rooms for the amount of people that visit, even through non peak periods. You'd think for 30K people who go to UC Berkeley, they'd make a gym that can accommodate at least a fraction of that amount, not the case, they need to invest in larger facilities. But, its free...well, paid through my tuition...so we get what we pay for, I guess.

Negative experience: Unfriendly staff. I get that there are rules but the staff here acts like they're better than everyone

Fantastic experience: Great classes