Gold's Gym - San Francisco Castro

[lib0]

I'm not sure this goes here but moderators please feel free to move it to it's proper place.

I was visiting my niece in San Francisco last weekend, she's getting married and I wanted to meet the guy. Anyway she's very very active and she has a normal gym schedule and she asked me to go along. I have a home gym because I feel that gyms are kinda meat markets. Anyway her gym is Gold's Gym in the Castro. She was in some Body Aerobics class and I was doing some weights, did some cardio and I was told there was a steam room in the men's locker so I figured I'd get a good sweat on. Please understand that homosexuality does not offend/freak me out at all, I am accepting of all people and beliefs even if I don't share them. On the gym floor there were tons of guys checking guys out, a very homoerotic feel, but the steam room - WOW. I put my clothes in the locker, showered, and then went into the steam room. It's pretty dark and I found a seat - although there were guys standing. I just lean my head back and relax, about 5 minutes later I pick my head up and there is a FULL BLOWN ORGY happening. At first I was really shocked and was going to leave but you were honestly packed in there by a bunch of men jacking, sucking, and who knows what else. I just put my head back and minded my own business until a few guys left and I was out of there.

Is anyone a member of this gym, is it always like that? Again I don't care what people do but I was just concerned for public health.

 

[B_RedDude]

I have to chuckle. I live in SF, it's not my gym, but I can tell you that it's been notorious for years, possibly decades.

As a women, perhaps your niece didn't know the full extent of what goes on there. Maybe she should take her fiance there to work out.

I've heard that, at least in the past, they tried to enforce some restraint in the steam room, but apparently they're no longer trying or it's never worked.

When I was joining a gym a dozen years ago, the guy at the gym I wound up joining asked me what other places I was checking out. I mentioned Gold's and he said, "That place is a bathhouse."

To totally gross you out, a friend told me that the hot tub there was known as "egg drop soup". This was in the days before Gold's took it over. I wish I could remember what the name of the place was before then.

Apparently San Francisco has a reputation in other places of having a high STD rate. I guess its type of freedom has a price, which for me anyway makes it definitely not worth it.

 

[buzzrider7]

That's hilarious!! That gym is pretty much known as being 99% gay (and 1% female, including your niece it seems), and the steam room there is essentially known to be comparable to a sex club. Pretty standard knowledge in SF, but I guess that unsuspecting visitors chance upon it now and then! I go to Gold's in the burbs, which is much more of a mixed crowd and certainly nothing like that in the wet area. You may want to try one of the outlying gyms next time. ;-)

 

[NoH8]

You sat down, put your head back and nobody sucked you?

I understand you would have been surprised by the level of activity in a "gym" steam room, but it was the Castro after all. I don't think jacking and sucking are major health risks. Though its advisable not to come in the mouth to be a bit safer. If they were doing anything else, I'm totally with you on the health scare front.

You did the right thing getting out of there without making a fuss.

 

[B_RedDude]

There are other STDs beside HIV, some of which can be carried asymptomatically and/or recur.

Perhaps in SF they don't consider these to be any big deal. That's too bad.

I don't think jacking and sucking are major health risks. Though its advisable not to come in the mouth to be a bit safer. If they were doing anything else, I'm totally with you on the health scare front.

 

[irox19]

I used to be a Gold's member and knew just from common knowledge that the Castro facility is 99.9% gay. Because of the activity going on it feels way more grimy than other gyms. I would be super scared to touch anything from a hygiene standpoint. Plus, I would rather work out around straight guys where there is more of a possibility for me to meet someone.

 

[JacquesValue]

I really don't understand what steam rooms are for besides anonymous sex.

 

[laser90]

I ran into this same issue at gyms in a few different cities. I think you tend to see this going on at gyms that are serve the gay community.

As far as picking up an STDs, that is the least of your worries in a steam room. If they are not kept really clean it can be a petrie dish of biological specimens! The same can be said of the hot tub, that is why I tend to pass on going into either.

it’s just as much fun watching the parade go by from my nice warm shower….

 

[MarkLondon]

Well at least they were well-behaved enough to leave you in peace.

 

[ericbythebay]

The steam room or showers for that matter can be what you experienced, or nothing can happen.

I work out at Golds, but I've only showered there once. Living a few blocks away, carting wet towels back and forth doesn't make much sense, besides I've got unlimited hot water at home and dual shower heads in the master bath, I just bring the guys back to my place.

 

[B_Lightkeeper]

I just bring the guys back to my place.

Looking at your gallery, I bet the following looks like a circus parade. :biggrin1:

 

[youllneed2hands]

That really is hilarious. I work in SF and have lived in the Bay Area since 1992. NOTHING surprises me -- it's like the island of misfit toys -- everyone's welcome and that what makes it so get. But next time, you may want to bring your hazmat suit for the steamroom at Golds in the Castro, big guy. Classic...

 

[blkbro510]

Well San Francisco has two Golds gym and the second isn't any better. The second although "more straight" its more a "juice bar"

However in the city, you really can't do that other gyms (even if its straight couples fucking in the steam room ) cause staff have called police you will be escorted out of the building or to jail

Welcome to San Francisco

 

[ericbythebay]

A friend of mine actually stopped going to Golds in the Castro because there wasn't enough action for him in the sauna and shower.

 

[B_RoysToy]

It's been my experience that any where there are naked guys, there'll be some amount of dick play. At any gym after working out and getting pumped muscles, a warm/hot shower and relaxing in the sauna or steam room chatting with congenial guys who have just experienced the same activities as you, the discussed topic often turns to sex and leads to a rush of blood to the penis.

My times have been at the YMCAs and the French Riviera Spas at Memphis. TN and the YMCA in Little Rock, AR., with different degrees of sexual activities in all.

 

[punk09]

Wherever the water is warm and the men are naked, something is bound to come up. This happens around the world and has happened for all time. There is nothing wrong with it.

I work out at the Gold's SOMA location which is a much better gym facility than the Castro.

Last month the wet area was closed in SOMA and I worked out at the Castro location and it was much more intense, a real grope suck fest. I did manage to get it on with a porn star who I'd been exchanging glances with over the previous few weeks around town.

I prefer SOMA, however, because in addition to the superior facility, it has both steam and sauna, and as such it is easier to for those of us who actually work out on the gym floor instead of scurrying through it to the wet area to avoid those trolls.

If the trolls won't get it on with one another, then why would they expect for any of us to want to get it on with them?

 

[yoursgetsmine]

What have I been missing?

 

[SweatsBulge]

I go to 24 Fitness and there is a very conservative air about the locations I visit (Financial, Church St., Van Ness) and the locker rooms have a really nervous energy about them...and some serious towel dancing.
There is nothing erotic about them. Of course, I may not be hitting them at the right times (I go anytime between 10 at night to 2 a.m....yes, I go late because I HATE THE CROWDS in the daytime!).

 

[lib0]

You sat down, put your head back and nobody sucked you?

No I have a pretty rigid Italian face and I look mad most of the time, when I'm mad or shocked, which I was, those looks intensify which probably put anyone off.

I had no idea about the steam room reputation but thank you to everyone for chiming in. The facility was fine but I think next time I'll skip out on the steam.

 

[patrick222]

When in Rome ...