Make Valentines Day memorable with an awesome massage from one of the MPHC staff!

TEST YOUR SKILLS in this winter bouldering session at Manhattan Plaza Health Club! Every year Manhattan Plaza closes their doors for this epic bouldering competition. Come witness some of the best climbers in the city and learn a few moves for yourself. Even better, dress in a superhero costume (get creative here) and receive a five-dollar refund! Registration is limited so be sure to secure your spot soon. If you want to come watch the competition and not participate, admission is free.

More info: Outdoorbound

MPHC’s very own fitness director, Natasha Ali, is here to break down the myths of a women’s workout. What are those myths?

- Weight training is for men
- Women get ‘big’ when they workout
- The training floor is intimidating

Natasha’s clinic focuses on helping you learn the fundamental movement patterns that will help you excel in your workouts and get you the body you’ve wanted. The clinic will also teach you how to create your own workout, for fun or challenge.

Clinic info:

$150 per person for 6 weeks
Only six space available
Clinic begins Jan 20th – Feb 24th
Meets every Thursday 6:30 – 8:00pm
Sign-up with reception

Karen Peress

Manhattan is not known as a place for sporting activities, least so the midtown, Times Square vicinity. Skyscrapers sprout from every corner, and driving or even walking through the area can be a nightmare. Yet for those keen on some feasible form of exercise and reprieve from the city’s bustle, there is a well-kept secret within the walls of a nondescript building along 43rd Street: one of the city’s oldest climbing gyms.

Part of the Manhattan Plaza Health Club, the 1600-square-foot climbing gym (the size of two racquetball courts) offers climbing walls for both top-roping (where a harness and a partner to belay or pull you up are necessary) and bouldering (where you climb shorter walls with no equipment, with soft mats to catch you if you fall).

Walking into the 17-year-old gym, you’re greeted by climbers from teenagers to working professionals eagerly discussing and sharing their strategies for the various routes, which have a range of difficulty levels as indicated by the labels at the starting points.

Of course, being located right next to Times Square – something no other climbing gym can boast of, as other midtown gyms have either caved to competition from larger rivals downtown and in Brooklyn or simply ceased operations – means space constraints are a problem given the high rentals. To ensure climbers are continually challenged, sections of the MPHC walls are re-routed each week, and the gym is completely re-designed every 6-8 weeks.

The Climbing Gym

“When we first opened, indoor climbing was still a relatively new sport, but we’ve since had more and more people joining us over the years, prompting an expansion a decade ago,” says MPHC climbing director, William Baer. “It’s an exciting sport, something you can do in a small space because you’re going upwards. We have a great, open community of climbers and one of the lowest rates around.”

A day pass begins at $20 for adults and $15 for youth 14 and under, and monthly memberships are available either for all facilities in MPHC – which also has tennis courts, aerobics exercise rooms, and a pool – or the climbing gym alone, starting at a student rate of $165 for three months.

Not an experienced climber? Don’t fret. The climbing gym offers beginner lessons where harness and shoe rentals are thrown in and all the basics are taught by experts, such as climbing safely, belaying, and belay certification.

If you don’t have a belay partner, climbers and staff at the gym will gladly help you out, even without being asked. Start at lower levels: for bouldering, that would be “V0,” and for top-rope, that would be “5.5” – the bigger the number, the higher the difficulty.

Climbing is a tough full-body workout that allows you to control your own progress and build strength and agility, but if you think this is a sport for men, think again. One of the most impressive climbers in the gym is regular Karen Peress, 24, who attacks the walls with both aggressiveness and ease.

Says the Queens native from Jamaica Estates who has been climbing for a year: “It’s very convenient to get here because of the gym’s location, and the people here are fun.”

Article Written by: Pei Shan Ho

About : Pei Shan is a former national gymnast from Singapore currently completing a dual degree masters in journalism and international affairs at Columbia University. She delights in trying new sports, beating the boys, and living to eat.

[Nearsay]

MPHC’s own ladies’ synchronized swim team performed for MPHC members earlier this month. On December 5th the ladies performed to a crowd of over a hundred people. A mix of MPHC members and guests enjoyed complimentary food and drinks as they watched the ladies perform. Congrats on a great job ladies!

Last Friday, MPHC’s very own Dan Evers braved the freezing November weather to promote MPHC’s incredible swimming facilities.

Dan and the sales team set up camp at 49th St and Broadway, right next to a New York Sports Club. The NYSC on 49th ST is closing its pool and its local members have nowhere to go to swim! Maybe they were getting tired of older guests peeing in the pool? It’s been known to happen at NYSC clubs! (http://www.yelp.com/biz/new-york-sports-club-new-york-44)

While passing out swimming goggles, Dan and the team helped make sure NYSC members knew that MPHC has an amazing 75ft rooftop pool available. Only after the free goggles had run out did we let Dan take off his scuba gear and put some real clothes on. All in all, the promotion was a success!

Lisa Mateo visited Pan Aqua Diving in Manhattan to learn more about their dive courses offered here at MPHC! Courses are offered in the evenings at the atrium pool and are part of the Be A Diver Campaign.

To learn more about the Be A Diver Campaign and to find a dive center near you, log onto www.beadiver.com.

To see more from WPIX11 click here to visit their website.

Last week, MPHC’s very own Kristin Bernhardt visited Nick Cannon on his birthday at 92.3 FM to answer the age old question: To Rub the rear or to not rub the rear? Nick Cannon decided he would find out by having Kristin give him a professional swedish booty massage(ok, so maybe the Swedes didn’t invent that). In the studio, Bernhardtoffered her personal touch and put Nick at ease, hopefully Mariah isn’t too jealous!

Check out Nick’s website and thanks again to the crew at 92.3!