Woodfield Country Club "New" Gym

Woodfield Country Club

New Fitness Centers Opens | Boca Raton, FL

The city of Boca Raton granted Woodfield CC a Temporary Certificate of Occupancy to open the Fitness Center early on October 5th.  The remainder of the Cascades complex is set to open November 9th.  This includes the Spa, Blendz Café and the lower level Fitness Studio.

Per Woodfield Country Club:

Blendz - In addition to the traditional morning offerings like bagels, fruit and coffee, Blendz will now feature complimentary oatmeal. New items like Greek yogurt, cappuccino and espresso will be available for a charge. 

Salon - The Salon will feature a brand new makeup display filled with Babor makeup products as well as an expanded Boutique complete with fresh lines of retail goods.  

Fitness Studio - The new studio will be utilized for our gentle class formats such as Yoga and Pilates. It will also function as additional space for Small Group Training and expanded functional training. 

So far my expectations for the gym have been exceeded.  There is more than enough cardio equipment to handle peak hours of training.  Treadmills, Ellipticals (both Precor and True Fitness), Octane Fitness lateral ellipticals, traditional stair masters, the difficult stair masters like walking up a flight of stairs (aka the Gauntlet), fan bikes, upright Life Cycles, and recumbent True bikes.  I might be missing some cardio equipment, but if you like variety with cardio machines, Woodfield has it's members covered.

The fitness center also has a spinning room, upstairs private studio for training and classes as well as the upcoming downstairs fitness studio which was touched upon earlier.

As for strength training, the fitness center is well equipped.  I have been strength training for a good 25 years now, and even competed in bodybuilding shows when I was in college (and won the 21 and under), I can be a bit of a snob when it comes gyms.  I grew up on Long Island and trained with pro bodybuilders from Jimmy "the bull" Pellechia at Gold's Gym in Northport to Jimmy Quinn at Worlds Gym in New York City, and now Dareem Charles at my other Boca Gym, BusyBody, the type and variety of equipment will determine the crowd the gym draws.

There is a plethora of Cybex Eagle NX and Cybex Prestige machines that cover all body parts.  Legs are well equipped with lying leg curls and seated leg curls for hams, leg extensions for quads, glute blaster for the rump, adductor and abductor combo machine and a leg press.  There is also a smith machine and power rack for those that prefer free weights as well as a Cybex leg press.  Not a fan of the Cybex leg press as that is where my only training injury came from when I had 990lbs on the machine and my knee gave out.  Sounded like a 5 year old jumping on bubble wrap.  Gave me a limp for a few years but I have recovered

New to the gym are the Hoist Fitness line of machines.  I think there are 4:  chest, shoulders, back and biceps.  I like these machines.  They are very smooth and hit the muscle groups even better than Hammer strength machines (in my opinion).   The trainers in the gym tell me 30% of the resistance comes from your own body weight.  That's good because it's hard to find enough plates to load on these machines.

Before we get into free weights, there is a variety of other strength training apparatus.  There is the heavy bag for boxers, good selection of medicine balls, rubber band training and TRX tension training. Woodfield finally put a dedicated stretching area for people to stretch out of the way and also train abs. It is located in the old Blendz café.  The unusual thing about this area is the fish bowl off of the upper lobby - see below photo:

This may give some people apprehension about using the area located right in front of the window.  Then again, attention seekers might flock to train in this area as well.  Depends if your glass is half full or not.

On to the free weights.  The floor has great sound suppression, so if you drop a dumbbell, whether 5 lbs or 120 lbs, the floor absorbs the noise.  This is a big plus since the spa is located beneath the gym and won't disrupt those trying to relax.  Smart move.  As you guess, the gym is equipped with dumbbells from 5 lbs to 120 lbs.  I am probably one of 5 people in the entire Club that actually use the 120's.  There are preset barbells from 30 lbs to 120 lbs.  I have heard that 120 lbs barbell is about to be removed in lieu of it's 20 lbs counter part.  Makes sense and not a big loss.  If someone really  needs a 120 lbs barbell, there are more than enough plates in the gym to accomplish that with a barbell.

The free weight area is big and small at the same time. Woodfield dedicated a decent portion of the gym to free weights, but it should have been bigger.  If there are 3 people in this area at the same time, it feels claustrophobic.  Not good.  This is why I start my training at 6:15AM in the morning to avoid the crowds that show up at 8AM after they had bagels and coffee at Blendz café.  There is a Smith Machine, Power rack, 1 flat bench, 1 incline bench, a preacher curl bench, 1 seated calf raise and a variety of benches (3 incline/flat benches, 1 decline and 1 chair) that can be used with dumbbells or the smith machine, power rack or cables.  The gym finally has a cable cross over machine which has a connected lat pull down, cable row and assisted pull up and dip machine.  The gym permanently affixed the lat pull down handle and cable row handle to the machines, making less variety for back training.  The only reason right now why i keep my separate gym membership at BusyBody is for back.

Per Woodfield, Coming Soon!

• High-impact wall in the Functional Training area. 

• Water station near cardio machines.

• Gatorade, water bottles and protein bars will return to Cascades when the new Blendz Café opens.

• Junior Certification Program Wristband Policy - a new policy that will require certified Juniors to wear designated colored wristbands while using the Fitness Center. Stay tuned for further details.

• Fitness Studio - Woodfield's new first floor Fitness Studio will open soon and will provide additional space for gentle class formats and expanded functional training. 

• AudioFetch - a new feature that will allow you to wirelessly sync your smartphone audio to TVs anywhere on the Fitness Floor.

• Performance IQ - state-of-the-art training program that wirelessly connects heart rate monitors and cardio equipment to allow real time display of performance metrics. Performance IQ and heart rate monitoring will be featured in select cycle classes beginning November 2.

I am a big fan of Woodfield and am very excited for everything coming up.  The gym is a great introduction into what Woodfield has put into this 2 year renovation coined the Long Range Plan (LRP).  Can't wait to see the remainder of Cascades on Nov 9th and ultimately the pool area, poolside restaurant and kid center in the Spring of 2016.  This is a world class facility that is attracting young families in Boca Raton and I look to do my part to bring younger members into the Club now that the renovations are finally being unveiled.

If you see me in the gym, please feel free to say "Hi!"  I tend to keep my headphones on and remained focused so I can get in and out of the gym quickly to get back to my family and so I can work on selling more homes within the Club and Boca Raton area.  Definitely come up and introduce yourself.  Just don't do it while I'm pressing the 120 lbs dumbbells :-)

This is not an official Woodfield marketing piece and all photos are property of Craig Greenberg, Woodfield Country Club resident and realtor.

Craig Greenberg, realtor®
561-376-8540
Craig@WFCCsales.comWFCCsales.com

all rights reserved - copyright 2015©

Out with the old, In with the new

Out with the Old, In with the New

If it were not for innovation, things would remain copacetic. Out with the old, in with the new.  What a timeless expression of progress.  An expression of "lets move forward."  Without it, we'd all be using AOL mail vs. Gmail.  We'd have to carry a phone, camera, calculator, compass, video recorder, voice recorder, moblie internet device, etc.... and now even a wallet, instead of one smart phone.  We'd all look like Fred Flintstone running ourselves ragged vs. driving a Prius.  What I am getting at is change is good.  Change is what helps get us to the next level.  In real estate, sometimes it's the agent that needs to change.

It's one thing if your realtor is making progress.  In that situation, change is not necessary.  When change is necessary is if and, I'd hate to think, when a consistent agent becomes stale.  Yes, just like a listing can become stale, so can a hotshot agent.  Whether we are dealing with mega-successful trader who can go from hot to cold, the same can happen to a realtor.

In the Boca Raton country club markets where I focus, Woodfield Country Club and The Polo Club, there are some listings that have been on the market for years, and with the same agent.  I can understand loyalty, which is hard to come by in real estate, but as a Seller, if my super listing agent has not been able to sell my home in one to two years, it's time to move on. 

It's time to think outside the box.  It's time for change.   Going from the well-known listing agent to listing agent seems like the right thing to do, but sometimes you need to think more creative than that.  Super listing agents tend to have 30 to 50 listings at a time.  It's almost like having to throw a dart at dartboard to chose which homes to advertise.  Typically it's the people who complain the most that we try to appease.  Do you really want to find yourself in this situation?  A bulls-eye on a dartboard?  If your home is listed with a top agent, I'm curious to know if your agent is showing up to accommodate showings or if they are sending one of their assistants to meet prospective buyers and/or realtors.  If you insist on using a super agent with too many listings, make sure you include a clause in your exclusive listing agreement that your 'super agent' be present at all showings.

If you are thinking about Buying or Selling  in Boca Raton country clubs, please feel free to contact me.  I will let you know about the latest innovations and creative marketing I will be using on our side to find the right home of your dream and fill you in on the strategy

Craig Greenberg, realtor

(561) 376-8540 cell

craig@wfccsales.com

Boca Raton Country Club membership fees

Boca Raton Country Club

Membership Fees

If you have ever lived or visited Boca Raton, Florida, you will know on every other street corner is a country club, specifically golf & tennis clubs.  Here we are going to get into the annual expenses to keep up a home in one of these clubs.  Below are some nice charts that will give you a good overview of annual expenses:

First and foremost, all the Club require a social membership.  Memberships are purchased directly through the Club and are not transferred from seller to buyer.  This update is not covering the initial buy in (initiation fees, equity, bond requirement, etc...) as that requires an entire update of it's own, this post will just cover annual expenses;  dues, assessments/capital charges, food and beverage

Social Membership

 

Sports Membership

 

Full Membership

 It's important to note each Club defines Social, Sports and Full Membership differently.  Not all are treated the same.  Not all Clubs offer a base social membership alone.  Some Club might offer Social memberships to grandfathered in members, whereas new members might not be able to chose a social membership.  Buyers, especially snowflakes, prefer social memberships because the annual expenses are the least.  Once we add in Sports (aka Tennis and/or limited golf) or Full (social, golf, tennis), the annual dues jump.  Sports typically don't increase the dues that much, whereas you will definitely notice the difference annually with a golf membership.

It's also important to note these charts just cover "master" association.  Within each Club (development), there are subdivisions that manage themselves.  You will incur either additional monthly, quarterly and/or annual assessments from these various subdivisions.   These could include things like common area maintenance, landscaping, pool service, cable, security, pressure cleaning, painting, insurance (condos),trash removal, irrigation maintenance, etc.... There is no rhyme or reason between various subdivisions and what each offers it's residents. The best is to speak directly with a contact at the management company and ask for all the things covered in writing.