Berkeley Ironworks

Back at it! Touchstone perpetuates a manipulative system involving energy and the flow commonly used by cults to manipulate people, which, coincidentally is how many of the most vulnerable people in society are conditioned to fear their neighbor and think they’re crazy. Great job guys! Equity and inclusivity right? (3rd paragraph and on for full analysis after 3 years of observation) This gym is ok, not great, their other gyms have better everything, routes are kinda stale, holds are old and polished. Still fun, but not as fun as other gyms. Back to the important stuff, touchstone as a company does what I suspect many large companies do, they foster an environment where you either go with the current or get ostracized. I observed the touchstone community for almost 3 years (and even worked at a touchstone gym) and my conclusion is what I’ve previously stated and this: The concept of “the flow” will be introduced to you by someone affiliated with Touchstone or a community member and then brought up repeatedly to reinforce the belief. Once you believe in “the flow” they can try to convince you that people are somehow influencing it or taking your flow. When in actuality what they’re doing is making you feel uncomfortable, which disturbs your peace and ability to feel calm enough to “flow”. This is deeply troubling and incredibly manipulative, what they’re actually doing is spreading the collective delusion of their “yogis”. I am especially concerned because after being subjected to this exact thing I noticed that the behavior I see in homeless, addict and impoverished communities follows the exact same patterns of behavior as fear of the flow would induce. It’s a paranoid thought that can drive people to exhibit symptoms of insanity and make the person think they’re going crazy when in reality, theres a confusing concept they don’t understand that they see and feel direct evidence of, but cant explain, it’s gaslighting, through and through. What does this preoccupation with the flow do? It serves to divide us and conditions us to fear our neighbor. Shame! And what’s even worse is the symptoms associated with this type of gaslighting don’t affect wealthy people at even a fraction of the intensity as marginalized and impoverished populations. And guess what economic demographic is most common at climbing gyms. Yup. You want to know the real kicker, if you have a home, you can escape seeing things that remind you of the flow, if you live on the street you can literally never get away from it. Shame! I’ve been going to therapy for 15 years, I studied psychology and I’m not gonna sit back and say nothing while I have to deal with your collective delusion every day of my life. I’ve been trying to deprogram my mind for a long time now. You took away my peace, you can deal with my 1 star reviews, I can’t deal with your paranoid delusions that you spread through your “yoga community”

Experience with this gym has been great. The staff are approachable and knowledgeable, and the culture amongst climbers is friendly. I appreciate that they mix up new routes every other months or so. Definitely my favorite gym in the bay area.

This place is the best! I love the gym. It has everything you need for regular gym workouts from weights, work out machines for isolation, treadmills and bikes. They offer spin classes, yoga, boxing, and many different classes applying to climbing. Into classes, intermediate classes focused on indoor, outdoor , bordering and getting into V5s. This gym also has the best workout stations for people training specifically for climbing with hang boards and weighed harnesses. With a great community and staff whats no to love !

another great touchstone gym. great setting and variety of climbs. definitely good for people into weightlifting although some of the equipment seems to be aging a bit. yoga room is nice but can be dark and musty especially when there are a lot of people there. and what the he11 is going on with the men's sauna?? why is it one-way glass...like you can see out but not in...all i'm saying is it seems like whoever designed it was looking to get up to some illicit behaviors which like to each their own but also they tape the light switch down so it is dark in there like o m g yall why is this place so scandalous ay ay steamworks is like not even that far away.

The people who work here are lovely, it's never too crowded, and the facilities are nice. Compared to everywhere else I've climbed, Touchstone gyms always feel a bit corporate and uninspired. The routes (both sport and bouldering) tend to be too straightforward to be fun. It's a fine place to train, but if you haven't frequented other gyms, I'd encourage you to spend some time at the smaller ones. Unfortunately Touchstone has created a monopoly so I expect a lot of people who love it here don't have much to compare it to.