A new fitness club is about to open in St. Cloud.

Crunch Fitness is putting the finishing touches on their newest club, set to open Halloween morning, Thursday, October 31st. It’s located in part of the area previously occupied by Sears at the Crossroads Shopping Center.

Crunch is a national chain with some 433 other clubs across the country and in Puerto Rico, Canada, Spain, Portugal, Costa Rica and Australia.

Newly-enrolled St. Cloud club members got a sneak peek at the club on Thursday as they picked up their club access cards and some goodies for being “club founders.”

And while there’s plenty of painting and vacuuming and organizing to do before the club opens for workouts, come with us and take an early look at St. Cloud’s newest fitness center.

St. Cloud’s Crunch Fitness is opening at 4101 West Division Street — in the old Sears retail space at the Crossroads Shopping Center. The fitness center has an outside entrance, but does not have an entrance from inside the mall.

Just past the main desk are rows of cardio equipment. Stair climbers and stationary bikes here.

Here’s the stair climber view of some of the dozens of TV monitors throughout the gym floor.

Beyond the stair climbers — treadmills.

So much for “cardio row.”

The weightlifting area is divided into zones. Here, benches and racks and racks of dumbbells.

The benches can be used flat or inclined.

Next to the benches, chest press benches with racks of weights at each station.

Words of encouragement.

Beyond the dumbbells is a row of 10 Olympic weightlifting platforms. These can be used for a wide variety of barbell lifts including deadlifts, clean-and-jerks, snatches and  squats. Each station has its own weights, making it faster and easier to load your bar for your workout.

And, of course, the area is lined in mirror to help you monitor your form.

In addition to the free weight sections are a number of weight machines to isolate specific muscle groups.

Crunch also offers a number of self-contained classes or studios. This is a High Intensity Interval Training classroom for functional training. All the class equipment is self-contained and class can go on without disturbing people using the main gym floor. (Note the punching bags, boxes for jumping and the half-tire for tire-flipping.)

A wide selection of kettlebells…

…and dumbbells are available. Dumbbells and plates are brightly color-coordinated to make putting them away easier.

This classroom studio is still under construction…

…as is the biking studio. Notice the “choir riser” effect to keep riders all able to keep an eye on the instructor who would be situated around where the ladder is now. This studio has a bunch of visual effects that should go nicely with a great sound system for spinning and cycling classes.

No excuses for skipping leg day! Several leg presses are available.

Need some back work? Matrix brand lat machines stand at the ready.

Pre-loaded easy curl and straight barbell bars are racked and rarin’ to go.

You may perspire just WALKING the gym. It’s pretty big.

And while it my be a little overwhelming just looking at all the equipment, even at the pre-opening tours there were plenty of staff around to answer questions and show people around. You just have to ask.

And while it wasn’t yet open to peruse, near the front desk will be the Relax & Recover area with Hydro Massage, tanning and 360 Scan body composition services.

There’s still a lot to do before Crunch opens for its first workout Halloween morning. But the space is impressive and promises to offer yet another great option for area residents’ workouts.

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