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If one is training on the Olympic style lifts, technique is paramount and the lifter must be trained in each component. As the athlete gets exhausted he/she must maintain form in the training environment. It's better to do that and drop weight post set in order to avoid injury. The caveat here is that high quality, expensive, bumper plates and competition bars need to be used that are designed to take drops. Thats why you usually don't see them in anything other than crossfit, university, or specialized training centers.
I'm a member and like PF but you have to make the setting work for you. I need to lose a lot of weight, increase flexibility, beat back disease and avoid disease. Those are my priorities. I like the equipment they have but wish they had a rowing machine.
One complaint I have is PF has no scale. They have no measuring tapes. This is taking the "no judgment zone" too far. The scale I can do at home. But you need, or I need, someone to do the measuring for me, and since I work out alone, and no staff will do it, that's a minor problem.
It is true that Planet Fitness does not cater to die-hard body builders or free-weight users, and in fact actually seems to discourage such people from joining. This is witnessed by some of their rules, which prohibit "grunting" dropping weights when working out. Members who violate these rules risk the hazard of having the "Lunk Alarm" triggered by the staff, which is a blue siren mounted on the wall which lights-up and shrieks like a cop siren. (Planet fitness refers to weight lifters who grunt and drop weights as "lunks" and even has a "Lunk definition" sign posted on the wall in the weight area.) Additionally, PF has a dress code, prohibiting "lunk" attire like do-rags and cut-off jeans and boots.
PF justifies this seemingly prejuduced mindset by claiming to be a "Judgement Free Zone" where beginners and women can feel at home and need not be intimidated.
Every gym I've ever been to prohibits grunting and dropping weights, for the reasons bolded. These have been community gyms: YMCA, city-run public gyms, university gyms. It's a pretty common thing, not exclusive to PF, and it's been around for a long time.
As for the absence of scales, that seems odd. It's easy enough to have a scale in each changing room, male and female separately. That would keep it "judgement free". I don't see an issue. Maybe that's their way of justifying being cheap? lol Now y'all have me curious; my town just got a PF that opened a few months ago. I'll go check it out.
We had a PF open up near us and I'd heard rumors about the place but wanted to check it out for myself. I called and asked how I obtain a free 1/3/5/7 day pass, as ALL gyms have. Their response was "Sorry, we don't offer free passes to try the gym out." I asked how in the world would I join a gym without having tried it first, his response was to buy a $25 day pass or to simply sign up for a year membership ($10/month, locked into a contract for the year). That was enough for me to dismiss this place.
I'm a member and like PF but you have to make the setting work for you. I need to lose a lot of weight, increase flexibility, beat back disease and avoid disease. Those are my priorities. I like the equipment they have but wish they had a rowing machine.
One complaint I have is PF has no scale. They have no measuring tapes. This is taking the "no judgment zone" too far. The scale I can do at home. But you need, or I need, someone to do the measuring for me, and since I work out alone, and no staff will do it, that's a minor problem.
That's weird - my PF has a scale in the women's changing area.
I hate this gym and everything they stand for. They are a mortal enemy of anyone who takes their fitness seriously. They have free donut days, for god's sake! It's a gym, they shouldn't be serving garbage food. Set a right example.
The Lunk Alarm is ridiculous beyond belief. If you're doing weights and you're not grunting, you're not doing enough weight, bottom line. If it's just a walk in the park for you, you need to load up the weight and try harder. I can do 80% of my workout without much besides heavy breathing and the occasional large exhale, but when you're pushing up the toughest, heaviest reps you've ever done in your life, you're dang right you are going to be making noise. It's one thing to have a policy -- as all gyms do -- against dropping weights, which is just annoying to everyone and bad form, but to say you "can't make noise" while working out is like saying you can't sweat, either. It's beyond ridiculous.
If a place didn't have free weights above 50 pounds that would be incredibly pathetic. Even my local 24 Hour Fitness is pretty sorry, honestly. Their cable systems have a max weight of 150 pounds on the stack, even though the weight is the cheapest part by far of the darn setup. I can do 200 pounds for triceps and biceps using a rope, which is my preferred way to train biceps and triceps before I jump to free weight stuff. It's a great way to exert maximum power and not be too worried about supporting muscles, just pure biceps and pure triceps, no stabilizing muscles. But at 150 pounds max... it's... underwhelming.
I ended up just buying my own home gym equipment. I rarely go to 24 Hour Fitness anymore, but I'm a lifetime member at $5/month plus inflation (it's now a whopping $5.95 more than 10 years later), so I wouldn't give up my gym membership. Plus, I like to do legs there. Otherwise I bought my own cable / pulley system for home and a free weight bench / Smith machine combo along with two Bowflex dumbbell sets adjustable from 5 to 52.5 (2.5 pound increments up to 25 pounds, then 5 after) and 10-90 (adjustable by 5 pounds). Works pretty amazingly for almost everything I could want to do.
I love planet Fitness. Ive been a member for a few months now and its everything I need. I was doing P90X3 for about 7 months and though it got me in shape, it grew very old. I enjoy a gym because there are others around me which motivates me to push a little harder. I of course would have stuck with P90X3 if it wasn't for the $10 a month membership fee because that's pocket change compared to other gyms around my area. I did not expect much but to my surprise it is super clean, everyone is friendly and it has just the right equipment. I am not a meat head so I was pleased to see they frown against grunting and making unnecessary noises while lifting. I do think the "no judgment zone" is a little cheesy but I get it. I also think its weird they have pizza nights too, I mean, the point of the gym is to get in shape. I go in the mornings so I don't ever see any of that stuff so it really doesn't bother me. If you are training for a competition of some sort or like to lift like you are this may not be the best gym, but if you want to stay in shape for a cheap price, this is the place to go.
How do you think it's "unnecessary" to make noises while pushing up 240 pound bench presses? I mean really? Have you ever actually worked hard at weights before? It's great if you like the gym, but don't judge people who are actually working hard. It's not like I WANT to make noises when I'm doing heavy bench, and you won't hear anything when I'm doing my warm ups at 135. But yeah, when I'm doing the heaviest weight I've ever lifted like today, dang right there's going to be some grunting!
How do you think it's "unnecessary" to make noises while pushing up 240 pound bench presses? I mean really? Have you ever actually worked hard at weights before? It's great if you like the gym, but don't judge people who are actually working hard. It's not like I WANT to make noises when I'm doing heavy bench, and you won't hear anything when I'm doing my warm ups at 135. But yeah, when I'm doing the heaviest weight I've ever lifted like today, dang right there's going to be some grunting!
Planet Fitness is for the average person who just wants to get stay in shape/healthy. If you want to bench 240 lbs you are looking to build mass and there are other types of gyms out there designed for that type of lifting.
I fully agree, it just sounded like you were indicating there's something inherently wrong with making any noise when you work out lol. Planet Fitness has its place as a super budget gym, but I don't think they need all of these idiotic rules to be a good budget option, frankly. They could lose the discrimination and just focus on being the cheapest in the market -- there is always value to having a cheap option for people. That segment of the market is worth targeting, just look at Wal-Mart or McDonalds.
For me, though, 24 Hour Fitness is the best all around solution. I have no idea what members pay now, but when I signed up I paid $1,000 and got membership for life at $5/month and here I am 14 years later still enjoying the benefits of that ridiculously cheap membership. Even if I only go there occasionally or if I hit up the gym for legs once a week, it's still an amazing deal.
I think I calculated that given my normal workout frequency, my home gym will cost me an average of about $4.10 per workout for the next 10 years. If I end up living in this home for 12-15 years, and the equipment all holds up, I could reduce that cost per workout equation a bit. My girlfriend also uses the equipment, though, so that saves me having to buy her a gym membership at a far increased price, which I had done before (and she rarely used), probably more like minimum $25/month even with a few year commitment.
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