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If anyone has memberships to these particular health clubs, what is your impression of them. If you previously had memberships at more privately owned more neighborhood type gyms, and they were forced out of business by these giants. Well how did you feel about that, and do you really enjoy working out in these big health club chains. I personally like the more neighborhood privately owned gyms that I use to be able to work out at before these giants came into town.
I go to Lifetime Fitness and it is freakin' huge. My husband and I pay $90/month and before that we paid $50/month when we lived in upstate NY and went to a locally owned gym.
We pretty much do the same thing at both of the different types of gyms so it's kinda stupid that we pay so much but it's the closest one near our house! I say that the good thing about Lifetime Fitness is that it's really family oriented. I think it's worth the money if you had kids but totally overpriced for just two people.
The small gym we went to was nice but there were always these rules and you had to be courteous to other folks when using equipment. At Lifetime, there are so many equipment there's no need to "wait your turn"!
Its really beautiful- looks like California in Concept- has everything you could want- but the local one charges $150 to join; plus $35-40 a month plus 6% local tax.
I pay $10 a month at Body Fit in Manchester- it fits my needs perfectly.
Yes I think the smaller gyms are better in my opinion, and family friendly ones are fine, if thats your thing and you have kids. I don't want to go to a gym with alot of kids running around like a family YMCA. The lifestyle gym does seem way overpriced. LA Fitness is way to glitzy, and the ones out here, are filled with trainers showing people that most likely never exercised how to workout, thats fine, but I don't find the LA Fitness chain a real gym at all. It is very difficult to workout in a atmosphere of wall to wall trainers, taking up machines to show people how to use them. I notice alot of these trainers are not in very good shape, that struck me real strange.
LA fitness in La Verne, CA sucks!! Despite the broken, dirty equipment and the weights that are never racked and organized, the place is always so packed that a decent workout is impossible. I often have to wait five minutes in between sets because there are so many people in line for everthing. Hate to lose the $100 or so sign on charge, but today was the last straw. I'm done. I'm going to look for used equipment on craigslist and have a personal gym in the garage.
For me the #1 issue is location, location, location. The closer it is, the more likely I am to get to it on a regular bases. In addition, I can go to any gym, Sport and under, anywhere a 24 hour fitness is located. If you travel a lot that may be important.
I also don't have a traditional job. I work crazy hours. Being able to go to the gym at 3:00am is very important. Not all 24 hour fitness gyms are truly 24 hours. You should visit the gym that you would go to and see how they operate. You can also see pictures of the location you are interested in online.
I've been a member of 24 hour fitness for more than a decade. I've really never had a serious complaint. Every gym has it's own personality and it own focus, i.e., wet area, spinning, free weights. Treat each gym like it's a privately owned gym and evaluated it on it own merit. They are all different.
I belong to LA Fitness and it sucks, even at multiple locations -- which is the only reason I keep the membership; there are locations close to home, and close to work. The place is always dirty, machines break and stay broken for weeks, the HVAC is inadequate. The classes are at wildly inconvenient times for anyone who has a life. They oversell their memberships so that the place is always packed, almost every moment of every day. I'm shopping around ...
I have a 24Hr fitness membership. The only reason is because it's the closest gym near the house. I used to go to other local gyms in the past and they were so much better. I find that at 24Hr you can find most of the basics, classes, swimming, etc for one price. However I find the personal training sessions to be extremely expensive (compared to other places I've been). I usually use the gym on weekends b/c they have childcare. Weekdays I wake up early and go to a local park for my workouts.
I've belonged to 24 Hr. for about 12 years, and have always liked it. Like someone else said, it's about location. I used to belong to Bally's, which is very similar to 24 Hr., but they closed two locations near my home and work, then 24 Hr. opened up near home and work, so I switched. No real complaints about either one, but with both chains, I prefer larger gyms because they have more equipment. Plus it's nice to be able to work out if I'm traveling, and 24 Hr. seems to be everywhere.
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