[Snacks]

There is a new LA Fitness opening up right by our house, yes; I'm a slave to the gym especially in the winter.

Anyone have any experience with working out at one? We are currently at Gold’s and it sucks. The building is old, and the equipment is broken half the time. This morning no one showed up to open the gym

Any input would be great, thanks!

 

[h22ekhatch]

I currently go to LA Fitness. It is ok I guess...typical corporate mega gym.

Long story short, I used to go to smaller private places but ended up going to 24hour fitness due to crazy discount with my employer at the time (think $10 month any location in the USA). It was ok, but I ended up moving and the 24hour by the new place was ridiculous...had to make reservations for all cardio equipment, weight benches would literally have lines of 5-6 people waiting (even later at night).

So, when LA Fitness opened up I took a tour. It has the same corporate gym feel that 24 does, but it seems to be a bit nicer (higher end spin bikes, racquetball courts, nice shiney oak (fake?) lockers instead of the metal ones, newer equipment). I think its closer to the 'club' level of 24hour or whatever they call it.

I decided to sign up and ended up doing ok on the monthly after playing the used car salesman haggling game (I don't know why gyms do that BS). For the first year it was really nice. Equipment all brand new...busy, but you could always find equipment, no pushy personal trainer douchebags giving you the sales pitch 3x a day...

However, after a year or so things started to go downhill a bit IMO. They re-evaluated their weekend hours and decided to start closing earlier on weekends (which killed me, they close at like 6pm on sundays now...ridiculous!), and they started doing all these promotions where they would get the radio stations involved and sign people up for really cheap trials, etc. Pretty soon it was right back to the 24hour syndrome where it was SO busy you couldn't get anything done. Then the personal trainer ppl started really pushing their business which totally turns me off. You can be in the middle of doing squats and they will come up and say stuff like "oh you know squats are a great lift but you can really screw your back up if you dont know what you are doing...I am a certified blah blah and know alternative lifts that will give you twice the results with half the effort. Let me give you my card so you can make an appointment...I will show you some new techniques".

It seriously makes you want to kill somebody...

That said, racquetball is cool and I like the spin instructor (he actually rides in real life, which oddly enough doesn't always seem to be the case) so I will stick around. I really really really wish I could go back to a smaller private gym sometimes though.

 

[fiddy_ryder]

i canned bally's, skipped 24 and passed on $25 month for LA fitness, just because of the bullshyt involved. i pay 60 a month for small gym thats open 24 hrs. theyve gotten half new equipment and the rest is being replaced. enough cardio equipment for the amount of members they have.

that being said, im 70% weight training, 30% cardio. thats it. fits my needs well.

 

[wahaneebelly]

LA Fitness plans to take over Suburbia as the gym of choice. Moral of the story is that I will be starting up my own gym in the future that goes against everything that LA Fitness, Lifetime Fitness, etc. stand for; they've awaken a sleeping giant and I won't stop until my gym is the best in the... area.

 

[Batman]

I go to a smaller local gym. It's primarily a tennis/squash/raquet ball/swimming club, which is nice because the actual gym is not that busy. It's currently changing management which means a lot of the equipment is being replaced (not that it was ever an issue) and newer amenities (dont use them anyway). Very rarely have to wait for any equipment or machines. Staff are helpful not pushy at all (big problem at the mega-corporate facilities). I pay a little more per month and it's not 24hrs but that's the trade-off.