Not all Gyms are created equal

[bommy261]

This is more of a rant than anything. My gym membership to LA Fitness is expiring this month so i thought since Planet Fitness is offering 10$/month memberships (the offer ended Oct 14, @ midnight) so i signed up online without even touring the place.

A great thing about this gym is that it is open 24 hours during the weekdays, so i thought I'd go in for a workout. When I get there, to my GREAT disappointment there are not any power racks, or even straight barbell benches. The closest thing they have to a power rack is 2 smith machines.

One thing they do have alot of is cardio equipment and weight machines.. goodness, they probably have 80 bikes, treadmills, ellipicals.

Don't get me wrong, machines and treadmills have their place, but i expect dumbells with more than 60 lbs in any gym i goto. This is the last time I will blindly assume a gym has everything I need before touring it.

In short, I'm cancelling my membership tomorrow. I will have been a member less than 10 hours.

/rant

 

[brikis98]

Planet Fitness is known for this. Dirt cheap, but specifically designed to discourage serious lifters. No power racks, no heavy DB's, no olympic lifts and in some places, even "grunt alarms" that go off if you make too much noise while lifting. I'm sure some people can get good use out of planet fitness, but their target audience is people who aren't serious about exercise and will sign up and never set foot in the gym after the first week.

 

[Koing]

The deal killer would be the lack of a squat rack!

Koing

 

[Bateluer]

One thing they do have alot of is cardio equipment and weight machines.. goodness, they probably have 80 bikes, treadmills, ellipicals.

/rant

Well, most Americans would benefit more from cardio work than lifting. 😛

 

[mb]

even "grunt alarms" that go off if you make too much noise while lifting.

lol every gym needs this :awe:

 

[surfsatwerk]

Well, most Americans would benefit more from cardio work than lifting. 😛

Feh, if a man can't lift his own body weight then he ought to get stronger or lose some weight.

 

[rcpratt]

Why didn't you uh, walk around the gym before signing up?

LA Fitness strikes a nice balance for me. Only $20/mo, all of the equipment I need, but no excess that I'm paying for and won't use.

 

[SociallyChallenged]

Well, most Americans would benefit more from cardio work than lifting. 😛

Considering one of the biggest problems in aging Americans is sarcopenia, you're not quite correct. And keeping in mind that the biggest problem in America is obesity, which is best alleviated by diet modifications and resistance exercise... what you're saying isn't exactly true 😛 Both are vital to good health.

 

[M0oG0oGaiPan]

the planetfitness that i went to previously did have a squat rack and a couple bb benches. It was cheap and good enough. I think the dumbells only went up to 95 though. I remember about the time I quit there was at least 10 cardio machines that were out of service.

Lifetime fitness is probably the nicest gym I've ever been in. That place had some crazy monthly dues though. They have 2 or three waterslides. Rock wall. Soooo many hot girls...

Another one was merit fitness or maybe lifebridge. They had a connected box you could work out in for crossfit stuff. Had a rock wall also. They have a really nice cambered indoor track also.

It's not bad if you get a corporate discount. Otherwise it's $$$$

 

[alkemyst]

Well the point was, I think, if you had to pick one.

IMHO cardio would be the better choice for most.

 

[MrMatt]

I'm surprised you didn't know that already about them...thought that's what they were known for...

 

[HN]

If you know you're going to cancel, try to set off the lunk alarm.

 

[MetalMat]

24 hour fitness, 50 bucks a year ftw. Aint the greatest gym in the world but it has decent stuff

 

[dealmaster00]

Well the point was, I think, if you had to pick one.

IMHO cardio would be the better choice for most.

you can easily lose weight lifting too...

 

[Pantlegz]

you can easily lose weight lifting too...

even eaiser for people like me who hate to run but love to lift 🙂

 

[M0oG0oGaiPan]

24 hour fitness, 50 bucks a year ftw. Aint the greatest gym in the world but it has decent stuff

damn that's a great deal. does your membership work at all their locations?

 

[alkemyst]

you can easily lose weight lifting too...

*sigh*...

right, but the CARDIO recommendation just takes moving around...no equipment. Therefore (or ergo as AT likes to use), it would get the most mileage.

You people will argue something into the ground.

 

[Kipper]

*sigh*...

right, but the CARDIO recommendation just takes moving around...no equipment. Therefore (or ergo as AT likes to use), it would get the most mileage.

You people will argue something into the ground.

No we won't.

 

[polarmystery]

damn that's a great deal. does your membership work at all their locations?

I think the $50/year is only after the initial 3 year commitment when you pay $7-800 up front. That's what my friend did, and after the third year, he can pay $50/year for life.

 

[alkemyst]

It's about attrition though. They know most memberships a 3 year contract really means someone showing up the first few months and then very sporadically.

A club operates on most memberships being no-shows. The bigger clubs esp. national ones know it down to almost exact figures.

I used my Scandinavian and then Bally's lifetime for a few years at around $80-90 a year after a $300 sign up and $30-50 a month for 3 years back in the 80's (I forget the exact numbers but it was reasonable for a 24/7 club with pools, racquetball/tennis, hottubs, power lifting, keiser, nautilus, martial arts/yoga/richard simmons/yaddayaddayadda...

plus fucking wall to wall chicks.

Prime time was a bitch to workout, but prime time was when I'd just do some lifting and pick up chicks. I had other gym memberships, plus worked out there during non-prime hours.