You get what you pay for, but its not all that. (LA Fitness in general)

Member Name: I-tried-this

Product:	LA Fitness in general
Date:	09/02/09 (107 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Can get good offers in fees if you haggle, plus free towels, free body wash, free goodie bag

Disadvantages: The SMELL! And lack of space/machinary/variety of machinary

Well, I have to say first here, that I am comparing LA Fitness to the lush Reebok Sports Club which I had been attending until I really couldn't afford it any more- well, actually I could, but I was fed up with only being able to go to the gym Friday, Saturday and Sunday, and cramming everything into three days.... I needed my weekend back! Also, I had been starting to use my local gym in the week, meaning I was not able to afford to eat...(not good). So I decided to downgrade to LA Fitness and go to the gym a little for 5 days a week.

Why did I choose LA Fitness?
Well, when I was choosing between gyms, I made a list of the gyms around me I could get to: Fitness First- I visited, too small, classes not workable- in their gym they had 2 huge fat pillars in the middle of the tiny workout room! And instructors who didn't seem to care. It would set me back £40 a month and I have heard they can not cancel; your contract at the end of a year. They also had very few machines and they gym seemed to be very crowded.
My local gym, well I live in Greenwich, and I could have joined all of the local gyms around me for £40 a month. But there is black mould on the walls and ceiling in the shower rooms. They also close the gym for two weeks and still take payment without warning you first. And things like the Power Plate are constantly out of action- no one has fixed it for over 2 years! I also have a long history of Anorexia and Bulimia, and my local gym is across the road from a University where many of the students there seem to have anorexia or some sort of exercise addiction- its really unhelpful to me to put it mildly- especially when they plonk themselves right next to me and keep trying to match my speed/pace/compete with me in classes.
Well, that's it, Virgin, Escorta and anything else are too far or too expensive for me. LA Fitness was the only one to go for.

What are the freebies/perks?
Well, they are not too bad- I got a rucksack with a towel, earphones, a water bottle, a padlock for the lockers and a 20% off voucher card for any product loyalty card (also when I buy 9 products I get the 10th free but I wont hold my breath on that being anything I actually want or need!) You also get a free towel when you visit for a workout- a very good idea and something I thought only my last gym (the Reebok) did. The towels are a good size, though on the thin side, do their job and are free. You also get free use of the hairdriers and free shower gel and moisturiser.
I also am able to visit any gym in the country at any time, any day of the week, can do any class -except for the paid for ones, for free and can watch TV on the big screens whilst working out.

And what do I pay?
Well, for all this, I pay £47 a month. I have got this on offer and did join in December, but wont have to pay until the end of February, as I got December and January for free (I paid for Feb in December) I also escaped joining fees and saved about £100 in all. Its a big saving financially for me but....

What don't I like about this gym?
Well, there are some good things- the fitness team, class instructors, changing room cleaners there are friendly, they teach constructively and are all professional, and do a good job, but they are sadly let down by other things:
I have yet to go to any of the LA Fitness centres and not have it smell exactly the same: B.O! I don't know how they do it?! How do they get it to smell SOOOOO bad??? its also worsened when certain members are closer- so I know its due to one or tow people refusing to wear deoderant, and ruining it for everyone else. I am not sure who here is to blame as the air conditioning is definitely on, but for some reason, a few people in the gym seem to smell a lot more then people at my local gym where in some centres (Woolwich) there just isn't enough air conditioning at all- yet no bad smell! I have seen LA Fitness advertisements for offers like nuts, seeds and protein shakes, I wish they would also introduce a deodorant.
I also wish they had a cleaner on the gym floor, as many people seem to think its OK to leave behind their sweaty towels and tissues on the machine- Yuck! I think that is gross and again, something that seems to only happen in LA Fitness gyms, not in other gyms I have been to.

I also have found that the classes I do -with the exception of the Yoga, to be all too easy. Now, I may be being harsh here- my local gym is very good- so good that there simply are no private gyms for miles in Greenwich (just a shame the facilities let them down so much) and the Reebok has been noted as "The Centre of Excellent" by the Government Fitness Association Board, so LA Fitness did have a lot to love up to- and for me, the classes have just not been hard enough for me where abs classes and aerobic classes are concerned. I did do spinning and that was the same if not greater intensity.

I dislike how they turn the showers to cold when its 15 minutes to closing. I think that is nasty and uncalled for. It in fact makes me take longer as I have to brave the showers bit by bit so they only make things worse for themselves this way.

But my main concern is that they just don't have the variety of machinery I want! They have no Stairmaster, (Rolling stairs, like a treadmill but a set of stairs instead), the have no side stepper and no Power Plate in any of the gyms I have been to which for me is gutting, as they are all very good machines to use.

I also do not think there are enough machines and you do need to que at times to use the machine of your choice. The machines themselves are all very basic "Techno Gym" machines, which compared to both my local and the Reebok gyms are really the cheapest and most basic machines. But they do work and do what's basicly required in each case.
There are upright and back supported bikes, treadmills, cross trainers, arm cycle machines, stepper machines, a few rowing machines and walking/wading machines. Oh, and plenty of weight machines, I don't use weights so I cannot comment. The pool is OK in the one pool I have been in- not too cold, not too warm, but I have only tried one pool (West India Quay).

I don't know how I will manage these next 12 months (I have 12 months of a contract left), I cannot stand the smell and that's enough to put me off! But I will be leaving after then- unless the gyms themselves decide to get in more machines (though admittedly there is no more room for them!) and start to use air fresheners! I guess in a way you get what you pay for, I use my membership to go to a gym 5 days a week, for about 3 hours a time, sometimes more, so I pay a rate of £11.75 a week which works out to about 78p per hour. I don't have to face mould in the showers or chavvy teenagers using my gym, chatting on their mobiles, or super skinny anorexic Uni students, but I think I would rather go without food and go back to the Reebok full time!

Don't do what I did- for some people, LA Fitness may work for you, but try it out first- get a one day pass from the website and visit for a day, see if you can hack it, as they are very small gyms (though not as tiny as Fitness First) and you really need to see if you think you can hack it for 12 months as once your in a contract, there is no way out.

Summary: Look before you leap into a year long contract- get a one day free pass from the website first!