Planet Fitness

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Varamyr38
Varamyr38 Posts: 258 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
My wife and I are trying out Planet Fitness tonight. Seems very affordable and I like the concept of no gymtimidation. I've lost around 50 pounds so far without going to the gym. Hopefully this will help even more because I can't stay on target every single day. We all have bad days. PF being 24 hours helps a lot too. Me and my wife are night people. What are your thoughts about this place if you've attended before? If you want to add me, go right ahead as well. Have a great night!
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  • dewd2
    dewd2 Posts: 2,449 Member
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    Sounds like it is perfect for you and your wife. My biggest issue with them is they do not take credit cards. There is no way they are getting my bank info. When they get hacked I do not want to deal with checks bouncing and other nonsense that using a credit card eliminates.
  • djspacecaptain
    djspacecaptain Posts: 366 Member
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    I belong there and its ok. They have such a tiny weight area that often gets too crowded for me. They don't have any row machines for cardio which is my favorite, but oh well. I mean for the price its worth it but you don't get everything.
  • Varamyr38
    Varamyr38 Posts: 258 Member
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    cecsav1 wrote: »
    I love PF. I was there when I lost my first 75 pounds. I even worked there for 3 years, got my PT certification when I was working there, and was promoted to fitness instructor.

    PF gets a lot of hate on here. Before anybody starts bashing:
    Yes, you're allowed to deadlift.
    No, there's probably not a squat rack.
    Yes, they have free weights, but they only go up to (about) 75 pounds.
    Yes, they offer free pizza, once a month!
    Yes, free bagels too, also once per month.
    Training's also free.
    Yeah, there's more cardio machines than weights.
    No, no daycare or classes.

    But if it fits your needs, especially if you're a beginner, it can be a wonderful place to work out! They don't "cater to bodybuilders." That's true. Neither does McDonald's, but people seem to hate PF for that. They're a business, and their marketing is what it is.

    Glad to see somebody on here that's even worked for them before. There is so much hate on the internet about them, it's insane. That could probably be said about anything though. It's the internet. We're there just to lose the weight through the machines. Might do some of the lifting machines later but that just isn't a priority right now. The giving out free food thing is just weird. Went in tonight and there was a bowl of tootsie rolls at the check-in desk. It's just like real life and we have to avoid temptation out in the real world too so why not test your limits in the gym as well? The guy didnt even give us a tutor. Seemed like he was going half you know what. Just pointed at where stuff was and said if we have any questions, to come ask him. Treadmills arent rocket science so had no questions. Good to get in there and do some work tonight. Now back at it tomorrow and got my Spotify ready to go this time. Let's get it done! Allons-Y!
  • CincyNeid
    CincyNeid Posts: 1,249 Member
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    I've been a Planet Fitness member for the past two years. I've lost a ton of weight and toned a ton of muscle by working there. You're going to get a lot of hate because 1) They don't have personal trainers 2) They do have "snack days" 3) You're not allowed to throw weights around and yell like a Primate/Neanderthal then you drop your weights.

    However it I give a giant Internet High Five to people who use Planet Fitness as their gym and has successfully lost weight there. You don't have some Bro-Tank wearing guy screaming at you to do one more set. It's up to you to push yourself. It's up to you to up the ante.

    As far as snack day it's temptation, sure. But it again shows how strong you are to walk right by them. The 2 Planet Fitness locations that are near me, one of them has a BK & KFC right next door and the other has a Jimmy Johns and Panda Express by them. And I drive by them 95% of the time on my way out the door. It's up to you to avoid the temptation.

    As far as screaming, yelling, and grunting. I've never had the Lunk Alarm go off on my closest location. It's understandable that if you're pushing yourself you're going to grunt and groan. And if the desk hand makes the alarm go off for that then they really do not understand how lifting works. As far as throwing weights around once again if you're lifting slightly above your threshold it's going to be undestood that you're going to drop/aggressively put down the weights after a few sets.

    but by any means don't let anyone discourage you from working out and bettering yourself.
  • brigg9
    brigg9 Posts: 104 Member
    edited July 2016
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    I was a PF member for a couple of years. My goals at that time were different than they are now, and back then my only goal was weight loss. PF did just fine for cardio equipment and minimum weight equipment. Just avoid the free pizza, tootsie rolls and donuts that they provide.

    Each PF seems to be run slightly different. Some heavily discriminate to weight lifters, while others don't seem to mind body builders at all. Serious weight lifters will usually not use a PF though due to the severe lack of equipment. PF has a very poor public relation with the weight lifting community, and discriminate heavily against them, even to the point of using a "lunk alarm" to target people out. They don't want to cater to that type of fitness community.

    PF is fine depending on your goals. I have no interest to support such an idiotic, discriminatory business model though, which is fine since now I know better and my goals have also changed.
  • spartan_d
    spartan_d Posts: 727 Member
    edited July 2016
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    cecsav1 wrote: »
    I love PF. I was there when I lost my first 75 pounds. I even worked there for 3 years, got my PT certification when I was working there, and was promoted to fitness instructor.

    PF gets a lot of hate on here. Before anybody starts bashing:
    Yes, you're allowed to deadlift.
    More precisely, you MIGHT be able to get away with it. Officially, it is disallowed; however, some PF locations turn a blind eye to it.
    Yes, they offer free pizza, once a month!
    Yes, free bagels too, also once per month.
    To be more precise, we can be thankful that this only happens once a month. It's still a foolish policy when many of the clients are struggling with poor eating habits, but at least it doesn't happen more oten.
    Training's also free.
    Again, for the sake of accuracy, their "training" isn't up to the par of what you can expect at a more thorough gym. In fact, their president has gone on records as ridiculing the whole notion of having a personal trainer. So their "trainers" may show you a few things, but not with a great deal of expertise, and they won't tend to push you as hard as other trainers would.

  • ndj1979
    ndj1979 Posts: 29,139 Member
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    what exactly is "gymintimidation" ????
  • ndj1979
    ndj1979 Posts: 29,139 Member
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    its great for newbies, but if you ever want to progress to squatting, deadlifting, etc, then you are going to have to switch gyms....
  • fitgirldc
    fitgirldc Posts: 55 Member
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    Well you can't beat the price and hours of operation! I also think it's a great place for beginners in particular. You don't feel like you're in a competition and people are not walking around kissing their muscles. lol
  • Chef_Barbell
    Chef_Barbell Posts: 6,644 Member
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    fitgirldc wrote: »
    Well you can't beat the price and hours of operation! I also think it's a great place for beginners in particular. You don't feel like you're in a competition and people are not walking around kissing their muscles. lol

    I have never seen that at my gym.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,874 Member
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    It depends on what you need/want out of a gym...Don't expect to get into any kind of major strength training there...most traditional lifts are banned and the one I belonged to years ago had very limited free weights. It's fine I suppose if you want access to a lot of cardio equipment and you don't mind machines for resistance training...I personally prefer free weights and I like to be able to do squats and dead lifts and cleans and jerks and whatnot so I'm not allowed in that place...I'm just an intimidating lunk I guess...whatever that is besides clever marketing.
  • redraidergirl2009
    redraidergirl2009 Posts: 2,560 Member
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    I liked it. I liked it more than my new gym which has a lot of people who aren't doing exercises right whilst growling and slamming weights down.

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