Which Gym should I join?

ONUnicorn

I'm considering joining a gym. I need to build upper body and core strength, as well as improve cardiovascular endurance. I was a member of LA fitness from 2010-2012, during which time I made progress on those goals and lost about 40 pounds. I canceled my membership partly to save money, and partly because I was going to school at night and working during the day and had access to the university fitness center (not that I had time to use it).

Option A is LA Fitness.
Pros:
1. I'm familiar with it.
2. It has a pool and hot tub, and I LOVE to swim.
Cons:
1. It's expensive.
2. It's about a 20-30 minute drive between it and home or work.

Option B is Planet Fitness
Pros:
1. It's cheap.
2. It's less than 3 miles from my house. So about a 5 minute drive. I pass it going to and from work.
Cons:
1. It doesn't have a pool.

The pool is kind of a big thing for me. When I was a member of LA fitness I'd use it as motivation, a half hour swimming laps was my reward for a half hour lifting weights, and 15 minutes in the hot tub was my reward for swimming laps. At the same time, it seems silly to pay 3 times as much and drive across town when there's a perfectly nice place to work out so close.

I don't know. I don't know which one I'd be more likely to actually use. Does anyone have advice? Which would you pick if it were you?

JessAndreia

Which do you love more? Swimming or saving money?
From your post, I get the impression you will be happier going to LA Fitness because of the pool. If you can afford it, I don't think it's silly at all to spend money for a place you'll be happier in while there.

aokoye

I would go with LA Fitness. You know you like swimming, you seem to be able to use the pool and the hot tub as a carrot to get yourself to lift weights (I wish I had that sort of carrot and stick system with strength training), and it sounds like you're comfortable being there. It also sounds like you would actually go, despite it being out of the way.

I suspect what would happen with Planet Fitness is that you either wouldn't go or you would dread going.

Halloweenmom31

I go to planet fitness. I love it. The hydro chair is my reward for working out every day. But that’s just my opinion.

lorrpb

Go for the pool!

albryce744

Does LA fitness lock you into a year contract or anything? If they don't, maybe try it for 3 mos and see if you think you're getting enough use from the pool to make it worth the extra $.

collectingblues

I'm in a similar situation -- pool is my major priority for a gym -- and went with LA Fitness. Indoor pools with lap swim access are a rarity in my area, and the $19 extra a month is worth it to me. Plus, with the LA Fitness membership, I can get access to *other* LA Fitness branches, which I can't with Planet Fitness. The only way to do that with Planet Fitness was to go for the higher tier, which is only $9 cheaper than my LA Fitness membership -- and that $9 isn't worth losing pool access over.

ONUnicorn

Halloweenmom31 wrote: »

I go to planet fitness. I love it. The hydro chair is my reward for working out every day. But that’s just my opinion.

What's a hydro chair?

pondee629

How in the world do you expect anyone other than yourself to answer this question? Is having a pool worth the extra expense, in both cash and time, TO YOU, or not? There comes a time when YOU have to decide what YOU want to do. Why would you surrender that to a bunch of internet strangers? Flip a coin, if, while the coin is in the air, you find yourself rooting for either heads of tails, you have your answer. If you weren't rooting, the coin will give you your answer.

Motorsheen

I would be tempted to join both because PF is very affordable and convenient & LA Fitness has the swimming pool.
PF could be used for the times that you need a quick workout and there isn't time for the commute & swimming isn't part of your plan that day. (I wouldn't say this, but PF is what? Something like $10 a month ?)

LA Fitness could be around when you have more time and want to include swimming (weekends, etc.).

Another option, go with LA Fitness and also build a small, affordable home-gym with dumbbells and resistance bands.

I've always felt that convenience is a huge factor when determining where I train.

Best of Luck!

cwolfman13

Convenience is a biggie for me. I recently got a supplemental membership to a PF near my office. It's about 5 minutes away and I can pop in during my lunch hour and do winter cardio or lift depending on the plan for the day. My other gym is in the town I live in...I commute an hour each way to another town for work and I was finding myself skipping the gym a lot because after working all day and an hour commute back to my home town I was not wanting to go to the gym.

Though I'm not a huge fan, I figured I'd give PF a go for a month or two to see if I would be more consistent which I have been and consistency is what is important. I go to my other gym now pretty much on Saturday to do my Oly work. I really love that gym, but I might ultimately give it up for the convenience factor and also to be able to dedicate my weekends to cycling.

I guess it really depends on how important the pool is for you vs. convenience. Doing stuff you like is very important to keeping on keeping on...but so is convenience.

MostlyWater

I have an Equinox membership which costs crazy money. But I really use it, so it's worth it for me. In addition, my health insurance pays for some of it.

chunky_pinup

Can you find like, a one or three month groupon or livingsocial type deal for the LA Fitness? That way you're not locked into anything, it's cheaper and you can use that time frame to determine how feasible that type of commute/membership will be. That way, if you determine after that period of time that it's just too much and you're not utilizing it as much, you can choose not to become a full member.

cwolfman13

To add to my post, a 20-30 minute commute to go to the gym is pretty significant. When my wife and I first got back into fitness years ago, we joined a JCC. It was awesome...nice weight room, good cardio room, yoga and spin and other classes, indoor track, gymnasium, and a kids swimming pool and adult pool. It also had inexpensive child care.

We loved it, but it was not at all convenient. It was out of the way in regards to our work commutes and about 30 minutes from the house. Initially, we were fine with it because we were new to fitness and pretty gung ho about it. Ultimately, this meant that an hour gym session was a two hour overall time suck with the commute, and we often felt obligated to stay there longer to make the commute worth it, but that furthered the time suck when you have other *kitten* going on in life. After a few months, we started going less and less because even though it had absolutely everything we wanted, the time suck was just too much. It was $100 per month for the family membership and thankfully on a month to month basis with no contract or commitment.

kenyonhaff

Which one will give you the best value?

Generally, you will go most often to the gym that's convenient, that stares you in the face on your commute.

However, if you really will go to the one with the pool MORE, that's the one for you. But you'd have to make a bit more effort.

aokoye

pondee629 wrote: »

How in the world do you expect anyone other than yourself to answer this question? Is having a pool worth the extra expense, in both cash and time, TO YOU, or not? There comes a time when YOU have to decide what YOU want to do. Why would you surrender that to a bunch of internet strangers? Flip a coin, if, while the coin is in the air, you find yourself rooting for either heads of tails, you have your answer. If you weren't rooting, the coin will give you your answer.

It's ok, and dare I say smart, to ask for advice which is exactly what the OP did. It's even ok to ask strangers for advice about various things - it's not black and white. If this was a medical decision then that would be a different issue, but it's not.

ritzvin

collectingblues wrote: »

I'm in a similar situation -- pool is my major priority for a gym -- and went with LA Fitness. Indoor pools with lap swim access are a rarity in my area, and the $19 extra a month is worth it to me. Plus, with the LA Fitness membership, I can get access to *other* LA Fitness branches, which I can't with Planet Fitness. The only way to do that with Planet Fitness was to go for the higher tier, which is only $9 cheaper than my LA Fitness membership -- and that $9 isn't worth losing pool access over.

At least for the one by us, the default tier is multi-location, but you can buy a single location membership for a bit cheaper (had to prod the sales people a bit before they offered that despite the website listing both).

To answer the others here: unless it differs between locations, they don't have a contract, but they do charge a sizeable initial join fee (and I don't recall ever seeing promotional deals in which they waive that - something that some of the other local gyms including the YMCA occasionally do).

To the OP: if you're not broke, I would say the pool sounds like its worth the money to you. You'll have to decide if it's also worth the further commute though.

For me: I'm with those above who vote both (if finances allow). The inconvenience would be a deal breaker (there are only a few things I'm willing to drive that far for) for something I need to cram in before or after work - so PF wins on that. If I loved swimming, I'd possibly join the LA Fitness (or a closer aquatic center) as well for the pool access. (for reference, I belong to an LA Fitness and have never used the pool..it's the closest gym to where I work. Boyfriend chose it because he wanted pool access - he also has never used it).

cwolfman13

Another thing to consider...depending on how many days you're planning to swim, you could gym at PF and join an aquatic center if there is one closer. That's what I did when I left the JCC and wanted to keep swimming on the weekends. I just did the daily fee which was $4 per visit because I was only going once and sometimes twice on a weekend and it was cheaper that way. The aquatic center I was going to was pretty close to my house so more convenient than the JCC.

rheddmobile

I vote both - the pool sounds worth it to you, and the PF cost is small enough to be worth having it as an option for quick workouts when you don't have time for the drive. I'm allergic to PF on principle (I like my heavy weights and grunting thank you very much) but if it suits your needs, go for it.

winati

I loove a pool, but I ended up at Planet fitness, let me tell you why. I go out of state and I can find Planet almost everywhere. Planet Fitness is also resonably priced.

mom23mangos

I vote for both as well, if financially possible.

KettleTO

It sounds like swimming is your primary form of cardio. Can you swim anywhere else? Where I live only the Ys (few and far between) and super highend clubs have pools, the chain gyms do not have pools (or pools for swimming lengths) and the city's rec centres have pools but have poor weight rooms. The Y is not convenient for me, so I'm a member of a chain gym (corporate discount and 2 minutes from my office) and use a city's pool (5 minutes from home). It is a challenge enough to fit in workouts weekdays, having to "commute" to the gym or the pool only makes it more challenging, especially since I commute by transit.

If other pools are not an option, go for LA Fitness if you will use it.

NoExcusesFromNowOn

I'm lazy so would not want the long drive.