PLANET FITNESS

From everything I've heard, it seems like a good beginner gym with light to moderate weights and lots of cardio equipment. If you get serious about strength training, you'll need to move on to another gym, but if you are looking for an inexpensive "first step", PF is probably not a bad idea. Better than no gym, certainly.

I really enjoy mine (haven't gone in a while) going to start going again this week. It is cheap and has what I need. I also take aqua aerobics and yoga through my local parks and rec to supplement since PF doesn't offer any classes.

It really comes down to what you would like to accomplish at the gym. I started at Planet Fitness and outgrew what they had to offer and moved to another gym (thankfully for the same price). I feel like it was a good gym to start at and did learn a lot while I was there. Since each Planet Fitness is independently owned each PF can be different. Some don't have free weights/squat racks/ or benches. And I'm pretty sure (could be wrong) that almost all do not allow dead lifting.

I would say yes if your in the beginning. I plan on joining as well because they just opened a new here too.

I like mine. The people who work there are nice and rarely is that stupid lunk alarm pulled. I can dead lift, do step ups on the benches, high intensity workouts (someone in a previous post said you can't do high intensity workouts but you can). Depending on the branch (the one in Providence comes to mind) they may have squat racks and olympic bars. It's affordable: $19.99/month for both my husband and I vs. $80/month for both of us at another local gym. It's also closer to us than the other gym and more convenient.

I get that they don't have a huge array of free weights but it suits my needs. I don't do Olympic lifts -- that's not my goal -- so I don't need all that equipment. My goal is to drop a couple of vanity pounds and lean out. The gym at the company I used to work for had pretty much the same equipment as PF (with the exception of a cage and an Olympic bar which I rarely used, mostly because I never had a spotter) and I was in great shape when I worked out there with their "limited" equipment. Oh, and with that "limited" equipment and the shape I was in from it I was often told that I should do a figure competition.

Basically what I'm saying is it's not "all about the equipment". One can get a good workout, drop weight and meet whatever goals they have at their local PF just as they could do the same at a "fancy" gym. One could gain weight and be fat going to PF just as they could gain weight and be fat at a "fancy" gym. It's not the equipment that gives the person results it's how much time and effort they put into the workout.

Oh, and FWIW: the gym my sister works at got rid of all their aerobic classes and her comment was "We're no different than Planet Fitness now".

I belong to one just because it's only 8 min walking from my house and it's $10 a month. There's no free weights/squat. I use dumbbells ( up to 60lbs) pre-load barbell ( up to 50lb) and the cable machines.

I have been doing dead lift with no problem, I think it depends on the gym.

MakePeasNotWar wrote: »

From everything I've heard, it seems like a good beginner gym with light to moderate weights and lots of cardio equipment. If you get serious about strength training, you'll need to move on to another gym, but if you are looking for an inexpensive "first step", PF is probably not a bad idea. Better than no gym, certainly.

^^ This. Planet Fitness helped me to lose 78 pounds. I had my membership for just over a year. It was a great place where I felt comfortable, but now my needs have changed and I have joined a gym that better meets those needs. Good Luck, OP!!

It's fine, open 24hrs at $10/mo with no cancellation fee. If you get the $20 membership, you can go to any of their locations and they are all across America like a popular fast food chain, you can bring a guest each time, you can tan (which I don't since I'm Black, lol) and use their chair massage and hydro-massage - they are also teen/tween friendly. It's a supplement, I am a member at another gym but they aren't 24/hr, I can't bring a guest and they have no massage.

For a starter place, it can be great, as long as you are not looking for a lot of guidance or knowledgeable staff. It's clean and cheap (at least the one here). I go to a somewhat dingy local gym that has the free weights I want to use now, but my wife still goes to PF and it meets her needs.

If your dead set on lifting a certain way, then you will not be happy.

However, just the fact that you are asking the question says to me that your more concerned with getting from point A to point B more so then exactly how you do it.

PF is lacking in free weights but they have an over abundance of machines. You can get adequate to pretty good resistance training at PF, but not optimal.

The good news is that you don't need optimal just to be in really good shape.

If you don't already belong to a gym and your willing to compromise some what on your exact form of resistance training then PF isn't a bad place for you.

I belong to LA Fitness. I pay $17.99/month and can use any gym in my area. I did look into PF when one first opened up near me but decided not to join after looking at their so called free weight section.

Hubby has a membership there. He got it strictly for AM cardio and tanning since it is close to home. He was also able to save money because he can use the tanning bed there and it ended up $10 less per month than the tanning salon. He needs more weight than what they have so he has a second membership. Just depends on what you are looking for in a gym.

I heard they also have hydrobeds and massage chairs. Really pamper the members.

I like PF. I don't ever see myself as someone who needs to lift weights that are not attached to a machine. Due to the cheap cost (relative, I know, but when I was broke I joined a gym for $70 a month, so now it seems like pennies), I maintain two gym memberships. One at Planet Fitness, and one at a smaller gym for women that specializes in group classes but doesn't have a lot of cardio equipment.