What gym do you use?

Retro Fitness.

Pros- I can use it anywhere in the country.
Price point is great
Every location I have been to has been clean and fully stocked.

Cons- No real amenities.
No pool.
No sauna.

A local 'chain'.

Pros

It's close to my house
BABYSITTING
Hours are alright (5am/11pm week, 7am/7pm week end)
Family swim times on week ends
Lots of classes
Nice trendy treadmills that have games on them
Lots of machines
Free sessions with trainer every 6 weeks
Free nurse evaluation every 8 weeks
Nice and clean facilities

Cons

Pricey
Not much focus on free weights
The nurse evaluation are a joke and the body fat % numbers they give you are not accurate (there's no way I'm 22% body fat)
Closed on major Holidays (at least in the afternoon)
Music too loud sometimes (been better lately though)


I could go to Planet Fitness... but it's farther, and I really need babysitting during school break. Plus my kids love family swim (when we actually go).

Everybody Fitness

Pros:
-$15/month (been part of the chain they bought out in January since 2011)
-1.5 miles from my house
-open 24 hours a day during the week
-lots of amenities
-can visit other locations
-section just for women (the previous chain started as women's only until they bought an abandoned Ballys building)

Cons:
-much of the equipment is left from the Ballys days
-limited weight selection on the women's side (machines, dumbbells up to 50 pounds, one barbell and bench, Smith machine, leg press)
-if you go during a peak time the only cardio available is the recumbent bike

University gym
Pros cheap, can go to the one close to work or the one clise to home
Generally open at times that suit
Good selection of cardio machines

Cons no classes

tinkerbellang83 wrote: »

Jax2120 wrote: »

Remember guys I said for people with gym memberships. Not home gyms.

Pretty sure it didn't say that before

Maybe you start your own thread that doesn't discriminate based on where a gym was born, next thing you know there'll be a wall

LA Fitness
(weight training 3 sessions/week)

Pros:
(1) 1-3 minute drive from work
(2) cheap for me. (boyfriend picked it, and I am on his plan. negotiated them down since I (very clearly) didn't consider their default price worth it. (there are 2 more gyms on that block - and I know what a barbell/plate set and rack cost).
(3) nice locker room & no kids (unlike the YMCA, where they ran around like animals getting puddle of pool water everywhere). (though honestly, I don't really care that much - I'm used to changing at my car after running/hiking/cycling anyway, but changing in A/C in the summer and heat in the winter those 3 days is nice).
-
(4) If you enjoy hampster wheels, they have like a ton of those. Personally, I'd rather run around the building a bunch of times to warm up before stretching and lifting than one of those things. blech.
(5) If you enjoy classes, they also have like a bunch of those. (which can mean having to tiptoe into the class room if prime hours in order to grab a mat for abs during rests or a step for box jumps).

Cons:
(1) Have to wait for equipment (squat rack & bench press at the least) if I go after work. I typically take a late lunch break at 2 or 3 pm twice a week or go at 9pm after dancing now (mostly empty with no wait at these times).
(2) Generally pricy. I would not have been willing to pay their default price.

-Personally, I'm considering setting up a gym at the office to take care of Con #1.

Machka9 wrote: »

The Great Outdoors

Pros
Open 24/7
Great price
Wide variety of locations
Wide variety of activity options

Cons
The climate control is a little questionable sometimes

bwahaha. Love this.

For me, I would, unfortunately, have to add the commute time to the Cons list for my favoured activities and locations. (35 minutes minimum each way to any of the orienteering parks and the good cycling hills). So weekday cardio for me is usually running the city pavement.

I go to Orange Theory a few times a week and belong to the YMCA. I also buy passes to CycleBar and another gym in my area with a great spin studio.

I miss the YMCA! I liked having my choice of where to go. I liked the family atmosphere. I liked the fact that when you pay for a gym membership at a large chain, the gym tends to hold up its end of the bargain with a sufficient amount of working equipment. It's just the military gym for me nowadays though. Don't get me wrong. I appreciate the free-ness of the thing, but I don't appreciate the very limited amount of equipment that breaks regularly and that doesn't even work properly when it's not what they consider broken. Or the lack of ventilation. Man, it gets hot in there.