The Mistake of Going to Planet Fitness

Hey everybody, I’d like to tell you about my experience with Planet Fitness.

So I’m on spring break right now, away from college, and I need a place to go to at least maintain my bulking cycle. My mother has a membership to Planet Fitness and she invited me to join her. I figured, “sure, why not?” thinking I might as well because a gym is a gym, right?

Considering where I left off in my training last week, today I needed to do some deadlifts, barbell presses, and pull ups.

WRONG!!!

First off, there isn’t a barbell in the damn building! The racks are those pussy kind where you are stuck in a set range of motion, and there is only a small section in the corner of the gym where the free weights are located. To top it off, and this REALLY ANNOYED ME to the point of wanting to leave, was a giant horn above the freeweight section called the “Lunk Alarm.”

Drop a weight, the alarm goes off and everyone in the gym stops and stares at you. Place the weights too harshly on the floor, the alarm goes off, and you feel like an ass. Talk about limiting results; with the limited amount of weights they do provide, they try to embarrass you when you work out with intensity. Has anyone ever seen such bullshit? I was in complete awe.

This was the most watered-down, artificial, “Hey I want to pretend that I’m working out” gyms I have ever been to. I even saw a massage chair.

I’d just love to picture that meeting in the corporate boardroom:

“Sir, we only have a few dollars left on our budget. Should we include barbells or a massage chair?”

“Well, these people are supposed to be getting fit. So let’s give them a massage chair.”

Unbelievable. I suppose when anything is mass marketed (even fitness), companies are great providing to 50-something’s looking to burn a few cals here and there but abysmal at actually providing a decent workout. Seeing probably 50+ cardio machines next to 5 benches was sad indeed. It’s sort of like a brand new $800,000 house that has a “stone facade” and vinyl siding–unauthentic, watered-down crap for the masses.

Thank God they had cables to work out with. All I can say is, for kicks, you should really go check one out some time. Definitely look for the Lunk Alarm and go drop a weight next to it.

They are just providing what the market wants, sadly.

Planet Fitness is the prime example of a company that doesn’t really give a crap about their customers’ well-being, they just want the money.

Just another reason why I’m glad I bought a powercage, weights, and floor mats.

A lunk alarm? LOL. Is there mention of this contraception on their website?

[quote]Synthetickiller wrote:
Just another reason why I’m glad I bought a powercage, weights, and floor mats.

A lunk alarm? LOL. Is there mention of this contraception on their website?[/quote]

lol, contraception

I think they even have pizza nights on friday and a big bowl of M & M’s at the front desk too! There was a thread about this travesty corporation a while back, and it was just as you described: a building of excuses tailor made for fatties

a hope a pro-bodybuilding terrorist organization bombs them.

they bought out the “real” gym i used to go to.

i kind of like this “lunk alarm” thing.

really, if you’re strong enough to lift it, you’re strong enough to lower it under control.

i can’t count how many DBs we have to replace on a weekly basis, because jerk-offs (i used to be one), will drop the DBs from any height.

this is one reason gym memberships go up in price, those DBs aren’t cheap, so by all means keep dropping them.

/rant over

[quote]Synthetickiller wrote:
Just another reason why I’m glad I bought a powercage, weights, and floor mats.

A lunk alarm? LOL. Is there mention of this contraception on their website?[/quote]

No contraception available :wink: and no there is no mention on the website about it. It’s honestly one of the most ridiculous things I’ve ever seen. It’s a full scale alarm that goes off and a light siren goes off to tell the whole gym that there is somebody actually trying to lift heavy weights. Oh, no tank tops allowed either!
Wouldn’t want the fat people to feel bad about themselves!

[quote]jehovasfitness wrote:
i kind of like this “lunk alarm” thing.

really, if you’re strong enough to lift it, you’re strong enough to lower it under control.

i can’t count how many DBs we have to replace on a weekly basis, because jerk-offs (i used to be one), will drop the DBs from any height.

this is one reason gym memberships go up in price, those DBs aren’t cheap, so by all means keep dropping them.

/rant over[/quote]

I see what you’re saying, and maybe I’d approve of the lunk alarm if it only went off under those circumstances. However, by simply roughly putting the weight down on the floor from getting it off the rack, the alarm went off (that’s how I tripped it today).

[quote]JGrex1 wrote:
. Oh, no tank tops allowed either!
Wouldn’t want the fat people to feel bad about themselves!

[/quote]

No way, really? In that case, they might as well ban short shorts on girls too, after all, we wouldn’t want the fatties to be uncomfortable!

[quote]jehovasfitness wrote:
i kind of like this “lunk alarm” thing.

really, if you’re strong enough to lift it, you’re strong enough to lower it under control.

i can’t count how many DBs we have to replace on a weekly basis, because jerk-offs (i used to be one), will drop the DBs from any height.

this is one reason gym memberships go up in price, those DBs aren’t cheap, so by all means keep dropping them.

/rant over[/quote]

Dropping them like a dickhead is one thing, but there are times when dropping them under control is totally acceptable.

And screw the lunk alarm. It’s one of my goals to set one of those off sometime in the future.

[quote]msd0060 wrote:
Synthetickiller wrote:
Just another reason why I’m glad I bought a powercage, weights, and floor mats.

A lunk alarm? LOL. Is there mention of this contraception on their website?

lol, contraception[/quote]

Now that was a freudian slip.

The people that created that “gym” should only use contraception, as their breeding will be the downfall of us all. Castration works too.

[quote]jehovasfitness wrote:
i kind of like this “lunk alarm” thing.

really, if you’re strong enough to lift it, you’re strong enough to lower it under control.

i can’t count how many DBs we have to replace on a weekly basis, because jerk-offs (i used to be one), will drop the DBs from any height.

this is one reason gym memberships go up in price, those DBs aren’t cheap, so by all means keep dropping them.

/rant over[/quote]

I’m sorry but I have trouble lowing the weight after a power snatch or heavy deadlift.

[quote]jehovasfitness wrote:

really, if you’re strong enough to lift it, you’re strong enough to lower it under control.
[/quote]

You always hear this from people who don’t use heavy weight.

I don’t think anyone here is condoning throwing the weight half way across the gym.

[quote]Professor X wrote:

I don’t think anyone here is condoning throwing the weight half way across the gym.[/quote]

Unless you’re at Planet Fitness.

Who “lowers the weight under control” when doing dumbell benching? I’m pretty sure that dropping the dumbells from the bench height isn’t going to kill anyone, yet would no doubt set off the hypertrophy alarm.

btw- i was not referring to OLY-lifts.

obviously that is totally different as BBs and plates can handle the abuse, let alone it’s an explosive lift, not like other lifts.

and Prof X, I see your point, but at the same time, either way, if you’re using really heavy weights, then you’re probably pretty damn strong, strong enough to lower them back down, is it easier to just drop them, yes, but still not right.

heck, it’s also a safety hazard in gyms these days as they have shit so closely put together.

[quote]Joe D. wrote:
Who “lowers the weight under control” when doing dumbell benching? I’m pretty sure that dropping the dumbells from the bench height isn’t going to kill anyone, yet would no doubt set off the hypertrophy alarm.[/quote]

I do!

it sucks as you’re fatigued, but I do it.

you could drop the DB on someone’s foot nearby, etc

and from that height, DBs break, i’m not making this shit up. it may not break right there, but if they’re welded kind, over time they start to bow and will break off. If they’re the bolted kind, they come loose, get stripped and have actually fallin apart on people as they were lifting.

i’m not saying you guys are evil, lol. Just saying maybe look at it from another perspective

sounds like youve been megadosing estrogen. its one thing to drop DBs from shoulder height which i doubt anyone does vs dropping them from a bench 1.5-2ft off the ground. a lot of Dbs are made of some rubbery material anyway. and really if youve actually made use of your set youll be too tired to gently place them down. christ, its a gym not a nursery. these arent little babies theyre weights.