Just a little debate…since im considering on getting a gym membership. I have 3 options…LA fitness (just the name sounds pussy to me)…golds gym…or worlds gym. Now i know people who have memberships to each. The people who goto the worlds gym say its alot less crowded than the other two…which for me is a big plus.
LA fitness has alot of females but i really dont give a shit about goingthere for that. And golds gym is big as hell but i hear it gets crowded as hell too. Now i really dont know which one to go with which is the reason for this post. From your experiences which is the best…Worlds…golds…or la fitness?
Where are you? Santa Monica here… I worked out at Gold’s a few times last summer and it was hot as hell and muggy. Don’t know about Worlds or LA Fitness. But Powerhouse on Olympic is pretty good.
It depends more on how the local gym is run than the name on the outside. I’ve worked out different Gold’s around the country and seen a range of good, bad and somewhere in between. If you are concerned about the crowds, go at off hours. I get to mine at 9:00 p.m. and it’s never crowded. If I were to go between 6:00 p.m. and 8:30, there would be many more people there.
I believe both of those are franchises. That means an owner pays for the name, has to meet some standards, and for the most part, how they have thier gym is up to them.
It is best to visit an individual gym versus going by a name. I’ve worked out at several different Powerhouses, and they all have a different feel.
Visit during the hours you would like to train. Observe the staff, the facilities and the crowd. It is probally not free, but you can get a trial workout or membership. If you do this, ask the owner (not just the counter help) if you can have your trial membership fee credit towards a membership if you sign up.
Like others have said, no one should be joining a gym because of the name on the outside. That sounds worse than only wearing a certain name brand of clothing. The Gold’s gym in my area sucks. That doesn’t mean they all do. The 24 Hour Fitness I used to go to was the best gym I’ve ever trained at. That doesn’t mean all of them are.
[quote]S-Lifter wrote:
If I were ever sentenced to using a commercial gym, I would go during off hours and then make it my kind of gym.[/quote]
I go to two gyms. One is Gold’s because I do like their cardio equipment, and one for this hole in the wall gym that looks like the one in that Ronnie Coleman video…only with Hammer Strength machines. I do most of my lifting at the “real gym” (which is open 24 hours with a keycard acess regardless of if no one is there or not) because there are less people using it as a place to hold deep conversations and read books.