Fitness Club Reviews - Health Clubs and Gyms - Fitness Club Ratings
Are you considering joining a health club or switching health clubs? Find out which health clubs, fitness centers, and gyms receive good customer ratings - and which do not.
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Rating the Health Clubs and Gyms
Fitness Club Reviews - Consumer Reports recently surveyed over 10,000 of its subscribers to rate their health clubs. Let's review how the big chains fared in the survey among its members:
Bally Total Fitness
Bally Total Fitness - Bally Fitness had the overall worst ratings among the fitness clubs and gyms surveyed.
Bally Fitness got below average ratings for staff (availability, expertise, and helpfulness), variety of fitness equipment, classes (variety, quantity, scheduling, and instruction quality), and value (was the membership worth the cost?). Bally's got an average rating for workout options (which include hours and space).
Bally also had some of the worst scores for crowds, locker rooms, cleanliness, billing issues, classes, crowds (scores for complaints about wait times for machines), and convenient locations according to Consumer Reports.
Curves for Women
Curves International - Curves for Women is a club that is a nice alternative for many females. It offers a non-intimidating environment and has good ratings for smaller crowds.
Curves for Women has over 7,132 locations in North America. That is far more than any other big fitness chain.
Curves had very high ratings for crowds (meaning Curves is less crowded than most other fitness clubs).
Curves for Women advertises its 30 minute workout (total body workout) on its strength training and cardio circuit. But Curves scored poorly in the 'workout options' category among members. Curves had average ratings for both classes and value.
Curves did do well in the ratings for cleanliness, but it rated below average for equipment (variety) and locker rooms.
Curves had rated best among the fitness club chains for 'less crowded than most' and for cleanest.
Gold's Gym
Gold's Gym International - Gold's Gym rated very average among members almost across the different categories. The exception for Gold's was in the 'variety of equipment' category. Here, Gold's got good reviews from its members.
Gold's Gym has a presence in nearly every state (roughly 43 of the 50 states).
24 Hour Fitness
24 Hr Fitness - 24hour was not rated very well by its members in this survey. 24hr had average ratings for 'variety of equipment,' locker rooms, classes, and value.
24hour Fitness scored poorly for staff and cleanliness. And 24 Hr Fitness scored very poorly for crowds in their gyms.
At this time, 24 Hour Fitness has much fewer locations nationwide than Gold's Gym - 24 Hour Fitness is in roughly 14 states.
LA Fitness
LA Fitness - Another health club that did not do very well overall in the membership ratings in this survey. LA Fitness did score fairly well in the 'workout options' category. However, LA Fitness clubs scored very poorly in the 'staff' rating. It also did not do very well in the 'value' and 'crowds' ratings.
LA Fitness had average ratings for variety of fitness equipment, cleanliness, locker rooms, and classes.
Life Time Fitness
Life Time Fitness - Life Time Fitness scored the highest overall among the big brand fitness chains. Life Time scored very high on best equipment variety, best locker rooms, and best exercise classes. Life Time Fitness had average marks for value and crowds.
Life Time scored among the highest of the fitness clubs for 'best staff' and for best fitness equipment variety. Lifetime Fitness also scored highest for best classes.
Most Life Time Fitness locations are open 24 hours a day, which obviously helped its ratings for hours.
YMCA / YWCA
YMCA / YWCA - There are over 2,600 YMCA /YWCA locations in the country. Only Curves Fitness has more locations.
YMCA / YWCA had average ratings across the board among those members surveyed. Bottom line is, members don't seem to have too many complaints about the YMCA, but on the other hand, it does not seem to terribly impress them, either.
YMCA excelled in the 'easiest to cancel your membership' category versus the major fitness chains.
--Note that these survey results may not be representative of the general U.S. population.
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