Re: Lifetime Fitness
Date: December 23, 2008 11:35AM
VA Hokie Bird Wrote:
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> I will say I was lead to believe by the sales
> chick that when you joined, your fees were
> "grandfathered" in and wouldn't increase. That's
> not true and called her on it as I read the fine
> print. Then she said that they increase dues only
> rarely, but I got hit with one early in '08, so I
> hope there won't be one for awhile. I pay 70.95
> for my membership and my daughter's junior
> membership. Sign up fees are a little steep - I
> think it was around $200.
>
> Don't join right now! Wait until February or
> March. There's tons of "New Year's
> resolutionists" coming in now which is increasing
> the crowd, which will frustrate you. Half of them
> don't know proper gym etiquette and most of them
> are totally clueless and are just taking up space.
> By late Feb, most of them have weeded themselves
> out and it's back to normal.
This is why I took all the money I was spending on gym dues, and built a home gym. Not a Nautilus or Bowflex machine or anything simple like that- a power rack, fully adjustable bench (Ironmaster Super Bench + accessories), barbell set, and partial dumbbell set (5-90).
I used to be a member of Olympus gym, and when they moved locations I was overseas for a while. I renewed my membership before I left, then put it on hold so I would have a year at the new gym at the old rate. Sounds good right?
The first day back, at their new location, and I'm setting up in the back corner on a power rack to do some dead lifts. An attendant RUSHES over to me to tell me that "lifting off the floor" is not allowed. Also not allowed; chalk.
I used their gym for that year, then built my home gym, and have never looked back. No waiting, no rules, no annoyances.
I guess that most chic gyms have no deadlifting and no chalk rules, but you have to realize that the old Olympus location had an awesome free-weight section in the back. There were guys that would always be powerlifting and Olympic lifting back there. It was really nice while it lasted.