Fitness with a smile
Written: Aug 22 '00
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Product Rating:
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Pros: State of the art equipment, and friendly staff!
Cons: Pushy sales reps (but they're still friendly and encouraging!)
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| kaRaleah's Full Review: 24 Hour Fitness |
I'm finally losing weight!
People raise their eyebrows when I tell them I used to be skinny. When I was fourteen years old, I was a cool 5 foot 7 and 135 pounds. You could see my ribs and my hip bones, despite my large thighs. I worked out four hours a day, and it was good. Eight years and more than twice my starting weight later, I am a roly-poly pudgy cutey-pie. I like myself and my body, and that's why I decided to join 24 Hour Fitness.
I may not look like it in pictures, but I fall in the extremely obese category. I can't even fit into most of the plus size clothes at my local Wal-Mart. I have to drive the long way down to the ghetto where the bodies aren't as lean and fit as I used to be. They have special Plus Size stores there with pricey clothing that is just my size. Somewhere along the line I began to wonder if it would be cheaper in the long run if I lost enough weight to fit into "normal" clothes. After much research, the benefits extended far past the simple "discount" of being able to shop for clothes at less expensive stores. If I lost weight, I could lower my cholesterol, my blood pressure, get my heart rate down to a normal range, and - get this - it might not hurt so much to walk!
How was the signup process?
This was by far the hardest part of the process. I asked to see a list of their pricing plans and the nice meaty boy plopped down a fifty pound binder in front of me and my unsuspecting boyfriend. He flipped through the pages. There was the personal trainer fee, a program where they could tell me the quickest way to stop being fat, a program where I could have no enrollment fee if I paid a lot of money every month, another program where I would end up paying very little per month if I pre-paid for a year. They had tons of options for me. My boyfriend and I finally settled on a "couple" membership with no extras (which means no special weight loss program and no bulky personal trainer). For both of us together, we spent $434 - that included the enrollment fee, the registration fee, the first and last month, and our recurring fee would be $54 a month starting in two months, automatically charged to my boyfriend's Visa card. That turns out to be $27 each. We can use any of the 24 Hour Fitness "Sport" facilities or just the plain 'ol "Fitness" facilities. The membership didn't include access to the "Sporting" facilities, but we were told that the club we signed up at, had almost all of the same capabilities.
Three different kinds of facilities?
Yeah, you heard me right! You pay more or less based on which kind of facility you sign up at.
The "Fitness" gyms are the overall least expensive of the three, but they are the bare-bones gyms with just the cardio and weight equipment. These usually have the aerobic classes all day as well as babysitting.
The "Sport" clubs have all that and a heated pool, racquetball, and basketball courts. They are also up to twice as large, which means there is more equipment to go around. This is the kind that I joined - my particular club also has a whirlpool/spa, sauna, steam room, and tanning booths!
The "Sporting" facilities have all that the "Sport" and "Fitness" facilities have, but they are up to twice as large as the "Sport" gyms and they also offer towel service, tanning booths, and day spas. Their website touts "executive locker rooms" as opposed to regular 'ol locker rooms that the other clubs get - I have no clue what one would find in an "executive" locker room. I wasn't interested in membership at one of these clubs since it would cost more, and the only difference is the locker room and towel service. I prefer to bring my own towels and wash them myself when I go home, anyway.
So I heard these places are packed..
My particular club was just built within the last three months, so I'm not quite sure how busy the other clubs might be. The word is still getting out about the location I'm at. There are signs on the walls stating that you should sign in if you want to use the cardio equipment, but on the two occasions where I popped up at 5 o'clock in the afternoon, I still didn't need to put my name on a sign-up sheet. Since I usually work in the late evenings and don't get home until nearly 3 in the morning, a 4am workout is just right for me. The place is deserted, so nobody has to stare at my fat butt bouncing up and down on the elliptical machines.
What is the equipment like?
In addition to the elliptical machines, I also run on the treadmills and pedal a while on the recumbant bicycles. All the while, I can watch Jerry Springer and Maury Povich on one of the nine televisions they hang over the cardio equipment! The guy at the front desk is always more than happy to switch the channels if I prefer to see soap operas, music videos, or the news. There is also a little plug on each of the cardio machines for me to pop in my earphones and let Conan O'Brien make me laugh (which, as everyone knows, makes you burn more calories!).
The nice thing about the cardio equipment is that they all have heart rate sensors and are user-interactive so that I can find out exactly how many calories I am burning. Another benefit of the sensors is that if I tell the machine that I want my heart rate within a certain range, the machine automatically increases or decreases the intensity or difficulty of my workout to match what I feel that I need.
Is the cardio equipment all that you do?
Of course not. I also spend a little time on the weight machines, usually working on my arms, shoulders, and legs. All of the weight equipment is user-friendly and has step-by-step instructions as to how to use them. After that, I take a dip in the (heated) swimming pool and swim a few laps. When all is said and done, I relax in the spa for a few minutes before I hit the showers. The spa is probably the best part of it all, because the heat relaxes my muscles which would otherwise be very angry the next day.
I heard their customer service was rude - were they rude to you?
No way! I think that the initial sales rep was probably pushing me a little too hard to sign up on the first day, but I have had no problems ever since then. The staff always answers my questions very quickly and effectively. Like I said before, they even change the channels on the television so that I can watch what I want while I work out. One would think that I would be treated pretty poorly since I am obese, but they see me as just another person trying to have a good workout. I once was afraid that I might not like being part of a gym, but now I'm afraid I'll never quit!
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
kaRaleah
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Member: Kara Leah Crawford
Location: Irving, Texas
Reviews written: 13
Trusted by: 25 members
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