I joined Anytime Fitness last year and was a member of that gym for about 8 months. That is correct, I am no longer working out there and now go to a Gym right opposite my home. This is just a short article about how my 8 months experience there was. Anytime Fitness is a big Gym chain and the opinion I am giving below is just about the one I went to. It does not apply to all the other gymnasiums owned by Anytime Fitness and they could be much better than what I am sharing in the post below.
Anytime Fitness Gym Review
I have been in and out of the gym for the last 10 years; and in all this time, I have never been a member of the gyms like Anytime Fitness. And by this, I mean the expensive type gyms where you get so many facilities but also get charged a fortune for it. The only reason why I decided to join Anytime Fitness was because of its timings. I work in night shifts and come back home at around 4.30 in the morning. Anytime fitness has its doors open sharp at 5 AM which worked perfectly for me. All the other gyms open up only after 6 and that was always a bit of a challenge for me. But with 5 AM timing, I could just come back home, change and then run straight to the gym.
Price & Promises
I was charged 15000 for a total of 6 months. I talked them into giving me 2 months as complimentary so it was 15000 for 8 months; Rs. 1875 per month. This was definitely more than what I have been paying so far as my Gym membership fee but with names like Anytime Fitness, I guess charges like this are standard. In fact, there are gyms that charge way more than this and in comparison to them, Rs. 1875 would start to sound like a reasonable fee.
Anyway, at the time when I filled up the paperwork and paid the fee, I was promised numerous things. Like a full body checkup will be done, measurements will be taken, my fat percentage will be measured, I will be provided with a proper meal plan and exercise routine and a few others. None of those however happened. The gym did open at 5 sharp but by the cleaner. The coaches and trainers would start arriving after 6 AM. When I asked around about all the things they promised me, I was told that the person who does it was not available and it will be done next week.
Trainers
Now coming to the trainers, they were only dedicated to and focused on people who paid for personal training. All other gym members did not exist to them. Every trainer was assigned to one individual and will work with that person only. I saw numerous other people doing the exercises wrong but the trainers never bothered to check or correct them. This was a serious issue because it could possibly lead to an injury but they weren’t bothered by it.
When I went heavy lifting, there was not even a single person to spot. When I asked the trainers, they would make me wait for 3-4 minutes before one of them would come to assist me. There was this one instance when I was doing crunches and I asked one of the trainers to step on my toes. He clearly refused and asked me to stick my feet in some of the equipment.
Anytime Fitness Gym
Coming to the gym, there was nothing special about it really. But I do not think I can complain about it as I saw the gym before deciding to join. The equipment was just the very basic ones and nothing too fancy. It felt a little short on space as well and after people started to arrive, it all got too crowded and finding space to workout became tough. Like for example, there were so many times when I wanted a free bench but none was available. Because in a Gym with such a big name, they only had 3 Benches. I wish I had saved all the pictures of the gym to post here and show what I mean. But it has been a couple of months since I quit and deleted the pictures.
Conclusion
In the end, my time in Anytime Fitness Gym was a disappointing one and I decided to join another that is closer to my home. This gym is at least 3 times bigger, has more equipment and I am paying 3 times less. The only thing that is missing is an A.C. but who cares about that. In the gym, you go to sweat and not to sit in an air-conditioned environment.
