Customers rate local health and fitness clubs
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We start out with the best of intentions, but every year thousands of fitness club memberships go unused because the facility falls flat.
"One of the things people get upset about is they go to the club and they can't get on the equipment or the equipment's broken," said Checkbook.org's Robert Krughoff.
Krughoff and his staff asked thousands of local consumers to rate their fitness clubs.
"And we asked them about availability of equipment, the condition of the equipment, the cleanliness of the facility, whether the staff is helpful and gives good advice," he said.
Checkbook surveyed it's own subscribers, along subscribers to Consumer Reports. The feedback came in from across the Puget Sound region.
Customers rated 87 fitness facilities, from small independent locations to municipal gyms and large fitness chains. Only four local clubs scored 90 percent or higher when it comes to actually providing what the sales staff promised.
Those were the Ballard Health Club in Seattle, the YMCA on California Avenue SW in West Seattle, 1-2-3 Fit in Silverdale and Exercise Science Center in Fircrest.
Dozens of other clubs rated higher than average and also received Checkbook's top ratings for quality. But some of the popular chains scored disappointingly low.
Bottom line, don't join a fitness club based on sales promises or advertised deals. Visit the club at the time you'll mostly likely need to use it.
Check out the equipment and pay attention to the wait times. Look for signs that the equipment and the facility are being well maintained, and spend extra time in the locker rooms and showers to see if they're clean and sanitary. In other words, give the club a workout, before you decide to commit money to workout on a regular basis.
"Think hard, would I really use this? If you can, try it out on a temporary basis or a month-to-month basis for a couple of months to find out, am I really going to use this thing," Krughoff said.
The full report on Health & Fitness Clulb Quality contains more tips for finding a good facility, including a checklist of what to look for and how to get the most out of your search.
As a special service to KOMO viewers, the complete ratings will be available for a week. After the evening of Tuesday, July 24, the ratings portion will only be accessible to Checkbook subscribers.
"One of the things people get upset about is they go to the club and they can't get on the equipment or the equipment's broken," said Checkbook.org's Robert Krughoff.
Krughoff and his staff asked thousands of local consumers to rate their fitness clubs.
"And we asked them about availability of equipment, the condition of the equipment, the cleanliness of the facility, whether the staff is helpful and gives good advice," he said.
Checkbook surveyed it's own subscribers, along subscribers to Consumer Reports. The feedback came in from across the Puget Sound region.
Customers rated 87 fitness facilities, from small independent locations to municipal gyms and large fitness chains. Only four local clubs scored 90 percent or higher when it comes to actually providing what the sales staff promised.
Those were the Ballard Health Club in Seattle, the YMCA on California Avenue SW in West Seattle, 1-2-3 Fit in Silverdale and Exercise Science Center in Fircrest.
Dozens of other clubs rated higher than average and also received Checkbook's top ratings for quality. But some of the popular chains scored disappointingly low.
Bottom line, don't join a fitness club based on sales promises or advertised deals. Visit the club at the time you'll mostly likely need to use it.
Check out the equipment and pay attention to the wait times. Look for signs that the equipment and the facility are being well maintained, and spend extra time in the locker rooms and showers to see if they're clean and sanitary. In other words, give the club a workout, before you decide to commit money to workout on a regular basis.
"Think hard, would I really use this? If you can, try it out on a temporary basis or a month-to-month basis for a couple of months to find out, am I really going to use this thing," Krughoff said.
The full report on Health & Fitness Clulb Quality contains more tips for finding a good facility, including a checklist of what to look for and how to get the most out of your search.
As a special service to KOMO viewers, the complete ratings will be available for a week. After the evening of Tuesday, July 24, the ratings portion will only be accessible to Checkbook subscribers.
I joined Ballard Health Club 10 years ago, and I tell people it is the best deal in town. Â It doesn't have a swimming pool, but it has all that I need for weights, cardio, yoga, and other free classes. Â Check them out, and you'll find why my wife and I Â are enthusiastic about the club and its free services. Â KOMO TV/Checkbook report that customers rate BHC at 90%, one of the top 4 or 5 clubs in the Puget Sound!
I have not been impressed by any of the health clubs I have joined. Although in my initial visits, they seemed okay, as time passed, the clubs seemed to have shoehorned more machines, more stinky people into the same amount of space. The music got louder, the equipment was cleaned less frequently - and the prices went up.
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Perhaps the higher end, exclusive clubs are better?
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At any rate, we recently got a treadmill. Although there was the initial upfront cost of the machine (we opted to get a good quality machine, knowing we'd be more likely to use something that didn't feel like junk when we used it), we won't be paying gym membership fees. We also don't have to pay for gas to drive to a gym...we also have a set of free weights (very inexpensive to buy), and walk in our neighborhood, weather permitting. Far better than a stinky, noisy, dirty fitness club, IMHO.