First, I love kickboxing, it makes me feel good about myself and such a great way to stay mentally and physically fit.
The gym is always clean, for the most part and I cannot brag enough of the instructors and and sense of community among gym goers.
I am a six week challenger, under the #sixweekstars which has a lot of tedious "to dos" which I get for free advertising and accountability. This includes posting photos of groceries in your home weekly, checking in at the gym on your FB and the groups, hashtagging, pinning locations and tagging instructors. The weight loss IS unhealthy, for the time frame given as other have mentioned but I wanted to loose the weight. So here we are. I have a restricted diet and it was several days into the challenge before got the accommodating diet and list. I will give a shout to Justin and Malik for assisting and giving me that. It was of no fault to them, that it took such a lengthy time. It seemed to be with upper management.
I was highly impressed with the initial tour and spike by Justin. It wasn't salesmanshipy and I felt I could talk to him openly about my concerns and issues. He was super encouraging and inspirational. He also spoke of Malik and how he could assist with my nutritional needs/restrictions... he is also a good instructor. Anita, Carli, Bri, and Tra-- all have been great and created a sense of teamwork. This deserves more than 5 stars for them alone. I did find it odd that there was only one person in the mornings, most if not all mornings and that seems unsafe for the employee and a liability potentially to the brand... while others had two workers on shift. It's hard to manage a gym, check people in, opening duties, etc... and instruct but I can say this was handled with the professionalism of the instructor on site... I just felt for them.
Sadly, I'm giving only two stars and this is for the management. I have reached out for concerns due to weather closures (aprox 5) that's one week of of a six week challenge in a sense. No one will respond to me about this. I have reached out to HQ as well and they haven't been able to assist either since this is a franchised brand so different owners, etc.. I also started with another participant who signed up the same time I did, for to attend the classes, etc.. for that week, but willingly and officially started the challenge the next week. So she is getting 7 weeks for a 6 week challenge... that could be the difference of 1-5 lbs. this IS a lot of money to potentially lose and unlike the wonderful participant who signed up with me... I've had all the closures, which was her "buy week". She is a wonderful person and this has nothing to do with her but the way the system is set up. In turn, makes me want to complete the challenge solely and find another location. Because of the community of the gym members and making friends, this does not seem like uncommon culture for the "upper management" and that's truly unfortunate for the instructors who work hard and do amazing work. Sales would likely go up if the focus was on health and professional business processes where in place.
In closing, for my 6 week challenge, I was given my meal plan approximately 2 weeks into the challenge with recipes/list. I've experienced aprox 5 weather related cancellations, with documented emailed verifications. All to throw in the mix of severely limited class times, and mornings only having one staff to do it ALL. And no response to my inquires/concerns from the local gym... however their HQ office is extremely timely in responses.
Never want reviews to end badly, but this was just my experience. Upper management please consider the review and do better.
The rest of the team, keep shining!! Thanks to the community of class participants for the encouragement and motivation. Thanks to the instructors for focusing on form and being so personable while appearing to have incredible fitness knowledge. read more