Decided to try Planet Fitness and used my free pass on May 18th. I have gone thirty-three times…read moresince then. To start, when you sign up for your free pass, the app indicates you will be given a tour, which never happened and which could alleviate issues by familiarizing patrons with the equipment while adding some gym etiquette to the tour. I usually workout M, W & F from 9:45 to Midnight and they have plenty of parking, lockers that accommodate motorcycle gear, aren't too busy and the cost after taxes is $16.05, per month, for the Classic Membership. They have new equipment, but are still having problems due to not testing said equipment prior to reopening. I did have the opportunity to try out their Black Card amenities in May, but cannot justify the increase in price. The staff seem friendly, for the most part and they have containers of tootsie rolls at the desk, which seems a bit counter intuitive and can be likened to my time at the dentist as a kid where they filled cavities, then gave you a lollipop.
The first thing I noticed is the ceiling fans were on a very low setting and not moving a lot of air and no fans in the Ab & Stretching area. They have framed mirrors, so you run into an issue with five different people vying for one particular mirror making it over crowded and hard to navigate when returning the dumbbells. Lately, they have started allowing teenagers to workout for free, during the summer, which created more issues, including taking long periods of time on machines, hoarding dumbbells and blocking thoroughfares while on their phones watching videos. This issue is not just centralized to the kids, as I have counted at least a third of the patrons doing the same thing and on multiple occasions have had to ask them when they would be finished.
At first glance, the place seems clean; however, after a few months of visits I have never seen any employee wipe down the equipment. I know that the users are asked to wipe down the pads after completing their exercises, but they could use a good cleaning from time to time. Further, just after I started going, I noticed both water fountains had red lights indicating their filters needed to be replaced, which wasn't performed for five weeks. This wasn't surprising, since you would have to actually clean the fountains to notice the lights. Just the other day there was a water spill in front of the fountain, which an employee noticed and placed a wet floor sign on, but didn't bother to clean it up. Finally, the staff have become complacent with regards to replacing the paper towels and changing the garbage bags.
Continuing with this issue, the male desk clerks spend the majority of their time on their phones watching videos or gabbing with underaged patrons, which sets a very bad example. This behavior has allowed patrons to slip by wearing inappropriate gym clothing, like jeans, very young women wearing men's undergarments as outerwear, along with Berkenstocks, Crocks or open toes shoes. At one point, there were very young children, not teenagers, running around in the Black Card Amenities area and some on the machines without supervision, which went unnoticed. They do have signs indicated no training allowed; however, I have seen the clerks on the floor coaching patrons and allowing people to go in without scanning their bar code. During my few months, I have noticed two people bring in a tripod and video taping themselves working out with other patrons in the background. Marion County is a two-party consent, so allowing them to video other people could lead to other issues down the road.
Despite the new equipment, the dumbbells top out at 75lbs, so I would recommend those serious about fitness go to Gold's Gym; however, for those people who are tired of sitting at home on the couch watching videos, come on down and sit on their equipment instead. I know management will say bring issues to the employees, but I wouldn't want to disrupt their movie or gabbing with friends.