Eric Stevens

Review of National Fitness Center

Stay far away from this place. Regardless of the u...

Stay far away from this place. Regardless of the unusually high monthly dues and insanely long contract, you'll be treated like a second-class citizen by the training staff.

Let me give you some examples:

1. Once, while using one of the cable stations, I was approached by a female trainer who asked if I was using the adjacent station. I said I was not. She said "oh good, this way I don't have to move you." For a while I wondered if she was joking, but I now know the dirty truth: the trainers are going to push you around in favor of their clients.

2. My wife went to the gym with her sister a while back to do barbell squats. She has some IT band issues. After finishing a set she was visibly irritated with her hip issues. Queue the trainer coming to save the day.
He offered to "stretch her out". My wife goes to a very excellent sports medicine facility for her issues, so she declined. This dude would absolutely not stop pestering her about him stretching her out.

Finally she relented, with the caveat that her sister do the stretching and he instructs. Obviously irritated, but in too deep to stop, he did so. I kid you not, this dude wanted my wife to lay on the ground while he grabbed her leg and went crotch to crotch with her. Right in the middle of the gym no less.

3. My wife went up to use the assisted pullup/dip machine. A trainer from across the room came over and told her she couldn't use it because she was using it for her client. They were obviously sitting over there waiting to use another machine, so my wife asked "can I work in while y'all are using that?"

"No. We're using it."

My wife was fuming, but this is something we've come to expect from these people at this point.

I actually have a little game I play with myself. Whenever I'm walking through the gym and a person or two is blocking small walkway or choke point, I guess if they're a trainer before looking up. The game isn't really fun because it's ALWAYS a trainer - and you better believe that they will not move for you.

Want any of the cool equipment? Ha, you're going to have to pay a trainer. I'm really starting to wonder what this gym's overheads are considering they charge so much but can only provide two squat racks, and have to charge extra for everything else.

Going up to the front desk to ask for any kind of assistance makes me feel like a beggar asking for change on the side of the road. The averted gazes, pretending I don't exist, straight up irritation, and derision until someone deigns to take pity on me by offering me the bare minimum of assistance.

This place is a joke. Go to Gold's. Cheaper and better.