Fitness One

My overall rating

I had been a member at fitness one, and the only thing I can say that was good was the location, the price (I paid only $10 a month), and the equipment. I always went at off hours and found it good. I found their staff to be dismally uneducated in...   +

I had been a member at fitness one, and the only thing I can say that was good was the location, the price (I paid only $10 a month), and the equipment. I always went at off hours and found it good.

I found their staff to be dismally uneducated in health and fitness. I am a self motivated person, who used to train competitively, and occasionally I would have the odd *trainer* with rocks for brains try to talk to me. I found their programs to be an insult, fashioned after weight loss fads that don't work (ie. with frequent weigh ins, and measurements that would just drive the person crazy, and probably cause them to quit.) Their programs always focused on weight loss, and did not focus on real progression once the person got beyond the weight loss (or even real progress during). Their programs were all re-inventions of a one trick pony.

I tried to humour one of the trainers one day who wanted to get me on a program. I had fallen on some ice that week and was a bit sore so I said, "Well I can't do much at your boot camp this week." She said well all we're going to do is weigh you before your workouts. I wasn't sure if it was a nice way of trying to say "I think you're fat" or just a stupid way of trying to pawn off referrals on me. I said no thanks. Motivating someone by just weighing them is not motivation at all. I found it particularly stupid because I could weigh myself if I wanted. No need for a "program" to do that. It would've been particularly useless to me since I was not trying to lose or gain weight at that time. Also weighing someone every time they workout is pointless; if you are trying to lose or gain weight you will only start to see changes gradually, not every second day (more like six weeks, and sometimes more).

I also remember when I had tried to join a few years ago (but didn't because I was insulted, and didn't think the $24 a month was worth the insult) the woman signing me up kept asking me if my goals were weight loss. Now I do not need to lose weight. I'm actually fairly small. And at that point I wanted to gain weight in muscle. This did not click with the membership co-ordinator's brain, and she kept going back to "weight loss."

I would highly recommend to anyone who wants to get serious about their health to pay a real trainer the extra money to get fit, and don't go to a rinky dink gym. These places might just annoy you.    -