Shapes Fitness Centres

My overall rating

My husband and I have been Shapes members for almost two years now, after having had family memberships at both Rady Centre, and YMCA - we opted to move over to Shapes because of the lack of equipment at the Y and inability to get our kids into...   +

My husband and I have been Shapes members for almost two years now, after having had family memberships at both Rady Centre, and YMCA - we opted to move over to Shapes because of the lack of equipment at the Y and inability to get our kids into reasonable classes/child care while we were wanting to work out.

We pay reasonable fees (less than the Y for the both of us) and have unlimited childcare. My husband uses the free-weights, but I use the classes primarily on a daily basis (Mon-Sat).

Positives about Shapes are

- Great Classes - there's always a group cardio or weight class on and the classes are phenomenal
- Great instructors
- Women's only side at Pembina and McPhillips make it a more comfortable environment to work out in
- Nice hot yoga facility
- Lot's of equipment - rarely if ever a wait time to get on a cardio machine

Negatives

- Not enough child care slots. You need to be a vulture on the phone at 8am to be able to book in for the following morning, and if they don't book up, they close the slots off - also, if they have more than 1 or 2 babies and not enough staff (because the mostly rely on volunteers), they cannot take in more children.

-The boot/shoe area in the front entrance is disgusting

- The smell of the mens change room permiates the entire gym - it smells like a combination of feet, a** and Balls. it's disgusting.

- The bathrooms and change areas are disgusting. Not because of a lack of cleaning - the cleaning staff are always in there, but the women who use this facility - especially Pembina, are pigs. It's disgusting. Even my 3yr old knows to flush a toilet after he goes. I do not understand why grown women behave in such a way.

- Pushy and Rude sales staff. This is mostly a problem at Pembina, where the staff are rude unless they recognize you. Try to call on the phone to ask a question and the day time staff will be snarky. It's off-putting, combined with being spoken to like you're some piece of garbage (instead of a paying member), they then try to hard sell you on things that you have no interest in. It's really irksome.



Overall we're happy enough with Shapes. If GoodLife beefs us their centres, we'll likely switch over, unless Shapes develops a better childcare policy because if you're paying for unlimited but can't get in 3 out of 5 days that you need the care, there's really no point in continuing on.

If you're young and single and want classes, Shapes is a good enough place to do it.


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