Gold's Gym - Citrus Heights — Attraction in Citrus Heights

I am a caregiver and I have been taking my client to work out with his personal trainer. for the past 6 or 7 months - all I had to do was to sign my client in for his workout session. last week, a young man at the front desk stopped me while I was signing my client in, and wanted to know what my name was. I hesitant gave him my name. The exchange was rude, condescending, disrespectful - to say the least. But, I let it pass. The second time - which was today, while checking in with another attendant at the front desk, this same kid who hassled me the week before decided to raise his voice and ask me for my name again - while I was checking in with his colleague . The fact that he had to engage me while I am with his colleague trying to sign in made me a little upset I refused to give home my name. He got a hold of David - the gym manager and David - visibly upset, without asking questions began to sternly rebuke me - I told him several times - that he was visibly irritated - so I was not going to communicate or keep talking to him.

Her's my point: I have no problem with a rule - but if a rule is going to be a rule - start enforcing from day one. Teach your employees manners on how to address/talk to people. Condescension, rude gestures or telling someone they are going to lose their job is not helpfu. If it is a rule - then it should be applied to everyone. I have never seen anyone come to this gym and have to repeat their name every time they come in. This is a leadership problem- David should learn that customer service is key to leading a great busines. Even if there is a disgruntled customer- his employees need to be trained on how to handle such cases. He, David, as the manager- should find out what happened by asking the customer to explain before addressing the situation. And finally David should not have been visibly upset without knowing the facts. He obviously only listened to his employee and dismissed any input from the customer

I give the guy at the front desk 0 ratings - for being rude and disrespectful.

I give David 0 for poor leadership and conflict resolution skills.

........... David your statement that I have refused to check in at the front desk once a week for six or 7 months is not only a lie, but it also shows a deficiency in your leadership skills. As a business owner, this is something you should have heard of on day one and you should have sought to enforce the rule. But it never happened until today. So, I am certain that you're just trying to cover your leadership problems and shift blame. By the way, adhering to this rule is not the problem. You don't even understand my problem. If you had taken the time to talk with me or ask me for an explanation, maybe you would have had clarity. David, another lie in your comment is that I said, "I don't have to sign in - because I've been coming for six months." On the contrary I never said that. My point was - why was this my first time hearing about this - after coming into your gym for the past 6-7 months?

Let me make it abundantly clear again- I am not against following a rules at your gym. It's the manner in which your employee was addressing me - that is the problem. He was rude, condescending and respectful. That is why I refused to give him my name today. Because last week he was very rude toward me. Today as well - dismissing me with hand gestures. Like I said, I was in the process of signing in with his colleague when he started interrupting me. And because he was rude towards me last week- I didn't want to deal with him again today. So David when you approached me visibly upset scolding me - not even taking the time to hear what I had to say - I turned and walked away- saying you are upset - I'm going to walk away. And I did. I do not remember raising my hand to you- if I did it was not mean spirited. You’re simply just trying to shift blame. Maybe- if you had taken a diff approach we would have come to an...

I've been a member at this gym for over 7 years now. I will start by saying the equipment is the best in the area. The gym is a decent size, but when its busy...good luck finding a machine or any room to do anything. The front desk staff usually friendly. Majority of the time they just talk to each other or sit on their phones. I have seen management handle some things unethically, but it never affected me so I didn't think twice about it. Then my mom was injured. Not the gyms fault. She tripped over a mat someone left out and went face first into the ground. Multiple people came to help her. One of the gentleman even called 911 for her. She was gushing blood and my mom is in her 60s. Bless this man! Until someone who I later found out was the owner told the man to hang up thee phone because it was just a cut on her nose. However, he never asked me mom if she did or did not in fact want 911 to be called. The owner didn't offer to do anything. They never even asked her to make an incident report. Fast forward 6 days later when I am back in town, my mom fills me in on this and needless to say I am livid. She still hadn't been checked out because she wasn't sure if she should see her own doctor or not. She called the gym and asked for the insurance information and the manager's response was that he wasn't going to give it and her insurance will have to deal with their insurance or her attorney will have to call their attorney. Attorney? She called him back that day and explained that she just wants to see a doctor since she is still in pain. He said he was taking his lunch break and would call her back. So we both drove to the gym and asked to speak with him. Any question I asked I received the same answer, "I will call later with insurance information. You will have to talk to them." I asked why she wasn't asked to fill out an incident report he said his staffed filled it out. I asked to see it, got the insurance answer. I asked of this was how he always treated members who got hurt at his gym and got the same insurance answer. Then he said that he sent the incident report and surveillance to the insurance company today and they have what they need. Not 15 minutes after we left the gym and cancelled our memberships, he called my mom with their insurance infortmation. He also added that he thinks because of the Holidays they must be busy because he hasn't been able to speak with anyone. Oh but I thought you already spoke to them and gave them everything? I will not support a business like this EVER!

*responding to the owner's response

My mom did not decline. The owner said 911 wasn't needee because it was just a scratch. We have already talked to the witnesses. Also, it was another gym member who went to the front desk and asked for the first aid. When he did ask for it, the person at the front desk asked twice what it was before until he would actually give it to him. You can review surveillance that has no audio, but I have talked to almost everyone that was actually their and believe 4 people saying the same story over one person trying to make themselves look good.

Also, this should have all been taken care of the same day. An incident report signed by both my mom and the staff working should have been completed. If 911 was cancelled, my mom should have been asked if she still wanted to be seen by a doctor. Her rehab was for her total shoulder replacement surgery she had 6 months later and she made it known she was worried about this fall affecting her shoulder.

We can go back and forth all day, but your business should have handled things better and more professionally from the start. Then none of this would have...

Maybe you've heard that "Gold Gym is for serious bodybuilders." Let me simplify and explain it from the perspective of someone who isn't a serious bodybuilder. After visiting all the gyms in Citrus Heights, I ultimately chose Gold Gym.

Gold Gym isn't your average $10-20/month gym. With three types of memberships, it costs around $47/month as of March 2023. This pricing prevents overcrowding by high-schoolers who tend to monopolize equipment (unlike Crunch Fitness). The gym is well-maintained, and they take vacuuming seriously (unlike 24-Hour Fitness). Not only is the gym equipped with a wide range of exercise machines, but you can also see that the annual fee is put towards maintenance and acquiring new equipment. For instance, I think they have 7 bench presses, so you usually can get one even during peak hours (unlike most other gyms).

All the pros and cons of Gold Gym can be attributed to the fact that it's designed for serious bodybuilders. But don't worry, this can work in your favor too. For example, while most other gyms close early on weekends, like at 7 pm, Gold Gym is open until 9 pm, eliminating the excuse of not being able to go to the gym or using the gym's closure as a reason to skip exercising.

As soon as entering, I saw the gym is filled with natural bodybuilders, …, uhum, I mean the images of natural bodybuilders from old days on the wall! Many people here are on steroids, and I've overheard them chatting about their experiences with steroids between workouts. However, I haven’t seen any roid rage, except someone whom I complimented his body. I shouldn’t have done that but nothing serious.

This gym receives a 5/5 rating for serious bodybuilders and a 4/5 rating for general fitness enthusiasts. Some suggestions for improvement are:

1. Please add 2.5 lbs of incremental dumbbells, like from 20 to 40 lbs. For natural people, a 5 lbs increment can be quite challenging, e.g., 5 lbs increase from 20 to 25 is equivalent to 25% getting stronger which does not happen easily. But 5 lbs in 50 lbs is only 10% increase.
2. Although gym etiquette in re-racking is very well established, these serious bodybuilders need to learn how to handle bathroom paper towels with both hands and not tear part of it and leave it on the ground. You can use the “broken windows theory” and for a period, and several times a day send staff to clean those ripped paper towels from the ground and post signs so that people stop the disorder.
3. I understand the logistics behind hiring a full-time personal trainer are complex, but it would be useful if the gym had at least somebody available to incorporate these fancy machines into someone’s program or correct our form, like per request on an hourly basis (idk).

I highly recommend other general fitness enthusiasts join this gym and contribute to making it more inclusive. If you’re new, ask for adding 2.5 incremental dumbbells, do not tear paper towels to leave the tore part on the bathroom ground, and if you want to do 30 minutes of cardio in summer but can’t tolerate sweating, ask the front desk to turn the cardio...