Forge Fitness — Attraction in Crystal Lake

Since I've moved to the Northwest suburbs of Chicago, I have found lot of "gyms" and health clubs. None of them meet my standards for my gym offering.

Then I discovered Forge. A 30 minute drive in the wrong direction for me, I was desperate enough to check out this facility. When I stepped through the doors, the place reeked of gainz and greatness. When I saw a real hack squat machine for the first time in the state of Illinois, my pulse was instantly elevated.

You will find no dodecagon rubber plates in site here. Instead, you'll find the iron Rogue style barbell plates that you would think would be the standard in all gyms, but as evidenced everywhere else around here, it is clearly not.

I've lost track of how many squat racks there are at Forge due to the abundance of them. All types of bars are available for use, deadlift platforms galore and three separate dumbell racks over 100lbs, including one rack up to 175lbs, I believe. There are plenty of free weight benches and bench presses including incline and decline.

Machines are a sore topic among other facilities around here. At Forge, you get a variety of equipment from Cybex to Hammer Strength and everything in between. You'll find two seated low row cable machines and the familiar Life Fitness brand seated cable machine. Attatchment variations are plenty. There are several lat pulldown machines, leg presses, calf raise stations, leg extension/curl machines and everything else you'd expect from a place like this. I ignore the cardio area but there is one.

There is currently no shower or locker room, which is a little bit of a bummer but I don't measure a gym by its amenities. The members of this gym seem like they are no-nonsense and extend common courtesy to each other. Mike, the owner, seems like a great guy and is looking to add even more space and equipment. He charges a very reasonable price and there is no contract. Gym traffic is steady but I haven't run into any situations where I didnt have enough space or my workout was hindered due to not enough stations.

The verdict? Stick with your current gym if you're a puss. If you like to see results and to train in a gritty, motivating atmosphere that's welcome to anybody of any age and fitness level, go check out Forge...

It’s a nice gym, owner and staff are fairly friendly. My gripe with the place is that when I went to simply call there they don’t pick up the phone ever ! I go inside to cancel my membership and they are all sitting in the office so I’m not sure how they didn’t hear the phone, upon requesting to cancel my membership the gentleman told me to write him an email requesting a cancellation (not sure why he couldn’t do it right then and there) so I did and Of course I got no reply back, tried to call again to just talk to someone and couldn’t get through I literally called all day so I don’t know if they just turn it off or don’t feel they need to bother with a phone I don’t know but it’s very frustrating. Also the parking lot is insanely small so 50/50 that you’ll get a spot in it most likely you’ll have to drive around to find one elsewhere. The reason for my cancellation was because I was relocating to a closer and more convenient gym that’s all there is nothing wrong with the gym itself it’s quite nice and they have a lot...

During the Covid-19 panic he shut his doors and posted on his Facebook that they weren’t going to charge anyone their monthly payment. Then I was charged a total of three months in a row and when I confronted the owner about the situation he kept putting it off for a later date.

Truthfully it’s $105.00 and not a lot of money the real issues is not following up with the things you say you’re going to do. I’ve contacted a total of 4 times and even warned of a bad review, but still no action taken. I’m sure that I’m not the only one that was taken advantage of during this crisis and frankly I’m not surprised that I was blown off.

One payment out of the three has been made and I’m still waiting for the other two. I hope this helps people get an idea of who they’re dealing with when they try to get a membership at forge. Poor customer service and a lack of integrity, I...