Orangetheory Fitness — Attraction in Garwood

I've been a member for a couple of months now, and the workouts are amazing. Truly the only thing that has helped me make any progress in my weight loss journey. My review is more critical of the business itself.

The whole "take a free class" thing is a bit of a scam. It's only free if you end up signing up for a monthly plan. If you don't, they charge you around $12 bucks for the class for your first time. I actually think charging a flat fee is fair, and I would be fine with it if they were clear about it. I feel like it's bit shady for no reason, really.

This is technically a gym, but you only work out during classes, so you can't just pop in for a workout and then leave. There are set class times that you have to sign up for individually through their app. They also don't tell you that most classes are fully booked at least a week in advance. If you're looking to workout in the morning, you better make sure you book at least two weeks ahead of time. If you need more flexibility in your schedule, this place probably isn't for you. If you cancel a class last minute, you still get charged for the class. Even if you have an unlimited plan.

The other thing they don't tell you: A big part of the experience is wearing the heart rate monitor and seeing your name on the screen with how many calories you're burning. The problem is, you can only use their heart rate monitors which you have to purchase. They cost between $60-$100. Of course you can always take the class without the heart rate monitor, but it really does take away from the experience.

Most of the monthly plans are between $99 and $200, so my advice is that if you're seriously looking to workout, this is the place for you. I do like that you can cancel your plan any time and other than the heart rate monitor, there are no initial fees.

Last: This is just my personal frustration, but the level of entitlement here is astronomical. It's physically painful to have to lineup for class and have to overhear some of the conversations between the people that attend this gym. But I guess that's expected in this area.

Still give this place 4 stars because if you're got the money and the patience, you really can...

I was honestly a true fan of OTF... believed in their theory and recommended tons of people to OTF Garwood not to mention that I’ve been a member for about 5 yrs. I’ve met some of the best coaches and gym partners ever. About year and half ago due to the birth of my daughter, hectic work schedule, and sleepless nights I was not attending the gym on a regular basis. I would miss some morning classes because my daughter would not sleep, so on and so forth. After a few months out I was finally able to go back to a 6:30 am class. Now OTF Garwood as a late policy of 10 mins (which they said its being changed to 5 mins but we still haven’t received any notification) so of course I arrive right at the 10 min mark. Now keep in mind, I’m not a new member, I know how OTF works, and that day I decided I only wanted to do cardio. About 25 mins into the workout comes coach Anthony yelling at me in front of the members stating that I could not arrive late, I could not stay in the bike , and his exact words were “there is no space for you at the floor so you might as well leave!” I felt anger, disrespected,mistreated, embarrassment,and discriminated. I couldn’t believe what just happened. The reason why I was late was because Valentina woke up and I had to give her, her bottle. There was more than enough space in the class and there was definitely no reason why he needed to yell at me. I immediately walked out and asked to cancel my membership and vented to the receptionist. I was assured that I would be getting a call from management. It’s been a week and still no phone call, email, text ... nothing. I refuse to keep quiet because nobody there is better than me and I did not deserve to have been treated like that. Now that all the best coaches are gone it won’t hurt me to not go back because I know that if they were there, that would have never happened. @otfgarwood lost 2 memberships that day and management it’s now too late, don’t worry you don’t have to contact me. #otfgarwood...

So I’ll start off by saying that this specific gym and the people who work there are very nice and helpful. The class was intense and Coach Allie is a wonderful person and very good at her job. However, it was not at all what I signed up for. When I originally had signed up for this class, it was advertised to me as a Pilates class. I had signed up for an “introduction Pilates: Reformer 60mins” class. And when I showed up, I was not only informed that the class was not Pilates, but that Orange theory did not offer Pilates at all. I was very confused. I took the class anyways because it was fairly cheap so why not. I was also informed that I was not the only person who had shown up assuming it was a Pilates class. Now I don’t blame the people who work there. But as someone who works in marketing, I can only assume that the larger chain of orange theory had outsourced some 3rd party marketing group and they’re now misleading new customers. Orange theory was quite literally the first gym that popped up when I searched Pilates. So I know for a fact that I did not misread something. It also doesn’t help that when you get confirmation emails there’s only confirmation of your payment, there’s no information on when, where, who, or what you need to do which is fairly common when you sign up for classes. And when I had called the gym the day before to confirm what time I signed up for, because I never got a confirmation email with my class time, I asked “hi I signed up for a Pilates class for tomorrow could you please remind me what time I signed up for?” Whoever was on the other end of the phone just confirmed that my time was 9am. Didn’t say anything about it not being a Pilates class. So overall, if hiit is what you’re looking for, I do recommend this class and these coaches they’re lovely people and genuinely care about your goals. However I just felt like it was important to say this and warn other people who might have been mislead by the same...