425 FITNESS ISSAQUAH — Attraction in Issaquah

I signed up for Gold's Gym Issaquah and started on March 29th of this year (2016). The day I walked in I weighed 207 lbs and was completely obese and out of shape, had 2 fractured ribs that were healing, a broken toe that was healing, frozen shoulder which I still have. Other factors that make whats listed pale in comparrison but lets just say its from 42 years of the chronic disease I have, Type 1 diabetes and I only share those complications with my current trainer Annie Heng-Tse. This is My Gold's Gym Issaquah Experience. I was determined to suck it up and walk in the gym, find a trainer, and get to work. That was 169 days ago as of the moment I'm writing this. I keep to myself and never post or talk about victories but for my current trainer Annie I'm compelled. My 1st trainer left unexpextedly after a very short time but I had my eye on the skill set of another trainer who unfortunately was booked solid. I was teamed up with another great trainer who's schedule didn't quite match mine but we made it word for a while until my schedule temporaly changed. This is when the stars aligned for me and a spot opened under my current trainer!! The one I originally hoped to work with and who I would like to highlight here. Her name is Annie Heng-Tse. I don't write reviews and have zero speaking skills to match but I think we can all as people relate to this. Very seldom does anything ever live up to its expectations but working with Annie Heng-Tse is even more than I could ever have dreamed it could be. Her approach is completely taylered for the client...in this case, that's me. Everything is done to achieve a goal, my goal, my objective, my health. She is very encouraging to me and has brought an excitement thats just caught fire, the kind drives you and happens but a handful of times in one's life. If someone want's to lose weight, has challenges, injuries, or just needs accountability, heck, if you've never stepped foot in a gym you need to seek Annie out...Annie's not a healer but she'll walk every step with you on your journey and keep you true! By they way, I walked into Gold's Gym 169 days ago at 207 lbs and Annie weighed me on 09-05-16 at 173 lbs. I'm 45, 5'8 BMI was 35.8% (04-02-16) as measured by the hydrostatic body fat testing. Not sure what my BMI is now but it's way, way, down! If you meet her you can tell her you read about her client Joe (I don't mind, no one knows who I am...

Overall it's an okay gym, the best thing being the variety of machines and weights (although not as many of each as you might like).

They switched from Gold's Gym to 425 Fitness not too long ago, and thus dropped all the Gold's Gym benefits without giving a heads up to most of the clients, so a lot of people were upset that they were paying for Gold's Gym and the associated benefits and now are paying the same for essentially less.

That aside I have noticed over my three months going to this gym a spike in the amount of people going, this has resulted in wait times for some equipment. At times I have to wander the gym or use different machines before I can use what I want as it's in use and there are limited amounts of machines/benches/weights. Another prime example is there used to be three stretching areas, now there are two, with the third being remodled into a lounge area that seemingly no one uses, so now I have to wait 10-15 minutes to find space to do pre-workout stretching (as each streching area fits maybe 4 or 5 people).

The locker rooms have gone slightly downhill recently, I often see a mountain of dirty towels with some dropping off onto the floor. The locker changing space has a lot of lockers but limited changing space, so for example one locker nook area could have 20 lockers but space to change for maybe 4 or 5 people at a time.

Machines are fairly well maintained, with some occasionally breaking down, but turnaround to fix them is pretty quick in my opinion. The only strange interaction I have had was a fly machine was broken, I reported it with the machine number and the staff member told me that they had heard but did not know where the machine was and asked if I could put the sign on it (the machine is about 30 feet away from the front desk).

There's a crossfit area with some neat equipment, but be aware that there are classes that take up half (sometimes all) of that space and prevents anyone from using that area for the duration of the class(es).

Again, it's a decent gym just with some faults and...

I’ve been a member here since December of last year. This is a trustworthy review.

Is the gym perfect? Not all the time, but is close to being perfect. The pool was closed for over a month for maintenance - waiting for parts to arrive from Italy, something out of their control. Most recently the heater in the pool wasn’t working. However, the management ensures that the things that are broken, get fixed and not stay broken. Things break - that’s just a fact of life. What they do next and the resolution time is what counts. What could help is letting members know upfront at the desk that something’s broken, rather than walking in, getting ready, taking a shower, getting one foot into the pool only to know that it is ice cold water. That was not a pleasant experience.

I would rate the pool a 9/10, the Jacuzzi 10/10, the steam room 10/10, the sauna 10/10, the showers and dressing rooms 10/10. The gym equipment 20/10 (yes a 20 on 10 because it is that good!).

The staff at 425 Fitness Issaquah have skills you cannot teach a person. Coming here after a long days work feels like coming home, where you are warmly welcomed with smiles and where people know your name. It’s not important that they know my name, but it goes a long way in making me feel welcomed at the gym.

The staff are kind, polite, helpful and welcoming. The facilities they’ve got at this gym is unparalleled. I’ve met folks who have multiple gym memberships, who’ve been coming here for many many years. They choose to drive over 1 hour to 425 Fitness Issaquah, just because they like the gym that much! The staff would receive a 100/10 (Not a typo - a hundred on ten).

A special note of appreciation to Robby. He is all the good things about this review and much much more! He sets the customer service bar HIGH, and raises it for all he works with. He’s got a super bright future ahead of him!

I am absolutely grateful to be a member of 425 Issaquah. If you’re on the fence about joining here, come in, ask for a trial. You will...