LA Fitness — Attraction in Lake View Township

First off, please be skeptical about the 5star reviews. I get people have different opinions, but reading these reviews, it’s hard to believe these are real people who have stepped foot in this gym… Went to this location for a while, awful. Was always packed, space was run down, equipment falling apart. The final straw wasn’t the fact that one of the elevators was broken for months (could still be out for all I know, left before they fixed it. It was broken for a long long time… AND instead of figuring out what needed to be done to fix it, they just put a sign up that basically said it wasn’t their job to take care of it) so eventually when the other elevator was out of service, getting to the gym required you to scale the staircase of a 7 floor building… No, the final straw was when a drops of unidentifiable ceiling juice was dripping on my face while trying to use one of the free weight benches. After a hassle to cancel my membership I left to go to XSport which I was happy with, then LA BOUGHT OUT XSPORT, and I am not exaggerating when I say the quality of that facility PLUMMETED within a week. Example: For a while there was no cleaning fluid or paper towels to wipe down the equipment… among a bunch of other issues. It came to be the LA Fitness I have learn to expect, but I decided to try to tough it out due to the fact that it is close to my apartment and it hadn’t got so bad as this location. Then they informed everyone that they would be closing down the facility driving everybody that went to this XSport to go one of their existing locations, like this LA fitness location. I tried to cancel my membership but was told I had to come in between 10am to 5 pm, Monday to Friday in order to cancel… ok, this would make it extremely tough to cancel for a lot of people. So I came in to what was XSport today (a Friday at 3ish) and I was told they cannot cancel because the Operations Manager was not in… excuse me, what? Cancel my membership, like, this is not a request, you can’t just take my money indefinitely until you decide that it’s ok to stop. The person at the desk then told me if I wanted to cancel that had to chase down the “Operational Manager” at this or what ever location they were at (which he was unaware of) or comeback/call to see if they were in at a different inconvenient time… We called while walking towards the next closest location (this location) to see if we could find this “Operation Manager”. Lucky when we called they confirmed that someone had canceled our membership at some point… thank the Lord. To be fair, I was aware of the ridiculous (imo scammy) cancellation policy from the first time I canceled and checking my email would have saved me a trip. I think that they only canceled my membership because I low key threw a fit over the fact that they refused to cancel my membership and this cancellation policy seems intentional in order to stop people with 9 - 5 jobs from coming in to cancel or at least cause a lot of hassle. They also told me that they were physically unable to cancel it so I was not expecting the membership to be canceled or to expect a cancellation confirmation email. So, that being said if I were to follow LA’s policy that we were told, we would have been stuck searching for this “Operational Manager” and maybe not have been able to cancel today, also I work… I don’t have time for this. This is not indicative of the people that work at LA but the organization as a whole. If you are moving to Chicago or you are just starting a fitness journey or you are looking for a change in location, I highly highly highly highly x10000000000 suggest going quiet literally anywhere else. Once you sign up and find out that this is not it, it is a huge hassle to cancel. ALSO, my last point then I’ll leave it. If this location is already packed and they force a bunch of people out of the XSport that is near by, then this location is going to be way more crowded than ever before. I know gym options in this area are limited but I implore you to look at your other options before...

I’ve been working out at this location 3-5x a week for 12+ years, and I’m down to my last good nerve with the steadily declining condition of this place. It was derelict and aging when I joined, and it’s only gotten worse with time. A textbook case of corporate greed and indifference.

If you live in the area you have basically no other affordable option nearby, and it’s VERY clear LA Fitness Corporate is aware and has no incentive to improve. Whatever private equity group owns Century Center puts as little money as possible into care of the building.

At least when the X-Sport was nearby, you could arrive in the afternoon and have your pick of equipment. Even during peak hours, the crowding was reasonable. Since LA bought them and immediately shuttered most locations (including the nearby one on Broadway) this is no longer the case. They’ve brought none of the nicer equipment from that X-Sport to this location, and the overcrowding has made it a miserable place to attempt a workout.

If you’re new here, let me give you a rundown on what’s been the norm for at least the last decade:

– This used to be a Bally’s, and the majority of the equipment is from that era. LA bought them out in 2011, so you can imagine how much rust and grime has accumulated in the time since then. The locker rooms have also received not a single update.

– Free weights are all mismatched, and no one puts anything back where it goes (which would require ANY sort of organization being laid out by management in the first place). When you need something, you will spend more time searching for it than exercising. There aren’t enough D-handles for the cable equipment, and other attachments regularly migrate between floors. Same with foam rollers. If you want lower weight dumbbells, I wish you luck. There are maybe two sets each of 20lb and 25lb dumbbells in the whole gym and people regularly take one and leave the other on the floor somewhere. Apparently, they have been unable to afford additional sets for well over a decade now. That said – if you are capable of lifting dumbbells over 60lbs, those are ABUNDANT and take up most of the available rack space (unused, of course).

– There is a ton of wasted space roped off away from use, primarily the personal training area which you aren’t allowed to access even if trainers aren’t present. Equipment that would be wonderful to use elsewhere (kettlebells, boxes, TRX bands, etc) are off limits. Things that are meant for the free weight area also regularly migrate to the roped off areas and won’t re-appear unless someone ignores the staff and takes them back.

– Get used to staple amenities being completely out of service. The pool and spa are regularly down, most recently for about a full year due to permitting issues. If you’re a swimmer, get ready to be disappointed on the regular. Also brace yourself for surprise ice-cold showers, because the hot water will sometimes go out (most recently for the last full week and counting).

– You will regularly see plastic buckets left out to catch steady drips of filthy water from the ceiling, especially if it has rained recently or snow is melting. Likely outside of their control, as whoever owns Century Center refuses to take care of the actual building.

– Also likely Century Center’s fault, but prepare for elevators being regularly out of service. Typically, every so often only one will be functioning. This was recently the case for over a year. If that one goes out, your warm-up will be taking seven flights of stairs. Stunning.

Like I said, if there were an affordable gym with a shower anywhere nearby I would RUN to sign up. Alas, this is across the street from my job and free to me through my health insurance so it’s always been (almost not quite) worth putting up with the pitiable condition of the place. The audacity and greed, however, of purchasing the practically brand new X-Sport down the street only to close it and force everyone to downgrade in droves to this dump has me chugging haterade. I beg you, work out LITERALLY...

The gym has decent life fitness equipment and good functioning weight machines as well as free weight areas. My 2 star rating is really for the personal training at this site. I signed up for 6 - twenty five minute sessions per month in April. The cost was 50 dollars per session billed monthly for 6 months. After the 6 month contract, they continue to charge your cc until you SEND a registered letter requesting cancellation. After you cancel, you have one month to use the sessions in your account, or they disappear. Now if you pay the entire amount of the contract up front, you have 1 year to use them🤔( this is certainly not revealed or recommended at contract signing). You can downgrade to 1 session a month to keep your already paid for sessions after the intial contract ends. No one tells you this because they want to keep charging you at 6 sessions per month forever. It seems their business model would prefer you not to use your sessions, then they don't have to share the money with trainers. 😬 I signed up for the 1 session per month to retain my 16 sessions, but I wanted to pay in advance for the 6 month commitment. You cannot do this because, again, they want to charge your credit card every month. You can buy extra sessions if needed, but the minimum per month to use personal training is 1 session. All of this info was painstakingly revealed by Vince (member services manager) and the front desk clerk, not from Guillermo, the personal training manager. Guillermo is inept and a waste of space. He knows nothing. He kept going back to Vince, the membership manager, for every question I asked him about changing my training agreement. I finally just started going straight to Vince. Be aware that the availability of trainers is at times inconvenient and inconsistent. They currently have a good trainer I work with, but most of the summer they had very few trainers and that were not very good, on time or dependable. I had three different trainers that were no shows and 1 was 1 hour late for a 25 minute session.

If you need a good variety of workout equipment that is functional, 4 star rating. The location is good, parking is convenient and the club is clean. But Personal training -2 stars. They desperately need a new personal training manager, consistent skilled trainers (that they pay a competitive rate) and they need to lose the contract model and adopt the per session payment model like every other training...