Gold's Gym New Braunfels — Attraction in New Braunfels

Gold's New Braunfels use to be an alright gym. After Coof 19 they closed the pool and kids club. When my wife asked if they were going to be reopened the staff told her they were closed indefinitely. Minor problems, we just started going at separate times. On the night of June 14th I was having a conversation with my co-worker while renewing my membership and the staff member at the desk decided for whatever reason in his mind that the conversation somehow revolved around him. Upon completing our workout the staff member aforementioned in the above decided to move to block my coworker and my exit from the facility. Upon making verbal contact with the staff member who was blocking means of exit, he informed us he felt disrespected by us. The staff member then informed us "we don't have to like each other but we better respect him." The staff member was informed that at no point in time was the conversation about him, then questioned as to why he is listening in then associating himself with stranger's conversation he apologized but remained hostile and tense. The staff member then informed us we can still use the gym we pay to use but we better "respect him" while we are there. Based off tone and demeanor of this individual blocking our means of exit and remaining tense and hostile in tone we informed him that since we were not free to leave by means of physical presents (blocking the exit with his body) that we would have no problem detaining him and allowing the local police department to transport and charge him. Upon this revelation the staff member then stepped out of the way and allowed us passage. I debriefed with my coworker in the parking lot then decided to reenter the establishment as Gold's Gym will only let you cancel your membership via written notice. The above mentioned staff member then handed us the termination of contract paperwork and I requested a supervisor call, to which they did promptly the next morning. Upon filling out the paperwork we left with no further incident involving the individual. Gold's gym charged me for a membership on 06/25/2022. On 06/27/2022 I asked if it was still policy to charge people to not use an unsafe facility with hostile staff and was informed it is policy and they would not refund the charge but I'm free to return till the end off my contract. Overall not a bad place to work out, few machines, fewer staff. Staff is lackluster at best in professionalism and just sits at the desk watching movies at night. Expect to wipe machines twice, staff doesn't do regular rounds. Maybe expect hostile staff as their written/verbal/reporting skills from one individual shift to the next is non-existent.

Was a two now is a one star because they took money from my account for my last month’s membership but still keep trying to charge my card. Even though I’ve been in three times in person, shown the bank statements, and have called the collections agency they use. The only competent employees seem to be from the collection agency who received a statement but told me to go to...

everyone is nice during the signup phase (as expected). I was told i would get some 3d evaluation and then would get a personalized workout plan. It took a week for someone to get back to me (actually i ended up having to reach out) for my session. I arrived and met with a manager who asked about my goals, personal motivations, what life experiences led me to this point etc. This lasted about 15 minutes and included a sales pitch that I could get personal training "for only $600 a month". hard pass. "how about 2 sessions a week for half of that?". nope. "how about for ~$200 you could check in with a trainer weekly and get tweaks to your plan?". Not at this time. I wanted to get a feel for the place first. so we sat around awkwardly for a couple of moments and he asked "any more questions?". Yes... how about that 3d scan? "it's broken. should be fixed in a week... anything else?" yes... how about that personalized workout plan? At this point he pulls out a piece of paper and writes down the most generic plan i could have imagined and handed it to me. I could have printed this off of the internet myself. the reason i chose golds is because i wanted help. if i didnt need help I would just go to PF for $10 a month. So I waited for the call back when the machine was ready. I did get a call back asking if i wanted to add anyone to my account. I didn't. still nothing. it's been 3 months and nothing. I decided to cancel as I was told at signup that i needed to do that in writing. I called and asked how to send the cancellation in writing ... "you have to come in." so I go into the gym on the last day to cancel with my kid in tow who was home sick from school and asked for the form. The girl at the front couldn't give it to me. Only managers are allowed to touch the form and they were in a meeting. So their broken process became my problem. I stood and waited... and waited. I asked to just give me the form so I could fill it out and hand it to the manager when they were out of their meeting. That was impossible. No one is allowed to touch the form even though it sits just under the desk. when i finally spoke to a manager she "sincerely apologized" and offered to set me up with a personal training session which i had been promised 3 months earlier. No thanks. I didn't want to wait another 3 months just to be disappointed again. How about just a refund for the final month of my 3 month contract. Impossible. so I cancelled and was met with "i'm sorry you had such a poor experience"... me...

I first joined this gym in October 2021 at the suggestion of a friend. I was hesitant and very nervous about starting out because I thought I’d feel out of place or would be too intimidated to stay. I was definitely wrong!

The person at the front desk walked me around the gym to show me all the equipment, the Gold’s Fit room, where the GGX classes are, and the spin studio. He told me about the Gold’s Gym app, a little more about the different classes offered and mentioned the personal training. I started off with trying out a few of the GGX classes which are all based off Les Mills’ workouts so there isn’t anything you would need to “plan” to do for your workout if you’re taking a class. You just show up and follow along with the instructor! As a gym newbie, I really liked that I didn’t have to think about what workout I was going to do, just which class I was taking that day. I eventually made those classes a habit and over time, got to get to know some of the instructors. I continued with the classes for almost two years, going fairly consistently.

This past fall, I decided I wanted to do more with my workouts so I met with Mark about signing up with a personal trainer. He gave me a quick but full rundown of the process for getting started and scheduled a time with me to do a general assessment a few days later. The day of the assessment, Mark asked me about my diet, my current workout routine, as well as my short term and long term fitness goals. Then he had me do some reps on various machines to get a baseline of where I was at physically. He then paired me up with Kristy and she has been nothing short of amazing to work with to say the least. It’s only been about four months but I’ve been seeing the results I’ve wanted to achieve for a while so personally, I think opting in on starting the training sessions has been a great choice for me.

The staff all around is pretty awesome and really friendly. It shows that they actually care about what they are doing there and that they want people to want to keep coming back. Moses often greets people by name as they come in or leave which is cool. All the instructors I’ve taken GGX classes with - Aya, Melissa, Celeste, Jeanetta, Vanessa, Jenny, Amber - have made them all fun all while pushing you to keep doing your best because it’s your workout, no one else’s!

It’s not the perfect gym, but honestly, no gym is going to be. It’s really all in what you make of your time spent there and if you choose to put in the work, I think you’ll find it was worth it!

P.S. - The Kid’s...