Planet Fitness — Attraction in Roseville

First off it is worth noting that for financial accessibility, the membership fee for PF is great for those that simply need access to exercise equipment while needing to save cash.

However, the adage that you get what you pay for absolutely remains true in this instance. While there is seemingly an abundance of equipment at this facility, access to it is quite restricted due to how incredibly busy this site is. In the month or so I've been going here I don't think I've seen a free bench in the dumbbell area open, you can always count on the area between cable machines tied up by someone doing cable flies at an extremely relaxed pace (great exercise, but a fairly inconsiderate one to tie up two spots on a popular machine when the gym is packed), and forget counting on access to a Smith machine as the typical practice here is for groups to post up on them for an hour+ at a time.

There are no free barbells, so even if you have access to a Smith machine, you are restricted to a piece of equipment that encourages suboptimal form for heavy compound movements. Naturally, the next option would be to supplement these exercises with their dumbbell counterparts, but as stated above, you will be unable to reliably access a bench in this section.

This means your workout will very likely be limited to bodyweight exercises (in which case, why pay for a gym membership?) Or the planet fitness brand machines, which while there is often room to reliably use these machines, you'll find certain ones down for weeks at a time, and others strictly encouraging questionable form.

Lastly I feel it's worth making note of the brand in general, in my time spent weightlifting, planet fitness is the only gym I've been to that explicitly markets itself as a judgement free zone, this is immediately contradicted by their overt marketing against anyone that doesn't work out in the manner that the brand agrees with. In this, and presumably all PF locations you'll find signs and permanent decorations mocking and name-calling those that should drink water from the wrong vessel, wear a tank top, or God forbid push themselves in their workout hard enough to grunt in exertion.

For those reading and intimidated by the prospect of being new to the scene: I have seen more showboating, encouragement of poor form and harmful exercises, and judgement in my month at planet fitness than I have in years at any given typical "bodybuilders" gym. Any non-chain facility will offer reasonable/free trials and the opportunity to see for yourself what an encouraging and healthy gym environment looks like and I encourage you to take advantage of that.

My brief encounters with the staff have been that they are all friendly upon arriving and leaving the gym. The training practices I've observed have certainly been troubling, I've lost count of the instances of problematic form that I've seen encouraged.

Again, the black card membership is an undeniably tantalizing offer, and if it's your only option for getting to the gym, it's a great opportunity. Additionally I've had no trouble accessing cardio equipment . However this planet fitness presents a great number of barriers to make the most efficient use of your time, whatever your goals may be, if you can justify spending a bit more for your personal health, I promise you that your money spent will demonstrate exponentially more value nearly...

I am so completely blown away in an outstanding way with Planet Fitness Roseville, Minnesota that I don't even know where to begin. I have 4 key people to mention but there are others as well. I can only ask that something be done from the corporate level for this team since they are beyond excellent and give uber-stellar customer service. I have to begin with Miya who was the friendly bright shining face that greeted me when I entered the gym this morning. I need to preface all of this with that I am from Germany originally and I am an HR Director for a fortune 300 company. So, as you can imagine, I am exceptionally familiar with employee performance. I asked her about the different packages available for membership and she was more than eager to explain them to me and was thorough. Then the Manager, Blake came and spoke with me and was so friendly, warm, welcoming and made me feel a part of the Planet Fitness family before I even paid. Then the next superstar of this incredible cast of mega superstars was Sean. He gave me my personal tour of the facility and was extremely thorough, warm, knowledgeable and kind. I was so impressed with the facility here and what you all offer to members and Sean was nice young perfect gentleman. His parents did a great job. I came here from YMCA Miday in Saint Paul, Minnesota and they were $77 a month, not even close to what you have here, and they open and close and you all are open 24/7. I think this is what you call in English, a no brainer for someone deciding on which gym to go to. I honestly now cannot comprehend why on earth someone would go to any other gym because you all have absolutely everything and then some minus a swimming pool. Big deal, no issue for me personally. Then the final star of the show and all-round sweetheart is Moraa. She is so sweet and kind and professional and very calming demeanor. She was perfectly placed in her position at the front desk/reception. I even had the misfortune of witnessing on my first day here a group of young women misbehaving in the relaxation area lounge. She dealt with the issue extremely professionally, fair, just and adequately. For her age, I was blown away. Please groom her for bigger and better things within the Planet Fitness world. All this to say, I am very happy that I chose this Planet Fitness location, that i have this particular group of team members truly invested in my fitness and overall health. I commend each and every one of them. Thank you, Roseville, MN team! I cannot forget Joseph of course and an honorable mention to Jessica and Ella whom i met very briefly after working out 3 times because i didn't want to leave the gym. OH yeah and John big, tall bald guy, nice can't...

Edit: Since my last update they've made some improvements. It's easier to find some accessories and clips. Machines that go down tend to get fixed in around a week's time.

Addition: I posted this review 2 months ago now and have seen little change. There are still missing clips and equipment all together. Despite the gym being especially busy this time of year there is a single, beat up and frayed, tricep pull down rope for the whole gym. This is common between a few different area. These things cost dollars to replace, not hundreds of dollars, just dollars. Why has this STILL not been addressed even after this review got a reply??

The men's changing room is quite dirty and honestly feels gross. I don't say this to be mean or rude but it does not seem that they get cleaned very often. From the showers, to the sinks, the bench's and the lockers. This is also true of the water fountain by the men's changing room and several of the cleaning / paper towel / trash cans around the facility. I'm also uncertain of how often the machines themselves are cleaned. I understand that many places are short staffed but we all pay to be there. The changing rooms should be cleaned at least once per hour during busy times of day but I have not seen this happening. I've been to other Planet Fitness locations that were able to maintain that schedule regularly.

I feel like I only ever see staff hanging out behind the counter. For the most part, those that I have interacted with are friendly, greeting me when I walk in and saying goodbye when I leave. I do feel that they have an overall good attitude when I am there. I would, however, like to see more effort put into making the place clean and put together. It really isn't that far behind, a few days of real energy to clean it up and a bit of consistency to maintain it would go a long way.

Additionally, some of the equipment seems to be in rough shape. They're are a few missing clips and carabiners here and there. Not a big deal, but neve fun to have to hunt something down from another machine when you're on a time crunch.

It should also not be forgotten the price of a membership, especially compared to other gyms. That does not necessarily excuse some of the aforementioned critiques, but must be taken into account if you are thinking about...