Ballard Health Club — Attraction in Seattle

Fitness is an important part of my life - especially since being injured in an accident last year which required surgery. I feel bloated, out of shape and, like you, I live an active life and want to be active again. With a gym on every corner it's hard to decide where to work out and what amenities are important to you.

I have a Planet Fitness membership and within a short distance from my home here is a LA Fitness, OrangeTheory, Emerald City Athletics, Ballard Cross Fit and Olympic Athletic Club plus Pilates, Yoga studios and more. It's a lot to take in.

I selected Ballard Health Club and suggest you consider them too. First, its small and local which I think is important - I want to support a small local business over a national corporation or franchise.

Emerald City was rude and pricey. When I called to ask follow up questions no one returned my call. They take you pics when you come in (even before deciding if you want to be a member) and the honestly made me feel like I wasn't fit or attractive enough to be a member. Then some 4 months later they bombarded me with text messages trying to get me back in and not because they cared about me - but because (I think) they just needed some membership sales.

I liked Olympic but they were by far the busiest and most expensive - parking is tough in this part of Ballard and I saw much more fraternizing and socializing rather than working out. They got points for the pool but overall it was just not a good fit for me but not knocking OAC I think they're an okay option.

Ballard Health Club is affordable -- so let's start there. $49 a month or $59 for 24 hour access. Equipment is modern and clean, the vibe is serious without being intimidating. For some reason them being underground in a vintage building feels like walking into the Bat Cave and I like that. I needed help to get back into a program and signed up for training. First 3 sessions are $199 and I got to essentially interview and evaluate a trainer to make sure we were a good fit.

Noah C. is a newer trainer, looks like he has street creds which is about as far away from me as you can get but he was open, thoughtful and nice. I have a shoulder injury and need to stretch. I want to work hard at the beginning work but don't want to be so sore that I'd be discouraged and stop altogether. I also want results and am not familiar with a lot of exercises but don't want to feel stupid or lame because I already do feel that way being in the gym at all.

We're now in our 3rd week and while lessons aren't cheap - it beats being out of shape, not able to fit in your clothes and self-worth has VALUE.

I don't want to be a gym rat or, as a gay man, to feel out of place. Noah has been cool with me, feels like an LGBTQ ally and pushes me without making me feeling bad, stupid or that I'm a fat lump.

I like the Gym but I am there mainly because Noah's motivated me and made me feel welcome. I think you will feel welcome (Noah or not) and so I give the gym and the gym staff a big 5 stars.

Now get off your duff and get thee to Ballard...

TL:DR; BHC is amazing!! You won't regret checking this place out.

(Very) long version:

I am really impressed with how much work the club has done to improve the space and get new equipment. The new olympic lifting room/deadlift room is excellent. The place also has tons of squat racks; I almost never have to wait for one.

I also have been working with Netto as a personal training client for about ~1 year now, and in that time I've gone from the kind of person who struggled to work out 1x a week to someone who consistently works out 3-4x a week and really, truly enjoys it. I've seen huge improvements in my cardio fitness and strength, and all of that is thanks to Netto -- he is insanely good at figuring out how to motivate people and couldn't be more supportive, including for folks who are right at the beginning of their fitness journey, for lack of a less dorky term :)

In addition to that, Netto has a truly impressive amount of knowledge about the human body and has been so great at adapting exercises so that they work for me. If I say, "Hey, this feels weird in this way," he comes up with several options until we find a solution that lets me work out pain-free, which is absolutely huge. I haven't had any injuries at all while working with him, which is the most important thing of all to me.

Another point, Netto is happy to let his clients decide what success looks like for them. For me, I said early on that I didn't want to set any weight-related goals, and Netto has been completely supportive and understanding of that. Instead, we track strength-based goals and aim to improve those numbers over time instead of worrying about the scale.

If you're someone who knows intellectually that working out is good for you and important for your body but has struggled to make any changes in this area, I recommend BHC and their amazing personal trainers whole-heartedly.

Also, everyone is so incredibly friendly here!! Special shout out to Ivana and Brenda for making BHC so...

My experience leaving this gym left a bad taste in my mouth. I moved out of the neighborhood, and contacted them the day of the next billing cycle (Nov 27) to ask to cancel my membership so I wouldn't be charged for the December membership. Even though they confirmed my membership was cancelled on the 27 and the bill for Dec didn't come through on my credit card until Nov 28, they refused to give me a refund for the December amount. They already had my final month fee that I paid upfront when I joined a year ago, which meant I was essentially paying for TWO extra months where I wasn't going to use any of the services.

The guy on the phone verbatim said "well, if you think about it, a lot of people pay for their memberships and never come into the gym at all, so just because you aren't going to use the service doesn't mean you should get a refund." The difference, of course, is I gave advance notice -- just not far enough in advance to meet the arbitrary policy.

Beyond that, I will also say that it's difficult getting into the popular classes at this gym. I was a member for a year and I joined specifically because they were one of the few gyms in the area that offered Bodypump classes. However, they only have 3 classes per week and more often than not, the weekday classes fill up instantaneously (especially Thursday's) so it ended up being harder than expected to actually go to...