LA Fitness — Attraction in Seattle

long but very honest review Honestly this location has been the worst of them for me. The facility is kept decently clean which is about the only thing acceptable in this place. I’ve paid a better value for an LA fitness that has more/better equipment, space, and staff. You’re paying for a “signature club” at this location which means absolutely nothing exciting for you. Besides all of that, I think the staff may be the worst part. This is ran by the LEAST professional group of individuals I have ever seen. My boyfriend and I have been coming here several times a week for about a year and the staff doesn’t get friendlier. Not only are you greeted at the door by rude and disinterested body language, but it is also accompanied by rude remarks and warnings such as “gym closes in an hour guys, just an FYI”. I appreciate the reminder but every single evening we walk in there and see the same staff? AND said in such an unwelcoming way, and represented as more of a threat? We get it. We know you close at absurdly early hours for a gym (8pm on weekends) we’ve been here for over a year now. If the snarky reminder at the door wasn’t enough, the staff will proceed to walk around YELLING “15 minutes”..”10minutes”... “gym is closing get out!” We’ve even been threatened on getting our passes pulled for heading out the door AT their closing time. We really try and respect the closing hours and have never neglected to get out on time. I get it, we all want to get home after work but this is unacceptable. The shut off of lights at 5 minutes is all you need and works great as a passive reminder. Some of the staff even don’t mind approaching you during a workout to harass you about a missed payment. Yes. This happened. My boyfriend entered the facility first and I followed (we had separate errands to run after the gym so we took different cars). Frank, an employee that was at the front on this day caused an absolute scene. I scanned my barcode and walked away placing my headphones in (as I do each time) he proceeded to YELL “Ma’am“ several times until I heard. I walked back over and before I could get to the desk he waved his hand at me shouting stating I owed money and couldn’t enter the facility. Before I could even get a word out he continued to shout the amount, and the disgust he was in. I didn’t take too well to this approach. I kindly told him that no one had previously let me know I owed money and it was my boyfriend’s account and I will go mention it to him. He told me no and that I was not to take another step further in to the facility until I paid it. I began to walk away stating it was on my boyfriend’s card/ account. He shook his finger at me and stated “you better go find your boyfriend and deal with this right now”. I was shocked at how he handled this. As if I had kicked his dog in front of him. I found my boyfriend, but before I could finish telling him what had just happened, Frank followed me. He began to yell at my boyfriend stating “you’re in the hole, she’s in the hole, you both need to leave immediately or pay the bill right now”. Shouting as people watched. My boyfriend had literally said zero words regarding the account before being approached like this. My boyfriend kindly said, “I received a new credit card, and I will take care of updating my information as soon as I’m done”. Frank continued to shake his hands at us, and approaching us with absolute disrespect that my boyfriend had to stop in the middle of what he was doing and deal with this guy appropriately. This place doesn’t treat their patrons with respect, and does not run this gym in a professional manner. I wish West Seattle had...

I have been a member at this LA Fitness for two and a half months now. I workout first thing in the morning. The gym only has 10 or so people there first thing in the morning. The gym overall is quality. It has clean facilities and provides spray bottles and paper towels for people to keep the equipment clean. The pool is great for doing laps and they have a nice basketball court. I primarily do weight training there, And focus on powerlifting, weightlifting, and some core accessories. I am able to do all of my lifts with the equipment they provide. I can do heavy deadlifts (over four plates) without complaint from anyone about them being too loud (I make a point not to drop the weight, but it's still pretty loud). While I do like the gym, I do think they could stand to make improvements as detailed below.

One, I enjoy (Olympic) weightlifting. They do not have any weightlifting platforms nor bumper plates which is a huge miss. They could make space for this in the large room in the back I think. I can still practice the lifts using light weight, but for those that have advanced to weights too heavy to control slowly to the ground, they will not be able to practice effectively. 24 Hour Fitness has fully equipped weightlifting platforms. To be competitive, LA Fitness should get them.

Two, they do not use circular plates, but instead 12-sided plates. This isn't an issue for most lifts, but it makes deadlifting a bit more awkward because when you set the weight down, it will often roll forward forcing you to change your position for the next rep because you can't easily roll the bar back into position. Ultimately I can manage, but it's still pretty inconvenient.

Three, there is only one power rack. First thing in the morning when I show up, it's usually available, but usually other people are waiting to use it after I start. There is a squat rack with fixed safeties, but I find the safeties are a bit too high, so my form has to be perfect for ATG squats to not bump them. Having another power rack I think would do wonders for the facility. There are three bench press benches, two incline benches, but only one power rack.

Four: There seem to be fewer barbells than spots for them. If anything, there should be more barbells than racks so that people can deadlift, do landmine squats, or oly lifts without taking one from a rack used for another exercise. There also seem to be even fewer barbell clamps than barbells. I can see how the clamps may be stolen, but they're also cheap and easy to replace.

Five: Would be nice if the water bottle fountain were sensor activated instead of having to press it. Especially in the age of COVID where people are mindful of hand contact. On a similar note, it would be nice if there were a bottle filling station on the other side of the gym.

Six: Back on the subject of deadlifts, if you were going the extra mile, having a deadlift jack would be nice. Removing eight plus plates from a barbell is already a workout in and of itself without having to drag the flat side of the 12-sided plates along the floor to remove it.

Seven: Having all the dumbbells racked in the morning would be ideal. It's a shame that some patrons don't rerack their weights, but nonetheless, the staff should put them back for the sake of patrons using them. If you're on the 50lbs+ side, dumbbells are usually racked, but below that there are usually a good amount laying around unused.

Despite the criticisms, it's still a solid place to workout. Staff is nice, as is the...

This club has a great location, and it was once an excellent facility in my opinion. I am growing more and more frustrated with this club. There continually are numerous things broken at this facility at any given time. Presently, there are multiple cardio machines out of commission. There are also weights that have been damaged for over a year and never replaced. At the moment, the air conditioning is not working in areas of the gym. The AC failure is a recurring problem. In response, LA Fitness places large, loud fans throughout the gym. This barely helps.

Now this. The dryer is broken so no towel service. LA Fitness charges members an additional monthly fee for towel service, which cannot be used. This has continued for a month with no date determined for starting the repair. There are numerous commercial laundry services that LA Fitness could contract with while waiting for the dryer repair. It is a shame they will not do this for the towel service paying members. No towels and failing air conditioning is not a good combination. ☹

5/22/2024 Update : Every week, they post a new sign with a fake date of when the drier will be repaired and towel service will be reinstated. They have been doing this every week for the past six weeks. Management--why not just post accurate information instead of pretending you have a repair date? You are losing credibility and losing customers.

5/26/2024 Update: Another day and another new sign with a new date for towel service.

7/19/2024 Update: The AC has been out for several days. It is at least 80 degrees inside the gym. There is a large fan for the employees working the front desk. When I inquired about getting some fans for the gym, the manage barked at me that there is nothing he can do about it.

8/19 Update: The AC is broken once again. It has been out for over a week with indoor temps over 80 degrees every day. 83 degrees today inside the gym. I left two messages and send one email to regional manager begging for fans. No response.

10/9 Update: I went to the gym yesterday and the temperature inside was 79 degrees. The AC is still broken after several months. I pleaded with the regional manager back in July to get some fans, but nothing was done. Instead, they added a small, temporary AC unit to accommodate about 10,000 square feet. I try to work out next to this AC unit as it is the only tolerable area in the club. Yesterday, this AC unit was blowing hot air again, making it even more intolerable in the club. This happens when the condensation tank is full of water. This is the third time I encountered this issue. I contacted the regional manager on 10/2. Unfortunately, the employees still do not monitor this and the facility remains way too warm for...