Planet Fitness — Local services in Crowley

This was my first time I came to this gym. I've been to a few other gyms because of moving and I decided to start going to this one because of the great reviews. I've been going to planet fitness for a year now and basically do cardio and a few of the machines. I've lost 75 pounds and now I want to start getting into the world of free weights. I have NO IDEA what I'm doing in that zone. It terrifies me to work out in front of people and I have to overcome this fear every time I go to the gym. This is what has kept me from going to the weight area. I have no idea what I'm doing and I'm already terrified of other things so I just never had the balls. I decided that I should meet with a trainer so they could show me how to use free weights. This was a BIG step for me. I signed up for the design your own plan class but that's not really what I wanted- I just wanted to be taken to the free weights and shown a few things. Simple- easy. I just wanted to be shown how to use the weights. I called and inquired about the design your own program class and i know it didn't fit what I wanted but I was gonna be upfront about it and see if they could show me what I needed. I chose an early time because I was so nervous to work out in front of people. I show up one minute late and have to wait another five minutes as she's doing other things behind the counter. When she finally decides to come up to me there's no hand shake, no introduction, no hello. She just sits down and starts to give me a paper. She asks me a question which leads to me explaining my whole story and how I just want to be shown how to use the free weights. She goes into this whole thing about her having to see my form and that this design your own program isn't going around to do anything. It's just talking and creating a plan. Okay. Cool. I rebuttal against that and say I really just need to be taught some stuff to get me started. So I was expecting to go over to the weights and she teach me something and show me and then have me try it out. Even give me a little bit more info like what this exercise is used best for and what I could do better. But no this doesn't happen. She starts talking about how the other classes really show us how to use the machines and etc. Okay that's all fine and dandy, but I know how to use those machines, I need to learn more about free weights, how to use them, and how to progress. I signed up for an entire hour of her time and when I kept asking about going to the weight section she just kept saying I'll have to show you really quick then, it'll have to be quick. Um Okay? I thought I signed up from 6-7. But okay whatever. We walk over to the weights section and she starts asking me what my goals are. I told her that I've been focusing solely on cardio and I'm really needing to get into weights to gain muscle and tone. I don't want to do as much cardio because I feel that's just making things worse and I need to build muscle to help get this fat off. She fights against this and kind of goes into her own explanation of why cardio still needs to be my main thing since I'm not happy with my current weight. I disagree with that. But moving on, she then asks me what I want to work on. And I tell her I have no clue. I have no clue as to what I'm doing in this area. She says well then that's part of the design your own program. I told her but we don't learn how to use anything in the design your own program. I'm not wanting to talk about what to focus on. I just want you to walk over to each weight thing and show me how to use it. Show me a few exercises I can do with these things. She kept trying to get me to say what I wanted to work on and I kept telling her I have no clue. This is a completely different world to me. I just want an overview and basic thing. It was like she couldn't understand how someone had no clue what to do. I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT IM DOING. I ended up walking out in tears because I just wanted to be shown a few things and she was so judgmental and rude. Very unprofessional. Very unhelpful. Totally ignored...

I have been training at various gyms for over 18 years, and I have been to some bad gyms in the past, but Planet Fitness now ranks as the worst gym I have ever been to.

If you are serious about improving your fitness, or simply care about working out without being harassed by staff, then I strongly recommend that you find another gym to join. You will be doing yourself a favor.

Ironically, their entire corporate marketing is based around the idea of them being a "judgement free zone" - It is plastered on the walls and most of the equipment. Unfortunately it is not true. Their staff and corporate policies are extremely judgemental and prejudiced against actual fitness enthusiasts and weightlifters.

If you care to read why this gym is terrible, then read on.

As I said, I have been training at various gyms for over 18 years, and I've never encountered the difficulties and harassment and judgement that i have at Planet Fitness . The upper management has a bizarre anti-customer and anti-fitness mindset. All the policies and attitudes that I have witnessed reflect a mentality of trying to harass people who are interested in improving their fitness, extracting profits from people, and protecting themselves from lawsuits by enforcing a slew of petty rules. They make no attempts to please or delight you once you have joined.

Negatively Stereotyping Weightlifters:

1. The gym is plastered with petty (and tacky) rule signs, which negatively stereotype weightlifters, whom they refer to as "Lunks". These signs and rules do not exist at most normal gyms. While they think it is a joke, it is actually very prejudicial and kind of offensive. What if I were to open a gym, and post signs on the walls that stereotyped weak or overweight people, and invented a derogatory marketing term for them?

Excessively Enforcing Petty Rules: 2) The gym management cares way too much about enforcing rules instead of pleasing customers, and loves to continually chastise customers for violating gym rules which pose no real dangers to anyone. Want an example? How about … no gym bags allowed inside (regardless of whether they are in the way)… no gallon water bottles… no loud noises… no grunting (or really, no noise at all)... no cut-off sleeves… no gym chalk… no "dropping" or slamming of weights, etc. With all these rules, how is a person supposed to lift actual weights? This is supposed to be a gym, guys.... not a piano recital.

Rude Staff: 3) While some of the staff has been very friendly and quite helpful, the management here at Planet Fitness in Crowley has been exceedingly rude and difficult to deal with. In particular, the manager Esteban Romo has continually harassed me for more than a year now about petty rules which do not impact other members. I come in, wear my headphones, and try to workout without bothering anyone... and he still finds reasons to come harass me. This has happened to several of my friends as well. I view that as needlessly aggressive behavior, inside a supposed "judgement free zone".

Lack of good equipment: 4) One thing that you will quickly notice if you join Planet Fitness, is that they do not have dumbbells that go beyond 75 lbs, nor do they have any barbells whatsoever. While it appears that they have many good quality Life Fitness machines, these machines are actually modified versions of the real versions that appear in other gyms. The Planet Fitness versions have less weight on them than the standard Life Fitness Equipment. It is very apparent from all of this, that they do not want to encourage real weight lifting in this gym.

All in all, I would like to say that I actually WANTED to enjoy this gym. It is relatively cheap, it was extremely close to my house, and it is open 24 hours. All of these things are positives.

However, the rude staff, lack of adequate equipment, and their policy about continually enforcing petty rules makes it a very unpleasant gym for me. From now on, I am going to recommend to everyone I meet to avoid Planet Fitness and...

I've seen SEVERAL reviews and complaints about the trainer who supposedly comes highly recommend and is supposedly "great and so friendly ".......or NOT.

From the very beginning with the "design your own plan" she was very rushed and made you feel as though you asked too many questions. There were literally only 2 of us meeting woth her that day and she was clearly in a hurry to get us out of her hair so she could go mingle with her friends in the gym. No worries. I let that pass. Fast forward to the next day in which I signed up for one of the classes. I was the only one to attend the class and she gave me 15 mins of her time for the 30 min class, showing me 3 exercises and then said she really doesn't do the full 30 mins. I was left with only knowing how to do 3 exercises and not knowing anything about the 360 machine.

I was good though and let it ride...still coming in 3 times a week to "figure it out ". Then tonight my husband and I come in. Of course parking was terrible like usual, but no big deal, until we pull up behind car getting ready to leave. We are on the right side of the parking lot waiting to pull in to the parking spot when another car comes around the corner and waits for car to pull out. Puts left blinker on and literally tried to jump in front of our car to park n the spot we were clearly waiting on (facing the right direction for parking btw). As we pull into parking spot she speeds up attempting to hit r car. Comes so close to the front that she nearly hit it. We park and she pulls behind are car, cussing us out. Imagine my complete shock when I realized it was none other than the "friendly " trainer....i have never seen such unprofessionalism and of all things it was over a parking spot!?! I immediately advised the manager when I went in and he apologized, but did absolutely nothing about it and allowed her and her coworkers to talk about us as though we were in the wrong. I have never seen anything like this ever and rhen I read the complaints about the trainers and how nothing is ever done about their behavior. So with that being said this is my review.

The gym itself is always clean and we have enjoyed it, but parts of the staff and especially the "friendly " trainer are the most unprofessional people I have ever seen. Not a great...