Fitness Factory Health Club — Local services in Edgewater

Summary: If you want to lift weights, there are better options for your money.

This place is absolutely the cleanest gym I have ever been too. Bathroom, locker room, showers, sauna, and steam room are always clean. Not just for a gym, the bathrooms at Outback Steakhouse are less clean than at Fitness Factory.

The staff is super friendly, they hire great people here, and you always feel welcome. The staff will talk to you as they make your shakes and make you feel like part of a community.

Equipment: There are two flat barbell benches, one incline bench, one decline bench, only one squat rack, one smith machine, and five benches in the free weight area. Multiple machines, but you will only use some of them because some of the machines just feel unnatural. At like 6 pm when everyone starts coming to the gym, don't expect to get anything done. Doubly frustrating because people just sit on their phones and talk instead of lifting.

Cardio Equipment: The treadmills here are absolute garbage. They lag when changing speed which means that if you want to do HIIT or just alternate between speeds you have to think 30 seconds in advance to compensate. Not joking, it literally takes 25 seconds to go from 7 mph to 2 mph. There are more than enough treadmills and ellipticals, three stair masters and a good amount of bikes.

The absolute worst thing about this place is the members. I can't blame the gym for the kinds of people who sign up but the members just turn me off from this gym. This is the kind of gym people who think they're "fit" come too, but if they went to a place like World Gym in Fairview they would probably be too embarrassed to work out.

Most of the people who "work out" at Fitness Factory are middle aged, or just starting out on their "fitness journey". Anyone who wants to lift weights beyond an amateur level will grow out of this place. As an intermediate lifter myself, it's really annoying that the people here stare at you or complain if you grunt. Sorry that I'm pushing myself. God forbid you drop a weight, it's like a sin or something. Meanwhile these special snowflakes don't understand that sometimes you have to drop the weight in order to avoid injury, such as the case when doing dumbbell bench press. I'm not saying that it's okay to be obnoxious, there's a few new members who drop weights and scream for the attention, and it's really annoying. If you're just getting a good workout out in and you happen to drop the weight or grunt a little, it should be accepted, as in any other gym that's not Planet Fitness.

This is a similar story when dead lifting anything above 315lbs. Since the gym is on the second floor, and a jewelry store is beneath the gym, the jewelers will call and complain about the noise. Then the staff will come and stop you from dead lifting. This is absolutely unheard of in any serious gym.

Which brings me to the biggest criticism that I have for Fitness Factory Edgewater, it's not a serious gym. It's a "health club", just a place you go to move around for an hour. If you're the kinda person who wants to meet people who have a passion for lifting, who wants to grow, and feel like part of a fitness community, this place is not for you. This place is for the Planet Fitness types, who want to pay extra for a view of the city while they do...

I was so excited to join the gym due to the convenient location and the numerous group classes. The group class instructors often showed up 20 minutes late, or never at all.

The disappointment and frustration continued with Pure Core Personal Training and Lauren Lopresti. Long story short, she convinced me to sign up for a year of training because she said it was my only contract option.

I expressed concern as I was getting married and planning to move out of state. She promised me that I would be able to cancel the contract with NO penalties and get a full prorated refund by showing proof of address change as long as its 25 miles away. So I trusted and signed.

I was turned off a few short weeks later when she tried to sell a package to my fiancee that was half the price and half the commitment of what she sold me. I expressed upset with this to management and they said they would "help me" but they ultimately tried to sell me another years worth of classes. Every single employee and manager that I spoke with had an entirely different policy and package options. They give you the run around over, and over, and over. Nothing was ever straight forward.

Fast forward 5 months, I moved out of state and provided proof of address change and Pure Core went ahead and charged a $350 cancellation fee! Even though Lauren promised this would not happen. Their customer service is absolutely terrible. NO ONE answers calls or emails. I gave up because I was tired of calling and wasting my time.

Moreover, I was not happy with the training itself because my trainer was not available in the mornings when I was told he would be. My trainer expressed frustration with the schedule himself which showed that internal management is faulty. Their web portal is also outdated and terribly glitchy.

The sessions were only 30 minutes when I thought they were an hour. My trainer told me flat out that I was over-paying.

My trainer was clearly overworked and underpaid. The last straw was when I showed up to a few training sessions and my trainer was LIMPING everywhere. He could barely walk from an injury, could not help me lift a weight, etc. He was visibly hurt and staring at his phone the whole time. He is a great person and I really got along with him. But when employees are not cared about, they don't care about their work. I would've happily trained with him outside of Pure Core.

When I told Lauren that I didn't think it was appropriate for him to be training people when he is injured and unable to properly assist paying clients, she said "he is fine" and joked it off.

I was not happy to be paying $80/hour to be left alone to count my own reps while wondering if my form was correct....

Save yourself the headache and the wasted money. Seek personal training and group...

First I want to start with the positives. I went there at 5am. The gym was always open on time and there was enough equipment especially for that hour. There is plenty of parking. If a view of the water and nyc is important for you while you work out, then this is the gym for you.

I look for equipment selection, cleanliness, and how well the gym in maintained. This gym is a dump. There is a white film on all the weights, I'm not sure if it's from the humidity but it's bizarre. The adjustable benches are very wobbly, they probably need $5-10 worth of maintenance, but clearly it's an absentee owner. The dumbbells are a disaster, 1/2 are missing the silicon grip, which makes using 2 at the same time awkward. The bathrooms smell terrible. The flat benches are as soft as a pillow. Considering they try to present themselves as a performance based facility and I believe the owner is/was a powerlifter I don't understand how they can justify such a poor maintained flat bench.

The monthly fee is reasonable for Edgewater, but the "club enhancement" fee or whatever they call it is insane. It's a terrible gym.

About 25 min you can drive to impact zone in northvale, which is probably too far away for most Edgewater residents, but it's an option.

Iron culture is opening in North Bergen, which is significantly cleaner and better maintained with great equipment.

On a side note, while reviewing this my wife told me 2 stars was too...