Crunch Fitness - Mechanicsburg — Local services in Hampden Township

I am back again to further reduce my review of Crunch in Mechanicsburg down to one star. I am a 100% Disabled Veteran of our U.S. Army Special Forces. I value my ability to work out hard in a collegial environment. Crunch has enabled me to do that over the past 18 months. But, when I needed back surgery to help with a combat-related injury, I asked Crunch to pause my payment plan for my sessions with my trainer. I was told "No problem" at the desk, but while recovering from my surgery, my wife informed me that we had been charged our monthly payment by Crunch. When I spoke with my trainer to learn what was going on, I learned that by informing them of my surgery and need to pause my account on 9/29 that I had not given Crunch enough notice to allow them to stop my next payment on 10/14. What business in today's environment requires over two weeks to freeze an account? So, now my family is out $330 for a product that I will not be able to use any earlier than after 12/1. Please see my first two reviews to see the regression of my customer experience at Crunch. Buyer Beware! I am sad to have to change my review of Crunch, but they have made changes that are degrading my experience. As I reviewed earlier, I spend my hard-earned money on a trainer who is an expert in his field. This has not changed, but the management of Crunch trainers and their clients has changed in a bad way.

Crunch has become obsessed with the use of a computer pad and sadly, ensuring they get as much money out their clients who already spend 5-6x what an average client spends. They disrupt time I have paid for to make me use their app to acknowledge each and every session I have. When you pay ~$30-&50 dollars per 30-60 minute session, this adds up quickly.

They also appear to be herding all their trainers and clients into their tiny trainer area. This morning was ridiculous. There were 10-12 people jammed into a space half the size of their men’s locker room trying to get their workouts done.

I understand that Crunch is a business, but I also understand that gym models make money by their customers not coming to their gym.

Finally, I have been a member since the Mechanicsburg Crunch opened. In those years, I have not seen any new equipment added and they routinely have equipment “taking a rest” for weeks or months at a time. The most recent instance being their popular red light sauna room.

Sadly, I do not expect to see a change as prior inputs I have made via Crunch’s QR code asking for feedback makes no visible impact.

My recommendation to potential new clients is to find a gym whose owners are focused on their customers and not on squeezing every last penny out of their highest paying clients.

-——————————————————————

I joined Crunch Fitness when it first opened and enjoyed the variety of exercise platforms available. But I then took a contract position overseas and barely worked out for fifteen months. When the contract ended, I was in terrible condition. I had a herniated disk from my time in the Army Special Forces that was cutting the feeling off from my right leg and I had constant low back pain. I had gained weight from inflammation and fat gain. Cardiovascularly, I was pathetic.

Upon returning to the States, I knew I needed help. I got back to Crunch, took the Day One Assessment, and signed up to train three mornings per week. At 50, being fully disabled from Service, I knew I needed someone to push me. Along came Wes who had rebuilt me over the past eight months. I have lost 45 pounds and 10% body fat while drastically improving my strength and endurance. I am lifting weights I had not thought of for 15 years.

Wes is a highly experienced personal trainer who puts absolute devotion into his clients’ wellness. I have even teamed with and become good friends with other clients and friends of Wes.

Suffice it to say, using the personal training at Crunch has been a life changer for me. I show up ready to work hard, and Wes does the rest. I give my highest recommendation to Wes and the Crunch Team in...

EDIT (August 2023): I wrote the previous review two Januarys ago, and I am still attending this gym every day and enjoying the amenities. The day care is still phenomenal and the workers there are excellent. Management of the gym is very friendly and thoughtful towards their members. Music from the classes is still somewhat loud and distracting at times, but it has improved. Noise cancelling headphones do the job nicely. Improved the rating from 3.5 to 5 stars. January 2022: If I could I would rate this gym 3.5 out of 5 stars. It’s clean, has a great aesthetic, and a great culture. I have overall enjoyed my experience thus far.

However, there is a major aspect of this gym that makes me want to reconsider my membership after my first year is complete.

The classes offered at this gym make it almost unbearable for non-class goers. If you don’t have noise cancelling headphones you won’t be able to hear yourself think with the blasting of music and shouting of the trainers coming from the speakers. There are constant classes that hog almost all the treadmills, and completely take over the grass area which makes up a huge portion of the size of the gym. Non-class goers are crammed into 2 average sized spaces.

I’ve been an active gym goer for almost 10 years and have never seen a gym that has classes that use most of the areas during peak hour times, and even off hour times. They have a huge class area that is meant for classes which is used, but a lot of the time there are classes everywhere else in the gym. It is quite frankly miserable for those who go to the gym of their own accord. I pay the top membership as many of these class goers probably do, and it is frustrating when I can’t utilize portions of the gym that I pay for. It’s realistic to have this happen from time to time, but here it is almost constantly happening.

Hopefully as time goes on classes will be better organized since the gym is very new. This gym is relatively small to begin with, but in my opinion something should be changed. Other than that I really have enjoyed my time working out here. The kids crunch is...

I have been going to crunch for 3 years now and I sadly had to leave after getting a new job (I found a closer gym) Let me first tell you my two cons about Crunch, yes there is truly only 2! 1. They have way too many member, if you go in the morning or after work (as most people do) good luck even getting a machine you want, you’ll have to switch your workout around daily. But if your schedule allows you to go during less busy times this is the gym for you! 2. It’s so loud in there when they have the fitness classes in the stretch area. Like I’m talking really loud. I got noise cancelling headphones and they do the trick but if you want to stretch somewhere you have to find an awkward spot during the classes. Now for a list of positives and why I feel, if you can get over the two cons above, you should join crunch. Price is unbeatable, they added 3 extra squat racks and another row of dumbells with 4 benches, community is pretty great there including the trainers, free sauna in the locker rooms, showers in the locker rooms, plenty of treadmills (except during busy hours they’re full), stretch area is great including the turf, outdoor lifting area, scan in with your hand in seconds, always super clean inside, and if you’re willing to lay you get access to the other amenities and the Theragun locker pretty dope. Overall I would totally recommend crunch if my two cons are something you can get over. I have tried numerous gyms around the area as well as gyms while away at college & Crunch just continues to top them all. A final message to the staff: I love Crunch so much but no one should have to switch up their gym workouts because you sign up anyone that walks through the door. There’s gotta be a cap at some point or you’ll lose members, even someone as passionate about Crunch as I am had to leave because I continually had to switch my workouts around daily with so many...