Life Time — Local services in Irvine

TL;DR: if you want to workout, go to Equinox down the street. If you have kids, just get a babysitter and go to any other gym besides this one. Only get a membership if you're looking for a sugar baby or an overly expensive way to find someone to hook up with.

These good reviews are from people who don't know better. I used to go to Equinox, along with a few other nice gyms and the quality for this same price range was so wildly different.

This gym is so overcrowded that you better go during the week during non peak times or be prepared to fight for equipment.

They have great machines and passably decent classes, but again you have to pretty much going during the day during the week to take advantage of any of it. And compared to Equinox or other gyms (luxury or not), the quantity and selection of classes is just sad.

They have dedicated a lot of square footage to useless offices, sitting areas, and other dead space that could be used for equipment people actually want to use. Instead, they just have a few small areas where everyone is packed together and there's barely room to walk between the equipment.

While they have a great variety of machines, they just have one per type, other than cardio. So no matter what you have planned to workout, you will be waiting a long time for a machine or you'll have to adapt your workout to what's available. There's one standard leg press, that you may get to use about once a week if you get lucky. Even 24 hour fitness has more than one leg press.

Customer service, as other people have mentioned, is also at an all time low. They have so many people working sales and front desk that they treat you like you walked into a used car lot even if you already have a membership. I have never been treated this way at a luxury gym. With so many people working, you would think the service would be spectacular. But, they're too busy flirting with each other and the customers, to even care about you. There's also a cafe where usually 2 people are working and it takes 30-45 minutes to get something simple like a shake and that's after they've ignored you for 10 minutes before finally taking your order.

The kids academy is the main draw for parents, but the staff here are not trained at all to deal with children, let alone the very young infants they sometimes watch. The kids basically run around until the staff calls to interrupt your workout to have you pick them up for no reason. Once this happened to me and there was another kid literally trying to mount and ride on my son, who was just trying to crawl away from him. The staff that works in the academy do not interact with the children or supervise them, because they are constantly busy checking kids in and out due to how overcrowded and oversold this gym is. There are a lot of empty promises in what they say they offer. I have never seen them use the "art room" or anything other than the small entry area and the small gym type room in the back. The rest of the rooms are purely for show when you tour, so beware. They do not do any classes for kids if they are under 3.

The pool is average, steam and sauna rooms are tiny closets as others have mentioned. There's actually a huge window inside the gym that faces the pool and they have cardio equipment right in front of it, but facing the opposite way like a prison.

Canceled my membership on the spot today because of how bad the quality is and even though it's a month to month gym, there is a 30 day mandatory notice before you can quit, so they can squeeze a little bit more money out of you when you realize how much of a scam it is.

Also... if you've ever seen any other Lifetime location, you will really begin to see what a waste of space this location is. All of the other locations have a lot more amenities that this one is missing. Most of them even have rock climbing walls and they're less than half the price. This one is...

Well, after 88 visits and on my last visit, I thought it was a good idea for the final objective review on Lifetime as I have decided to put this gym on sabbatical. Truth is that Lifetime is a luxury corporate gym and as a luxury corporate gym that offers an undeniably premium facility and that is always clean, and you are always greeted by a friendly front desk staff. The Life Cafe is excellent, and the menu is solid and offers a range of healthy and great options. The Cafe is well designed, super clean with ample seating. The Life Spa is something that I have not tried yet and have no plan for it either.

One of the nice features of Lifetime is offering a wide array of group fitness classes and the classes that range from not so good to very good. All instructors are friendly except for one or two. I have taken many GTX & Alpha Conditioning classes, two functional strength classes, a handful of barbell strength classes, a handful of Shred classes, a handful of cycle classes and a handful of yoga classes. All group classes are highly structured here and the instructors do not typically deviate or modify what comes up from the corporate or from the desk of the fitness director which makes these classes somehow monotonous after a while.

So, let's start with the very good ones which are the Alpha Conditioning and GTX Classes. The So~So are the Shred Classes and Barbell Strength classes. The cycle classes are a huge miss for me and that is why there are only maybe a few riders at each class (at least the one that I have taken). Lifetime has different styles of yoga classes and in my opinion, Lifetime's yoga is sort of like cycle classes but not as bad as cycle. To each their own, the ownership might feel different about their yoga philosophy but then again, I have taken enough yoga classes at different yoga studios to know what I am talking about. However, I might say that Wei's yoga classes are excellent. My opinion and solely my opinion, but I will say that if you want to do Yoga, just stick to your local yoga studio. And as to private training, my advice is to go to a small box gym for 1/2 or 1/3 the price and more individualized training. The pricing that I have been quoted by various trainers is almost 65% higher than the best trainers on which I have ever spent. While most group classes are free as it should be except for Pilate, expect to pay 50%-70% more for any private trainer at Lifetime and Pilate is a part of private training or paid classes.

The Recovery: Non-Existent! Recovery has become a revenue stream for gyms & whether you are a member of a big gym, or a small gym and Lifetime is no different. But whoever approved of the steam room and sauna was not thinking clearly because their men's sauna and steam room is a joke. The sauna is a size of five people, and the steam room is even smaller. I even wonder why Lifetime even bothered making or remodeling that section of the gym! And forget Cryotherapy or cold plunges- it does not exist.

Final verdict: Objectively speaking, Lifetime is a big clean corporate gym with courteous staff & instructors, but I guarantee that you will not be WOW by the workout if you have been around or a gym junkie. Something about this location amazes me: Previous gym operators came in this location with a big bang (24-Hour Fitness & one other gym prior 24-Hour fitness) but both gyms went out with big whimpers; let us hope the trend is...

I’ll break this review up into two parts and will try to be brief.

If you are from out of town and are familiar with Life Time or just looking for a high-end gym that will have everything you need and more. This is your jam. It may even turn out to be the nicest gym you’ve ever seen.

If you are a Life Time member in OC here’s some insight into the differences between the three clubs.

Irvine Pros:

Newest

Nicest Lockerroom (very similar to RSC)

Individual sauna, steam, and spa in each male and female locker room (Laguna still has the only mixed sauna experience in the fishbowl)

Very quiet and not crowded any time of the day.

You also have the Lifecafé, three other restaurants (Il Fornaio, Ten Sushi, Bosscat kitchen) plus a gigantic open-air space With a gigantic TV, fire pits, and lots of seating at your disposal.

Irvine Cons: As clearly stated in many of these reviews, parking can be a legitimate nightmare. Besides being a good football field away from the entrance, the whole ticketing and validation system can be painful. Full disclosure... if you come at the right time and want to throw a few dollars at the situation, valet parking right out front is also available.

The pool is a mixed-used space... no Adults-only area, so kids everywhere similar to San Clemente. Laguna has the only dedicated pool situation that kids/parents and adults without kids will enjoy. Nothing special at the pool though just a simple rectangle lap pool with 1000 chairs spread around Las Vegas pool style. Because there is no play features water slide or lifeguard, etc. I have rarely seen more than five people in there at one time.

One basketball court in the middle of the whole floor, a lot of wasted space, the weight area seems way too cramped, a smaller spin room and everything else is the same as the others. Honestly, there’s nothing special or superior about this location besides it being the newest.

San Clemente reminds me of a nice mega Vegas resort workout facility. Nice room for yoga but a tight weight/ machine area inside. They do offer an incredible outdoor fitness area with an ocean view. Nothing like that at Laguna or Irvine.

Tennis and pickleball rule at San Clemente, although parking can be as frustrating as Irvine depending upon timing… meaning come during peak hours, and good luck with their too-small parking lot.

To conclude, Laguna still has the best overall experience. Even though it is starting to show some age, they offer the best facility from a layout perspective... the best parking, the best kids club, the better pool by a long way, the best classes, instructors, and...