LA Fitness — Local services in Pittsburgh

Edit: this is actually a pretty trash gym. DO NOT GO HERE. Their cables broke, don’t keep them repaired and pretty dangerous. One of the cables snapped and hit me in the head. Absolute lawsuit if I weren’t nice. Really, this is probably the trashiest gym I have EVER been to. Unbelievable. I repeat, AVOID THIS GYM

Cons: There’s not enough barbells for the number of bench presses and squat racks. For some weird reason they just don’t have enough barbells - why would you buy bench presses and squat racks without barbells? Also, there’s only 2 squat racks and are always taken. The gym is fairly dirty, even for an LA fitness. I see them vacuuming, but I guess some of the staff never did basic chores growing up and still stuck in elementary school level skills. There’s never enough towels. Finally, the temp inside the gym (currently summer as of writing) is hot. You will sweat. I actually find this a plus since I’m warmed up and puts me in a mind-body state of working hard. But I’ve overheard people complain, and if you’re prone to heat exhaustion/heat stroke (i.e. elderly), that’s a safety deal breaker. There are big fans you can stand in front of. I thought Bakery Square is fairly new. Looking at Google maps, many of the buildings have been built within the last decade. But the building LA fitness is in looks like it was built in the 1950s - from basic air flow engineering to cleaning facilitation/logistics. Perhaps it was not meant to be a gym.

Pros: The bright side is there’s plenty of good machines (but if you’re a free-weight person, it may be lacking). Some of the machines are weird (don’t allow for full ROM), but there’s plenty of variety where you can really focus on specific movement on one machine, and then take it to another slight variation the next time (I’m speaking for for more advanced lifters). You can really push your limits on the concentric part of your lift. Crowded peak times are not that crowded if you’re used to a D1 athlete university with pristine gyms. 5-6pm Mondays after work is busy, but you can surely get in a great lift if you know how to adapt your lift - baring squat rack availability, and bench press. There are 4 flat bench presses (may not have a barbell, so useless). Two incline. One decline. Approximately 7-8 free-weight benches next to the dumbbell racks. These benches cannot go into decline. 3 standing preacher curls. Two smith machines. Two hack squats (different variations). One leg press. Three pairs of cables machine systems with 3 cable lat pull down and with 4 cable rows. Two sets of EZ bars. PLENTY of cardio machines. One ab rollercoaster that kind of needs repair. But three other weighted ab machines. A short track for basic sprinting. Sauna that’s not excruciating hot like other LA fitness. An upstairs with cable systems and pads for abs (also two areas downstairs pads for abs/stretching). The upstairs has more cardio machines and can overlook the main floor if you like to people watch during cardio. Six stair masters on the downstairs floor and seem to have good availability. What’s lacking is the mirror situation by the racks, or the entire gym really (could be a plus so you can focus on your lift rather than check ur gains).

Overall, it’s an adequate gym, but you will have to adapt for the major lifts considering the squat rack, bench press, and number of barbell situation. It’s a unique gym compared to other LA fitnesses, so be prepared to adapt if you’re used to other LA fitness layouts.

The pool is closed as of writing. Like there’s no water. I guess repairs? Haven’t asked about it.

Four stars for an LA fitness. 3 stars for a gym in general. For reference, 5 stars for me is a gym like University of Florida (where I went to undergrad), Penn State, and other southern state university gyms. These gyms have rows of racks, real-time cameras to see how busy it is, hand scanners to get into the gym, etc. Rarely can a commercial gym beat that. So for an LA fitness, you can’t necessarily go wrong...

Mar 2024

ANY RECENT REVIEW GIVING 5 STARS IS FROM NON-GYM PEOPLE THAT THINK THE STAFF IS NICE. THEY GET ASKED TO REVIEW THE GYM AFTER A COMPLEMENTARY TRAINING SESSION. THIS IS NOT AN ACCURATE REFLECTION OF THIS GYM'S QUALITY AT ALL.

I wish i could give it 0 stars. This place is an embarrassment to the LA Fitness name. All the equipment is old and poorly maintained. There is no juice bar, no pool, no kids club, and they still want to call themselves a signature club and charge signature club prices. There's not even enough bars for all the benches. The owner is just awful and cheap. I'm jewish so I know what cheap looks like and this owner is taking it wayyyy too far. It's just absolute trash.

If you drive please go anywhere else. Crunch is 9.99 and Planet is 14.99 and they're both not very far in a car. I only go here because it's location is convenient, but I'm just so sad every time I walk into this gym. I'm really considering making my gym back home my home gym, and I'll pay extra to use this gym just so this gym owner doesn't see any revenue from me.

TLDR: ABSOLUTE GARBAGE AVOID AT ALL COSTS IF POSSIBLE

Edit:9/23/24

I reviewed 6months ago but I feel like this gym deserves a new review after the recent renovations which were sooooooo long overdue. If only they addressed the things stated in all the negative reviews, which I'm sure they saw and chose to ignore.

It's been two days since the gym reopened, and it is still complete garbage. This remodeling is akin to landlords painting over an electrical outlet. Sure, they painted things and got some new floors. They got new squat racks, some new plates, and some treadmills. But they got rid of more cardio machines then they replaced. There are no new elipticals with incline functionality. There are no new machines. All the old machines are still trash and poorly maintained. They added a whole new massive area in the front of the gym with a tire and some medicine balls that nobody asked for. Half the machines still have worn grips and are on their last legs. And what's the deal with only having old school scales that are all off by at least 15lbs? He can't afford some goddamn modern digital scales?

It is still apparent the owner is a cheap piece of trash. Apparently he could only afford to put new floor in half the locker room. The pool is still broken and theres still no juice bar. This place still has no business calling itself a signature club. And apparently towel theft must be really breaking his bank since they're enforcing towel service now. And what are these? Towels for ants? I'm a 36inch waist and the towels barely fit around me to cover my junk. I also definitely don't keep scissors in my gym bag to cut out the security tags to steal them. I don't know who would do that. That's just crazy. I definitely don't recommend you do the same.

The only reason to join this gym is because of it's convenient location. If I drove I would so easily forgo squat racks and go to planet fitness just so this owner never sees a dime of my money.

Please go anywhere else so this la fitness goes out of business and a new gym can hopefully take over it's lease. I would literally pay double for a gym that doesn't suck.

If any of you are ever on the east side of the state, please visit LA Fitness Neshaminy in Bensalem so you can see what a real LA Fitness signature club...

This review is specifically for the personal training program at LA Fitness, not the gym itself. While I understand that personal training is separate from the gym, my experience with the program was so negative that it has completely soured my view of LA Fitness.

A year ago, I expressed interest in personal training at LA Fitness. I was excited about my fitness goals and decided to sign up for a package, despite it being slightly outside of my budget. I was told I had to commit to a six-month contract with no other options. I was also told that my trainer would first assess my fitness, establish a baseline, set goals, and track progress in a book. I was sold on the idea of a data-driven approach to personal training, with the promise that I would be able to see clear results.

The training itself was fine, but the promises were never fulfilled. There was no assessment, no goal-setting, and no progress tracking. My trainer didn’t track any of my progress. Instead, I showed up, followed the exercises given to me, and left. I had no idea if I was actually making progress, but I liked my trainer and decided to stick with it.

The problems began when my Apple Card flagged the $320 charge as fraudulent. The charge came through labeled simply as “la fitness” at 3 a.m. with no other details, which looked suspicious. I approved the charge, and the money left my account, but the following day, I was locked out of the app and unable to schedule sessions with my trainer. LA Fitness claimed I hadn’t paid for the month, even though I had proof that the $320 had been deducted from my account.

After several phone calls, I went to the gym in person to resolve the issue. Despite offering to pay the balance on the spot, the staff insisted on me filling out a credit card authorization form, granting LA Fitness blanket permission to charge my card. I was pressured into signing the form, and after over an hour of confusion between two managers, I left the gym without a resolution.

The issue wasn’t resolved until much later, when I was able to access my account again. However, the very next month, the same charge came through at 3 a.m., flagged as fraudulent again. Once again, I had to go through the process of proving the charge and reactivating my account. The staff was just as unhelpful and confused as before.

At this point, I began to feel that LA Fitness’s personal training program was a scam. After begging the manager to cancel my account after my six months were up, I was assured it would be handled.

However, after six months, I was charged the $320 again. This time, my bank did not flag the transaction, and the payment went through. I called LA Fitness, and the first staff member apologized and promised a refund. After a week with no refund, I called again, only to be told by another manager that I had never canceled my account. A week later, a third manager admitted the cancellation had not been processed, and the refund was finally issued after weeks of follow-up on my end.

Overall, my experience with LA Fitness’s personal training program has been frustrating, with poor communication, disorganization, and a lack of professionalism. I would not recommend the program to anyone, and I believe it is not worth...