The Edge Fitness Clubs — Local services in Saint Peters

Update: After a lot of back and forth from corporate (EdgeCares), the district manager stepped in above this local location and was able to assist me in a proper cancellation and refund.

Management and membership: I have been with this gym location since November of 2021. I renew my annual membership in full every year.

I would NOT RECOMMEND this gym due to the experience with trying to achieve a prorated refund and discuss contract options with the manger, Travis, and assistant manager, Sean. If you join this gym, I would recommend going month-to-month or else you can run into the same issues that I did.

I was very put off by Travis and Sean and how they handled my membership experience. I reached out saying that I was moving and referred to some conversations I had with previous employees when I renewed over the last year or two.

The manager, Travis, made it seem like I was in the wrong. It was enough that I took this to the corporate headquarters to give them feedback about the location. However, going to headquarters to cancel your membership can still be very difficult, to the point where they cancelled my membership without my approval. This was from the third party company, ABC & Edge Cares (Corporate Membership Division), not the local St. Peters location. They had to cancel my membership to submit a request for any refund for an annual membership due to moving. This was done without communicating it to me.

SOLUTION: If anyone wants to cancel their membership due to move or medical reason, you can email EdgeCares@theedgefitnessclubs.com. Be aware they will cancel your membership first. However, it is a way to cancel your membership if you are moving without going through the St. Peters management.

Regardless, I am happy to be done with my membership as I can start at a new gym without dealing with the management at this gym location. They also seemed unphased that a member was frustrated with their professionalism and like they did not want to return certain calls or be transferred calls when I called their front desk. After reading some of the more recent reviews, it seems like others have also experienced poor interactions with the management.

Actual gym review: The gym is spacious with free weights, lots of cardio equipment, and two smith machines. There is room to stretch and other amenities like a sauna, cardio room, and women's only room. It is very busy at all times. I go as early as 4:30-5:00 AM and have seen it very busy with people going before work. I never go after work, as it is filled then, too, along with during the day. It seems to be pretty busy at all times. Their shake bar is a nice addition.

I DID have a great experience in 2021 with my contract with an employee, Eric, who I believe still works there. I had one gym session with a good trainer, Courtney, who also still...

FYI, this is going to be a long review. I've been going to this edge fitness since January 2020. Here's what I've noticed that they do great and what they need to improve on.

The good: they have a ton of treadmills, a big free weight section, plenty of bench presses, four squat racks, a large studio, a women's section, clean men's locker room. Waiting for a bench to open up in the free weight section is not a long wait. I've never seen the men's sauna broken down so far. They have a moderate sized turf plenty of yoga mats and kettlebells. I cannot comment on their children's area since I do not have any kids.

The bad: The chest supported row machine has been broken down since July of 2023. It is currently February 2024. I've seen other machines broken down and fixed but they tend to take weeks for fixing. The turf stinks. I've never seen it cleaned once since I've been there and I tend to stay pretty late at times. They run out of clean wipes pretty quickly, especially by peak hours. There could be a long wait time, especially during peak hours for the calf raise machine, the cable fly machine, the Smith machines which they only have two of, and the chest supported row machine when it's not broken.

There was a time where they had started yoga classes in the evenings but there were no show times online or on the edge app so I would get to the studio to practice and I would have to drive to the edge at St. Ann, instead of sitting around for over an hour waiting for the yoga class to end. After about a month, they finally added the yoga class times online.

Cancellation: I never had to deal with canceling my membership here; I'm not sure how difficult that would be in the future with edge, but I've had trouble with club fitness years ago in which I had to claim my credit card was stolen just so that club fitness did not have the ability to charge me anymore after canceling. If you're having the same problem with edge, this might help you out.

Recommendations: for members, just come prepared with a backup exercise in case your preferred machine is broken. For edge, I recommend that they have more stations for clean wipes, especially during peak hours. Clean the turf or change the method of cleaning the turf because it stinks! If fixing a workout machine takes months it might be better to replace it all together, especially if it's the only one of that kind for the gym. Add some more Smith machines and another calf raise machine.

Verdict: it's a pretty good gym, I'm not going to lie. They do need to make some improvements and change some methods, but I am...

I want to love this gym, I really do. And if all you want to know is if it is better than surrounding Club Fitnesses, it is. But Edge has a significant issue that has bugged me since I joined in May, and odds are it will affect you too at some point.

Let me start with the good. The amenities are impressive. I really like how spacious and logically arranged the main gym floor is. There is a wide variety of equipment, including items often missing from Club Fitness, specifically the seated barbell shoulder press and seated preacher curls. Their Matrix treadmills are so cool, I may purchase one myself for home use. They also have not one but two (!) seated chest fly stations that are very popular, especially on Monday Chest Days. While it gets crowded during rush hour, I rarely find myself needing to wait for anything. People are respectful to each other, and most everyone I've seen wipes down the equipment as they are supposed to. The added perk of frequent free preworkout shots is very generous.

The men's locker room is the largest and most well kept I've ever seen. The sauna always seems to be on, working, and the hottest I've experienced. While I have not used the Cardio Cinema, I'm impressed by how many brand new movies they advertise showing. Good choices, corporate!

Despite all this, however, the biggest thing holding this gym back, and the biggest problem for me, is the length of time it takes to replace broken equipment. Machines will sit broken with signs on them for weeks, if not months. I've sent occasional emails reporting additional problems (as directed on the equipment itself) and asking the status of repairs, but they have been largely unresponsive. And unfortunately, the list of broken or unsafe items only appears to be growing as everything ages and shows more wear. Sharp edges on bench seats or arm pads can cut or injure bare skin. For several weeks, I had to place a towel over the preacher curling station to avoid cutting myself. These should not be the "edges" for which The Edge is known.

I don't presume to know what all is involved with equipment replacement or repair, but I just don't see why it takes so long. Club Fitness was not perfect either, but I never felt their response time to be this noticeable and unreasonable. If you guys can turn this around, you will truly be the best gym in the St. Louis area, and I'll adjust my...