Life Time — Local services in Shelby Charter Township

For the most part, this gym is excellent. The staff is usually friendly, it is mostly clean and maintained and the atmosphere is definitely welcoming. For the price, you get a great selection of included classes like yoga and cycling as well as various other a la carte programs.

The pool and hot tubs are kept rigorously clean, and the men and women's locker rooms at shelby are constantly being cleaned and towels restocked. The family locker rooms, however, are another story altogether.

I know children are messy, but the adult locker rooms get just as much traffic and are in far better condition and kept much cleaner. My husband almost threw up in his mouth a little bit when I brought him as a guest to go swimming and we used the family changing rooms. He was put off by it completely and won't be coming back lol. I had no idea they would be so bad or I never would have suggested us using them. It was cramped, there was hair everywhere, and the facilities showed obvious wear and tear.

My only other qualm is with aquatics. Don't get me wrong, the swim instruction is great and priced very well for comparable programs at far less clean facilities (Warren Rec, for example). What bothers me is their enforcement tactics where pool policy is concerned.

Two weeks ago, my mother in law had my daughter at the pool. The only posted sign regarding children in the pool is one that says children who cannot swim more than ten meters on their own must be accompanied at all the times in the pool. Well, my daughter can swim 75 and so my mother in law went to the hot tub and let her do her thing in the pool.

My mother in law was reprimanded by two employees who snapped at her for not being in the pool with my daughter, who was in no danger and as far as she understood was not breaking any rules regarding swimming proficiency and distance. Had the signage been clearer, this wouldn't have happened as neither of us have any issue with complying with the policies. When we know what they are.

As it is, my mother in law was taken aback by the attitude of the employees and the manner in which they approached her. She complained to the front desk afterward about their attitude, not the policy, and was told they would speak to those in aquatics about the incident.

I wish this was where it ended, but now it seems that my daughter is being singled out and by extension, me, when we go to the pool.

Tonight, to pass the 15 minutes between when we arrived and when her lesson began, I allowed my daughter to swim in the kids pool and I went to sit on the chairs directly in front of that pool since I was wearing my gym clothes (I work out while she's in class) and wasn't dressed to swim. I have done this SEVERAL times over the past year at both Rochester and Shelby branches. Today, I was immediately approached by one of her former instructors and told that I must be in the pool with her during family swim.

I told her I didn't have my suit as I planned to work out. She then responded, politely at least, that I could stand by the edge of the pool to watch her. I didn't have a problem with that and did so without complaint. However, not five minutes later, the pool cleared out--all except for my daughter and 3 other children all much younger than my child with no parent in sight. They remained in there, unsupervised still, when they began my daughters lessons and I left to exercise.

The same person who approached me saw them in there, though she seemed to be determined to pretend she didn't. I have no problem complying with the policies of the pool, but if you are going to rigorously enforce those rules, then it needs to be upon everyone and not just my child and I because someone on our membership dared to report a couple of rude employees. Otherwise, it comes off as petty retribution for something that had nothing...

Where do I begin... The staff is unresponsive. For such a huge fitness conglomerate that is supposed to cater to more well off people or those who choose to spend a larger portion of their income on their health regime the employees are not friendly, not classy, and not responsive.

Sure when you try to join they contact you consistently and listen to you voice your needs... But the moment you sign up all the attentiveness and helpfulness ends. It's very difficult to get any training staff to answer questions, even if you are trying to sign up for training. When you try to sign up for extras they also brush you off.

They make it sound as if they work with a nutritionalist and a metabolism expert in house but they do not. Once you sign up for a program they absolutely do not care how you do. And after fighting to get answers and to join up you would expect elite trainers... It is disheartening when you ask questions to the trainers you are paying and get I don't know answers and they will ask some person, then never come back with an answer. All of the weightless "help" testing to "help" understand your metabolism and calorie burning and your eating plan is completed by trainers who are not trained properly. Tests are done improperly. Eating plans are ridiculous based on your bad testing.

When you finally are fed up with not seeing any gains for your hard work and seek a degreed nutritionalist to help determine why and they tell you that your test was flawed, they shouldn't have had you moving, walking, etc during a resting metabolism test and that they didn't configure anything for a desk job you clearly communicated and they had you eating 3 times the amount of calories you should have been consuming.... And you confront them... They do not care. They do not offer refunds or re testing at no cost. They do not even offer sympathy.

I have been a member at this gym for five years mostly for the pool, yoga options, and the locker room for morning work outs and getting ready for work. Working out in my own it was okay, since they don't care they don't bother you with trying to offer help in any way. No one even looks at you. But when you have a bad few months and need to lose the weight you gained during those bad few months to fit back into your wedding dress you ordered before the bad time they completely fail at everything. Literally a thousand dollars I have spent with them and everything they did was so wrong and they don't even care. I am so disappointed with my gym. I have not found another decent enough lower room...

You would think that a gym this high end would warrant a higher rating, right? Sadly, the best I can do here is three stars. I’ll get to what I like, but I want to get my complaints out of the way.

First off, good luck getting in your weight routine WITHOUT having to weight for machines. Especially during peak hours. Planet Fitness, the gym everyone likes to clown on, has two pec fly/delt fly machines, but Lifetime can apparently only afford one.

Second, for the price, the experience isn’t all that exclusive. Wanting to work out at branch that has a bathroom on the second level costs an extra $30/month (that was pretty much the only difference between here and the more expensive Rochester Hills location.) Parking is always crammed and the other nearby locations aren’t much better.

Third, the appointments in the pool and locker room area could be updated to not look rusted or outdated. Especially when this place brands itself as a “athletic club.”

So why am I a member?

First, this is literally one of two gyms in the area that can accommodate my spa circuit which would be inclusive with the membership.

Second, unlike the other gym that can accommodate my spa circuit, this one has an abundance of cleaning stations (the other had three - THREE - for the entire gym! We just got out of a pandemic and I don’t want to see another one!) I’m glad Lifetime has an abundance of cleaning stations.

Third, they do have yoga classes and for different skill levels. That’s a nice feature to have so one isn’t having to get a separate membership for that.

The Lifespa and Cafe are nice to have, but since they aren’t inclusive, I don’t have a particular opinion on it one way or another (if there was an incentive like a free 30 minute massage with a monthly renewal or a discount on coffee, I could feel differently.)

The best way I think the Lifetime experience could be better is if they expanded and found a location near M-59 and I-94 that could serve as a hub for Macomb, Chesterfield, New Baltimore, Clinton Twp, Mt. Clemens, and Harrison Twp as to perhaps help alleviate some of the congestion here. There’s no real competition for them, so will they rest on their laurels and be complacent, or will they work to make the experience better for those who are willing to shell out $100 (or more) a month to work out? I’d like to hope for the latter but...