Crunch Fitness - Vista — Local services in Vista

I started going to crunch when it opened and the owners were there running it themselves. Very nice people. I pay extra for small group training doing HIIT which is very good and there is a close family feeling. I'm getting great training with Reece noticeably increasing the efficiency of my workout, saving time while increasing results, and most recently working with their nutritionist/head trainer Josh.

Josh is like a scientist (I am a scientist) and he impressed me with his incredible understanding of how proper nutriton is 50% of your results, maximizing muscle development and timing nutrition to perfectly sync with your workout techniques.

I was skeptical at first thinking I already read enough articles on the web to cover basic and some advanced nutrition concepts. I was surprised to discover the depth of Josh's knowledge, tying together a myriad of techniques and concepts I've never seen before into an understandable whole. I've seen research papers in my work with physics and mathematical models and I kept asking deeper questions and he effortlessly filled in the blanks.

You don't have to be a scientist to understand him because he's a good common sense communicator and started off with basic examples using a rope to explain different types of muscle fibers (6 types), how they are different and ways to hit and maximize muscle growth for different areas of the body where the muscle fibers of a particular type are concentrated. I asked more detailed questions and he did another deep dive.

With his nutrition plan, I was able to finally break a weight loss plateau where I was following diets you read about on the internet. Nothing worked including deep calorie cutting, high protein/low carb, carb cycling, fasting methods, re-feed days and doubling my work out time. I lost 65 pounds over 9 months doing these techniques but my body wouldn't allow me to go below 210 no matter what I did with 3 months of frustration. I just wanted 15 pounds more loss to bring out muscle definition and hit my target physique.

Josh told me day one about a completely different, counter intuitive in some respects, nutrition approach to macros, timing protein intake, etc. He told me my weight would go up at first as my body adjusts and that's exactly what happened. My weight increased suddenly to 223 in a week then dropped finally to 206. I feel confident I can lose my last 10 pounds now doing this. Also, my mood and concentration were also affected by his nutrition plan and I feel more focused and energetic when working out now.

The tweaks he made were essential and I now believe science based nutrition is responsible for 50% of the results you will get in the gym whether you're trying to lose weight or building muscle. After all, our bodies are complex machines and he understands the specifics at a level I've never seen on the internet. I've been lifting for 30 years and thought I knew enough. You will be surprised. Everything...

Update in response to Owner's comments. They really say nothing of substance; "we got bills...our staff do stuff...." etc but - in terms of their "we're really competitively priced" claim - well that's just utter nonsense. they are THE most expensive out of the following:

Planet Fitness (free), LA fitness, Golds Gym, YMCA, 24 Hour Fitness, Anytime Fitness AND Lifetime fitness

and around $40 MORE per hour than independent trainers. So I am very curious - exactly who are they "competitively priced" with???

So this review is more about their personal training program - which is by far one of the most expensive out there. I went for a "consultation" which is really just a sales pitch (key tip - just demand the figures or walk - you don't need to be sold a program) in which they try to justify having an extremely high rate for personal training. They have three offers - one half hour session a week, two half hours sessions a week, or three half hour sessions a week. There is NO discount for booking more - you have the exact same EIGHTY SIX dollars an hour rate for each program. Now the average salary for a Crunch Personal trainer according to numerous websites is around 11-25 bucks an hour. So anywhere from 61 to 75 bucks of you money per hour is for something else. I don't think, but I'll stand to be disabused - that this rate includes membership at the gym or sign up fees. So I'd be curious as to what that enormous uplift goes to exactly.

You can throw a stone anywhere in California and hit a thousand personal trainers charging 20-50 bucks an hour - and if you book multiple sessions with them - they will lower that even further.

I hear the gym is awesome - and it looks very basic and not flashy so that's a plus - but as far as personal training goes - it really does need to be an enormous body swerve. For a large chain - I'd expect the cost to be - at a MAXIMUM - 40 bucks an HOUR. I work for a law firm and they don't even bill out my legal services at 86.00...

As another reviewer mentioned just a few days ago, it has been a nightmare since joining this gym. I was a member in 2017 and had no problems back then, so something has changed. Current day-I have had nothing but trouble with my membership. Long story short- I have multiple charges that appeared on my credit card and it has been almost impossible to try to talk to someone and resolve this. I tried calling corporate as well…but guess what…you can’t physically talk to anyone when you call that number. Every time I call the Vista location, the front desk makes up an excuse as to why the manager, Kelley, can’t talk or is busy or is in a meeting..whatever the lie may be that particular time. They want to try and resolve this via email, which isn’t going to work in my case- and the guy at the front desk, Alex, agreed with me. So after physically going into the gym and waiting for over an hour yesterday, Kelley finally came out to briefly talk to me. After looking over my paperwork, she agreed there is an error that needs to be fixed. I’m not sure why that couldn’t have been done yesterday, but she couldn’t do it. Kelley said she will try and fix this on Monday, but we shall see. I feel like I’m going in circles with these people!

If there isn’t a remedy to this by Monday, I will be coming in to cancel not only my membership, but my girlfriends as well.

Update- I ended up talking to Matt on 1/12/24 after he reached out after reading my review. He agreed there was error and about giving me a refund for this phantom contract that was written on 1/3/24. Anyways, we didn’t see eye to eye and I really never received an apology or a sorry, so on 1/18/24 I went in and canceled my membership (and my girlfriends too). What a waste of $120+ for only 2 months here.

Pro Tip- If you are on the month to month recurring payment option, keep an eye out for...