Gym Wars – XSport vs Lifetime

Lately I have been thinking about changing gyms for better convenience and cleanliness.

I have been a member of XSport for a few years. I had a personal trainer a few years ago, Tony, who was great and I saw both weight loss and improved strength in myself. Then I injured my knee and lost motivation, and right now I am not where I’d like to be… wearing tight jeans sucks! (Unless you’re at a club and deal with it to look good).

However, I have gotten back into working out more regularly – yes, I am still doing morning workout videos and feel better when I do them (see last post). But still, I need the weight machines to complete my workouts.

So, tonight I went and met a guest service guy at Lifetime Fitness and tested the facilities.

First, he walked me around the huge mall facilities. It was nice, the machines were not too close together and there were plenty of them empty. I saw a friend from work – hi Shelly!

They kind of are a little pushy to get you as a member, but so was XSport when I joined. Lifetime seems to be all about the experience of getting you with a personal trainer to fit your fitness goals, which is great if that’s what you want. Not me – I want to work out and be left alone.

I was upfront right away, I said that I am a member of XSport, but the large ones that have the nice amenities that I want are at least 25 minutes away from me. So, I’m only able to go once a week when I have extra time. Otherwise, I go to the super-small local XSport Express, which is small and not the cleanest place (but I’m not saying it’s really dirty either)… it’s just not “nice” like the bigger XSports or Lifetime. The machines are often taken and there’s pretty much only one of each weight machine.

My reason for coming to Lifetime was thinking that if it was only 5 minutes from my house, it would be totally convenient and I’d end up going more often. Plus, I knew it would be clean and big.

Following are my takes on Lifetime and the XSports…

LIFETIME:

…clean, has premium soap/body gel that smells fantastic and foams well, has plenty of equipment (machines) available even at prime rush hour workout time, is just plain big, has nice amenities and classes, has a pool and swimming laps, large locker rooms, clean steam room, whirlpool, clean showers, ALWAYS has plenty of big towels available and has areas for kids, but that’s also a negative for me because there are WAY too many little kids running around the pool splashing and screaming! (Big drawback for Mikey – maybe even a “dealbreaker”.) I’m sure I’m forgetting a bunch of good things. BUT IT IS HUGELY EXPENSIVE!

XSport Express:

…is more comfortable but small, so I’m in and out a lot quicker. There are no towels there though, I sometimes have to wait for a machine, and membership is a LOT cheaper! There’s only 1 shower stall, so I would NEVER shower there – I’d wait till I get home.

FULL SIZE XSport:

…gives Lifetime a run for their money… they also have a steam room, lap pool, group classes, a lot of machines (but not near as many as Lifetime), Whirlpool and towels (but crappy small ones and you sometimes have to wait for them to be washed to get one). I have never heard a peep out of a child there (big plus!). I even told the Lifetime guy that if one of the large XSports was closer, I wouldn’t even be looking at Lifetime. I pay less than half of what I would at Lifetime and can go to ANY XSport (bigs and expresses). They also have personal trainers there too.

CONCLUSION

So, in the end I think I will stay with XSport for now. Maybe I can stop at a large one on the way home from work like I used to do (poor Chewie dog will have to hold it a little longer in the day).

I hate to say it, but it comes down to Lifetime being too expensive for the amount of times I would go in a month. If it was closer to the XSport price, I probably would have signed up there tonight. But I was also turned off by the children thing… I go to the gym to work out, not have to walk around kids or hear them screaming. I know that sounds bad – I am not a kid-hater, I just need me-time working out.

I only pay $33 a month to go to ANY XSport and the cheapest single rate at Lifetime is $69 a month.

Maybe sometime I will change over, but for now, the $33 is worth a little less clean, less kids gym! Get a free pass to each gym and make your own choice though – everyone’s needs motivations are different!