Bally's

[SuzySunshine]

Anyone ever belonged to one? Its the gym closest to my house, we're going to check it out now.

[moonlight]

No, but I've always wondered if it's as glamorous on the inside as the commercials!. Can't wait to hear about what you find out.

[Pollyanna]

The only thing I hear about the one here is that it's more of a singles "bar" than a workout place. It attracts a ton of college students and single professionals. That might not be the same for all of them though.

[SoonerTexan]

I've heard a lot of negative press about they way they handle their memberships, but I don't know if it has improved

http://gothamist.com/2008/01/07/gyms.php

[houseelf]

We used to see Bally's in conciliation court a lot for their failure to release members from their contract. People would cancel their membership in writing per their instructions and yet Bally would continue to automatically debit their account Obviously, this is a different time and location, but I'd proceed with caution.

[corn poffi]

We used to see Bally's in conciliation court a lot for their failure to release members from their contract. People would cancel their membership in writing per their instructions and yet Bally would continue to automatically debit their account Obviously, this is a different time and location, but I'd proceed with caution.

I've heard a ton of stories about this too...

[DCJenn]

Bally's is in Chapter 11 right now and they're predatory in their sales and marketing. Should you actually meet the terms of your contract, they send incredibly misleading statements that look like bills. Our local Bally's is where I used to belong but my trainer left and joined a much nicer place. (and I went w/ her) Bally's smelled awful, the kids section was horrible and I was always waiting for the MRSA to appear. and ew, the showers and bathrooms were horrifying.

J.

[BonBon]

They're very aggressive in their sales pitch, but the gym in Buffalo was nice. Are these individually owned franchises?

[SuzySunshine]

Good to know but the fact that at 10 they had no one there that could give me any info and they couldn't even give me prices turned me off enough. I found one that reminds me very much of or gym in Roch and with DH'a discount it is doable.

[moonlight]

Now that I'm going to the gym I see now why any old place won't do. I joined at my current place on a whim. Now I'm spending a few hours a week in that place and I might have reconsidered if I had just thought it through. BTW What was the ballpark monthly charge? Did you ever find out?

[SuzySunshine]

Nope, the guy called me back but I couldn't take the call and he didn't leave that information. I'm not sure if I'm going to call him back or not. I was not impressed with what I saw, it was in a business park and basically looked like someone had put a bunch of machines in a big room.

[DCJenn]

Oh, the other scary thing is that Bally's does't require any specific training or certification from their personal trainers. That was one of the many reasons Jen left, she has a BS and loads of National Certifications and they'd have Billy Bob Yahoo who just got off the football field training clients at the same price point. She left after one of the trainers had an older woman jumping off and on the benchs and she called him out on it, in front of the client. She then walked up to the group fitness manager and told them that she was not going to risk her professional reputation on these idiots w/ no training.

J.

[JaneDoe]

I don't know if you are getting the local paper, the Oregonian, but in today's Living section the feature article was about how to find the right gym in Portland. Here is the link http://www.oregonlive.com/health/ind...t_fitness.html

I thought of you when I read this article.

[SuzySunshine]

Thanks guys, after reading that article I think I'm going to tour the local 24 hour fitness before we decide.

Does Portland have a Lifetime Fitness? I've been nothing but happy with them.