LA Fitness

If my gym membership hadn’t been a Christmas gift from my boyfriend who was sweet enough to remember I had wanted to start working out again, I would cancel and continue to go back to 24 hour fitness. I have never had such an awful experience with a gym as I have with this one. Long story short, I was convinced I needed a personal trainer. After the free assesment, I was talked into buying a training package — and being pumped and excited about the whole thing I agreed. Later on, not having used any of my sessions, I decided to cancel realizing I could not afford it. After going into the gym to cancel about 5 times and not having anyone to help me with this, I called corporate and decided to go over their heads and do it that way. I got it cancelled. Finally. Only catch is that they charged me for 2 sessions I NEVER used! Shady employees and shady business. I don’t even want to go in and ask for this money back because the trainer who talked me into this called me because she found out I was trying to cancel and talked to me as if she was trying to make me feel guilty for trying to cancel. Which made me feel very uncomfortable. I wish I had just signed up with 24 again and paid the extra 5 dollars a month.
I think after a years worth of my membership I will be canceling and going somewhere else.

It’s fine. A passable gym. It’s a drag to have restrooms on only one floor of a three-​level gym, and the men’s locker room has gotten pretty filthy of late. Last time I was there, there were two dozen dirty towels scattered all over the floor.

Despite friends’ tales of aggressive sales staff and an inept front desk, I was eager to try out LA Fitness, having been a member in LA before moving to Portland. Here was my experience at the Pearl location on November 7, 2015:
Me (calling): I’d like to discuss membership and try out the gym.
Front Desk (by phone): No problem, come in and speak to one of our reps and work out.
Me (10min later, now in person): Hi, I’m the guy who just called about joining.
FD: Sorry, it seems the sales person is unavailable.
Me: Huh. That’s why I’d called, and I came because you said no problem.
FD: He’s in with another client, should have been back awhile ago. I’ll message him.
FD (after another 10min): He will be awhile, he’s had a death in the family.
Me: Oh, hmm. Well, I’m sorry to hear that. How about I workout now and talk to someone after?
FD: No problem! A day pass will be $ 15.
Me: Wait, I thought that I could check out the gym once for free.
FD: You can, but you have to talk to a rep first.
Me: You mean the guy you said was available now, the same guy who just several minutes later is unavailable for an indefinite period of time because of other clients and a sudden death in his family?
FD: Yes, but you can wait for him. Or you can leave and find a coupon somewhere and come back.
Me: Huh. No.
I drove straight to 24hr Fitness and signed up there. My friends apparently were right.

Joining was painless and unlike places that attempt to up-​sell new members, I was offered discounts I didn’t know to expect. Also I prefer not paying a premium for access to a gym at 3 in the morning like that other place. For around $ 30 a month, I’m very pleased as this is the cleanest, classiest, and least crowded gym I’ve ever been to.
A cheerful employee greets me and for a free towel I need only ask. There’s more equipment than I would use, but this gym lacks nothing I would need or want.
A free evaluation with a personal trainer is included in every membership and I was fortunate to draw Sharon. I’m sure she’s constantly checked out by the male members and I confess my own guilt, but that’s beside the point. Sharon was friendly and giving of her time. Her advice concerning my injured back was helpful. I could tell she actually cared.

I’ve been a member here for a year. The equipment is in great shape, the locker rooms and showers always clean, and the people at the front desk helpful and pleasant. We have people visiting fairly often and they are always accommodating about letting them work out with me, or giving them a good deal on a weekly or monthly pass — because Portland is a place people are moving to and you never know when good customer service will translate to new customers — which it has for a few friends so far. My few experiences with the nearby 24 hr have been exact the opposite.
There were some water fountains that took a while to fix, but they are good now. I’ve never thought the temperature was uncomfortable. I like going here.

I play basketball here — Mon-​Friday 1130am-​1pm. This is the time 4 on 4 pick up games start. Great environment. Staff is great now but as I always with La Fitness you will have your ups and downs with certain employees. I been going her for around 4 years now.

A month ago I wrote a review regarding the lack of AC at this gym. Still the AC has not been fixed. It’s not only that the place is like a sauna, there’s very little air circulation whatsoever. Clearly customer service is not high on the priority list with the management. The problem has never been addressed to it’s members. At least 3 times since my last review I have asked Bonnie, the manager about the situation. Each time she tells me its being worked on. Obviously, Bonnie is lying to me since nothing has been done to correct the problem. There is also now a leak in the ceiling in the main workout area and a bifvyellow bucket gas been plopped down to catch the water. My suggestion: join 24 Hour Fitness.

It’s 7am in the morning as I’m writing this at the gym. Been coming here for 5 years because it’s close and pretty clean and doesn’t get packed like 24 with meat heads.
Those are the pros.
Things that suck:
1. Never any a/​c (I keep my house at 75 and this feels hot in here to me every morning).
2. The water fountains have been out for over a month except on the the top floor in the busiest part of the gym.
3. Music. If there is some music they play 90’s (not hits) really soft.
The front desk morning girl is always really sweet with a smile on her face and a greeting, unlike many of the other employees. Especially the trainers that are training their one time clients. Wonder why they are one time clients…
This would be a gym you’d expect to find in a big nursing home. At least the atmosphere. Hope they take one of the thousands of requests to fix this shit.

Ever heard of Average Joes Gym? Well LA Fitness is just average. Vince Vaughn chucking dodgeballs would be an improvement.
On s serious note LA Fitness is exactly what you expect from a 30 some dollar a month gym. Water fountains may or may not work and towel service is extra.
Gym is packed — I mean packed — from 430 – 800 pm. If you can work out at a different time I would suggest it. Early mornings are generally a good time to workout to beat the crowds however unlike its main competitor they are not open 24hrs. Weekend hours are lacking 8 am to 8 pm is pretty limited.
Being downtown the gym is a great place for people watching expect a guy on the treadmill running and jumping and doing somersaults.
The gym has good pick up basketball most evenings and it appears there’s a hopping squash community.

All I wanted to do was go for a run on a treadmill and take a sauna having just moved into NW. I found the gym online, I signed up for the 2 day guest pass to sample the gym. I was happy and excited. I love to run on a treadmill. Upon entering the gym, I was put in front of a Mr Cole Gabbert who proceeded to enter into an aggressive sales pitch/​make me sign up for his personal training sessions. I politely rejected his offers, about 15 times — stating I just wanted to run and see the gym for myself. This didn’t go down very well, I was told ‘this gym isn’t one you can just walk in and out of… I needed to give 24hrs notice to use the pass.’ I said ok I’m sorry, I started feeling bad for even entering, he launched into a tirade about his personal qualifications — he was at school for 4 years apparently — did I care? No. I just wanted to try out the treadmill. He managed all the la fitness’ in Seattle. Did I care? No.
I had to leave the gym because Mr Gabbert was either hell bent on making me sign up, had some kind of personal issue with me or, realistically was on a some kind of mind altering steroid. I guess this place just isn’t for me.
Thanks, Mr Gabbert, for scaring me with your aggressive and insulting pitch. I will just stick to running outdoors for now.

Nice open and clean space. Great facility, excellent equipment, positive environment, and friendly staff. Perfect place to make #gainz.

I have a gym membership at both 24 and LA Fitness and honestly it depends on what I’m working that day. If I want to do Box jumps and olympic style lifts, 24 Hour is your place. If you want a nice easy going crowd that isn’t agro and in your face, then LA Fitness is your place. I like working out at LA fitness much more than 24 for that exact reason. I only wish they’d upgrade their spin bikes and offer early morning weight training classes Tuesday’s and Thursday’s. Overall a great gym.

If I could give it ⁰⁄₅ stars, I would in a heartbeat.
I had been with LA fitness for a very long time. I decided to cancel my membership after some bad experiences with the staff. I have been actively calling the LA Pearl District Location to get a fee reversed. I canceled my membership on 02/​13/​2015, was told I would NOT be charged on my normal billing date (02÷15÷15) and was charged. I called them right when I saw the charge on my statement, and they assured me they already took ‘extra measures’ to refund that charge ahead of time. The refund request was submitted on 02/​14/​2015. On 02/​20/​2015 I called to let them know that I still had yet to see the $ 29.99 reversed on my bank account. They told me there was nothing I could do, but to call back on the 02/​22/​2015 because by that point the Request to Refund would go through. I had no problem waiting, but on 02/​25/​2015 I noticed it STILL had not been refunded.
What really upsets me is that I called to speak with Bonnie directly (she instructed me to ask for her if I did not see a refund by the 22^nd) and the girl at the front desk wouldn’t connect me unless I repeated my story to her first. Very unprofessional, especially because I shouldn’t have to repeat myself to multiple LA Fitness Staff members when the error isn’t mine, it’s the Club’s. After speaking with this front desk employee for five minutes, I learn Bonnie isn’t available and she would have to call me back. I request to be connected to a manager who can help me, and I am transferred over to someone who says «there’s no magic button that he can push to help me, and that he has no idea what’s going on and that he has no solutions for me». ARE YOU KIDDING ME? No solutions?
Horrible Service.

The gym itself is great. It’s clean, well maintained and it has a convenient parking garage.
I am giving this LA Fitness location an overall rating of 2 because management is not trustworthy. They overcharged us when we renewed and 4 months later I still haven’t been refunded.
The personal fitness portion I would equate to high pressure car sales. DO NOT use the complimentary personal fitness workout when you sign up. It is walking into a high pressure sales situation.

Decent garage and you can drop your kid off on site while working out for $ 10/​mo which is pretty nice. Lots of equipment and decent selection of classes at no added cost.
Smells bad. Does not appear clean. Yoga mats stink. I would not step in the shower barefoot. I know the gyms arent the cleanest, and BO happens but LA Fitness can’t keep it under control. Both my husband and I cancelled our memberships over this.

Private parking garage thats free for 3 hours and has a convenient elevator right to the front desk. The gym has three levels with a lot of equipment. Gets really busy in the after-​work crowd so I usually went at other times.
Staff at the front desk are friendly. The first day I signed up I was forced to meet some trainer who was a total BITCH. Some blonde middle age woman with fake boobs and a not so nice body totally thought she was hot shit and acted pissed that I didn’t need her services. She came across as super annoying. Sorry for the rant! Other than her everyone was smiley and nice.
If I moved back to the area I would continue coming here.

Of the two LA Fitness locations I frequent, this one is by far the superior of the two. It’s large, with ample cardio equipment, free weights and strength-​training machines. I rarely have to wait for the appropriate machine or free-​weight station. I never have to wait for cardio equipment, because cardio is evil and if all the treadmills are full I consider it a sign from Cthulhu that I’m meant to to avoid aerobic exercise that day.
The split-​level layout makes the entire place seem more spacious, and when I DO participate in that terrible «cardio», I like that you can watch people play racquetball whist you jog or whatever. That or TV. I recommend going in the early afternoon when a marathon of Bones is almost guaranteed to be playing. Bones. It’s a good show, people!
The best thing about this location is that it feels much cleaner and inviting than the location in the Lloyd Center. My gym-​motto is «No thanks to stanks», and this gym always smells fresh. While there’s no dedicated locker room attendant, I regularly see people in there cleaning, which is reassuring.
It took me a bit to warm up to working out in a big gym like this (as opposed to my former concrete box filled with rusty old free-​weights), but now that I’m acclimated I love this gym. Good job, people!

This LA fitness is my favorite.
So far, at least.
I’ve been to LA fitness branches in Seattle, SoCal, Atlanta, etc. And this one just hits the spot for me.
Let’s start with layout — it’s three floors, which is a departure from the standard LA fitness cookie-​cutter one-​floor layout. You enter on the main floor, which has all the sales desks, the locker rooms and access to the pool. Head down a flight, you have all the cardio machines, and the racketball and basketball courts. Head up to the third floor, and it’s all the weight equipment, a spin room, and a group workout room.
But here’s the critical design move — the floors are open to each other in the middle, giving the gym a huge sense of space but still allowing the separate areas to be, well, separate. This is weirdly important to me because I always disliked the setup at some other LA fitness gyms where the cardio area is basically facing the weight area so that you always have an audience of people watching you work out.
This particular layout is unique to this gym (I have yet to find an LA fitness with a similar layout). For some people, it’s a problem. For me, it’s great.
As far as cleanliness — this place is well maintained, machines are clean, locker room is clean, pool looks clean (I rarely use it though). No complaints. Members also do a good job keeping the place clean and not bringing in trash, etc from outside.
As far as accessibility — this place is at the edge of the Pearl, which means less pedestrian traffic (which is a great thing when it comes to having equipment to use). But it’s still close enough in to walk to if you do live in the Pearl, or adjacent areas, and also has a garage where you can park for free if you don’t live close by.
But in my mind, what makes this place a cut above the Pearl competition and other gyms I’ve been to is that this seems to be a workout gym — not a cruisey, stand and model and socialize gym. I think that’s largely attributable to the members — crowd is older, more business professional types, who are there to work out, not anything more. Beyond that, most are pretty respectful and good looking, and that’s a combination that you can’t beat.
Downsides? Yeah, FM tuners on the TVs suck. Antiquated technology that they need to upgrade. Personal TVs and iPhone plugins on the cardio machines would be nice. Also, it’d be great to see different and a better variety of cardio equipment and weight machines. And yeah, there are still a few rowdy folks who use this gym, and there are times when the place is so busy, there are no machines or equipment to use.
But, none of those things are dealbreakers for me.
The rest of the stuff makes up for those things, and it’s ultimately a place I can feel good about calling my gym.

I waited until my 4^th week of visits to the Pearl LA Fitness to make an informed review. First of all, exercise has not always been my highest priority but so far my motivation is very high, and the experience has been great.
Let’s start with the environment. The building is light and airy, it always feels welcoming and clean. The main floor supports the salt-​water pool and jacuzzi, sales offices, kids club and locker rooms. Haven’t used the kids club or the pool, but the locker room has been very clean, there’s always enough lockers, plus a large sauna next to the showers is a great asset. The lower floor houses all of your typical cardio machines along with racquetball and basketball courts. The top floor has the rooms for classes plus all of the weight lifting equipment, nicely laid out by muscle group. Equipment has been clean and well maintained.
Onto the classes– there are many to choose from! I can only comment on the Cycle and Cycle Zone classes, I’ve tried almost every time-​slot and instructor and so far it’s been overall great, pushing me way harder than I could ever manage on my own. Elvia (5:45am) especially tries to make a personal connection with you which is appreciated. My only negative is I wish the room light could be a bit dimmer– that harsh fluorescent lighting early in the morning is kind of jarring, but I’m sure that’s a corporate/​safety requirement in every LA Fitness.
Finally to the people, I like the members here– a little bit older, professional and respectful. It’s never been too crowded, but I have been mostly sticking to the morning hours. Staff have all been very nice, with kudos going to Kirt Elliott (Head of Sales) for his very professional attitude with my sign-​up and orientation.
Prices are competitive with the other corporate entity in the Pearl, but at LA you can have the option of a healthier pool experience, racquetball and towel service, yay!

First and foremost, I’m a runner. I’m generally a self proclaimed gym hater. The idea of sweaty bodies, stagnant air, and worst of all… treadmills, just makes me want to vomit. I cringe at the thought of a mirror filled room and men grunting loudly and lifting as much weight as possible for the sake of «looking good.»
However, I am also fully aware that to become a better runner, I need to incorporate strength training. As much as I told myself I would do this at home, it just never happened. So I gave in. I joined the gym.
I joined during a no initiation fee promotion, so I only had to pay $ 29.95/month. For a newer gym in the Pearl, I think this is a fantastic deal. Especially because in my past (NYC) life, I could only afford to gym hop on groupons. Regular memberships were close to $ 100/​month, so that was not an option. Now I can really commit to this (financially and mentally/​physically…)
In my opinion, the facilities are exceptional. Everything is new and clean, and I really haven’t seen anything worth complaining about. There is plenty of equipment — everything I would ever need (free weights, every type of weight machine, ellipticals, treadmills, stairmasters, bikes, rowers…) There’s a lap pool, jacuzzi, and sauna too, although I haven’t used any of these.
They have a nice selection of classes if that’s of interest. I tried one of the yoga classes, and I was very impressed. I’ve tried a lot of yoga studios in the area and found the price just isn’t worth it for me. Now I have the option to occasionally take a class here without the pressure to make it a regular part of my routine. And compared to other yoga classes, it was not at all lacking in quality. I didn’t expect such a great teacher in a gym, so this was a very pleasant surprise!
Now I can get a completely balanced workout routine, and I’m finding being inside a gym isn’t nearly as bad as I’ve always made it out to be. (The big windows here help a lot!)