Western Village Health Club

I feel they are the best in town. There are others that are cheaper, but their clientele drop F-​bombs as often as they use «the» or «and” – that severely annoys me. Western Village Health Club has a great movie room, I tend to exercise longer when I’m preoccupied with the movie. I like the separate women’s area. You can exercise anywhere and feel comfortable. Best of all, I’ve been a member there for years, and I still haven’t had to sit next to someone on a machine dropping F-​Bombs! Classy place!

I recently joined the gym. It has everything from cardio to classes. Nice clean and well equipped gym.

After Gold’s Gym/​SMAC closed down, I began to check out gyms, and Western became the obvious choice. Staff is great and the workout environment is nice, great overall facilities. I’m mostly a free weight guy so my review is based on that and the pool, but there seems to be other great programs and things to do such as training regiments and such.

Basically a mediocre facility that is way overpriced and SUPER snooty. Before I joined, I called several places on town to compare rates, and this place wouldn’t even provide basic information over the phone. They instantly want to get a call-​back number so they can harass you into joining, and they tell you that you need to make an appointment just to get the information on membership rates, wtf! Once I got there, it’s pretty much a normal gym, nothing fancy like they try to make it out to be. They lock you into an expensive year long contact, which is a total rip-​off if you only plan on going 2 – 3 days per week. They sneak in extra fees for facility upgrades, and they’re also super nosy with personal questions about your job, family, etc. Mostly they just act like they’re trying to be friendly to earn your business and trust, but it’s super creepy and inappropriate. I’m switching to In-​Shape, which has a far friendlier, down-​to-​earth atmosphere and staff.

If you read reviews of health clubs and gyms you will always find a wide range of reviews, from one to five stars. Western Village is no exception. However, I was a member for about four years and found it to be a very worthwhile place to work out. New lighting recently installed made a big difference, as did new equipment. I’ve always found the staff to be friendly and helpful. I especially liked the cardio theater, but I wish they would have enabled the closed caption feature on the movies as the dialogue was hard to understand. The only criticisms I had were based on member’s behavior. Signs in the parking lot clearly asked members not to park in the green spaces. However, the members either couldn’t read or they didn’t want to walk that extra distance to those far away spaces. I wish the staff would have patrolled the workout areas more. Too many times a teen or twenty something was camped out on a machine I wanted to work on, updating their Snapchat or fb page. Too often members would just drop their equipment cleaning wipes on the floor. Someone (beside me) needed to pick up after them. I recommend the WV and would still be a member if other circumstances hadn’t occurred.

one of the front desk attendants I think John was his name was really rude over the phone when I called about a billing question. Really condescending and disrespectful didn’t want to provide any help with my question and seemed to occupied to get anyone that could help me.

Last time i went to this gym was about a year ago. New equiptment and its a big gym. It has upstairs for women only which is nice because some women are shy to workout infront of men. I just wished this gym was ²⁴⁄₇. I think they close at 10−11pm. Also, they only had like 5 treadmills upstairs in the women area and it was inconvenient because i would have to wait for my turn and most of the time they were taken

Update ⁹⁄₂₃ I’ve lost 39 pounds, and 26 pound a of that was just fat! I was a size 14, I’m now a size 6.
I joined about a month ago and I’m so glad I came here instead of In Shape. The machines are new and in good working order. They have a separate work out area for women, a 4 lane lap pool and a movie room with eliptical machines and bikes. The locker room is clean and in good condition. They have a steam room and spa by the pool and a dry sauna in the locker rooms. They have a ton of classes including Zumba, spin and aqua aerobics. I have never had to wait for a machine or felt like it was too crowded. They have great hours and the staff are always friendly and helpful. I lived in LA for 6 years and none of the gyms down there are as nice or as clean as WFF.
I have been doing private sessions with Nick Marold. He has a BA in Kinesiology which makes him a great trainer. He will teach you how to get the most out of your workouts. He also specializes in injury rehabilitation. So if you’ve hurt yourself, or you just aren’t getting the results you want, he’s the guy to see. I highly recommend having at least a couple sessions with him to develop a smart workout routine. Today is day 26 and I’ve lost 12 lbs, 25% of my goal weight loss.
As far as the negative comments posted by others, I have never seen anyone in street clothes, the pool is always warm when I use it, I like the lower lighting downstairs, it saves energy, and the music is appropriate for a gym. I guess you can’t please everyone.
Update: Day 43…25 pounds lost, including 19 pounds of fat. 6″ off of my waist

Absolutely the best gym I have ever been to.
CLEAN! That is a huge problem for me at other gyms. The staff at this gym is always cleaning and mopping up. No nasty smell like other gyms.
instructors are amazing and they get updated equipment all the time.
LOVE THIS PLACE!!!

One of the better gyms in SM. It’s huge! A lot of diff. machines/​equipments to choose from. Just wish it was 24hrs.

They’ve purchased a new lifting platform, which is nice, but they still don’t have bumper plates, which doesn’t make sense, since coated metal weights aren’t really meant to be treated like bumpers, and dropping metal weights makes more noise than just using bumpers. They’re doing work on the locker rooms as well. They’ve also invested in one set of gymnastic rings, and added a couple speed bags and boxing things. The place is still very much operating under a health club/​big box business model — appealing to what they believe to be mass appeal, and ending up basic.
When it comes down to it, the staff are generally helpful and friendly. Ultimately I’ve had positive experiences with them, save for a few incidences.
I just want to reiterate that my review is based on my wants and needs. WVHC provides a plethora of classes and other equipment that I have never used, so I can’t say if they are good or bad — I lift, and that’s about it. If you boiled everything I needed down, you could fit it all in one room, so I don’t consider how big a gym is at all. That said, the space they dedicate to machines is excessive, since I don’t use them.
Ladies who are serious about lifting may find it difficult to work out here. The free weights section is usually occupied by dudes and the women’s section has almost no serious lifting equipment. If girls want to squat in a rack, they need to lift in the section where they might face unwanted attention, if they are sensitive to that. Separate but not equal.
WVHC still gets two stars, because I truly have experienced better. Better equipment, better fulfillment of my needs, better billing systems, better business transparency, better use of space. They are making efforts, and months to years after this review is written, the gym may very well be place that caters to what I need in a gym. Unfortunately right now, it doesn’t satisfy what I need, and I will be taking my business to Allan Hancock’s gym.

(Ok gym overall), but the billing and ABC financial is very suspicious. You have to email a 30 day notice to ABC financial just to cancel your membership and of course within that 30 days they charge you for it. I would never deal with this gym again primarily because the billing department is hit and miss when calling and your almost guaranteed to blow a gasket waiting on hold or receiving the news that you have to give a 30 day notice period! It’s a gym not a house rental! Be warned Western Village can’t cancel your membership they refer you to ABC financial…

Being in the military I travel a lot and so far this gym is the BEST EVER!!! Between the mix of the latest equipment and some a little old it’s perfect! The use of actual real iron grip weights in the free weight area to plenty of space!!! Once again I LOVE IT!!!

This is definitely the best gym in Santa Maria. This gym is HUGE and has a great selection of EVERYTHING! The gym is 2 stories and has cardio equipment pretty much in every room. If you’re a runner you’ll love the new treadmills they just got. One of my favorite things about this gym is the theatre room, everyday they show a different movie and they’re really good about showing either new releases or great classic movies. Time flies when you’re working out in the theatre room, you can easily get through an hour of cardio without noticing. This gym also has a swimming pool and offers water aerobic classes along with all the other group classes that they offer, spin, body pump, etc. the free weights are mainly in one room, which I really like, and the women even have their own section upstairs so they don’t have to worry about creepy guys. The staff is friendly and the gym is also kept really clean. I definitely recommend this gym to everyone.

Nice clean gym. Better alternative than going to the YMCA or the Santa Maria Athletic Club. I have been here a few times from out of town. Very clean and spacious. I would come here again if visitor fees weren’t so high. Front desk folks are very nice.

Large, but not in charge, this gym just added Cardio Cinema. The pool area was also resurfaced, which is more than I can say for In-​Shape. Wondering if any challenging people can convince the commercial land owners to start a lease for a new gym in the space adjacent to the Costco.

Run, dont walk away from this gym!
They use ABC Financial Services to make your life miserable when you finally quite.
You sign up at the gym, but you are not allowed to cancel on the phone or in person.
You have to do in writing and then they find all kinds of reasons not to let you out.
Then the make up stuff for you to owe them more and more, never honoring their word.
They treat you like a criminal. This will not stop unless the owners get involved.

Mens majority of the room for lifting weights to womans rooms to work out in which i understand since some prefer not to be distracted or stared at from the opposite sex

I have been to a few gyms locally, but this one takes the cake. First, it’s HUGE! And with that comes the fact that there are tons of machines and you don’t have to wait for people to finish using them before you can use them. That’s a definite plus. I used to come in the morning to beat the crowds, and while it was indeed quiet, I found the evening hours to be only just slightly more busy.
Anyway, it’s clean, the staff is very friendly and helpful, the machines are up to date, and the place looks fresh and new. A+!

My girlfriend and I joined this gum in Jan 2012 after 10 years at the YMCA. The number one thing about this gym is that it is always impeccably clean. At ALL times there is someone cleaning the place. As soon as a spin class is done, they mop it and wipe down everything. At the end of the night, someone re-​racks all of the free weights. Also, the place is huge and has everything you could ever want. Lastly the people are friendly — they great you when you walk in and say good bye when you leave. Instructors are great as well. Take a spin class from Heather!
We did a week long free membership at both SMAC and In-​Shape before trying this gym. Here are the results. SMAC was cheapest at $ 20, but was filthy and equipment was old and used — great kickboxing classes though. In-​Shape — these guys are like used car salesmen and only wanted us to sign a long contract. Gym was nice, but packed. YMCA — old, used equipment, does not even have TV’s in the cardio room.
If you want a good, clean, friendly gym, pick this one.