Washington Sports Club

this is the worst gym ever. Don’t fall for their 15 days money back guarantee. I did the 13 days and decided to cancel my membership. I went into the gym and talked to the manager and canceled my membership. He told me I was all set. I never got my money back. I called the gym twice and they said that the person I talked to was fired and it wasn’t their responsibility. I called member services and she said that she would submit a request form. I got a refund request form but never the refund. It’s been almost a year and I still have not gotten my money back. The new gym manager was not helpful and member services was not helpful. Very disappointed with the member services.

I was disappointed to see that this club closed the end of August 2014. I was a charter member from February 2004 when it first opened. I worked upstairs in the same building so it was so convenient. I made some good friends there. I retired on April 30. I feel bad for my friends who were still going to this location.

I’ve been a gym member of one gym or another in DC for 20 years. I have been happier here than at any other gym I’ve been a member of (Nautilus Fitness Center, Ballys’, etc.). I’ve only been a member for 1.5 years and wish I’d come over earlier.
Are there fancier clubs? Yes, but they come at a stiff price. I can’t imagine better trainers or classes though.
It is clean. Towel service for unlimited towels is free. The trainers, especially Carlos are great! The showers run both hot and cold water, unlike other gyms. The dispensers of soap and shampoos are filled regularly. The equipment works well. Lots of cardio machines, TRX, adequately large free weight section. Cable rows for lats, stand up row for lats, dumbbells and barbells for rows and kettle bells if you want. If you are interested in lats — you’ve got options if you really know what your lats do and where they are :-)
The staff is up to the task. If you want them to be friendly they are, and I’d suggest that you be friendly to them also. Why not? They are all people just like you.
The classes are very popular with bunches of enthusiastic people taking them. That is good for me, since I hang in the cardio and free weight area.
Many people here work in the building and use the club at a discount. I’ve enjoyed working out with the group of people that work out here.
What happened at my last club Bally’s/LA Fitness: Dirty locker rooms, dirty showers, smelly locker room. Good free weight equipment. Good size. Cold water, non-​functioning shower! For weeks. Time to leave this slum of a club. Off to an affordable heaven at WSC. (Towels, clean, showers that worked!) And finally… the bad club went out of business.
Now the bad news: This location is closing at the end of the month. Apparently rent is going up enormously. So, while there is another club up on Connecticut avenue, it is a bit far for me so I’ll have to look at other options. And of course review them.
And the final good news: I was offered a free membership upgrade to use any of their clubs. But since the main one was too far away, I wanted to cancel. The manager cancelled the membership with no difficulty at all.

I think it’s necessary to mention that I do not have any experience with what a membership is like at this gym. I was here simply to attend a ZUMBA Fitness Instructor Training.
I must say, the staff at this gym did a fantastic job accommodating us! At the beginning of the training, the parking garage across the street was not yet open so one of the trainers called to make it happen.
They also closed down the gym for the day just to give us more space and feel more comfortable. Several of the trainers got involved with the training itself and they were all friendly – and hilarious!
I had a wonderful day of ZUMBA at this gym. If I lived in the DC area, I would certainly follow up and get more information about a full-​time membership because the staff seems very professional and fun!

Pros:
–Great location with a parking garage attached to the building.
–Decent set of equipment (lots of dumbbells, dumbbell benches, cardio, etc.
–Gym is well maintained and always clean — have never seen it dirty
–They never run out of towels
–The staff is super friendly
–Perfect for the lunch hour
–The thing I truly like about all WSCs is the availability of the aerobic area and the barbells + weights they have in them. Perfect for lunges after squats on leg day (during lunch this area is being fully utilized with classes, however)
I have never taken any of the classes or used a personal trainer. I have also not had to deal with sales peoples.
Cons:
–Only one squat rack
–Not enough lat machines — I think there is a cable lat pulldown and that is it
–Ab/​stretch area not very large
–Personal trainers tend to monopolize space

I walked in just looking to check out the place and instantly got sucked in to a slimy hard sell. Got a tour and then told they were running a promotion with drastically reduced rates for that day only ($ 50 initial and $ 45 monthly with a year contract). On top of this I was offered a month free with the option to cancel within the first two weeks. I reluctantly accepted figuring I could cancel any time. A few days later my account was billed for the month they allegedly were giving away for free. I went online read the reviews, learned about the «rate lock guarantee» fee and poor service. I decided I had seen enough and didn’t want to get locked in, so I cancelled before my 15 days were up.
I’m now at a place where I pay more per month but at least I feel a lot better about it. No hard sell, the employees are honest, and I don’t have a yearly contract. There are also no hidden fees. It’s called the YMCA.
WSC needs to change it’s corporate culture, ugh. The hard sell alone was enough for me to want to run away. Gross.

I have tried for months to cancel my membership because of moving out of DC metro. They continue to tell me it’s canceled and no charged due, yet I find they continue to automatically deduct charges each month.

Avoid this company like the plague! I was a member for 2 ½ years. I was never very happy with it because:
–The locker rooms are never clean. It was always surprising to me. How hard can it be to clean on an hourly basis? It’s quite disgusting actually.
–In my 2 ½ years of membership, the staff almost never greeted me with a smile or ‘good morning’. I even went out of my way to fill out the survey that WSC advertises all over and state this, and there was no acknowledgement of my complaint. I’m used to terrible customer service in DC, but it really got to me after 2 ½ years that I couldn’t get someone to say ‘good morning’ or even look up from their cell phone.
–The trainers take up half the room and equipment for their clients.
And then, I tried to cancel my membership. It took me three phone calls and six emails to successfully cancel my membership. They overbilled me by $ 7.52, told me they’d issue a refund in the amount, two weeks later confirmed a refund of $ 6.53, and still haven’t responded to my request for the remainder of the refund. I have given up calling, since I can’t waste anymore time on hold with their incompetent staff.
THIS COMPANY SUCKS — DO NOT SIGN A CONTRACT WITH THEM. It’s a shame, since their facilities are pretty good.

This is a small gym with a limited number of weight machines. Specifically there’s not one just for back muscles. The smaller free weights are not put back in order on the pyramid weight stands. I had a zumba class cancelled the day of, no sign when I walked in or on the group fitness room. That would have been nice to know, I could have gone to another gym or got right into something else instead of waiting around for class to start.

I just joined Washington Sports Club and the closest location is this K Street gym. The staff are pretty great in terms of recognizing their regulars (i.e. me who has been there a grand total of four times) as well as ensuring that clients are aware of classes, gym deals and other promotions happening in the gym. The thing I love most about this place — its not busy after work. I can always find a machine. There are certainly people there, but its just not like any other gym I’ve been a member of in terms of being able to actually show up during «peak hours» and being able to get a full work out in. I took my free new member personal trainer session the first week I joined, and it was helpful, informative but most of all a great orientation to the gym and where equipment was. As a member classes are free, however I have yet to go to one since they are offered at some awkward times that don’t seem to fit my schedule but I definitely hope to get to one sooner rather than later. Overall, I really like the K Street location of WSC!

I concur with what a lot of people have said about this place. I’ve had a membership to WSC for 2 years and have been going to the K Street location for about 15 months. I’m done with these people.
Some highlights:
1. As noted, the staff is rude and the girl at the front desk is usually on her phone when you arrive and often you have to scan yourself in. Sometimes she says hi, other times nothing or maybe a grunt.
2. The trainers take up a lot of equipment for their clients, even if the clients haven’t been using it for 15 minutes or more. Also, as someone said, one of them gives his female client back massages that seem more appropriate for the bedroom than a gym.
3. They sold a membership to an overweight homeless man who never works out. Instead, he’ll hang out in the locker room for well over an hour… doing his laundry in the sink or showering for the longest time. Several times I saw him attaching his wet socks to the hair dryers and laying it on the counter to dry… with the socks flapping like a wind sock. Also, he brings two large suitcases with all his worldly possessions. It’s just weird.
4. The showers aren’t cleaned. I’ve seen mold in the same places for weeks at a time and they have a mildewy smell. Also, for the past few weeks, there have been at least 1 – 2 days every week where there’s been no hot water. Also, the ceiling in the gym area leaks badly when it rains and there’s usually trashcans full of water sitting around.
5. There is an assortment of freaks and weirdos who work out there. At first they didn’t bother me, but with everything else that’s been going on, I can’t take it. There’s a weird old man who wears spandex and bends and twists his body in sexual positions. Another guy who works in «business casual» attire (khakis, dress shoes) and talks to himself and walks around waving his arms like he’s conducting a symphony. There are some guys and women who aren’t serious about working out and just sit on equipment or machine and play with their iPhone or read People or Good Housekeeping.
On the positive side, the gym is in a good location and it’s never crowded in the mornings (between 7−830am), but that’s about all I can say good about it.
My membership is up at the end of the month and I’m going to a competitor.
I’ve worked out at the other WSCs and they aren’t much better, some worse. My friends have had similar experiences. My advice: Go someplace else.

The club is clean and usually not crowded. It only has one squat rack and not a ton of space in the free weight area, whereas there are tons of cardio machines (and hey cardio is great), but a lot of the cardio machines go unused.
My beef is that anytime someone is there with a personal trainer they act like they own the fucking place. People with trainers (or maybe the trainers) take up weight equipment FOREVER. Trainers also insist that their clients go no more than 5 feet from one exercise to the next. For example, one trainer had his client going straight from the bench press to the floor right under the bench press for ab exercise, so that even when the client was done using the bench, he still kept blocking access to bench. That’s fine, I’ll wait 10mins for the bench so that you don’t have to do ab exercises someplace other than right under the bench. OR they take up the one squat rack for like 30mins… I go and do 6 sets of bench press and 5 sets of pull ups, and the trainer/​client still are apparently using the squat rack. And the people with trainers never look like they WANT to be there. I like working out, it’s fun, and I don’t mind waiting my turn unless I am waiting forever for someone who doesn’t even want to be there.
HIRING A TRAINER ISN’T A LICENSE TO ACT LIKE A BRAT AND TAKE MULTIPLE PIECES OF EQUIPMENT FOR A LONG ASS TIME. Seriously, we’re all trying to get through our work out and get to work.
But it’s usually not too crowded. Fuck people with personal trainers though.

This club really deserves 1 star for poor customer service and crappy attitude toward members. First — to be fair — the positives. The clubs are satisfactory with some decent equipment. The bathroom is usually clean enough. My beef is with cancelling my membership. I completed my 12 month contract and continued using the gym for a while. When I moved I cancelled my membership. No problem. Then about 4 months later I get a call asking to go back. Again, no problem. i explained I was not currently near a gym. Then a week later I get a collection call saying I am still a member and I owe for 3 months. To make a long story short the gym harassed me ever since by claiming I never cancelled my membership. (However, they did stop charging my card when I did cancel.) Somebody decided to extend me credit and rack up the bill. When I disputed they have never put anything in writing. I have yet to receive any written explanation from anyone. I find the whole experience totally unsatisfactory and — candidly — unlawful. And for this reason I would recommend avoiding this chain.

I started going here about a year ago. The facilities are clean, the classes are decent, and they have a pretty good variety of machines. However, all of this does not compensate for the rude staff members, and the ineffective management.
Here is why I believe this gym is TERRIBLE. .. the morning staff is some of the rudest people I have ever encountered in DC (and that quite the accomplishment). You are lucky to get a grunt out of the receptionist when she scans your key card. Plus the gym doesn’t open until 6am, which seems a little late for a gym in downtown DC. My biggest complaint about this gym is that about 3 times a week there is an adult male who gives some woman a back massage over the bent over ham-​string curl machine. They are practically doing it, doggy style. It is the most inappropriate behavior I have ever seen in a gym. Multiple people have complained about this behavior and I have even talked to management. And yet 3 times a week there they are, humping on the bent over ham-​string curl machine. It is terrible management and a bad business practice to let something so inappropriate happen in your gym after numerous complaints.

*Update: Ginger no longer teaches yoga on Fridays, but her replacement is great as well! She has a bit of a different style but she is still effective for a good yoga workout.

I was a member for a few years before cancelling my membership.
The gym is clean, well-​stocked, and not crowded. It is perfect for a workout on the way to or from work, or over your lunch hour.
The reason I quit is because I like to take classes and there was only ONE good class I could join after work (Total Body Conditioning, taught by Marshall Milam). That class was great and I got so strong just by going once a week.
But one class a week doesn’t really make a gym membership worth it, especially when I had to miss it often because I had to work late.
In my mind, this branch of the WSC chain could be phenomenal if they focused their classes around their demographic — working people… who come to the gym before work, over their lunch break, and after work.
That means there should be 3 – 6 excellent classes after work each day… staggered for the people who leave at 5 pm, 6 pm, etc. Not just two classes, one of which starts at 5 pm (which doesn’t work for those of us who work until 6 pm).
Anyway, if you need a place to run on a treadmill and lift weights… good gym. If you want classes that work with your work schedule… look elsewhere.

I was asked out by one of the guys who works there. And that was after he suckered me into a package I didn’t want or need. And then he didn’t even save my card’s info, so I got a disturbing call from their collections agency about how I hadn’t paid… I do not trust them.

This one my secondary gym, but I probably make it to this one more often than my primary gym. This place is great because it’s less crowded than most WSCs in DC., so you can almost always pick up your favorite machine and run. For me, shower’s pretty important after working out, but this one doesn’t have fancy shower rooms — they are clean though. They have a small dry sauna, which also bugs me a bit — but people don’t really use it much, so it is likely to be just you in the room. :) The BEST thing about this club is that people at the door never forgets to greet you and say ‘Have a good day!” It’s such a little thing, but when they stop doing something that they were doing. stop talking to each other and make sure to say that — that really makes me to start the day in a good note.

I agree, great commuter gym. I have always found WSCs all around the city to be much cleaner than typical gyms, and the staff is WaY friendlier. They also have great classes, especially anything with Sara. In fact, she is the whole reason I joined this gym (her yoga and total body conditioning classes) and has been the best yoga instructor I have ever had. I really think it’s worth the little extra for the facilities, and would recommend this gym to anyone. My only complaint is that they are starting to charge if you don’t go to your «home» gym during peak hours and that not enough facilities have a steam room. But alas… that is a guilty pleasure. Check with your insurance too and see if they can provide additional discounts!

The perfect workout location for K Street dwellers, this branch of WSC is a hidden gem. It’s bright, clean, and almost never crowded.
If you’ve ever tried to get a few sets in with sweaty, muscled guys on the bench, you know how precious time on the equipment is (ahem, Bally’s Total Fitness). But while everyone at this gym is generally focused on their own thing, folks are extremely friendly should you need to work in or require a spotter or five. It’s like Melrose Place. Only there’s no pool, and no murder.
Plus, everyone on the staff gets to know your personally. And they know if you haven’t been to the gym in a while. If that’s not accountability, I don’t know what is.