Boston Sports Clubs

I’ve left. My trainer left. Every manager has left. The Y in Reading is far superior.

This gym is probably not unique in their practices but they are extremely shady:

I joined this gym on February 2015 and paid an annual fee + a membership fee when I signed up. On February 6, 2016, a year later, I was charged the annual fee again and decided to cancel my membership. Here is what I was told:
1. I will not be reimbursed the annual fee, nor will it be prorated. Annual fee is $ 49.95
2. I will be charged a cancellation fee of $ 30.00 at the end of the month
So I technically have till the end of the month to use the Gym, wouldn’t you think it’d make sense to only be charged 1 month of the annual fee, at worst? And what exactly is the cancellation fee for?
It seems to me that they are just squeezing as much money out of you as they think they can.
As an aside, I was once a couple days late paying my monthly membership fee, which is on auto pay, because of a processing error with my credit card, and they charged me $ 15.00 which they wouldn’t refund

Never a good sign when the gym is supposed to open at 5am and there are 25 cars in the parking lot with their lights on at 5:25 waiting for someone to show up and open the location. Apparently they don’t value their customers time or don’t know how to use an alarm clock. I used to go to the Medford location which was much better.

Staff is clueless. They allow loud phone conversations while on machines, not wiping down the equipment and littered locker rooms. They never, ever offer assistance.
The locker room is the worst I’ve ever seen. The layout causes patrons to change right on top of one another.
The cable TV on cardio machines has been broken for months.
This seems like a gym about to go bankrupt.

The locker rooms are so small that I am seriously thinking of ending my membership. Not fun!

The locker rooms smell, very crowded at peak time, equipment is old and out of order. Machines break down frequently. Staff is young, clueless and not helpful. Buyer beware! Young staff tend to jump to conclussion without proper guidance and authority! By lowering the monthly dues the gym is over run! Do yourself a favor and head somewhere else!

Just not a good place to take kids for swim classes. Yet again I was let down again and this is the last time as I am done feeding them money for really awful service. When it comes to the Kids Club swimming they just cant figure out how to communicate. In the past its been little things like forgetting to tell us the new session was starting or that they cancelled because the teacher was out sick. Today it was oops, sorry, the pool is closed since yesterday and we forgot to call you. Ever try to get a grumpy 5 year old out the door for a 9 AM swim class which you finally got them excite for only to be told on entry that the pool was closed? They just don’t seem to care that they massively inconvenienced me. When I asked what they would do to compensate me I was told «nothing.»

They’ve recently dropped prices from $ 50 to $ 30 and now $ 20. Sounds like a bargain, right? Sounded good to 2,000 other people too. Parking lot and all machines/​weights are packed. Good luck getting in the pool (also all day swim lessons all summer in the pool. A lane or two is still open, but do you really want to be swimming around with a bunch of toddlers making a ton of noise and peeing in the pool.) You can still usually do the things you want to do, but don’t expect any personal space.
Some behaviors for the gym goers can get kind of gross. After two years there, I think I’ve observed maybe 10% or less of people wipe down equipment after use. Seriously, go and grab a disinfectant wipe and the top one is frequently bone dry, suggesting no one has taken one in a little while, which seems statistically impossible given the volume of people.
I’d give it three stars as it’s not really any worse than many other gyms with similar business models (lower prices to get in 10,000 members and assume 8,000 will never show up.) But I went to cancel my membership and the service representative was fairly rude and tried to put me on hold multiple times for seemingly no reason. It seemed like he was actively trying to get me to hang up so as to not cancel, maybe forget about it for a day or two until the month turned over and I get charged again. It’s only a suspicion, so don’t take that as fact, but I’ve never really had a good experience with this place in two years, it was just geographically convenient.

Overall a good gym for the price. I decided to join this location only so that I can «wait out» traffics before heading home from work. I’ve been waiting to give my review so I can get an overall perspective of the gym. There is plenty of parking, and during peak hours (5:30 pm to about 8:00 pm) the lot is full. The facilities are nice – there’s a pool large enough to do laps in, free weights, machines, treadmills, elliptical, etc. There is a small group training area that one can use when there is no class. I tried the introductory class, and it gets pretty tight when there is more than four people. Throw in some personal trainers and their clients, and it becomes less than ideal for a good workout without bumping or elbowing someone. Other than the group training, I only have done classes. I have done spin, body pump and yoga. All are decent, and the times convenient. You have to sign up ahead of time online. If you do not show up, your account is charged a $ 5 no show fee.
The locker room is small (at least the men’s). I only change or store my bag so that’s not a big deal. You have to bring your own lock.
The monthly membership is low because this is a no frills gym. You have to bring your own towel unless you want to pay extra for a monthly towel fee. One can sign up for classes only 12 hours in advance unless you upgrade to get the right to sign up for classes a week ahead. The downside of not upgrading is that you take the chance of getting closed out of the class.
Overall, for my purposes, the gym is fine. If one is seeking more, then you have to pay more or seek out an Equinox (to which I have been a member) or such.

I’ve been a member of this gym for about a year now. While the equipment is nice, good luck getting on a cardio machine during peak hours (4 — 7 PM). The gym is very crowded during peak hours. There are only two real squat racks placed way in the back of the gym placed side-​by-​side with only 2 feet of space between them.
I pay $ 50/​month for membership and was slightly upset when they lowered the price to $ 19.95 for students and the gym started to become virtually unusable unless you went late at night. BSC Woburn at this point seems to be taking on the model of Planet Fitness, where they just want as many people in the gym as possible. The (men’s) locker room is incredibly small. The multiple U-​shared layout is awful and does not provide ample changing space from other members.
The TRX portion of the gym takes up a lot of space and could be used for other purposes (more free-​weight room).
To combat the crowds, I started going at 9 — 9:30 as it would give me a good hour, hour and a half at the gym each visit. That was until tonight, where myself about 25 other members were kicked out at 10:00 PM because they changed their hours and didn’t inform us. No e-​mail, no fliers, no employees telling us when scanning into the building.
I’ll be canceling my membership and taking my business to another gym. I’d rather pay a premium for a less crowded gym than have to squeeze my gym time into a smaller workout interval. I’m done waiting around at an over-​crowded gym to get a workout in. Bye BSC Woburn.

This is the worst gym. I was only a member for 6 months. They charged me $ 100.00 to sign up and then another $ 30.00 to cancel (only they didn’t tell me they were going to charge a $ 30 cancelation fee — they said ‘you agreed to it when you signed the terms in conditions’ who even reads that???). This gym is all about making money. They do not have enough weights to sustain the after work rush and their cardio equipment experiences the same thing (don’t even try to go here on a monday at 5PM). I am so dissatisfied with this company I feel like they were sly and are trying to play people for their money.

Went to the gym last night and was greeted by tons of high school students throughout the gym. As someone who has the Regional Pass, I was disappointed on how BSC is becoming a Planet Fitness for $ 19.95 plus you can bring a friend with you!
I paid a decent amount for exclusivity to a clean professional gym where the age range no lower than 18 years old. I didn’t sign up for Planet Fitness. I don’t feel safe with my belongings in the locker room with high school students around. And no towel service for $ 19.95 members… do you think they care? Most will bring their own.
Come on BSC, get it right and not turn into Planet Fitness!

Full-​featured, full price. Swimming, Basketball, big class space. Too expensive for «just working out», but some people like that the higher price seems to favor a «no riff-​raff» and post-​grad-​singles-​scene clientele (I happen not to like it).
Owned by a public company (Town Sports Int’l Holdings), everything is well thought out. The whole thing is very «corporate» with high standards of cleanliness, furnishings, and amenities maintained across the several locations I used (Bedford, Woburn, & Central Square Cambridge).
The front-​desk staff has a Lufthansa feel: efficient, effective, rule-​based, clean-​cut, polite, predictable, but clearly hired hands with no margin for being actually friendly.
The Woburn location is big, with 3 levels:
1) Lockers, Pool, Childcare, Sales
2) Basketball, Cardio, Machine-​weights, and UXF (imagine Disney did Crossfit)
3) Free weights, squat racks, big classroom
If a gym devotes that much space to «Sales» you have to be suspicious that too much of your membership fee is going to marketing and commissions. Haggle.
The free weight area on the 3^rd floor is not laid out well, Benches are too closely-​spaced: they look ample during sales-​tours, but can’t all be in use at the same time, and the stacks (trees?) of small weights (5lbs to 20lbs) are confusing – hard to read their increments, hard to find matched pairs.
If you crave novelty and exclusivity, they have plenty of weird weight machines requiring odd positions and exercising muscles you didn’t know you had, like the lateral anterior whatnot.
Vast cardio area with both numbers and variety.
Weight Machines are new and lightly used (not sure if that’s a good thing or the wisdom of crowds voting against them)

Same thing as Derek. I’ve been paying a $ 65+/month membership for about 5 years (plus rate-​lock fees), and now a $ 19.95 membership with no towel service is offered?
So not only will the gym get crowded with people paying 4 times less than me, but now I have a very limited supply of towels (2 by defaults) that I need to ask to the front desk, instead of getting them near the showers, where it used to make sense.
Very poor idea there. And very frustrating.

Great gym!
Pro’s:
Equipment: Nice variety and well maintained across the board (weights, weight machines, and cardio).
Staff: Friendly, pleasant, and helpful.
Cleanliness: Always spotless.
Other members: I hate to say it, but some gyms just seem to attract weirdos. The other members at this club seem, for the most part, to be normal folks looking for a good workout.
Location: Right off 93 in Woburn — convenient for early morning and late night workouts.
Con’s:
Locker room: As many others have noted, the locker rooms (men’s, anyway) is laid out horribly — no space if there’s one other person in your little u-​shaped crevice.
Like all BSC’s, the Woburn club has bought into the TRX nonsense — the rope/​jungle-​gym thing takes up way too much space.
Overall: pro’s out weigh the con’s big time.

Very nice people! Have only attended group fitness classes so far and I do plan to work with some free weights and cardio. So far so good!

I have been a member of the BSC for probably 10 years total if not more. The BSC is CLEAN CLEAN CLEAN! equipment is well kept, towel service, lots of dumbells, bars, kettlebells, exercise balls, bands, etc. They also have childcare in house for those of you with rug-​rats that couldn’t lockdown a sitter for an hour or so while you work out.
Excellent friendly staff however I don’t like that some of the newer classes they are added are considered small group training and cost extra money when their membership is on the pricier side. Different clubs will have different prices so shop around for your home club, if you don’t have a passport membership you can use most of the other clubs free of charge during off peak hours (which is what I do).
My only complaint is that the BSC in Woburn and the suburban clubs have a tendency to cater towards the stay at home wife/​mom when it comes to the class schedule. This is annoying because I love the yoga and pilates classes but I work for a living so 10 am on a Wednesday isn’t going to work out for me!
As a female I have tried different establishments and I just don’t feel comfortable exercising at those places I felt like I was a piece of meat being stared at and sized up. At the BSC they have a decent clientele that isn’t there to pick up dates, doesn’t size up their fellow members, and is overall friendly.
Overall you get a great bang for your buck here. Yes more expensive, no there isn’t wifi, but they have an array of amenities that the competitor doesn’t, decent class options across the board throughout their clubs, and a competent smiling front desk crew. The only reason they aren’t getting 5 stars is because again they don’t have the class selection that I’m looking for and I refuse to spend $ 100+ for «small group training» for classes such as core barre and the alike. Equinox in Boston would be close to the same amount with no extra charges. hash tag just saying. I just deal with it and try to take classes at other surrounding clubs.

I visited this club on a snowy Sunday because I wanted to try a gym closer to my place as opposed to the ultra pricey gym I am a member at in Downtown Boston. I was really impressed by the clubs size, cleanliness, and friendly staff and patrons. Things appear to be mostly organized and the locker rooms were also clean.
They had pretty much all the equipment I could ask for but wasn’t as big of a fan of the multi floor layout. An irony of my workouts… I really don’t want to be going up and down stairs too much to find what I’m looking for. The cardio machines were also pretty good, although several had bad LED TV’s attached or malfunctioning headphone jacks, everything was mostly in order.
I would recommend this gym if you live or work close by.

I recently switched to this gym from BSC Lexington and I’m very glad I did. The monthly fees are at least $ 20 lower. You lose the tennis courts (that you have to pay for), but you gain a basketball court. The lap pool is much smaller in Woburn, but there are also less swimmers so it seems to work out.
The employees are nice and helpful and the place is always very clean. Locker room setup can get a little crowded during peak times, but all the showers are individual and there are ample free towels to use.
Perfect location if you commute on ⁹³⁄₁₂₈ and you want a spot to productively wait out some traffic on your ride to/​from work.

Stay away. Stay far, far away. Worst gym in the area by far. Bad customer service, a terrible staff that all seem to be rejects from Planet Fitness. How about orange skin from too much time in a tanning booth? Yeah, expect that and more.
Deserves zero stars.