Lifestyle Family Fitness vs Lifetime Fitness

So on Tuesday, I walked into my gym and they told me that our GYM IS CLOSING at the end of the month! I was so shocked. The gym I go to is Lifestyle Family Fitness and I love loved it! Recently Life Time Fitness bought several LifeStyle Family Finess locations.

At first I was sad but then I got the news that we get to use Life Time gyms until March. That cheered me up because I had only heard great things about Life Time. I had only been there a few times back in high school when we would go during gym class to rock-climb.

Our contracts were transferred immediately so we could start using the new facilities right away. We pulled up to Lifetime last night around 8pm and yeah..it looks amaze-balls from the outside. I was so eager to get inside and get a good workout in. I was a bit intimidated by the size. I’m used to my small gym where I recognize faces and know where all the machines & weights are.

The facility is obviously NICE. It was more of a health CLUB then a gym. The walls were covered in slate and the locker rooms were dark marble with dark wood. It was very sleek.

Aesthetically speaking, Lifetime, you win.

As I started my workout, I started to realize that this big place didn’t have everything I was used to. I’m sure it was just because it was a new gym and I’m not used to it yet, but here are some of my thoughts of Life Time Fitness (when comparing my old gym – LifeStyle).

CONS

• There were no small lockers outside of the locker room (by the weights). I liked having these at LifeStyle for convenience and not dealing with locker rooms.
• Every locker needed a LifeTime key card to lock it. After you lock it, you’re left with a key to hold on to until you’re done. At LifeStyle I would always bring my own combination lock and never have to worry about a thing..except remembering my combination 🙂
• My biggest complaint was that the TVs by the cardio machines required a radio transmitter to listen to them. Each TV was held up on the wall with a radio station posted underneath where you had to tune into to listen to it. A lot of the cardio pieces were really far away from the TVs too. At LifeStyle, each machine had their own TV and you chose your channels. The cardio equipment at Lifetime didnt even have a plug-in on it that would connect you to the TVs. Apparently we have to bring one more thing to the gym now.
• The weight area was hard to get used to and crowded. A lot of times I found myself looking for a specific barbell that was always in use. Apparently a 30lb straight barbell is in high need at this gym.
• Although the little cafe is cute to see when you walk in, what person who is walking in to workout wants to smell the delicious aroma of food cooking? I’m there to burn calories, not to think about how much I’m craving that food when I walk in the door.
• The price is more. As a couple we paid about $75 for all locations to LifeStyle. This gym would be around $100 combined if we decide to stay with them. We were just trying to downgrade our plan at lifestyle, now I’m thrown into a situation where they want me to pay more. I’m not sold on that one yet…
• The girls dressed like they were there to look good and not work out! Almost every girl I saw in there had makeup on. There were literally several girls who had their hair down in spiral curls. Are you freakin kidding me? Needless to say, I was the only girl wearing weight lifting gloves.

PROS

• The facility was huge and asthetically appealing. It was clean and everyone was very friendly.
• Free towels (unlike at LifeStyle)
• There is a large pool and a hot tub. I can’t wait to check out the hot tub.
• The basketball courts are bigger…BIG Plusfor Ryan.
• There are other small courts for raquettball that LifeStyle didn’t have
• There is rock climbing..but that’s at an extra charge I think (pro and con I guess)

Overall Choice: I choose LifeStyle over Life Time. I like the smaller feel of LifeStyle where “everybody knows your name”. 🙂 Just kidding..it wasn’t like that but it was much more personal seeing the same people every day than getting lost in the shuffle at Life Time.

This was only my first visit to Life Time so I’ll give it some more time and review it again at the end of my time there. It may change my opinion when I get more comfortable there.

Oh..here’s a picture I took from my treadmill. Look how far the TVs were. I couldn’t even read the closed captioning on the screen if I wanted to and I have great vision! The picture doesn’t really do the distance justice. hah.

It was day 39 on my program. Although it was hard at the new gym to find all the eqipment & machines that I needed for this workout, I did end up finding my way. I increased my weight for skullcrushers to 30lbs and still completely suck at doing jackknife sit-ups. It didn’t help that the girl next to me started cranking out jackknifes right next to me. I swear she was trying to show off after she saw me struggling. Oh well…life goes on!

Here was my workout for the day.

And the cardio..

Don’t forget to enter my giveaway!!!! The winner will be chosen on Wednesday, November 23rd!

Have a good day. It’s not only almost friday, it’s almost my birthday weekend 🙂

**Erin**

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