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| - I think it's fitting to give this place a score of "Meh, I've experienced better" because I have indeed experienced better, right here at this exact same location! Allow me to explain. Eclipse Fitness was a small quiet gym which did very little advertising and seemed to survive based on a loyal membership base and some word of mouth. This fall, Goodlife purchased the two-location chain and quickly converted it to a Goodlife-branded location. I have no doubt that this was a good business move for Goodlife. For such a huge chain, not having a location at Yonge and Eglinton was surely a significant gap.
When Goodlife took over, they made some immediate improvements. A significant amount of equipment (including all the free weights) was replaced with new stuff. The place was painted and the floor was re-done. It looks great. Unfortunately, I've also observed the following changes:
- Not surprising since most Goodlife members have a membership that allows them to go to any location, the gym is now much, much busier. I used to be able to go at any time I wanted (including a Monday at 6 PM) and not feel crowded. Now, sometimes you can't even find a few square feet to do some pushups, without feeling like you might be stepped on.
- I used to almost always be greeted with a "Hey Terry!" as I walked in. The personal touch is now lost, as I'm one of 750,000 members (across Canada).
- The gym is dirty. Ok, it's not filthy, but Eclipse had a cleaning staff of 3-5 people in the gym most evenings, and the place was spotless. Now I sometimes see one cleaner, sometimes. The mats and exercise balls have a permanent layer of dust over them from people wearing their outside shoes in the gym, towels are scattered around, etc.
Despite my complaints, I still think this is a decent gym, as long as you have some flexibility in your schedule and can go outside the peak evening hours. The equipment is up-to-date, the prices are reasonable, and for the most part the staff are friendly.
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