Impressions from my 1st week:
- A good selection of weight machines from Life Fitness, Freemotion, Star Trac (had never used) and a few others (Nautilus,Apex?,etc). The free weight area (in pic above) was well stocked... but busy during prime time.
- Most of the people working out were nice; no problems working in on sets when machines were busy.
- A good mix of people... a lot of 20 somethings, but a surprising number of 30-50+ gym rats as well. No obnoxious slamming weights or excessive grunting (OK... if I can hear it over the tunes cranked up on my Ipod... its friggin' loud. I don't care what you're giving birth to, and am more impressed if you can control the weight on the way down while pushing that last one out (rep or baby) ).
- The parking kinda' sucks... circling for spots.
- Lanes usually available in the lap pool
- The cardio equipment was crowded as expected from 4:30-7:00pm... better after that. No cardio theatre/built in TVs... some flatscreens overhead. The ellipticals are Precor EFXs... not my favorite. The stride is a bit choppy and when elevated, they put a strain on my lower back. LA Fitness sets a 1/2hr max time limit on them... annoying. If anyone's waiting, I'll gladly observe a posted 20 min time limit . Having to reset time (losing mileage, calories, etc) is frustrating at slack times when plenty are available.
The 18 star trac treadmills have consoles had built in fans (3 recently "under repair"). There were about 4 "stair" and 4 "step" stairmasters. There are plenty of Star Trac reclining cycles (not in demand). I didn't see Cybex arc trainers... did see 2 rowing machines. It would be nice to have a couple of floor fans available for us heavy sweaters. Paper towels & cleaner are available... and janitors wipe down equipment (thankfully!).
- Lockeroom was larger than expected and reasonably clean. No competing for space to set a gym bag.
- The front desk and trainers were friendly and helpful. Not pushy or disinterested (if you're not purchasing training/supplements).
- My only gripe with LA Fitness in is that they closed down my old location that they had purchased from Pure Fitness a few months ago on extremely short notice (ie: I read a notice posted on the night they closed on 1/31 . 2 people I talked to (1 was a trainer) had 10 days notice but others had none. The Via Paseo location is too far south for me to travel long term... but I would recommend it to others so far (I'll try to update this to keep it accurate even if it gets filtered).