Someone else said it best - this gym was amazing when it was Hard Candy, and has been through too many changes and had too many downgrades to be considered "a great gym" at this point. I almost joined the new LA Fitness in the Junction and ended up changing my mind because the limited amount of functional training equipment is kept behind a personal training barrier and the rest of the gym was extremely basic. So, after visiting HC/Aura a few times, I decided to go back last night and find out about memberships.
Now it's Crunch Fitness. Their "Premium membership" includes scratchy, small towels that cover about 30% of my body (I'm 5'8) for a shower. Also includes their classes - most of which I like and are basically the only good thing left over from Hard Candy. You can get unlimited guest passes which is cool but doesn't really matter to me. Same annoying sign up fees that you see elsewhere - $90 initiation, $20 "card fee", and $70/month after that. I was a bit surprised at the cost and thought Aura's prices of $49 were much more reasonable. I was still considering joining because I LOVE the functional training area there, and love to use the heavy bag (I am an ex boxer), Free Motion equipment, box jump platforms, sled, etc.
So I walk by on the way to my class and I see a big sign posted saying "NEW POLICY - functional training zone only to be used by personal trainers/clients between 4-8pm, Monday-Thursday". MOTHER. F@#$@#^$@'s. So, the one area that I wanted to use and the only reason why I wanted to sign up, taken away completely as those are the exact hours that I would be exercising there. I am so frustrated with gyms in Toronto. Forcing you into basic memberships where you will probably stop going out of sheer boredom, or pay up the a%@ and get access to the beneficial parts of the gym. And still charging $70 per month while restricting access to the only part of the gym that would be worth that cost. So, I won't be going back.
They have also removed all of the products from the bathrooms, using some sort of cheap shampoo or soap (couldn't even tell what it was) that made my skin break out in hives.
Crunch, thanks for killing the vibe.