24 Hours to LA

Two years ago last Labor Day, my wife and I joined 24 Hour Fitness, mainly to allow David (who was a minor at the time) to get a membership since he wanted one. As it turns out, he used his membership only two or three times, but my wife and I have used ours 3 times a week.

Since neither of us had set foot in a health club or gym since leaving high school, this was quite a drastic change for us. We had never even talked about joining until we walked in and did it. It has been wonderful. We both found machines we enjoy using and it has improved our health and physique leading to better self-images.

Talking with folks at work, I found that some of them had received better deals at 24 Hour Fitness than we had by pre-paying for 2 to 3 years. After the initial period was up, they continued to receive the lower monthly payments. I asked at the front desk a few times if we could sign up for such a deal, only to be told 'no'. This started me looking around.

Recently, an LA Fitness club opened up about 2 miles closer to our house. David had already joined and we decided to take a closer look. It is a very nice club, will save us about 30 minutes round-trip driving time each day we use the gym, and they offered us the pre-pay deal I had heard about which will save us about 35% in monthly costs.

We exercised there for the first time Friday night and, while they don't have the exact machines we loved at 24 Hour Fitness, they have equivalents that should be as good as, if not better. Shoot, the bike has a fan and most all the machines have cup holders! That may sound like a stupid thing to be excited about until you've had to put your bottled water on the ground 30 times each trip to the gym.

Take that, 24 Hour Fitness. You should have given us the better deal.