GoodLife Fitness

This is my go-​to GoodLife location. I have been to several locations, and by GoodLife standards, this one is my favourite. What keeps me coming back? Read on…
THE GOOD:
— Space, space and more space — this location is massive. I don’t like working out in cramped conditions, so this is a big plus for me. When I was getting a tour from one of the staff several years ago, he told me the space used to be a theatre. What used to be the upper balcony is now home to the cardio machines, and the large open space on the lower level includes weight machines, free weights, and squat racks. There’s also a separate area for stretching upstairs with a skylight, and other nooks and crannies throughout to pop a sweat.
— In addition to a large gym space, this location has a fairly large changeroom. There’s plenty of lockers, several shower stalls, and a sauna as well.
— While it’s a busy location, people are generally courteous. I’ve heard horror stories in reviews of other gyms about people who have never heard of «gym etiquette», but I’ve never encountered such folks here. If you prefer the gym to be less crowded, aim for the early morning hours (5−8am).
THE BAD:
— The Mind & Body Studio for yoga classes is TINY. Avoid the Saturday classes if possible — they’re always packed and there’s nothing worse than holding a plank with a stranger’s stinky feet inches from your face.
— Memberships don’t come cheap. Personally, I make the spend worthwhile by really taking advantage of everything GoodLife has to offer (e.g., classes, the sauna). I also make sure to take two towels (you pay for towel service, don’t be shy!) and help myself to generous portions of body wash, shampoo and conditioner for my post-​workout shower.
All in all, the Danforth/​Pape GoodLife is a good gym with a great vibe. While I’m often dragging myself there against my will, I find myself instantly in a good mood once I walk through the doors.

So I have been coming here since it was extreme fitness. Once GoodLife took over a lot of nicer equipment was brought in and the place did get a face lift.
However it’s always too crowder unless you get in at 5am which I try doing most of the time. The gym has bad air circulation as well. I used to like it a lot more when it was less crowded.
They need to add more free weight area and kettle bells please.
I am always grossed out by the dirty washroom and shower situation. To make it exciting I saw a lady in the sauna shave her legs in there. So gross and unhygienic so after that I don’t even change in there.
Sales staff looks overstaffed and extra stressed.

I’ve been to several goodlife locations. This one is closest to where I live… so I tend to come here on weekends. The club is huge and staff is very friendly. I’ve never had trouble getting into a class (which is mostly what I do at the gym). Some of my favourite instructors teach at this location. Only downside is that the whole gym smells sweaty to me. They could use some better ventilation.

In reality, more of a 3.5, but still a great gym.
This Goodlife is one of the closest ones to my place, but I admit that the poor Unilocal reviews below completely put me off going for the past year and a half. I decided to try it out a few weeks ago after visiting the Popeye’s next door, and I’m glad I gave it a chance.
The gym is huge! I didn’t expect it to be so vast. It’s right up there with the Goodlifes at Yonge/​Richmond and Yonge/​Dundas in terms of size. There’s a sizeable free-​weights area, an infinite number of weight machines, a decently-​sized cardio section, as well as TRX and a dedicated personal trainer room. (Apparently, there’s also a huge group exercise room, but this location is so big that I couldn’t even find it!)
As well as that, there’s dozens of random nooks and crannies and scattered private spots where you can get in an exercise or two alone in peace. My personal favourite is the tiny sized hall with one random exercise mat placed to the right of the main cardio area upstairs :-p. And let’s not forget the three or four rowing machines placed directly outside the female locker room! This confusing description may sound like a criticism, but I think it’s great to see how the gym makes use of every single piece of space they have — without cramming machines together or shoving members on top of one another.
You’ll never be stuck for machines or weights here — there’s duplicates of everything and a huge variety of equipment. In fact, there’s a good few machines here that I’ve never seen at any other Goodlifes (don’t ask me to describe them cos I’m not even sure what they do). There’s also random pieces of equipment such as ab wheels that I’ve never noticed at any other branch.
I really liked the general atmosphere in this location. Maybe I just got lucky the night I went, but it really seemed that everyone there was there to actually work out — not to mindlessly socialise or hog machines while playing on phones (so common in other Goodlifes at evening peak hours). In particular, I was impressed with amount of serious female lifters! I’ve never seen so many women at a Goodlife do exercises like squats and deadlifts and really push themselves to the max in terms of weight training. This was awesome to see! Hopefully this wasn’t just a fluke the one night I visited — although of course it’s possible.
For the parents in the area, there’s a small crèche on the way into the gym.
The changing rooms are no-​frills. Although scrupulously clean (there was actually a cleaner in there scrubbing everything when I arrived, and she was STILL there working when I left, maintaining everything), the walls and floors could do with a lick of paint, and the water in the showers took a LONG time to heat up. There’s hair-​dryers and moisturiser provided, but nothing extra. The steam room in the male changing room was still broken as of two weeks ago.
The biggest annoyance in this gym would be the lack of water fountains. Now, it’s entirely possible I’m missing something (please correct me if so), as I’ve only visited once and as I’ve stated, the gym is huge. But I could only find one water fountain in the place. I hope I’m wrong about the number, but there certainly wasn’t many visible/​accessible fountains around. I’ve visited other Goodlifes probably ¹⁄₈^th of the size of this one and there’s been 3 – 4 fountains. Weird!
Minor gripes aside, I will definitely return here and would encourage anyone who lives in the neighbourhood to give it a go before automatically heading to the downtown locations.

Where do I even start? How about at the front desk. I have never met more unfriendly people representing a company. I have not once received a «hi, how are you» or «hello» or“welcome to Goodlife” they merely take your tag and scan you in and hope you go away. The free weights area is a total mess pretty much all the time. This showers… don’t even get me started. I would never shower in them, absolutely disgusting. I only go to this location if I don’t have the time to drive to another location.

This gym is quite disappointing and unmotivating. The mens change rooms are filthy and people leave used towels all over the place. The equipment is not in good condition. Weights are not put back where they belong. General maintenance is not kept up — looks run down.
But what I dislike the most are all the quotes of the founder that are written on the wall. It is ok to quote a famous, influential statement, but you need quite an ego to quote yourself all over the gym. Just make the motivating statement, no need to put your name after it.

This former Extreme Fitness location has really gotten worse since the takeover by Goodlife. The men’s change room and showers are consistently dirty, with used towels left everywhere and garbage on the floor, counters and benches. The showers are always out of soap, so make sure you bring your own from home. Even though the gym management has been made aware of this, nothing has changed improved over the last 6 months. Aside from the general lack of cleanliness, this gym doesn’t have any sense of urgency in repairing broken equipment — which can take weeks. When you consider they don’t have a wide selection of machines or weights to begin with, you’d really hope that they would be more concerned with fixing broken equipment or perhaps even adding more. Since there really isn’t any competition in the area, they know that people who live nearby are stuck there unless you’re willing to join a different gym in another area of the city.

A well-​toned human zoo.
It’s the largest gym in the east end. All the crowds that you expect from a large chain alongside passively indifferent staff and hilariously cases of how-​did-​they-​damage-​that machinery.
Used to be an Extreme Fitness. Now it’s a Goodlife.
At least they’ve been remodelling.
On the plus side, they’ve managed to slowly taper off the persuasive smell of Androstenone from the Male Locker Room.
And I’m a really big fan of the wall-​sized spiritual mumbo-​jumbo quotes from «The Leader» which now plaster all dimensions of the main workspace. Unignorable idiotic psychobabble.
I can’t figure out why they seem to have 20 sales staff employed at all times. They line the hallway on either side once you enter. They look particularly serious in their Goodlife costumes. They don’t talk to each other, nor to you.
Perhaps they’re having a competition to find the biggest sucker who’s willing to pay the most amount for the exact same services?
If you’re paying more than $ 400 a year, you’re probably getting ripped off. But who knows? Perhaps everyone else is paying half of what I am. You never know. That’s a part of the corporate health club game. I guess it keeps you on your toes.
An assortment of the strangest characters in town populate this place. I’ve even come across people smoking vapor e-​cigarettes in the locker room. It definitely stays interesting.
If you come after 10pm there should be a sign on the door that states that you MUST have a neck tattoo.

Formerly Extreme Fitness, since being taken over by Goodlife in April the gym has been late opening 3 times to date. We get up at 5:00 to be at the gym for the promised 5:30 opening and it is extremely disrespectful to not be open when it says it would be. Had this issue once with Extreme in 4 years, 3 times with Goodlife in 3 months. Also, I am not sure why, but the clients are also extremely ignorant in that they do not put their free weights back when done and the gym doesn’t bother to clean. I spend 20 minutes of my workout looking for weights that can be spread over 3 floors. I have talke to the manager once, left her a note a month later, sent 2 email to their head office and one message in their suggestion box. Not response or change.