LA Fitness

There’s a reason why this place has so many bad reviews. They’re all true!
The place is full of scum bags. The staff (if you can call them that) is useless. They’re sitting around laughing, dancing, acting like complete, unprofessional children.
I’ve never seen a place so lacking in any kind of professionalism or structure.
Just based on my observations, I’d be inclined to think that the scumbags working there gave the scumbags who work out there a cheap membership deal.
It Just so happens that every time I see a shady person trying to pickup women aka working out, they always make it a point to go hang out with the morons in front desks. There always seems to be that connection.
The place sucks. I hope their corporate people read all of these reviews, fire most of the staf (if not all) provide its members with apologies, and rebuild, rebuild, rebuild.

Honestly the worst gym I have ever been to. I have been a member at all different types of clubs and I currently go to the LA in uptown and I thought that place was bad. But seriously, who doesn’t offer wifi to their members. It’s 2015, we can send pictures from Pluto for crying out loud. It smell, it’s hot, the front desk workers are not very helpful. They also only have small community tv. I cannot comment on the classes because I have not been to one here and I never will because I’m not coming back.

I’ve been a member for a little over a year now with my fiancé. During our time as members we were rarely greeted as we scan our ID card, cleanliness of the gym/​locker room wasn’t exactly ideal, and staff there seemed a little too preoccupied either on their phones or with another employee rather than you. With our new job (s) hours, it’s difficult to make it to the gym, especially it not being ²⁴⁄₇. So we decided to leave LA fitness, we had come in 3 days after our payment going through already in hopes we could at least get a pro-​rated amount back since we have also already paid for our last month during our enrollment. But they could do nothing for us whatsoever. So there went 2 months of payment for a gym membership we can barely use due to our schedules. Overall our experience at LA fitness has been below average.

The gym itself is adequately equipped for basic workouts. However, there are three major issues with this location:
1. Theft/​Safety — There are locker and car break-​ins all the time at this gym;
2. Clientele — I’m not a snob but there are a lot of undesirables who hang around this gym and it’s hard to know who is there to workout v. who is there with shady intentions (see #1)
3. Cleanliness — This location had never invested in custodial staffing. They usually have one person trying to keep up with hundreds of patrons in a large space. Go to any major gym of this size and you will see they have a custodial team (i.e. multiple people). Instead, this gym is front office heavy with desk clerks, sales reps, and trainers who are too busy socializing and texting to attend to actual clients or help keep the building clean
I do not recommend this gym. If cost is a concern, you are better off at Snap or Anytime Fitness. If budget is not a concern, go to Lifetime.

I have been a member two separate times to this particular location. The first time around I was much younger. The price is right (30 a month) but the customer service is beyond terrible. I don’t need much, but a simple «hey how’s it going?» While you awkwardly scan your own ID card, would be nice.
The personal trainers (with the exception of a few, the woman, and the tall guy with black hair) the rest I’ve encountered are very pushy, and even creepy.
Dirty/​broken cardio machines more often than not.

We joined on March 1 of this year because I was interested in weight training in addition to my current fitness routine. Our last day at this gym will be May 27^th, after that, we will be Lifetime Fitness members (again, why we chose this over that for a return to the gym is beyond me).
I literally cannot workout without some creepy, disgusting guy interrupting my workout and playlist to ask me my name, tell me I’m beautiful or come up with some other equally cheesy bs line. IT’S RUDE, It’s ballsy and it’s UNACCEPTABLE, and you would think at some point the jerks would all talk and make note to avoid the redhead at all costs…
The trainers, though I have not had a personal training session (thank goodness), lack any kind of passion. They look at their client like they’re the biggest dumb@$$ on the planet and continue checking their texts while the client is half-@$$ing a set on a machine that is going to get them nowhere close to their goals (whatever those are, it doesn’t matter because they’re not going to hit them with the help from these guys). I watched a trainer in amazing shape attempt to get two obese clients into a plank, with horrible form and then tell them to try again when they couldn’t hold it for x amount of time. (How about: modification, work on form and work up to the perfect plank!)
The front desk staff couldn’t give two you-know-what’s about anyone coming or going. I have been greeted and/​or thanked a total of TWO times (and I am there 6 days a week…) Once was by the maintence guy who happened to be at the front desk, the other was from the aforementioned trainer who also happened to be hanging out up there when I left.
You get what you pay for, but I didn’t expect rude and incompetent staff in a breeding ground for sleezy hornball meatsticks with no manners.

Its okay I suppose. Cardio equipment does the job but it’s nothing fancy. I have had to switch treadmills before because of loose belts and almost face planting. The locker room is okay, I dont really care that much I use it to hold my belongings for the 1.5 to 2 hours I’m there. The bathrooms are humid a hell with condinsation everywhere. Front desk is hit or miss. Sometimes they just put the scanner out and ignore you, sometimes they actually do their jobs. Kids klub is okay. They girls that work in there are nice but they also love my daughter in there. Over all I say this club is okay if you have kids but if you don’t explore your options.

Great staff that are helpful. The training staff is very good and knowledgeable. The machines are mostly kept up and are able to get on machines.

I’ve been a member here for far too long. It’s cheap and that’s why I’ve stayed, but it’s other characteristics are reasons I’ve stayed away. My son recently wanted to join a fitness club, so this was our cheapest choice again.
Now that I’m back, I’m reminded of the negatives —
Equipment that’s broken down and/​or filthy
Staff that can’t be bothered to greet you, at best.
Locker rooms that are disgusting — including the clientele — quit clearing your nostrils in the shower, quit playing your music on your phone so that everyone has to listen to your crappy playlist, quit making a general mess and not picking it up. Normally, that last part would make me madder because you’re making a mess that someone else has to pick up, but the jokes on the rest of us, because NO ONE PICKS UP here. Does anyone know how to operate a vacuum around here??? I actually used to work at LA Fitness and the conditions & customer service at LA Fitness would have gotten you FIRED ON THE SPOT.

This location is an absolute pit, staffed by a mixture of people ranging from the sincerely nice (rare) to the completely indifferent (common). It smells, and the stench in the locker room is particularly overwhelming. It is dirty. The garbage cans are often overflowing with paper towels wadded up on the floor in the locker room. It has posters from the Apple Valley police department warning you about theft because it is such a problem there. There are often out of order signs on equipment for extended periods of time, including water fountains. I only maintained my membership there because it does give you access to equipment at a decent price, but recent circumstances have allowed me to switch to Lifetime, which is like walking into paradise compared to this place.
I will summarize with a walkthrough of a typical session:
1) Parking lot — poorly maintained in the winter, usually have to walk through slush and ice.
2) Front desk — staff is usually too busy texting to greet me, and I scan myself in.
3) Entryway — In the winter, mats are perpetually stained with salt and the floor is crusty.
4) Locker room — During the times when I can’t avoid using it, I avoid breathing as much as possible because of the stench, and I refuse to use the bathroom because I don’t care to track urine home on the bottom of my shoes.
5) Sauna — Cramped, and usually has at least one or two people in there talking on their phones or listening to their headphones so loud I can hear every word, or worse, doing sit ups.
6) Equipment — Outdated, lower end cardio equipment that is barely commercial grade. Padding on the weight machines is worn/​cracked on several pieces of equipment.
7) Exit — Usually the front desk staff treat me with the same level of indifference upon leaving as they demonstrated when I arrived.

This is my gym, I go here 5+ days per week for at least 3 years now. Typically I love it overall. The only reasons it loses stars is because cleanliness is questionable sometimes. The bathrooms get really gross fast. The mirrors are streaky. Sometimes equipment stays broken for a while. I do love most of the people who work there and will continue to go here. It’s a great price and most of the staff are awesome.

This is going to be long! My Hubby was a member of LA Fitness in the cities and when we moved to Apple valley he bought me an 18 month membership so we could go together. First tour the staff was pretty nice. talked him into buying me some personal training so we sat down with one of the reps and signed up for 6 months of sessions.
We went a few times, always seemed a couple machines were broken down but people rotated off the others pretty quickly.
Decided to use one of my personal training sessions and was recommended a certain trainer. Came in for my session and was talked down to the ENTIRE time! He told me the only way I would reach my goals is if I bought the supplements that he sold outside of work, as well as coming in at least 3 times a week to train with him. He was so incredibly rude and disgusting that I filed a complaint. When I talked to the manager that recommended him, he told me that he was hoping I would write to HQ to turn the trainer in because they were having so many issues with him! Why would you recommend him then???
After being completely humiliated by the trainer and then told I was set up for a horrible session I was extremely disappointed and feeling like a fat lump with all of my motivation crushed. Waited a while to go back because I felt that horrible about myself.
Finally went back and after working out set up another training session because I wasn’t going to let some jerk get me down. I was running late by a couple minutes for my session and when I got there no one knew where my new trainer was. I had never met him so didn’t know who I was looking for. Finally find him and he lectures me on being on time and tells me I owe him 10 push ups for every minute I am late… wait. is this military?
I explain to him that, that isn’t happening and we can start my training session. So we get started and he notices that my one knee has scars from surgery, which I notified him of. and starts trying to correct the way I walk/​sit/​stand. I tell him that I literally can’t do what he is asking. So he looks and tells me that my one leg is longer than the other from the surgeries and that when I step I should do it a certain way. as he is telling me to do it my knee gives out a little and I feel a sharp pains I tell him and he brushes it off.
I left there annoyed and sore, got home and my knee is swelling a little so I ice it. Next day my knee is killing me so I call the Dr and get in a couple days later. Dr does a cortisone shot and it feels better until it wears off. Go in for an MRI and the cartilage is torn from walking and stepping wrong… NICE! So I was the lucky recipient of an OATS procedure (not a fun surgery). Called the manager and he brushed me off completely.
THEN to top it off, we quit going because the trainers are complete creeps and awful! My friend and I were walking on treadmills and all the sales/​trainers were sitting in a line watching all the girls run/​walk on treadmills. so creepy! Machines were getting worse and always broken.
They billed me for 12 months of training instead of 6 and wouldn’t refund it. When I showed them the paper I signed they said their copy was different. complete sham! Don’t waste your time or money!

Front desk staff is just fair, which is what a lot of reviews are saying. My main gripe is that my (and most) insurance company will reimburse me $ 20.00 per month for working out at least 12 times per month. My first whole month after joining I worked out the 12 times, writing the dates on my calendar. To my surprise my insurance company said I was only there 11 times so no credit. I called LA Fitness & found the date that they were missing. The person I was talked to said ‘they get a lot of that — where the customer’s visits were not showing up’. She said I’d have to talk to the manager, who could correct the problem. I went in & talked to the person in charge (don’t remember her name– dark hair). She was very rude & said that it was too late & it was up to me have the desk person confirm I was checked in or better yet to check online that my visits were correct. REALLY? They don’t tell you that when you sign up that their equipment that checks you in is not reliable so the customer needs to watch online for errors. Also, by the time you check online it’s too late for them to add your visit. They all seem to be very unprofessional, impersonal & immature; too much so to be dealing with customers. They could all use better training.

I visited the Apple Valley LA Fitness a few times (they usually offer a few visits free) when I was deciding which gym to join (I ended up joining Life Time). The gym floor was nice with a good selection of equipment. And, membership fees are lower than that of a Life Time Fitness. But, I didn’t have the same wow factor as with Life Time… I just didn’t feel «connected.»

Pretty much what everyone else says, the front desk staff is borderline incompetent and very rude.
I joined not that long ago, my first experience with the front desk staff is that they are more concerned with playing on their smart phones then they are with answering questions or scanning you in.
I had a gentleman that stared at his phone the entire time I asked him questions on who to meet to sign up for a membership. From the looks of it, he was a personal trainer that wasn’t meeting with clients.
Gee, I can’t imagine why a guy like that doesn’t have more clients?
The facility is second rate. Smaller gyms have updated equipment.
No Arc Trainers. Old ellipticals. Old treadmills. Simply put, I signed up because it comes out to $ 20/​mo. after 10 months and I get nationwide use.
Other locations are nicer in terms of layout and staff.
The guys that sign you up for memberships are solid. I’ve just had way too many bad run-​ins with the front desk staff, and it ranges from men to women too. I feel like no one outside of the sales people get customer training here.

I can’t give this 5 stars because I get what I pay for and I don’t want to pay for things I won’t use (rock climbing walls etc) and as such this club doesnt have all the bells and whistles which is why it is a 4.
I moved from Chicago to Apple Valley MN. In Chicago you have the choice of those quick 24 hour gyms (snap), Golds Gym, Lifetime Fitness, LA Fitness and the best deal out there Xsport. I was a member of Xsport which is a 24 hour staffed gym that functions like LA. I paid 30 bucks a month and had all the amenities of a bigger gym.
LA Fitness in Apple Valley is basically Xsport with better locker rooms and not open ²⁴⁄₇. Because I pay 30 a month here, I expect to bring my own lock to a gym and towel. The place is clean and sanitizing your machines is mostly on you (lets face it, there are a lot of people going in and out of any gym and not sanitizing something before you use it is really on you. Some people dont mind and some are germaphobes.) Like all facilities, it can get busy during the New Years resolution time. This can make parking suck but hey in 2 months most people will stop going and the dedicated will remain and get the parking back.
I looked at Lifetime and for the childcare and access to every facility for my wife and I it would be 129.99 a month without taxes (gold package pricing). But wait, Lifetime also tried to say that in order to use the childcare portion of their bigger facilities, my kid would need to be included on the membership for a small fee which brought the monthly total to 149.99 not including tax or initiation fees. They said that bc we use a participating insurance company then if my wife and I (separately) log in at least 12 times a month then our cost will go down 20 bucks a person. Still at the 100 mark a month. There is no negotiating the price either.
In summary, LA Fitness gets the job done for a fraction of the price and if I ever want to cancel I go in between 9 – 6 at the branch and can do it there (unlike other gyms which make you mail in your cancelation notice). The gym is clean and has a ton of room and machines. Avoid high traffic hours and you will not have a problem doing anything. In the end it is a gym. Get in, do work, clean up, and get out. Anything outside of that is just socialization and if you want to pay more for it then feel free. Ill take this over the gym I had in Afghanistan any day. Hooah!

This review is mostly for swimmers.
There is nothing wrong with the water in the pool. Just the right temperature — in fact if not a little warm. So I wouldn’t pay too much attn to a couple earlier reviews.
There are four lanes. I came here as a guest on a holiday Sunday. Lanes were fairly open. Water felt good — not too much chlorine or anything.
Now, where the pool falls down is: first, there aren’t any lane finish flags — so if you want to swim backstroke you are pretty much guessing the first ten laps and couple bruises on your forearms. Second, the pool doesn’t have kickboards and pull buoys. That is surprising to me. The Burnsville Y has all of that, and the challenge there is lane availability due kids activities (also four swim lanes).
Then small things you would expect from a medium-​end fitness place are missing: towels are not available; the person at the front desk couldn’t care less that I was a customer (Was checking his phone, and in between texts with his girlfriend struggled to process my credit card payment and missed an incoming call); doesn’t have a sports drink vending machine (?! Missed opportunity!)
Other than that, open space. Decent place. I paid 15 green for a guest pass. I would have been more satisfied if I paid 10.

My review is for the pool since lap swimming is all I do here. I will say that the weightroom is sweet; if I were still a weightlifter I would have no problem with finding an available bench or machine. But onto the pool…
The pool is 25 meters, 4 lanes. One of the lanes is a therapeutic lane though the people who you’d think would be in that lane can be found in any of the 4, and sometimes getting them to share with you, the lap swimmer, will get you «elderly scorn». Often it is physically impossible to share because of people with large bodies who basically jog in place, (not that there is anything wrong with that) but it doesnt seem right when 2 or 3 of the lanes get taken up by joggers/​noodle-​pushers who cant or wont share with you.
So try asking the people running the show if there could be dedicated lap *swim* times, or perhaps a sign that says «all jogging-​in-​place members please take a spot in the therapeutic lane». This seems easy enough, but the management of this place is bizarrely incapable of much. I spoke with someone about how to make better arrangements for the lap swimmers and the therapeutic exercisers and all I got was a deer-​in-​headlights stare and some gutteral grunts. Don’t expect anything more from the revolving door of Love Pink attired scowlers who «work» the front desk. The turnover at that position is astounding! Ask them if the two horsing around 12 year olds taking up 2 lap swim lanes is o.k. and you get the «LA Fitness Vacuous Face». No worries, she will be gone in 5 days only to be replaced by a near-​clone.
Great gym, decently clean hot tub, nice cool locker rooms, hit-​or-​miss lap swim pool, strangely unhelpful employees, this sums up LA Fitness, Apple Valley, MN.

My car was broken into and this place is filled with curry.

Rude and unprofessional staff. One of the personal trainers follows around any girl who flirts with him throughout the facility, not to mention an angry young woman who throws your key at you after she scans your card. It’s beyond me why they don’t put the scanner on the desk so patrons can scan themselves in, instead of paying these counterproductive employees from irritating clients. Poorly maintained facility. Hard water stain and mold all over the showers. I will not step into the showers unless I absolutely have to.
I would not recommend this facility. The one in Burnsville is a tad bit better.