Gold’s Gym

My life circumstances made it so that I could not work out at this gym any longer but this franchise made it impossible to get out of the contract. So I am stuck paying $ 30/​month for the next year (2 yr contract) and can’t even use the amenities. Until now I had been a loyal golds gym member for 8 years at various locations. This Arboretum franchise is the worst. As a result I will not be renewing here or any other golds franchise ever again. Much better experiences at American Family Fitness and ACAC. Oh and even though they rob you blind they do not reinvest in decent equipment. All of the equipment (especially in the West End location) is extremely old. Worst gym ever.

Great gym with lots of equipment and class offerings. Open 24 hours during the week and with limited hours during the weekend. Tends to get over crowded during the afternoon hours (3 – 8 pm). Over all a decent place to work out and meet new people.

UPDATE 9÷22÷2015: The men’s locker room now has tile instead of carpet. Smell gone! Staff is very nice.
OMG! The men’s locker room smells like something died in there! I am not kidding or exaggerating! I mentioned it to the staff, but they don’t seem to be in any hurry to do anything about it. I don’t know if it’s the carpet or something dead in the ceiling, but it has been smelling like that since I joined a month ago. Besides that, it’s an OK gym. I came from a much cleaner gym in another city.

I have to admit I had a problem recently. I came in and checked in at the front desk to tan like always… Signed in the book, told the front desk guy 15 min in the stand up, he set the time and I went to tan. I noticed it seemed like I had been in there a while so I opened my eyes to look at the time and saw that the time had been reset and was counting down from 20mins! I stopped it and got out. When I was walking past the front desk one of the employees asked if I came out of the tanning bed and I said yes. He asked how I got in there and I told him the man at the front desk set me up. I have to admit it seemed for a second he was accusing me of doing it myself. I should also say that when the man set up the tanning bed there were about five people standing at the front desk including the woman who is usually working there and the man that asked me if I had just come out.
I told him while I was in there it was reset and he said they didn’t think anyone was in there so the woman went to open the door and said it was locked from the inside, that in fact someone was in there. I’m just a little confused by the whole situation. I signed the book, the timer was counting down, and the door was locked… All signs point to someone is tanning so why was the timer reset? I said I only wanted 15 mins and I had no idea how long I was in there. The man told me he thought about 30 mins and he noticed my skin was «hot».
It just seems the whole situation was handled very unprofessionally and potentially dangerous. I told my husband and he left a message for the manager but never received a call back as far as I know.
I still love the gym and hate this unfortunate event occurred. I just hope they handle it so nothing like this happens in the future.

We love the Yoga classes here with Joy and Judy. I have fallen in love with yoga even though it’s difficult. Our son goes to the Kids Club and if we can’t take him he gets upset. He knows a few of the ladies who take care of the kids by name. And all of the caregivers are so sweet and loving to our son. The staff of the rest of the gym are not as warm. And that’s being polite. They make you feel like you’re an outsider unless you’re a dude who works out there all day. The gym could be cleaner too.

It’s my home town gym of choice. I chose this gym over the others in the area. You can find me here 4 or 5 times a week when I am not on the road. I like pretty much everything about this gym. I trust the girls to take care of the kids while I get my cardio on and the place is relatively empty during the hours I go in the morning. While I like this place and have chosen it over all the other gyms in the area I swear is has a funny smell, my parter tells me I am crazy, but I swear it has a smell that is un-​describably weird.

I was a member of this gym for 2 years. Please read the repeated reviews about how painful it is to cancel your membership — for everyone that bothers to write a review, many, many more have had a similarly bad experience that have not written a review. I lost the credit card I had used for 2 years for automatic payments. The timing of the lost card coincided with my monthly dues debit from Gold’s AND the annual dues debit. The credit card company closed the account of the lost card and sent me a new card with a new number, which I immediately reported to Gold’s. However, Gold’s claims they were not able to stop the automatic debits to the old number in time and the charges to the old number were rejected by the credit card company because the lost card account was closed. Gold’s then charged the monthly dues and annual dues correctly to the correct new account and additionally charged the new account $ 39 for the rejected monthly dues AND $ 39 for the rejected annual dues, for a total of $ 78 in rejected credit card fees. (Note: All of my bills are charged as automatic payments to the lost credit card, and two other companies had their monthly automatic payment similarly rejected. BOTH of those companies got the correct credit card number from me and put the charges back through to the correct new number. Neither one of them charged me a penny for the rejected attempt. Gold’s not only charged me, THEY GOUGED ME!!!) Gold’s charged me this after 2 years of being an outstanding customer and refused to even reimburse me for just one of the two $ 39 fees! Gold’s desk staff claims «it is the billing department» and there is nothing they can do. I left several messages for Mike Krongaard but he didn’t return my calls. I already suspected he would not because I had spoken to him in person a few weeks prior regarding a nationally advertised Gold’s competition that Gold’s Midlothian was completely unprepared to accommodate locally as nationally advertised. Mike Krongaard told me he would get a process in place and get back to me, and he did neither, so I already knew customer satisfaction or follow-​thru was not his priority. When I cancelled my membership over this I not only was not refunded for the full month of paid dues following my cancellation date, but they continued to charge my credit card for 2 full months after that claiming that it took that long to cancel automatic payments. This type of credit card billing abuse is unseen in reputable companies today and has even become rare for well-​known abusers such as credit-​report monitoring services. But as you can see in the reviews, this type of service and cancellation over-​charge abuse is standard operating procedure for how Gold’s treats customers, claiming it is all in the fine print you agree to when you sign up. For those of you similarly overcharged I recommend you report Gold’s Midlothian billing practices to the Better Business Bureau. For those who are thinking about joining, there are a lot of great, reputable gyms in the Richmond area where management really does care about their customers and treats them professionally and fairly in their billing practices — Buyer beware!

Initially, I had a decent experience with Gold’s Gym… that is until I cancelled my contract. This place is a rip off and deals with shady billing companies (Taft Services). I cancelled twice and was still billed again. When I called to speak with someone, Wendy was rude and acted as if it wasn’t her problem. Awful service. Go to American Family instead!

Great place to workout for an overweight person like myself. A big mix of people, not just races but body types as well. Not full of swollen muscled people making you feel bad for your swollen gut.
Amenities include– private ladies workout room, a cardio/​cinema room, sauna, pool (I was told it’s not regu), hot tub, racquetball room, basketball room, and of course cardio and free weights.

Golds Gym Arboretum has an excellent assortment of weights and cardio equipment, as well as a good mix of instructor led classes and other amenities (e.g., pool, hydromassage and tanning for example). I’ve used their personal trainers and they’ve definitely moved my workouts up to the next level. The gym itself is clean and well maintained, and the staff is friendly.
One of the advantages of Golds over other gyms is they do offer various membership plans. As someone who works out several times a week, I was able to put $ 300 down and pay only $ 20 per month, which is a steal compared to competing gyms. In addition, I can visit any other Golds gym up to 12 times per year, per gym when I travel.
If you’re serious about working out, and the location is convenient to you, this gym should definitely be on your short list.

I’ve been there for a coupe months but from what I seen so far I’m ok with the gym. I like to use their private workout area for ladies while I zone out from the buff people looking to get more buffed. Im glad they have a family time pool my daughter likes to beg me to go which therefore pushes me to go to the gym. The facility looks clean I see people walking around cleaning around people. The only thing I would like to change is the classes I wish they had more yoga/​pilates classes during the evening after work, but I do see they cater that time more to the zumba class which is large. pretty nice gym though.

I have been a member of t Gold’s Gym of Southside since 2007. Back when I first joined, the facility was located near Chesterfield Towne Center right beside Laser Quest. While the gym was somewhat small, it had everything that a gym rat would need. The move over to the Aboretum location had its pros and cons. Here is my review.
The Good:
Bigger and Better– The old Golds Gym had three main areas: cardio, free weights and weight machines. This Gold’s Gym has a racket court, basketball court, swimming pool, cycling room, exercise cinema, cardio area, instructional class area, free weight area and weight machine area that are broken down by which section of the body you would want to work on.
Price of Membership– Price is relatively inexpensive, far less than $ 50 that some places charge. And my membership did not come with a contract. I pay monthly.
Pimped Out Gym– In addition to being a bigger facility, there is pretty much a flat screen TV everywhere int he gym, even in the locker rooms.
The Bad:
Rush Hour Traffic– This type of traffic is pertaining to the traffic of people within the gym. During the early mornings and evenings, the gym will be a madhouse. Going to the free weight area and/​or getting on your favorite cardio machine can be hectic during these times of the day.
Lacking Free Weight Area– If you go to this area, you will likely see a lack of flat benches and weights near those stations. Dumbells are sometimes out of order and/​or missing from the rack because members forget to put them back. This is an area that staff can greatly improve upon.
This is a Gym, Not a club!- Guys, I say this with complete honesty… DO NOT TRY TO HIT ON THE WOMEN AT THIS GYM. Majority of the women who look somewhat decent are either married, have a bunch of kids or will gladly reject any attempt by you to talk to them. These women usually only talk to the personal trainers or other women in the gym. If you still want to try to talk to a woman at this gym, just know you have been warned.
Overall– Nice gym, reasonable membership but has a few shortcomings. I would recommend this gym to anyone looking to get fit. FOUR STARS.

Joined Golds two years ago and it was the best decision that I could make. I was at AFF and I was paying an unreal price. You get basically the same services at Golds that you do at the other gyms for an affordable price. At the southside gym, there is a hot tub, which I like. The midlothian gym doesn’t have one. I also like the ladies only area. That’s a huge plus for me.

Gold’s Gym-​Arboretum located on Midlothian. This is one of the few Gold’s in the Richmond area with a full basketball court. There are nice racquetball courts as well. The workout area is spacious and modern. Gold’s Gym is never cramped, so you can workout comfortably. There’s a lot of workout equipment to do all of your exercises. Some of the cardio machines has TVs attached. The locker rooms are modern. This location also has a nice size pool. Gold Gym also has a special section just for ladies. I usually come to this location with friends just to play basketball. Sometimes, I will workout before playing basketball. The staff was nice when I visited to play basketball. Parking is right outside of the gym in the lot for Arboretum Shopping Center customers. Gold’s Gym-​Arboretum is a good choice for working out and playing basketball.

This Gold’s Gym is awesome. Their free classes including cycling, Body Pump, Body Sculpt, IIT, etc. make it well worth joining. Furthermore, you get 3 free training sessions upon joining, they have daycare for free, a sauna, spa, pool, and all the equipment you could possibly need. The staff is very friendly and they know a lot. I am very glad that we joined.

Joined Gold’s in August of 2010 in order to have a place to run during my Half Marathon training, out of our horrible Richmond humidity. I was a bit nervous at first, being that Gold’s had that sort of «beefcake» reputation in the past.
I was totally wrong about the whole «beefcake» thing! This gym is awesome. It caters to all shapes and sizes. I love to see people who are beginners as well as the seasoned athletes working out side by side.
There are plenty of cardio machines to go around even at the busy times. Many rows of free weights and weight machines. I really love the TVs built into some of the cardio equipment since it is a great distraction for pounding out treadmill miles.
I recently started taking Phil’s Spin class on Monday evenings. Never have I felt so included in a group so quickly, plus challenged and energized. This Spin class is absolutely amazing.
So I thank The Arboretum Gold’s not only for great well-​kept equipment, but for getting me into Spinning as well!