24 Hour Fitness

I don’t need much from a gym, and therefore, my expectations aren’t that high. But this location was a dump. And it IS. now closed. The pool sucked and wasn’t that big, not as big as the downtown location. Overall, it was dirty and old. The showers sucked and didn’t have soap most of the times. Some were just busted. And you know how important it is to soap it up with other sweaty men after a work out. LOL, joking aside, perhaps I should have taken a shit on the floor for good measure before they closed it.

This is the 24hr Fitness gym of last resort for me. It’s dingy and worn down. Equipment is dated. Most of what I needed to use was working. The only pluses are that it has racquetball courts, a basketball court and swimming pool. Other than that, if you’re looking to workout and not specifically seeking the courts or the pool, keep driving north to the Ballinger location or turn around and go to the gym on Yale Ave.

It’s a joke that 24 Hour Fitness considers this dump a «Sport» level gym, and charges accordingly. Sure they have a pool, racquetball courts, and a basketball court, but the bulk of what limited equipment they have is outdated and poorly maintained. Add to that the near catatonic desk help and the discarded pens, water bottles and other trash they allow to accumulate for weeks, and you have a good model of how NOT to run a gym.
I will say that this gym is an anomaly compared to other 24 Hour Fitness locations I’ve visited. It’s as if they either forgot about this one (check out the vintage 80s paint scheme), or simply don’t care about it. I had one year left on a pre-​paid three year membership when I moved to the Green Lake area last year, so I was pretty much stuck going to this hole until moving recently.
They do have a newer series of circuit workout machines (if you’re into that), but the octogenarians (who dominate the clientele) are usually napping on them.

In the early 90’s, this place was nice and new. Now it is weathered, weary, and dated looking. I’m used to the newly renovated and gorgeous gym in the Pearl District of Portland (yuppie central), so coming here was really a shock to the system. It’s tiny, cramped, and dingy. They have equipment in the hallways. Their cardio machines are seriously lacking. With less than 20 treadmills and elliptical trainers, there’s always a wait for a machine. Even at 830pm. I’m gonna have to try the downtown or Ballinger location instead of this hell hole. At least the locker rooms were clean.

Eh… they try.
I got all excited last week because I noticed they had recently added a hand-​cycle. Yes! Superior biceps would be just weeks away, I thought.
But about 3 minutes in to my workout, I began developing a kink in my neck. It was only that I realized the display of the machine had fallen off, and was dangling by a wire, tilted at a 45 degree angle.
Figures. The only «new» equipment this place gets is the stuff that’s busted.

Super skanky fer sure.
The pool is pretty small and you generally have to «fight» for space to swim. On several occasions I’ve had folks almost plow into me because they wanted my space! How rude.
Several times the steam room and sauna weren’t working.
But, really, the biggest ick is the cleanliness or rather lack thereof. The floors in the locker room are so disgusting! I don’t think they ever mop and they certainly don’t sweep enough. And the shower stalls are often clogged with hair. Double ick.