The Works

The Works used to be a fun place to work out and play. In the last few years it has become about rules. Everywhere you look there is a rule posted to remind you not to do x, y or z. It seems silly but when the «no diving» rule was added that was the last straw… sigh.

I went to the Works as a kid and now go here over college holiday break, as this is the only time I live in the area. I mostly train for rowing so I use the only erg (rowing machine) that they have. This and a sauna is all that I really need, so for that reason, I’m pretty satisfied. The sauna in the men’s locker room is a little out of date, and could use better temperature control, but overall it’s fine.
The works is clean and the staff is friendly. Membership is also quite reasonable. For example, as a college student it was only $ 30/​month for me. While I usually go for the specific reason of rowing training, there are many many great features I don’t utilize. There are lots of group fitness class, swimming pools, a small water park for children, squash courts, and more. I definitely recommend the Works.

The Works is an amazing place — yoga, retro aerobics, free weights, an indoor track, swimming, a sauna … yes, I could go on and on. There is so much available for such a reasonable membership fee. I just love The Works!

Good place with decent amount of different activities. It does get crowded at times, so if you can only attend during peak hours you may not have such a great time. Good news is they’re open pretty early plus later in the evening on weekdays/​ends is not too bad.

I love this gym, I’m not sure who the other reviewers have been talking to, but I personally find the staff to be super friendly, the people at the front desk know my name and even take time to get to know me and my interests.
The facilities are clean, and very well maintained, I find them to be far nicer and cleaner than any other gyms that I have been to (I travel a lot so I’ve been to quite a few) There is a nice variety of serious fitness enthusiasts and regular people, giving the gym a genuine vibe.
I love yoga and find their yoga classes to be way more than just «gym yoga» and the other classes that I have taken are also high quality and motivating.
The Works isn’t cheap, but it offers drastically more than any of the purple and yellow gyms do. When you think about it the monthly fee is less than most people would spend for dinner and drinks for two at a halfway descent restaurant… Give me the gym over expensive food any day!

I have been a member here in and off for 4 years. The trouble is … It really is pretty expensive for what you DON’T get. It’s not really clean (compared to other gyms I’ve been in). There is no laundry available (which is bizarre since there is a pool). The front desk staff are TOTALLY not friendly (I try not to care that much but it kinda sucks). When I re signed up recently… part of the deal was a few free sessions with a trainer. Never heard from a soul. As a matter of fact… another time I signed up this little extra wasn’t followed through on as well. I think that there needs to be waaaaaayyyy more fans in the middle part of the upstairs. Where the Machines are. It’s grossly sweaty and damp and still in there. No ventilation or circulation anywhere in the whole place. Kinda icky. In 4 years I’ve never had a staff member even say hello to me. I see kids that are clearly under age working out or swimming. It’s disconcerting. They don’t use the equipment properly and someone needs to keep an eye on the pool. I dunno. I guess the whole concept of this place needs a revamping. It’s kind of a hot mess. What it does have going for it is the classes. And the variety of workouts available. Although. I’ve been working out for over 20 years. I see people in every workout area doing things totally wrong. Undoubtedly people get injured here on a regular basis. I guess there is a general lack of care by the staff that is noticeable to me. It’s too bad. It has the bones it needs to be great. I am thinking about heading back to Planet Fitness. For the money a much better option. I want to love the works. But it needs help. :/​
Update. On a whim I called to get
Membership details as it’s been a few years. 128 $ per month for two adults and two students. WHAT??? Total insanity. PLUS a 250 $ «sign up fee». Absurd.

My BF and I are staying at the local Homewood Suites for the next 4 – 6 months, when we found out that we would be able to get passes to the gym we wanted to check it out. For the past three months we had been going to the Greenleaf Seacoast Sportsclub where we played racquetball 4 to 7 times a week, for 90 min each session. So when we checked into the Homewood we grabbed passes and just wanted to check out their courts. Hearing from people this is a premier place, I was excited. Walked in, explained to the two people up front we wanted to just look around, explaining we had passes from our hotel. We were immediately passed to «membership.» The lady was happy to give us a tour showing us the only three shabby looking racquetball courts and proceed to ask us not once, not twice not three, but FOUR times «so you wont be paying.» Each time the conversation grew more awkward. It went from here’s what you can do, to here what you can’t do. Now I’m not sure if her position was built on commission and I do understand that she could’ve felt we were wasting her time BUT we didnt hide the fact we had passes. My overall impression of this place was they do offer a lot but for the prices she was telling us, things shouldn’t look like they were so rundown. We asked about the availability of the courts and we were told we pretty much would not be able to play since we were non-​members and could not reserve, we could only «wait to see.»
A few days later we came to play, more or less to see if we could even get in a court. We walk in. All courts available. The kid up front ask if we have a time reserved. Um wait, were holding passes and not members and now you ask if we have a reserved time?! I almost flipped and popped out kittens. He looks and see there no one on the schedule and we are permitted to enter a court. The weird, creepy part the rooms are viewable which made it hard to concentrate when I’m watching and being watched by Grandma Moses eating her egg salad sandwich, or kids pressing their snotty noses to glass. The floors were in desperate need of stripping of all that wax, and the walls looked like they had seen better days. five years ago. Knowing there had been no one scheduled, I stated to see a few people lining up to play. (I guess if they weren’t more interested in that water park out back they would’ve thrown in a few more courts). I found this extremely irritating. I guess I’m just a bit self conscience since I’m a new player but damn! After 30 minutes of a bit of a loose game I wanted to haul ass out of there. All in all I guess you get what you pay for. I’m glad we get in for free. I would never pay the fee for that dump.

I just today canceled my membership after several years belonging to The Works. This is a hard review for me to write because I think it’s a very nice, clean gym but I have to nock down some stars due to the price, way, way, way too expensive. I guess if you use the pools and hit lots of classes you can somehow justify paying almost $ 60/​month. Try not to be upset about the 15 year old, paying way less, that is fooling around on the bike you want. Just ignore the fact that everyone who works at any area hospital is paying much less than you. Be a sport and smile when you are kicked out of the downstairs cardio room because it’s time for «Young At Heart», you know those elderly paying much, much less than you, to exercise.

My wife and I were members for a year before we had our kids. The facilities are great. In fact they just expanded and added 2 new pools and a ton of new features.
Our biggest fault is with the pricing and the service/​attitude of the people who register you. The place is very expensive and they seem to nickel and dime you for everything on top of that (especially if you have kids). They offer a daycare that they charge you for and they even on top of it require you to pay monthly dues for infants. Apparently the tiny space they take up in the pool with you holding them is worth $ 10 a month (given that you can’t really do anything else there with a 3 month old).
The administrative people we have talked to have been outright rude on 2 occasions that we were potentially going to get family memberships. On both occasions we walked out without getting one.
If they weren’t the only game in town with a daycare and a pool we wouldn’t even consider going back.
They even say on their website: «Where else can you bring your family for less than $ 4.00 per day that offers a lap pool, outdoor and indoor aquatic centers…»
What they don’t say is by «family» they mean you and your spouse provided you don’t try to do any extra classes (more than half of which requires an additional fee).