Life Time Athletic and Life Spa

Received a deep tissue massage from Melissa that was absolutely outstanding. Had been looking for a quality masseuse for quite some time and could not have been happier with the job she did. Felt like a new person when finished. Would highly, highly recommend! Top-​notch!

I love this gym. It’s beautiful. The equipment is top quality. The shampoos, conditioners, soaps, shaving cream, razors, etc are great. The staff is all so nice and helpful. I love this place.

Pros:
Amazing staff, incredible childcare, very clean and spa like! Lots of nice touches like towels, toiletries and blow dryers at the ready, orange peel water next to the spa and steam room in the locker room, Relaxing, and excellent equipment. The café is reasonably priced and delicious.
Cons:
It’s a little more quiet than I prefer and has far less amenities than less expensive lifetime clubs in other cities, and no windows — just one large room. If you have busy days and are looking for a quieter more subdued gym this may be a pro not a con for you! :) I just prefer more action

I LOVE this facility! It’s the cleanest gym I’ve ever been to and the staff are always friendly. My weekdays start with a great workout, followed by the sauna, steam room, and shower. Every day feels like a spa day and I come to work feeling fantastic.

We love to work out almost every day and a lot of my planning and scheduling revolves around fitting in my workouts and juggling work, life, and being a parent. Life Time is top notch and offers a multitude of classes, children’s activities and camps, a café, a locker room that plopped in from a 5 star hotel, a café’, new equipment, 4 group fitness rooms (well 5 if you include the Kids Academy — yes the Kids can take classes and get fit just like I like to do!), trainers, dieticians, salon, massages, and the people are fantastic! — helpful, knowledgeable, professional, happy — why wouldn’t they be, they work at a great place! Once we met Yvonne and took the tour, we never looked back. Totally worth it, no regrets and no contract. Highly recommend!

This gym is unlike any other in Tampa. I have a membership to LA Fitness (old LifeStyles) and hands down this is the best gym. I have been going for 18 months and have dropped my bodyfat from 29.9% to 13.8%. From Pilates, to yoga, to personal training, I have enjoyed every bit of my time there. Yes it is not your normal Tampa gym, but the service, the staff and all the amenities are fantastic when compared to the other gyms I have been to in Tampa. I have made it my daily destination for myself and it has paid off greatly. I love working out there as the bathrooms are clean, the gym doesn’t smell and the equipment is taken care of in spades compared to the other two gyms I visit in town. I will admit, this gym is not for everyone, but it is amazing for me.

I have been going here for a little over a year, and I still don’t understand why they built a health club attached to a shopping mall, very inconvenient and takes a long time to travel to.
The atmosphere is very slow, quiet and boring. There are no windows throughout the whole building, nothing to look at.
Half of the ellipticals, television screens don’t even work or turn on. They still operate using an iPhone 4 (2010) cord, which is very out of date and becomes pointless to use. The Wi-​Fi signal strength does not have the power to support Spotify, SoundCloud or Apple Music, continuous buffering.
I’ve been to the clubs in Arizona, Vernon Hills/​Old Orchard, Illinois and Boca Raton, FL. The Tampa club has to be hands-​down my least favorite.
Pros: great food, clean facility and machines, friendly front desk staff.

We belong to lifetime in another state and were visitingvisiting from Colorado to buy a potential second-​home in the area. First Jen The front desk person was so nice and very helpful. She speaks so highly of the club and all of the amenities that it offers. I also met Joe the general manager what a terrific guy. The club is much smaller than other lifetimes however very full service for those who want The next level and service. The bathrooms are fantastic and for the men fully stocked with shavers, shaving cream and lotions. You need absolutely no toiletries all provided. Great location next to the mall. Highly recommend.

If you are ever anywhere near this club or international plaza, Zoltan, the massage therapist at Life Time, is hands down (pun intended;) the best massage therapist ever.
Over the years I’ve tried many therapists but Zoltan beats them all by a mile and a half. Professional, courteous and best of all incredible deep tissue masseuse!
I’m pretty sure Zoltan can do almost any style massage but I have a ton of tension in my neck and shoulders so I appreciate the deep tissue & stretching Zoltan provided.
When the massage was over I was so relaxed I could barely move. Life Time is so smart/​lucky to have found Zoltan and he deserves a raise.

They locked me in a padded room with a ticking time bomb and said I had 10 minutes to join or KABOOM!
Okay, maybe it wasn’t quite that intense, although they did «make me an offer I couldn’t refuse.» Three big Italian guys stood over me in the membership office and let me know, under no uncertain terms, that the only acceptable answer I could give was «yes, I’ll sign up today.» Apparently, the last guy who said «he’d think about it» is on a really, really long vacation :/​
Okay, seriously folks, this gym is impressive and wasn’t anymore high pressure to join than what’d you expect. They show you around on your standard gym tour and tell you about 20 additional membership perks you’ll never use. It’s the same sales system every gym uses. However, I looked at some other gyms in the area and this one was much better than all the rest, including La Fitness Signature.
I like the setup of all the different work out areas, including how they’re spaced out. The last gym I was a member of was good but they bunched everything together to order to maximize every available inch of square footage, which I understand, but the result was that you’d bump into people during rush hour times. This gym seems to have a more «open air» feel. And honestly, after a week of coming here it’s never once been packed, even between 5−7pm.
There’s plenty of additional amenities, of which you’ll honestly use may ¹⁄₃ of them, that makes paying a higher than normal price worth it. They are:
— A large cardio area with many types of treadmills, stair climbers and elliptical machines. Most of them have an interactive screen where you can watch television or plug in your iPhone to listen to music. Some of them also have an feature where the screen simulates you running outdoors, like in the Merced Mountains.
–A free weight, weight machine and functional training area with stability balls, jump ropes and kettle bells
–Fully stocked café in the front
–Group classes including a dedicated Yoga and Pilates studio
–Huge daycare
–Heath and beauty spa that looks like you stepped into Macy’s
–Unlimited shower and workout towels
–Dry sauna
–Jacuzzi in the locker rooms with stand nearby that has flavored water
–Lockers w/​built in locks
–Locker room sink area comes with deodorant, mouth wash, toothbrushes, shaving cream, lotion, Q-​tips and anything else one normally has in their private bathroom
–Business Center (I’m not sure the overall purpose of this room because they’re no computers)
Plenty of parking and some another member told me they never bother to lock their lockers because nothing has ever been stolen here, as far as he knows. Security is tight and no non-​members are allowed in so theft isn’t likely to be a problem. This isn’t be the best gym I’ve ever been to (Renaissance in Orange County still gets #1) but I believe it’s the best Tampa has to offer and definitely cracks the top five. Worth the price… um, I’d say yes.
Note: Not a hot button for me whatsoever but there’s no pool. Some other Unilocalers took some points off for that. It seems like that is a turn-​off for some people so I thought I’d mention it for people who like to swim.
Cost:
Activation: $ 129
Monthly: $ 148 w/​tax
Terms: Month to month
When you sign up you get 125 LT bucks that you can use for various paid services like a one-​on-​one personal training session, body fat composition test, personal Pilates instruction and so forth. If you stay a member for three months then you get another 100 LT bucks. They have six apps you can download (nice but overdone) and one of them keeps track of your LT bucks. You can also gain additional LT bucks by shopping at specific places and referring others.
Overall, I recommend you taking a look at it. I’ve learned, by experience, that you really get what you pay for when it comes to gyms. They are not all created equal and little things that you don’t have to worry about, like not having to remember a towel, make it easier to drag yourself in after finishing work. I’d rather pay more for a gym that I like than pay less for one I hate going to.

They over promised, undelivered and overcharged! At $ 150 down and $ 150 a month the staff should treat you with a little respect. After an incident with Jennifer Schmidt, a very rude personal trainer, we wanted to cancel our two overpriced memberships. For whatever reasons their Pilates equipment was put in the general work out area. This made it appear that anyone was welcome to use it. Several people that morning were doing just that. I took two years of Pilates and I know how to use it. I used the horse to stretch my back and no one said a thing. When my Latino workout partner got on the reformer Jennifer came running over and rudely stated this can not be used by anyone without a personal trainer. She was extremely nasty which made us both very uncomfortable and upset. When I started to tell Jennifer that you should put up a sign she rudely stated that if I «shut my mouth» she could explain why it was there. I was shocked that someone in their employ would speak to any member this way and with such a condescending attitude. This equipment has been there for days and we have seen others using it. She was so rude to the both of us that we had to stop working out and leave the gym. I don’t tolerate anyone speaking to me or my friends in this manner. If she worked for me she would no longer have a job.
They have a «month to month» membership policy that at first though was great until we tried to cancel it. We contacted the manager Joe Liotine and requested that he cancel the memberships. After 5 days and 6 emails and he still refused cancel unless we had a meeting with him. After reading other online reviews showing 226 unresolved complaints I knew they would use high pressure tactics to try and not cancel the memberships. Today we followed their policy and went to the facility with a written letter of cancellation for them to sign. It was either that or to send a certified letter. They refused to accept or sign the letter of cancellation and said that they would do it electronically. We had to argue with them to send us an email with the cancellation as they refused to give us a printed copy for our records o sign an acknowledgment that we were cancelling. Buyers beware! They can’t afford to lose any more members and fight with you to avoid canceling your membership. I highly doubt this gym will be open another few months. BTW Personal training sessions are $ 100 and I have seen zero results from anyone using these services. Some of the customers actually seemed to look worse after being there 6 – 8 weeks.

Great place to workout. Very clean, the staff is friendly and group fitness classes are fantastic!

PROS
clean
nice spa facility
great children’s academy
love the café
Cool, refreshing water refill station offering filtered water directly to your personal bottle
CONS
–The constant advertising over the speaker in between songs. Can I pay extra to avoid listening to this annoyinng fluff? Oh wait I already do!
–Steam room could be hotter
–no pool which means no aqua fun for the kiddos at summer camp.
-$ 100 for a mani pedi you can get anywhere else for $ 70 + glass of wine!
— There seems to be a secret competition going on. While us women members dress in activewear, we are greeted by women staff who are strutting in stilettos and tight dresses parading around as if it were the most popular casino in Las Vegas. The men who work here are in respectable suits or Lifetime attire. I find that peculiar.
At some points during the day, most of the people you see on the work out floor are actually employees of the facility. At one point in time I was chatting with a girl in the locker room and another girl came up and asked her if I was her friend. The girl responded «No, she just works-​out here». Turns out they are employees of Lifetime. lol. really? … Here’s my message to you catty little girls, «You just work there, so get outta my way.» ahaha :)
Suggestions to the Manager
–A. shelf in the restroom stalls would be great to rest phones, headphones, i-​pads, waters, etc… instead of the floor or the counter in the main area where our stuff is there for anyone to snatch up free of charge.

Great fitness club. Immaculately clean, very friendly people, and helpful personnel.
I was in town for a few days and used this club thinking it was a normal lifetime, which is a good thing to begin with. This Diamond level club blew me away! The small things they do to make you feel special from fruit water in the locker room, the essential oils in the steamroom, or the private his/​her hot tub really make a difference.
The spa is also top notch, from the massages to the hydra facials, lifetime Tampa makes normal people feel like rockstars!
Hoping that I will be a member here one day.

So I really wish we were able to give half-​stars because I’m teetering between 4 and 5 on this one, but to give this gym the justice it deserves, I’m going to go with 5 and then describe why I would give it a halfie deduction.
Having recently moved to the Tampa Bay area I toured the «Signature» gym of a competitor, since LAF was the best gym I could get in Jacksonville. While I was told the gym was relatively new, it was dirty with napkins and water bottles everywhere and it appeared to have water damage on the ceiling. The parking situation was abysmal, even in a compact car.
Like I do with any city I move to (or have to travel to for work), I was hoping against hope and checked if there was a Life Time anywhere in the area. Be-​still my beating heart, there was one a quick drive from work. I immediately called and scheduled a tour. While chatting, it turns out the young lady I was speaking to had just transferred from my home store in Mansfield and some of the staff were from other stores in the North Texas area.
The second I walked in on my tour, I felt «at home.» The look, the feel, the smell, actually made me a bit home sick. I feel as if I rushed the tour agent, he was half way talking through amenities when I was handing over my credit card to reinstate my membership. Here’s a short synopsis of what you can expect:
Men: want to say you’re at the gym but you’re actually eating here? check
Ladies: want to say you’re at the gym but you’re actually getting a facial? check
Want to choose between a whirpool, wet sauna or dry sauna? check
Gym is always meticulously clean and fully stocked? check
No need to bring to a lock because your card locks your locker? check
No need to bring a wallet because your card is your «tab?» check
Brand spanking new equipment? Some of which I’ve never seen before? check
Get health profiles stored online or metabolic assessments to have your ideal heart rates for cardiac conditioning or weight loss? check
Your heart rate monitor strap syncs up to the monitor in the spin class? check
Awesome group fitness instructors? check
Cool events like Van Gogh and Vino (drink and attempt to paint stick figures)? check
Once membership hits a certain level it gets capped to avoid a puppy mill feel? check
You get the picture. I love this place. On my second visit the gentleman who greets you already knew me by my first name.
Caveat: why I would withdraw half a star — this is a «boutique» gym, and since it’s Life Time’s Diamond level you’re gonna have to shell a bit more coin than other echelons in the Life Time family. And due to the fact that it’s attached to the mall (no mall entrance, please only come to work out not to cut across to Nordstrom’s, because you can’t), it’s size is limited and doesn’t offer some amenities of other locations (i.e. my home store was the size of a football field and had a kiddie pool and rock climbing).

Trainers are not friendly. But the front of the house people are always smiling and greeting you!

Taking the gym spa experience to the next level. Great for families with young kids. Tailored personal training

It has been almost two months since Life Time Athletic has opened its doors and I could not be happier with our decision to join! Since the grand opening I have enjoyed taking amazing classes, pushing my limits during personal training sessions, eating healthy and convenient meals at the LifeCafe and relaxing in the Jacuzzi, sauna and steam room at the LifeSpa.
Life Time Athletic has five studios (Yoga, Cycle, two Group Fitness studios, and a Pilates Reformer studio) so as many as five classes can be taught simultaneously. So far I have taken Hot Vinyasa Yoga with Stephen, Studio Cycle with Lauren and Michelle, and Pilates with Kristi and Heather. All of these classes and instructors have been amazing! You’ll notice the little details in class such as the calming lavender oil in yoga and the heart rate monitors in spin class.
I have also taken several personal training sessions. My upper body and core sessions with Jen were some of the most intense workouts. Who knew you could get so sore after a thirty minute workout!!! Heather completely kicked my butt in our Pilates Reformer private session! She had me isolating muscles that I didn’t know I even had!
The cardio floor and weight floor are both smaller than at my last gym, but the people to machine ratio is great so I will never have to wait for equipment at Life Time even as the club reaches full member capacity. All of the cardio and weight equipment is the latest and greatest and includes modern technology such as built-​in televisions and iPod connections. Some of the equipment is so modern I was completely unfamiliar with the equipment such as the lateral elliptical machine, surfboard machine, and seated rope climb.
Some may think the monthly dues at Life Time are expensive, but I am actually saving money! I usually pay $ 9 per spin class, $ 13-​$ 15 per yoga class and $ 20-​$ 35 per barre class. Not only do I get access to an unlimited access to these premium classes at Life Time, but I also have access to cardio and weight machines and spa amenities. At the private studios I only got the classes.
I could gush more about Life Time Athletic, but I don’t want to bore you with all the details of this luxurious fitness oasis so check it out for yourself!

I canceled my membership. I’d rather pay $ 50 per month for a signature LA Fitness membership and deal with the crowds and parking. At least they have a pool and way more equipment. Get it together, Lifetime. We used to be good buddies, but you lost me.

My visit was more of a tour than a tryout of any of the spa services, fitness facilities or group exercise classes but it was impressive enough to make me want to go back for any or all of those experiences.
The entrance faces the parking lot which makes it easy and convenient to park and arrive without having to trudge through International Plaza in your workout gear of before your spa transformation.
The interior is much more polished than typical workout places and exudes a really high-​end feel. The yoga room featured subdued lighting, a clean scent of eucalyptus and was pleasantly warm. I could easily imagine slipping into a relaxed state instantly upon entering and really immersing myself into the poses.
Immersion is the word that kept coming to mind as I walked through the spa area that offers treatments and touch-​ups for skin, nails and hair. The facial and massage rooms offered a relaxing, peaceful retreat from the bright lights, sights and sounds of the rest of the facility. If no one is getting rubbed or scrubbed, I could be tempted to slip into one of the rooms for a nap. They were that inviting!
Indoor cycling is a passion of mine and the cycling room was luxuriously large and the bikes looked like they could provide a top-​of-​the-​line ride. As a former pilates student, I checked out the room full of reformers with envy.
The café is quite inviting and the menu of breakfast foods, shakes and smoothies, salads, sandwiches, wraps, pizzas and was really appetizing. There is even a LifeCafe D. Tox menu to help get your body back on a more healthful and nutritional track.
The LifeSpa and LifeCafe are both open to the public and not limited only to members. So even if fitness is not an interest or you already have a favorite spot to enjoy exercise, you can still enjoy this resort-​like experience and treat yourself to a treatment or something good to eat.