New Gym

Well I finally decided I had enough of Bally Total Fitness. I can't believe this but I've been a member there since December of 1990. Seventeen year. Pretty incredible.

The gym has just gone done hill over the last few years. I like going on the weekends. And I like getting there when the gym opens. They are supposed to open at 8am. Usually what happens is someone shows up a few minutes before 8 and let's people in. Then of course there are the times when someone shows up at say 8:10 or 8:20 or later. It can really through off your schedule. Now there is nothing that I probably couldn't rearrange but that's not the point. The place is supposed to open at 8.

Then there is the condition of the place when you walk in first thing. The free weight area looks like a bombs gone off in it. Weights are just about anywhere but on the racks. Or you find one 25 pound dumbbell and then take two to three minutes to find another one. The final straw for me was one time last fall when I went to take a shower. Again remember this is first thing in the morning. In each of the shower stall is a body wash/soap dispenser. The stall I choose the dispenser was empty as where the next two that I went to. On the fourth try I found one with soap. Now if it was 9pm instead of 9am I could understand why this happened. But there is just no excuse for that to happen first thing in the morning.

So the search was on for a new place. I decided on two places to look at: Results and Washington Sports Club. Results has opened a new facility which is right at the Farragut North metro stop. Washington Sports had a site a couple of blocks from Metro Center. Both are very close to work. Washington Sports is a little closer.

I went to Results first. I liked the guy who showed me around. He was very low key. Answered my questions and was very friendly. The facility at Farragut North is brand new. It opened in December. And boy is it cool. Towels are provided for you. Not only to take a shower with but also small towels to use while you work out. The showers have bottles of body wash, shampoo and conditioner. On the sinks are deodorant and hairspray. There are also hairdryers. They offer abs, spinning, yoga and aerobics classes. Since they just opened, there are not a whole lot of classes but they will be expanding that. One very cool thing that they've done is record some of the spinning and ab classes. You can then replay them at some other time and take the class.

At the end of the tour I was given a week free pass to try out the club. The only problem I have is I think the lockers are a little small.

Washington Sports had a very nice facility. In fact it was large than the Results site at Farragut North (Results has other sites that I'd have access to but I would only go to the other ones on the weekend). They had a very hard sell. There was a "special" initiation fee for the day that I came in of $20.08. They said I could join and I'd have a 15 day money back guarantee. I thought why not just give me a free week pass like Results. It would be less expensive then Results.

But and you knew there was a but. Actually there are several. First, Results is month to month which means you can give 30 days notice and be done with your membership. You can put your membership on hold. The minimum time is two weeks. The clincher for the deal was the earliest time Washington Sports opened on weekends was 8:30am. The Results at Farragut North opens at 7am and the Results at Dupont Circle opens at 6am on Saturdays.

So I joined results.

This morning I went and worked out at the Dupont Circle location. I arrived around 6:30 am. There were actually people there. I worked out, went to the grocery store, to back home and put in a load of laundry by 8:45am. Now that's what I call results on a Saturday morning.