Secrets That The Fitness & Diet Industry Don't Want You To Know

Gym Review on Crunch Fitness In The Bay Area

Hey everyone!  I just got done doing a killer workout at Crunch Fitness in Blackhawk. It was previously a Bally Total Fitness, but Crunch took over the building. (Hint don't buy a membership at Bally Total Fitness because they are going out of business)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These are the reason's why Crunch Fitness is so unique and more cutting edge than traditional health clubs. They offer a fun,cool, and trendy service.

When I first entered the Blackhawk location, I was greeted by a friendly front desk staff and was given a quick tour of the facility. The bathrooms had flat screen T.Vs, leather couches, and a lot of other amenities. After touring the bathroom, I was shown the workout floor. It was big, with alot of free motion machines, clean free weight area, and had a brand new cardio theater.  

I was also given the oppurtunity to workout at the other Crunch locations in San Francisco this weekend. One of the clubs is located inside a old opera theater. Inside the gym, the stage was turned into a group exercise room and the movie screen played music videos.

One of the locations had a shower room where you can see into the other shower.

Overall, this is a really cool and hip health club. I see this company being able to successfully compete against the other big corporate gyms in the future. They are so unique with their offers that they will probably become the "800 Pound Gorilla" in the health club industry.

Although the looks and shiny bells that they offer are great, there is a downside. They are an expensive club to join and their personal trainers are extremely over-priced. If you are willing to pay alot of money for the look of your fitness club, then Crunch Fitness is the place for you.

But if you want serious results with fitness professionals that care CLICK HERE

4 Big Reasons Why You Shouldn't Join a East Bay Bally Total Fitness

Today I am going to give my next health club review on Bally Total Fitness Clubs in the East Bay. To those of you that know me, you know that I worked for this company for 6 years as a personal trainer and managed a couple of their fitness centers.

 

For those of you that have been following the fitness industry or watch the news, you know this company is not doing well financially. Bally Total Fitness filed for Chapter 11 twice in 2009. For the last two years they have closed over 300 hundred clubs nationwide.

So if you're thinking about joining this health club, I repeat, don't waste your money. There are a couple of reasons why this club is not doing well and I will explain them.

1. Bally Total Fitness is being run by investors that don't know anything about the fitness industry. They have been trying to manage and operate this million dollar company like a car dealership. They don't care about the quality of the gym, the experience for it's members, or compensating their staff correctly. They aren't selling fitness or motivating its members anymore. They just want to make money and they don't care how they do it.
2. Bally Total Fitness is trying to save money by laying off its employees and lowering the pay of its employees. They laid off the housekeeping staff from all the clubs. The main reason why their clubs are struggling is because most of their fitness centers are dirty and disgusting because they are trying to save money by having the personal trainers, sales reps, and front desk staff clean toilets.
3. At one time, Bally Total Fitness had really good operators in the club as well as talented personal trainers. Since the pay cut, a lot of the best employees have left the company to start their own business or work for the up-start company "Crunch Fitness." Now Bally's has to hire underqualified personal trainers (just like 24 hour fitness) and end up promoting employees to management positions when they have no business running a $100,000 dollar health club.
4. The sales reps are so desperate to sell memberships now that they are using car salesman tactics to close "YOU" on a long term contract. If you watched my other video on how east bay health club scams, then you know that you should never sign a long term contract with a gym. Because this company filed bankrupcy twice in one year, you don't know if they are going to close their doors on you and never return your money.

Last year Bally Total Fitness closed the Utah market without telling the staff or managment. One day the members and staff went to work and saw chains on the door.

Bally's never gave the members their money back or bothered transfering their employees to another health club.

If Bally's treats their employees like "CRAP" they will definetley treat "YOU" the same.

So if you live near a Bally Total Fitness in the Bay Area, run away and join another club. My prediction in the next 5-8 years, they will not be around.

Most likely they will be bought out by "CRUNCH FITNESS."

If you're pissed with your current health club or have been ripped off by a gym in the past CLICK HERE to see how we treat our clients.

Things to Know Before Joining an East Bay 24 Hour Fitness Club

Over the next couple of weeks I will be doing reviews of East Bay health clubs and sharing my personal experience about each one I go to.

I'm going to start with an East Bay 24 Hour Fitness Club that I recently worked out at for the last 3 days. For the most part, it was like most fitness centers during January, extremely crowded, all the cardio equipment was taken, and every sales rep was trying to sell me on a "New Years Special."

My experience at 24 Hour Fitness was good overall. The clubs I visited had nice equipment, were a big facility, had good energy, and the employees were friendly.

 

 

 

Here are the things I didn't like about 24 Hour Fitness:

• During prime time hours, you can only use the cardio equipment for 20 minutes and then you must get off. I think that is stupid, it should be first come, first serve.
  
• Because the fitness center is open 24 hours a day, the condition of the gym is always dirty and messy. Dumbells are never racked, paper towels/water bottels are everywhere, and the bathrooms are disgusting.
• Personal trainers in most of these facilities are terrible. The requirement to get a job at 24 Hour Fitness is completely below standard. Anyone with a heartbeat can get a job. 90% of fitness trainers at 24 Hour Fitness aren't certified. They are mostly 19-21 years old, extremely unprofessional, and the only knowledge they seem to posses about fitness is from a muscle magazine.

Overall, the majority of East Bay 24 Hour Fitness clubs are good clubs to join.  Membership is cheap, they always have the latest equipment, and staff is friendly. They just lack knowledgeable fitness professionals to give good advice to its members.

*But I repeat do not waste money on their personal trainers, they are really terrible and bad representatives of what a fitness professional should be.

If you want serious fitness results from professionals that don't guess what they are doing with their clients, CLICK HERE watch this video.

 

10 Reasons To Fire Your East Bay Fitness Trainer

If you are currently working with an East Bay fitness trainer, that's great. Hiring a fitness trainer is the best thing for you to invest your money in, especially if you really want to look and feel better about yourself.

But some people have a terrible personal trainer. A good trainer is hard to find, so if you have one that you like and relate with, don't let them go. Good trainers are hard to come by. There are actually more bad trainers than good ones out there.

In this video blog I will give you my top 10 reasons to fire your current east bay fitness trainer.

• Fire your trainer if they are constantly late. You pay good money to have someone train you so the least they can do is show up on time. My mother had a trainer at 24 Hour Fitness and her trainer was always 15-20 minutes late for every session.
• Fire your trainer if they consistently never return your phone calls, text messages, or emails. Your personal trainer should be accessible to you at reasonable times of the day and should return your messages within 24 hours.
• Fire your trainer if they don't follow through with what they say they are going to do. For example, they say they will help you with your nutrition and they never do.
• Fire your trainer if they are having you do the same boring exercises over and over again. There job is to deliver results and they can't help you get to your goals if they are training the same way everytime. They need to mix it up.
• Fire your trainer if they seem they are bored training you. They should have energy and be motivating when they are around you. That's what you paying them for, to help keep you motivated.
• Fire your trainer if they are checking themselves out in the mirror and not paying attention to you and your form. This can be very dangerous especially if you are lifting heavy weight.
• Fire your trainer if they don't listen to your needs. For example, if you want to work on your hips and thighs and your trainer ignores what you want and trains you a totally different way, they are basically ignoring your wants and needs.
• Fire your trainer if they are flirting with your or making sexual references all the time. Chances are they only have one thing on their mind and that's not helping your efforts to get fit.
• Fire your trainer if they are constantly talking about themselves and dumping their baggage on you every session. You are paying them to listen and train you. Your not paying them so you can be their shrink.

This basically comes down to having good customer service skills which is true in any industry. Your fitness trainer needs to be professional, on time, and listens to you what you want.

Please leave a comment below and tell me about your experiences with a personal trainer.

P.S.And if your looking for a personal trainer for the upcoming year to help get you to your fitness goals....Then CLICK HERE

 

Beware of Signing Up At Your Local East Bay Health Clubs

I interviewed my buddy Pico on what to look out for before signing a long term contract at your local East Bay health club. We are coming up on January 1st and I thought it would be important to educate you on the tricks that most East Bay health clubs will do to you when you enter their facility.

Before signing up at your local East Bay health club or 24 Hour Fitness club, you need to beware of a couple of things:

• Beware of minimal down payments (like a $1 or $0 down payments) because this basically means you will pay a big monthly payment.
• Beware of signing a long term agreement. (most clubs will try to lock you in on a 3-year committment)  The hope is that you will sign up on this long term agreement and that you will never come back to use the facility or that you will cancel your membership.
• Beware of the cancellation policy. (Most East Bay health clubs won't allow to cancel unless you move 25 miles or more away from the club)

I had a friend who moved away from a 24 Hour Fitness club that ended up being about 24.5 miles away.  He was unable to cancel his membership because he was technically close enough to use their facility.

The reason why most big coorperate gyms are like this is because they just care about getting your money and not helping you get the results you are looking for.

Before you decide on a local East Bay health club, refer back to this video before joining any gym in January.

If you want serious fitness results check out this video CLICK HERE

Watch Out For Health Club Scams in the East Bay

As we are entering the new year, most people are going to start looking into getting gym memberships at their local health clubs in the east bay. I think it's awesome to start the new year with a fitness program, but don't let the health clubs in the east bay fool you!

A lot of the the time gyms like 24 Hour Fitness, Bally Total Fitness, & other corporate gyms will try to take advantage of the consumer during the busiest year in our industry.

Here are a fews that the health clubs in the east bay will try to rip you off.

• $0 enrollement fee is the best way that most health clubs will drive traffic. When there is a $0 enrollement fee, usually means a big monthly payment.
• Most health clubs will set you up with an uncertified trainer that doesn't know how to train anyone, including themselves
• They will sell you the "bells & whistles" of the facility and then totally forget about you as a paying customer.
• They don't care about you getting results, just your monthly payments

 So beware of these fake fitness professionals inside your health club, they are just salesman that want your hard earned money and don't care about you, your family, or your fitness goals.

There are alternatives to getting in shape than paying money to a local health club:

• Find your local independent east bay personal trainer (they are great because they specialize in getting you results that you are looking for.
• Just get active and start walking with a friend, this cost absolutely nothing!
• Find your local east bay boot camp (these bootcamps are a fraction of the cost of one on one training and usually is provided in a fun and motivating enviroment.

If your interested in learning more or getting started on an exercise program click here