Lexington Athletic Club

I’ve been coming to this gym for the past 5 years. I originally joined in Louisville as I was living there, but after moving to Lexington (but I’m still traveling to Louisville for work at times), I was happy to learn that I was still allowed to use my gym membership at this location.
Now about a month ago, I get informed that my membership will be cancelled. And If I wanted to continue coming to this location, I’d have to renew my contract here at Lexington and make it my home gym.
Therefore, making me get into another contract and paying double the rate than what I was paying. How absurd!!!
I was paying $ 20/​month from Louisville as I was locked in a special promotion I got a couple years ago.
Now this gym offers silver membership @$ 30/​month and that means you can’t come to the gym between 4−8pm (when all the great classes are offered)
or platinum plan @$ 40/​month where you can come whenever.
Now the only issue I have is that I’ll be stuck in a 3 year contract paying double what I was paying when I was out of contract, and this gym isn’t even located nationwide like some other gyms. (So I have another membership with planet fitness $ 20/​month just so I don’t use hotel gyms when I’m out of state)
So yes essentially, you’re paying for the amenities, but I was already paying for them at my original rate.
I just find it obnoxious that the gym wouldn’t honor my original membership, as it was with their GYM, even if it’s a sister gym, it’s still LAC! Very disappointed with the treatment from this gym to a long time member. Oh well, guess I’ll find a better gym elsewhere.
Besides, they charge a «twice a year fee for new equipment or cleaning» yet many machines are broken and the towels are dingy.

I’ve been a member here for almost a year. They offer great customer service and a huge variety of group fitness classes. The pool and huge cardio room are my favorites. The Kids Room staff are friendly and take great care of my son. I don’t have anything negative to say about my experience here.

Had a few extra hours as I traveled for business and decided to try this gym. The facility, customer service and overall experience were amazing. See Ms. Cindy, she and her staff are phenomenal and knows how to make people feel at home. Thanks Ms. Cindy and keep up the great work.
Sam

Literally an «everything under one roof» club. Huge cardio theater with multiple flat screens. Never had to wait for a treadmill, elliptical or bike. Indoor surfaced track around .65M. Dedicated surface — not shoe-​horned around other areas. Large strength-​training area. Basketball court with seemingly continuous pickup game. Lane pool. Spinning room. Aerobics, Yoga room. Big Crossfit room with outdoor area as well. Good sized locker room with showers, soap, free towels. Massage therapy available too. Can buy water, energy drinks etc. at the front desk. Had some experience with a sister club down in Nashville Area. Staff is friendly, helpful. Don’t use a trainer, myself, but seems to be a lot of opportunity if that is what you’re after. Only quibble is short night on Saturdays — hard to get out at 5 and get workout in by 7pm close. Club has a mini-​club for kids. Pricing is comparable to other full-​line clubs — a bit higher than those essentially unstaffed 24 hour places but amenities and range of workouts are worth it.

Great gym!

best gym in town, no questions about it.

This is a very well equipped gym. It’s got a very comprehensive set of free-​weights and circuit training gear, a full basketball court, an indoor running track, multiple racquetball courts, group exercise class rooms used for yoga/​pilates/​zumba classes, a full indoor pool, and a small snack bar serving healthy snacks and smoothies (which is not open a lot of the hours the actual gym is open). They have large, expansive locker rooms (and a hot tub shared by the two locker rooms) and a small women’s only workout room so self-​conscious women can exercise without fear of being ogled by men, as well as a huge wall of televisions facing an expanse of treadmills, exercise bicycles and elliptical trainers. Like any large gym, they also have nutritionists and personal trainers for hire. They also added free wi-​fi recently.
They also have a nice indoor arcade/​playground for the kids. It’s apparently popular for birthday parties. On rainy days, it’s quite popular for the kids since they can’t go to the parks.
The staff is fairly nice and friendly, and the locker rooms just finished a major (and honestly, expensive-​looking) remodeling, complete with flat-​panel TV’s in the locker rooms.
Now for the bad part. They are very big on the «contract» model of gym membership. Going there in February when the family decides to get fit, and having myself, my fiancée, and my soon-​to-​be-​stepson join meant signing contracts for $ 40/​month per person (and $ 10/​month for the kid) for the next year.
My wife slowly started to go less and less, and my stepson didn’t really want to go to the indoor playground very often. I used the gym regularly, but the $ 90 a month I was paying for the three of us made it awkward and cumbersome. After we got married, they let us transition to a joint membership, which reduced it to «only» $ 80.
When my membership was up, they wanted us to renew our contracts. The problem is, paying all that money for memberships made me realize just what I used and didn’t use at the gym. I never used the hot tub, or pool, or basketball court, or racquetball courts, and my work schedule meant I could never be at the various exercise classes and was never there when the snack bar was open. I used the mainly the free weights and circuit machines, the treadmills and sometimes running track.
I started to shop around and found a smaller, less expensive gym that had what I needed (except for the track, and I’ve learned to just go jogging in the park). If not for the pain of a huge contractually obligated payment every month, I would have never taken such a long, hard look at what I was paying for and what I was actually using. If I was just paying the $ 40 for myself and could have canceled my wife and stepsons memberships when they stopped going, it would have left me feeling a lot better about my own membership and made me a lot more likely to continue my own membership when the time came.
So, it’s a pretty decent gym, but you need to ask yourself do you really need all those features you are paying for? Would your needs be met by a smaller, less expensive gymnasium? Also, the cumbersome contracts are a big negative when there are gyms in town that don’t require membership contracts.