Product/Service Review: Fitness Connection

I'll admit, I don't have a whole lot to compare this to, so this will probably seem very biased. As you know if you read my fitness blog, I exercise on a daily basis. Some days, I just do my own thing at home be it biking, running or something else that will get the blood pumping. But otherwise, I spend most of my workout time at the gym. The gym that I joined a little less than a year ago is Fitness Connection.

There was only one reason that I joined this gym when I decided to make the commitment to gym membership: location. This particular gym has a location less than a 5-minute drive from where I work. That means that I can spend my lunch hour huffing and puffing through a routine, get a shower to knock off the sweat and be back at work fresh as a daisy (with no time to spare, of course).

I'll be honest. I was expecting my gym membership to be a colossal waste of money. After all, when I joined, I had never had a gym membership before, I hated exercising and I wasn't particularly motivated to work out (even though I was motivated to follow a strict diet). But I immediately allowed myself to be talked into working with a personal trainer once a week. Of course, it was more money to take advantage of this offer, but I felt I might get more out of my gym time if I had a professional showing me how it's done.

Getting a personal trainer was a challenge for me. I always imagined personal trainers to be like this:

Most everyone knows that Jillian Michaels puts the "tense" in the words intense personal trainer. I just assumed this was the norm: if you have a personal trainer, you are basically paying to be bullied and belittled (two B words I can do without). Luckily, this has not been my experience. I've had two personal trainers since joining the gym, and they have both been excellent. Instead of bullying me, I actually feel like they are cheering me on as I do my session. I can't speak for all the trainers there, but my personal experience has been quite positive.

Another incentive to keep me staying at this gym is this:

When I found out that some of their locations offer swimming pools, I was very happy. I like to swim, and I know it's a great workout without a lot of impact. Now, I've lost enough weight that I don't have much trouble with equipment and classes at the gym. But before then, I liked having the weightless option of swimming to help shed the pounds. I definitely take advantage of the pool now that I'm training for a triathlon. This pool pictured is my buddy, and we bond twice a week, very early in the morning.

While I only attend one class that my gym offers, they do have a very extensive class schedule. When I first joined, I told the person enrolling me that I was interested in doing classes the gym offers. I find it ironic that now I only do one class and can otherwise occupy myself during my workouts. But I do have to say, the class I attend is a great one. I like doing the Sculpting class because toning my body definitely appeals to me.

In addition to the appeal of a lean, strong body, the instructor is amazing. He is not only incredibly helpful during the workouts, but he plays awesome music. There are so many classes that just play that upbeat, top 40 crap. I'm happy to be pumping iron to Ozzy and Zombie and Black Label Society (among many others). But other than the music, the fact that he's involved and always shows us how to lift the weights and what muscles to target is fabulous. I've been in some classes where the instructor never leaves the front of the room. He or she is just shouting "You can do it!" and "Good job!" Well, how do you know I can do it or if I'm doing a good job if you never set foot outside of your instructor box? Sometimes I just think people become fitness class instructors so that they can get their workout completed.

Anyway, that's not really the point of this post. The point is that I really like Fitness Connection as my gym, and I'm so glad that I chose it when I was seeking a workout center.