Fitness Clubs
The King West Club
I used to sweat at the King West Club when I worked in the Financial District. Located at the corner of King and Duncan, the gym finds its membership base among the nearby corporate types and the CBCers who toil away across the street. For a basement space, it's a surprisingly good place to work out. The setup is all brick and beam and it's filled with top of the line machines, weights and cardio equipment.
The King West Club is divided into three main rooms. The largest of the three houses treadmills, bikes, step and other cardio equipment. Each has good sight-lines on the cable TV's which tend to feature anything but the CBC - usually sports highlights or some trashy entertainment news program. A range of tightly packed weight machines rest nearby.
A second room is filled with a good range of free weights, some more weight machines and a bit of vacant floor space to get some stretching in. There's plenty of mirrors, exercise balls and a water fountain to compete for attention. It's also a good vantage point to check out the classes in the exercise studio next door.
Rates and Initiation Fee
The club offers two membership options - month to month ($75 a month) or an annual membership which costs $55 a month. Either way, there are no initiation fees and all classes offered are included in the price.
Towels, Lockers and Showers
Small, clean towels are available for a monthly fee or for a $1 payment per work out. Personally, for $55 to $75 I'd expect towel service to be included so I look at this as an additional base monthly fee which essentially pushes up their rates another $15 or so. The good news is that the showers here are some of the best I've seen in the city. There are more private showers than they need and all are modern and equipped with nice smelling liquid body wash. Lockers are new-ish but could be bigger. Day use is free but overnight lockers run $20 a month.
Personal Training, Yoga and Spin
Personal training is offered. There are a number of different packages to choose from at various price points. Spinning bikes are in the cardio area and can be used whenever or during one of the classes which take place Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Hatha Yoga is scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday evenings at 5:30pm.
Food and Juice
There's a fridge with some basic re-fueling options like water and Guru energy drinks. It would be nice to have some fresh juices and shakes but there's probably not enough space to set something like this up.
Worth Mentioning
For some reason there aren't any early morning classes. I guess CBCers don't get up that early. Other classes offered include Pilates, Ab Attack, Pump it Up, Flex it Up, Cardio Fusion, Boot Camp and Punch Boxing Conditioning. Both locker rooms also have a sauna and the women's locker room has an individual three piece private bathroom.
Days and Hours of Operation
At the time of this post the gym is open Monday to Friday, 6:00am - 9pm; Saturday and Sundays from 9am - 5pm. It's always best to check the web site for the most up to date info.
Discussion
31 Comments
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I’ve been a member for almost three years but I will be leaving for a gym that’s properly maintained and managed. For 85 bucks a month (and without towel service!!) you can do much better. Shit, for an extra $10 you can get a membership at Adelaide Club...but only if you're willing to deal with the all the bay street douchbag clientele they tend to draw in.
The only thing going for this place is the group Kickboxing, which funny enough, is not run by the gym but from an outside instructor. Looks like they just use the space.
I’ve been a member for almost three years but I will be leaving for a gym that’s properly maintained and managed. For 85 bucks a month (and without towel service!!) you can do much better. Shit, for an extra $10 you can get a membership at Adelaide Club...but only if you're willing to deal with the all the bay street douchbag clientele they tend to draw in.
The only thing going for this place is the group Kickboxing, which funny enough, is not run by the gym but from an outside instructor. Looks like they just use the space.
The comment above describes the equipment well.
Men's locker room has 8 showers, 4 of which have never worked since I joined 2 years ago. Of the 4 that work (and have doors), 1 of them gets flooded constantly.
As for the towels, unless you have a 26 inch waist, you won't be able to get them around you. They are also the kind that wipe water around instead of absorbing it. Towel service is also ridiculously priced at $20/month.
Good: friendly staff (unless you're inquiring about the increase in fees and decrease in maintenance). Location.
Bad: poorly maintained, costly fees, equipment.
the staff seem to care only about your monthy fees and not about maintaining a clean, safe, decent fitness club. there is no value added, and for the outrages monthy fees, there isn't even regular value for your money. there are plenty of better options nearby, which all ironically are much cheaper in price.
simply put, having a membership there is like having a prison sentence, you just count down the days until you are free to leave. (unfortnately I have many more months to go). screw you king west! you ripped me off for the last time!!!!
Go to Kingwestfitness instead in Liberty Village. 171 East Liberty Street.
Avoid this place like the plague!
I was really nice about asking that they delete my information and not call me again. I'm a former employee back when the place first opened and won't be signing up.
The guy was an complete ass. If that's their idea of a customer service call... I'd strongly recommend people don't join until the service improves. What if I wanted to cancel? Or had an actual issue? Would they have cussed me out then?
I was really nice and got treated really poorly.
Even the owner treated her like crap.
Shame on you THE KING WEST CLUB - Incident on Dec 18th - One of your free-lance trainers.
is going on which pisses me off. The other day there was 'Salsa' classes for about 2 hours. I am thinking of getting out this Gym, which is truly a "Club" now with all these dance classes. I'm a member of this Gym for about 7 years now and its never this bad. I only go to this Gym because it's close to my home. It's even gone worse after the Management change.
They more members now but the gym needs serious new equipment. This placed was great in 2004 but in 2008 - 2009 this place went so downhill. Not sure how they are still in business... They dont even have towel service anymore.
I agree with all comments above. I have not read not even one pleasant comment.