Planet Fitness – Okemos

Although I enjoy this Planet Fitness I have to make a comment about their so called personal trainers. I have not utilized this aspect of my gym membership; however, when I observe the personal trainers at work they do not appear to be doing much. There is a particular personal trainer who is a male, typically has a hat on, and a bro diamond earring who literally could not look more inconvenienced if he tried. During his ‘personal training’ sessions with one or more people he is always sitting and on his phone. I get that this is a complimentary service, but really they could get someone more engaging.

This place is the Chuck e. Cheese of gyms. If you want to pay 10 dollars a month just to say you belong to a gym then this place is for you. If you want to be fit the look elsewhere.

I signed up at this location and going home for the summer (to california), i chose the black card. I went to the planet fitnesses around here (in california) and hardly anyone cleans up the machine after themselves and the bottles are not even easily accessible (though laziness to walk to the bottles are not an excuse!). It’s just the right thing to do, clean up after your mess!
The Okemos location has cleaning bottles everywhere and everyone cleans up their machine after use! Going to other locations really makes you appreciate this location. The employees usually aren’t sitting around either; they are changing towels out, vacuuming, spraying the treadmills.

Despite my better judgement I choose to become a member of this planet fitness and am frustrated that I kept the membership as long as I did.
1. Don’t expect to use any cardio machines between 12pm — 7pm. This gym beyond packed during a that time. So if you can go before or after that, then I’d suggest you do it.
2. The staff has no concept of customer service whatsoever. On numerous occasions they were rude, unhelpful and blantantly a group of college kids who care nothing more than to get a paycheck.
3. The «extras» you get for being a ‘black card’ member are never available for use unless you don’t mind waiting 30 – 45 minutes.
Basically, if you want staff to help you out with anything, good luck. Waste of money.

I absolutely love this gym. The price is great ($ 10 or 20/​month depending what membership you want). Everyone is extremely nice. Sometimes the employees get a little snippy during the rush, but they are kind otherwise. I don’t feel intimidated when I go either which is usually a big deal for me when picking a gym. The place is clean and even during the rush there is no wait for things.

I do not go during the after-​work rush… can’t comment on that scene.
I stop in mid-​afternoon and early morning on the weekends… never an issue with crowds or waiting for equipment.
This gym is designed for an all-​around cardio experience.
You can keep your heart rate up from start to finish in here with a nice variety to keep your workouts fresh.
I’ve been weightlifting for two decades and have tried every type of workout routine and machine from Ballys, Gold’s, Powerhouse, 24 Hour Fitness… etc. I immediately recognized the fat-​burning potential in this gym… if you want to turn every workout into a cardio routine, this is the place for you.
There are plenty of Life Fitness treadmills and elliptical machines with flat screens galore. Ipod and headphone jacks in said machines.
What is unique here is that they have eliminated the free weight clutter you find in other gyms (Powerhouse in EL for example), and created a circuit training mecca.
There are mint condition Hammer Strength and Life Fitness machines, dumbbells, Smith squat/​bench racks, two multi-​station jungle gyms, two separate circuit zones, and a stretching area.
I am not a big fan of the Smith racks because I feel they limit your natural motion. That said, I use dumbbells for all traditional barbell movements (upper and lower body). It’s a lot easier on the joints and you can really get a nice negative rep burn during your sets.
Bottom-line…you can get a killer workout here with little to no stress.
There are other features I have not experienced near the lobby… some sort of relaxation room and tanning.
Locker room has been clean and not too crowded.
The water bottle refill station at the fountains is very convenient.

I signed up for this gym as it opened beginning of 2014. Only a couple weeks later it is now packed. I’ve seen other PF locations (in Ann Arbor, Grand Rapids) and this one is by far the smallest. At other locations a person has room to maneuver from machine to machine without bumping into other gym goers. The idea of a $ 10 gym for the masses is good in theory, but the execution requires a lot more square footage than is offered here. This one is 23,000 sq ft I believe, compared to 40,000 sq ft in Grand Rapids location. Feels like I am a crowded farm animal when I go to work out. Think I will cancel and go to a smaller gym with more personal space.

This place is very welcoming and a great place to get in some exercise. Wish the showers in the locker rooms had doors rather than just curtains so I will probably never shower there, but everything is clean and new. I guess we will see if it stays clean since it just opened less than a month ago. Wish they had towels and that the staff didn’t seem like nazis when it came to things like signing up for using the massage bed. Otherwise, plenty of space, wide variety of equipment and good general atmosphere. Glad I joined.

This club opened the week of Christmas, so less than a month ago. This is a beautiful, large gym that I enjoy and I should note that in my comments below, while true, I do take also take into consideration the fact that they JUST opened and staff is still learning/​signing people/​working things out during the absolute busiest time of the year for any gym/​health club. I transferred my membership from another planet fitness to this new club due to a job change. First of all, its huge with TONS of equipment — all new. I stoppped in the sat after Christmas to work out and had the place to myself. Stopped back again 2 weeks ago, and there were more people here, but club was still only about 25% full (which was nice!). Did not get back again until this week — and it is now about 75% full, but there were still plenty of treadmills, ellipticals, weight machines — there was no wait for anything. The busiest area was the mat room/​stretching area (small space anyway) which was pretty full though but I was able to grab a mat and wedge myself in between other folks using mats on the for floor for stretching, situps, pushups, etc. The issue I am concerned about is the traffic jam that occurred every year at my old PF location from Jan-​March. My experience as a regular, Jan-​Dec committed member, was that you literally could NOT work out Jan-​March (between 5 – 7 pm) due to the «new resolutioners» that clogged the gym/​parking lot and then stopped coming all together by end of March. If I could have worked out at a different time I would, but 90% of the time I could not due to extensive work schedule, so would use a couple free weights and a stationary bike I have at home during the week for those 3 months. I love that people want to make a change and adopt a more healthy lifestyle, but my opinion is that a New Year Resolution does not in itself drive the committed change necessary to transform ones physical health. So, at this location I was (and still am) most interested to see if I will still be able to work out at this club, during the next 3 months after work (5:50−7:00 pm), and, so far I can. I don’t mind a minimal wait for some machines or a treadmill, but I don’t have time to spend over 2 hours at they gym trying to work out. So I am hoping this time next month I am still able to get in (maybe I should not be doing this review!). I also realize that after this club is established this may not be the case at all this time next year. So it goes. For now it is an excellent deal.
There seem to be a number of people who do realize that PF gyms need you to clean each peice of equipment immediately after you use it, however, I see many people not do this. There are a gazillion paper towel & trash stations located all over the gym (what do people think these are for??) allowing for you to easily wipe down equipment and then toss paper towel in trash — I wish staff would be better about enforcing this but they are super busy signing people up. (Each visit I have had to seek out the attention of a front desk staff so I can give them my member number, which makes me wonder could I have just walked in and worked out without being an actual member?) Anyway, if you work out here, at least for now, I would recomment that you wipe down equipment before and after you use it to limit exposure to germs/other’s sweat/​coughing/​sneezing on equipment etc until things calm down & staff can enforce this better.
Last point at my previous PF gym there were signs all over stating «cell phone use prohibited on gym floor» I have not noticed those signs here and have noticed people yacking on cell phones on gym floor/​mat stretching area forcing others in the vicinity to listen to their BS conversations — hopefully another thing that will be addressed when the dust settles on this new PF location.