Cardio Express

the really good thing about this gym is that you don’t have to give up your first born to cancel your membership.
the front desk is hit or miss whether or not they’ll greet you when you come in but those that do are incredibly welcoming.
the name says it all– this is a cardio house. there are some weights and machines but it’s a small crowded area. there is a room downstairs to do work outs with stability balls but same issue of small and crowded. cardio machines are out of order from time to time but generally they’re good to go.
there is visible water damage to the building throughout. it always looks like there’s a handyman that comes in every night that likes to start projects and never finish them… not very pretty to look at but doesn’t get in the way of working out.
the most annoying thing about this gym Is that it gets hot, smelly and uncomfortable QUICKLY. and yes that’s normal at a gym but this is a whole other level of nastiness. when you pass by on the Silas Deane you can tell it’s going to be bad when the windows are visibly fogged.
also this is the only gym where I can guarantee you that if you are the only person in a row of cardio machines and another member comes in… they will get on the machine directly next to you even though there is an entire empty row of them. guarantee. it will happen and you will curse at them in your head. and if you’re that person… just move one machine over or I will assume you want to race and then ITS ON.
overall you can get your cardio in, sometimes your nose will be violated and your body temp unbearably high… sometimes you’ll get the workout partner you never wanted next to you… and if you are looking to do anything other than cardio, you’ll have a difficult time.

Does the trick but is not as nice as some other locations.
The women’s locker room feels like it’s out of another decade. I mean, everything works fine, but the yellow-​brown look is not appealing.
There’s definitely enough cardio equipment. There could be more abs machines.
Don’t forget to check out downstairs. It has a few benches, free weights, and balls. This might be a good location if you don’t want as many people staring at you.
There could be more water fountains. I’ve only found two and have been going here for a few months now.
As previous Unilocalers have mentioned, the bend of the road before the main parking lot is a bit nerve wracking. I always turn my lights on in case another car is coming around the other side. There could perhaps be a mirror added there or better lighting in general. On busier days, I park in the spaces before that bend just to avoid that turn.

Terrible gym, not nearly enough equipment to handle more than 10 people and 50% of the time it’s out of service anyway. Barely any free weights and the ones they do have are horribly disorganized. About 80% of the ceiling tiles are missing due to repeated water damage and the facility smells musty and looks awful because of it. The billing/​mycardioexpress/​acorn management people are also a complete (excessive use of expletives here) to deal with if you want to cancel your membership. The manager lady is also nice enough to tell you they’ll contact you before your annual renewal happens and then they won’t and they’ll also hit you with a $ 10 late fee for absolutely no reason. If you want to build, get in shape or just have a gym tag on your keys so people think you’re athletic, this is not the place. I’d recommend WOW instead, less hidden fees, better facility and actual weights for more than a handful of people.

I used to go to this gym on the weekends because it was the closest place to my girlfriends. It wasn’t great. The equipment was frequently broken, bent or just poor. The weight lifting area was small and crowded and the free weights section was even smaller.
The final straw that broke the camel’s back however was when we were told they were getting rid of the only squat rack and replacing it with another smith machine. We both cancelled our membership as soon as we found out. We now go to Wow fitness in glastonbury which is about a 10 minute further drive, but is about 1000x better.
Basically, unless all you care about is running on a cruddy treadmill, Cardio Express is garbage. If I could give it 0 stars, I would.

If you care about getting a real workout, this is not the place for you. I left two years ago due to the lack of serious weightlifting room and equipment.
Laughably, a friend told me they recently replaced their only squat rack with smith machines and took out three of their flat benches. Also, during my time there the staff was often not present at the front desk so many people who were not members simply waltzed in and worked out for free, subsequently treating equipment poorly and not adhering to standard gym rules.

I’ve had the displeasure of being a member here for about 2 years now. This gym is the pits. I’ve remained a member because it was cheap and convenient and had the bare minimum of what was necessary for me to do my workout, but that changed this week.
To start, the roof on this place is always leaking. They just leave buckets around the gym floor to catch the water. Lovely. They started construction on their ladies’ bathroom, oh, at least a year ago and it’s still not done. I’ve never stepped into their showers for fear of catching a disease so I can’t comment on the state of that, but if the rest of the place is any indication… yeah, don’t go in there.
Then, there’s the equipment. Sure there’s a metric crap-​ton of cardio equipment, so I have to say if all you care about is walking or running on a treadmill for hours on end without having to wait you’ll probably be fine. However, if you have any other fitness interests, notably getting stronger, then RUN, don’t walk, out of that gym.
There was never enough strength equipment to begin with and it was always junk. Rickety benches, bent barbells, a general mess on the weightroom floor because people are slobs who don’t re-​rack their weights and there’s never any management staff around to fix the issue. Just recently they’ve updated their weightroom with «fancy», shiny new equipment… that’s all garbage. They disposed of their singular squat rack and replaced it with 4 smith machines, took their flat and incline benches from a total of 5 down to 2, and there are no additional bars. It’s now super cramped in there too.
Now I realize I have high standards for a crummy little box gym like this, but I would at least expect after 2 years of membership the courtesy of informing me about the kinds of equipment they were removing. Instead, I’m getting charged for 2 months of gym time I won’t be using after canceling my account because dues are charged on the 1^st of the month… That’s customer service.
If my mom’s experience is any indication, I’ll probably continue to get charged for the next year too.
TL;DR If you have any kind of serious fitness goals, plan to pursue them in the future, or like good customer service, find a different gym.

Not my favorite of the Cardio Expresses I’ve been to. The Mansfield and Tolland ones are much nicer. The one in Wethersfield is really big (much bigger than Mansfield), but there is just a lot of maintenance that should be done. There are showers and changing rooms. Updates to them had been started a long time ago and never finished. I’ve been going to Wethersfield one now for almost a year and I have not seen any more construction or progress. My friend has been going there for years and she said that the progress was the same then, despite the fact that on the tour they still say «right now we’re in the middle of some updates.» My one other complaint is the outdoor lights. In the front there are a few parking spaces, but the entrance is in the back along with the main parking lot. There is a sharp and narrow corner there to get to the back lot, and at night you cannot see the people walking around the building from the front. I do not know how many times I’ve seen people almost get hit by people coming around that corner. The solution is so easy, change the bulbs or fix the lights. It just annoys me a little that even that type of simple maintenance is not taken care of.
The gym itself though has all the equipment you could want to use. They also just got new treadmills, ellipticals, and one or two stair stepping machines. Thank goodness because the other ones were extremely worn.