The Studio

It's a bit far from home, but when I saw that The Studio offers a two week trial pass I just couldn't pass it up.  This place definitely strikes me as a place simply for trainers to work with their clients.  When I walked in with my two week pass there was no one there to greet me, but a trainer(possibly manager) waved me over and told me where the locker room was, and that I should sign in.  That was it. No tour, no nothing. I didn’t even sign a waiver.  I understand that that this guy couldn’t really do anything because he was working with a client, but this was even more casual than 24 hour fitness.

For the two weeks that I was there, I saw only two other people working out there without trainers. Because this is really for people who workout with trainers, this is an interesting environment. It’s the opposite of a meat-and-greet like LA fitness, it feels very cliquish.  Everyone is paired up. Except for me. I’m all alone.

Because this is for personal training, no group classes are offered, so this is not a place to go to if you want to do the occasional yoga or spin class.  I also have to say that I was worried when I came in that I would see all the latest fads being done here.  When I see commercials for EXTREME TRAINING I just kind of shut off. I've never been attracted to the flashy stuff, more of a strong fundamentals kind of guy.  So I was worried that I would see people flailing at cardio ropes and stuff, but the exercises the trainers were having their clients do was much more basic, less trendy, then what I was expecting. A pleasant surprise.

Layout/facilities

This place consists of three rooms. The first room is the machines/cardio equipment.  I think the first room is for personal trainers working with clients only, but if that’s the case it is stupid because there are some machines/equipment that can only be found in the first room. For example, the dip rack and triceps extension machines are only in the first room.  I used the first room and I didn’t pick up any weird looks.  I also made darn sure to be super polite when asking if the trainer was using equipment I wanted to use.

The second room is the DB rack with some more machines and a bench rack. They have dBs that go up to 120, but for the life of me I could not find the 25 pounders. This was highly annoying.  The second room is a little different from the other two because there is no music playing in that room. It’s dead quiet. I actually like it, as I tend to find music distracting, rather than amp me up.

The third (and personal fav of mine) is for Olympic lifting. They’ve got two squat racks, two Oly platforms, and two difference set of bumper plates.  This was definitely my favorite room. They even have a bowl of chalk for me to use! Even though the trainers use this room all the time not once did they have their client perform squats/deadlifts/overhead press. So there was no wait to use the equipment.

Locker room

It’s quite serviceable, they provide everything you would need with the exception of aftershave (do gyms just not believe in aftershave?!?!?!?!). It seemed clean with the exception of the faint smell of mildew.  The smell, it felt like, came from poor ventilation rather than a lack of cleaning. They shower stalls were perfectly fine and the soap/shampoo was nice as well.  They even offered towels, so that’s really nice.

Surfability

Man this place is easy to surf. They are all about client training (probably why they include two free training sessions with the trial membership) so if you come in here to work out on your own they really don’t bother you.  There was no waiver to sign, nothing. Just come on in and enjoy yourself.  I actually tested to see how long I could go before they realized I was over my two week limit and I managed to get in two more workouts before one of the trainers actually recognized me and said I needed to make a decision.  It kind of felt like having sex with your girlfriend right before breaking up with her. You feel kind of shitty for doing it, yet you do it anyway because you can.

I was just surprised at the lack of a sales pitch.  I still don’t know what their monthly rates are, if they require a contract, anything like that. There was zero sales pitch.  They are simply not concerned with having people come here on their own to work out.