A gym membership is a long term commitment. Even if a gym has monthly or trial packages to offer, taking it up will leave a long term impact on your fitness journey.
Thus, one needs to be careful about selecting the type of gym to get membership into, especially if you are doing it for the first time or when you are fairly new lifter.
When you are searching for an affordable gym membership, it is most likely that the Planet Fitness membership has appeared in your searches. With a really affordable price and more than 2000 centres, Planet Fitness always finds a place in the list of choices of anyone considering to join a gym.
May it be Planet Fitness or any other gym, you need to know certain things about it before deciding to join. You must know the membership cost, types of equipment available, additional facilities, membership types and most importantly, if is it really worth it.
In this article, you will find everything you need to know about Platen Fitness membership and at the end of it, you would be able to decide for yourself whether or not the Planet Fitness membership worth the money.
What Will I Learn?
Is Planet Fitness A Good Gym?
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For the gyms, like many other things it mostly depends on the perspective if they are good or bad. In the case of gyms, along with the perspective, it also depends on your aim for joining them in deciding whether a particular gym is good for you.
The Planet Fitness gyms offers great value to those who are just starting out on their fitness journey. It is also a great place for those who are novice and feel a bit embarrassed or fear of being judged while working out around more experienced lifters.
If you are just starting and looking for a gym with decent equipment, at a lower monthly membership fee, aiming to lose weight through cardio and light training or just want to put in some light workout every day to keep yourself active and fit, then the Planet Fitness is definitely good for you.
The advanced level lifters or those who wish to lift heavier weights and build big muscles should look for other options.
Does Planet Fitness Have Good Equipment?
Planet Fitness is known for having loads of quality cardio equipment. Whether you wish to run some miles on a treadmill, do some spinning or looking for a training session on an elliptical machine, you will almost always find a machine available.
All the equipment at Planet Fitness gyms are new and well kept. There might be a little lesser number of serious weightlifting machines, but whichever equipment is there it is well maintained.
They do lack in the number of free weights and benches available at the facility. You also won’t see any big stacked squat racks here. Most of the centres have dumbbells weighing maximum up to 75 pounds.
What Are The Pros And Cons Of Planet Fitness?
All that is good and bad about the Planet Fitness is listed here. You can right away decide to opt for the membership if you can accept the bad.
Pros:
- It is the most inexpensive gym you can find anywhere
- All the facilities are neat and clean
- It is a climate-controlled exercise space
- Plenty of cardio machines, you never have to wait for one
- The gym is open round the clock throughout the week
- No one will judge you here for being too fat or too thin to go to a gym
Cons:
- The staff is inexperienced and unskilled in terms of physical training
- You can’t grunt while exercising, that means you can’t try to push your limits, there is actually an alarm for that
- There is a dress code you need to follow
- Too few free weights are available. There are no dumbbells over 75 pounds
- Not suitable for advanced or even intermediate level serious lifter
What Exercises Are Not Allowed At Planet Fitness?
Yes, you read it right. There are a few banned exercises that you are not allowed to perform at Planet Fitness.
Planet Fitness is a place for beginners, and there are no trainers to guide you through your workouts. So, to prevent injuries that may occur due to a wrong form or other mistakes, they have banned some exercises.
Any powerlifting moves are among the banned exercises at Planet Fitness. That includes overhead press, T-rows, clean and jerks and of course, the deadlifts. Also, you are discouraged to perform supersets of any exercise.
How Much Does A Membership At Planet Fitness Cost?
Planet Fitness is hands down the most affordable gym membership available right now. The membership cost for the classic membership is just $10 per month. Most of the centres don’t even ask for any long term commitment.
At some centres the no-commitment membership costs you $15 a month.
The classic membership gives you access to your home club, free training and free wi-fi.
Even the premium membership that they call PF black card at Planet Fitness is cheaper than the basic membership at any other club. It would cost you $22.99 per month and gives you access to all the PF clubs worldwide and has much more perks to offer.
All the memberships have an additional annual fee of $39.
What Are Black Card Membership Perks With Planet Fitness?
Along with everything you get with classic membership the Planet Fitness black card membership gives you following added perks.
- Access to any Planet Fitness worldwide
- Access to one guest with you
- T-shirt
- Key tag
- Free hydromassage
- Unlimited use of tanning
- Total body enhancement
- Use of massage chairs
- 50% discount on drinks
- Worldwide travel discount deals
- 20% discount on reebok.com merchandise
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Is Planet Fitness Black Card Worth It?
The Planet fitness black card comes with many bonuses for you. With just an additional cost of $12.99 per month, it gives you access to any PF club worldwide. With the black card, you can bring a guest with you every time, that effectively makes it membership for two.
The discounts offers that come with black card on drinks, travel deals and other merchandise make it more than worth the price.
It also allows you to use the massage chairs, hydromassage, tanning which is not included in the classic membership package.
Which Membership Is Better At Planet Fitness?
If you compare the costs to benefit of all the memberships offered by Planet Fitness, the PF black card membership is the best. At the monthly price of $22.99 it practically provides access for two at any Planet Fitness club, and also many other additional incentives.
The rules, available equipment, services and the overall atmosphere of the Planet Fitness is not suitable to all. So, if you are looking to get the feel of everything before long term commitment then the no-commitment one month membership is the one for you.
If you are not much of a traveller, wishing to use only your home club and don’t want to spend any significant amount for the gym membership, it is better to go for classic membership at $10 a month.
Is There A Fee To Cancel Planet Fitness?
The existence of cancellation fees depends on the type of membership you took and the duration for which you are a Planet Fitness member.
There will be no cancellation fees if you have opted for the ‘no commitment’ membership. You can opt-out at any time. If you have opted for classic or PF black card membership and you have been a member for more than a year, they won’t charge you any cancellation fees.
There is a provision of $58 cancellation fees if you have taken classic or PF black card 12-month commitment membership and wish to cancel within a year. However, you can negotiate this fees under some circ*mstances.
Can I Freeze My Planet Fitness Membership?
Why would you want to freeze your gym membership? There can be many reasons, but mostly they are around you being on travel or medically unfit to go to the gym for a certain period of time.
If you have an illness, physical injury or some medical condition that prevent you from working out, then you can freeze your Planet Fitness membership for a period up to 3 months. If you are looking to freeze the membership for any other reason, you might have to go for cancellation instead.
What’s So Bad About Planet Fitness?
The equipment, the rules and the overall environment at Planet Fitness are suitable for people who just want to burn some calories and have no serious goals for strength gain and bodybuilding.
Availability of too many cardio equipments and not enough free weights and unavailability of heavy dumbbells or squat rack makes it impossible for a serious lifter to train here.
The rules not allowing you to grunt, do supersets, drop the weights at the end of AMRAP, or banned exercises like deadlifts, overhead press, limit or stop your progress altogether.
To top it all, they offer free Tootsie rolls, pizzas and bagels every now and then, that makes you wonder if it’s a gym or a social gathering club.
Is Planet Fitness Worth The Money?
Well if you have gone through the article you sure know the answer to this question is subjective.
Planet Fitness is a place to go for those who want to start an active lifestyle without being judged for what they currently look like or without feeling any inferiority complex by working out around big muscular guys doing 1000 pound deadlifts.
It is kind of place where you should start doing an internship of active life, and then once you start feeling confident about yourself, move on to another gym to get the real job of strength training and bodybuilding done. At as cheap as $10 per month what more you want.
