After years with 24 Hour Fitness I'm in the market for a new gym. I currently use the Rice Village location, but since Midtown closed it's gotten inconveniently crowded, and this is the slow time of year.

Right now I'm leaning toward Equinox based on coworker recs, but am stuck in the idea of spending $200+ a month on a membership.

Amex Platinum gives a yearly $300 credit for equinox and they run a lot of 0 initiation deals, but still expensive for that it is.

If you want a nicer gym, you're probably stuck with equinox or lifetime. If you want a cheap gym, there's always LA Fitness.

The Core is pretty close too. Never been, but looks like a more "serious" gym.

The Core is a serious gym. Next Level is another option.

The LA Fitness above Costco is one of their premier locations and is nice and spacious and much cheaper. Less amenities than Equinox but I think they provide towels.

There is a nice lifetime in Greenway. It used to be a club corp City Club, but lifetime has taken it over and remodelled it.

That Lifetime's rate makes Equinox look like a bargain.

yeah, but there is a lot more to the Lifetime than the Equinox. I was pretty underwhelmed by the setup at Equinox.

Great club ... if you want to hookup with the seriously narcissistic gay population that frequents the club and its sauna.

F3, a free men's workout with a good number of locations ITL.
https://f3houston.com/

I gave Equinox a shot this morning and actually liked the setup. It was busy by their standards, and I still never had to wait for a piece of equipment. I timed my workout and was around 20 minutes faster at Equinox than the same workout at 24 Hour mostly due to the lack of waiting for someone to finish scrolling Instagram and get through their sets. I still think it's expensive for what it is but will probably pull the trigger once I exhaust my free trial.

yeah, the gym itself is fine.

I was just expecting more amenities for their price point when I toured it a few years ago.

You typed the JCC recently? We are thinking of joining there.

yeah, I joined up a few weeks ago. Very nice setup now.

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but I think they provide towels.

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I think they are supposed to but it was pretty spotty. And that was before Covid. It was a nice gym when I was going there, about 10 years ago.

jh0400 said:

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24 Hour mostly due to the lack of waiting for someone to finish scrolling Instagram and get through their sets.

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What I hate so much about Lifetime (Champions and Citycentre). But the company I work for covers quite a bit of the monthly fee and it is convenient. Miss the other building and having our own gym.

FarmerJohn said:

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but I think they provide towels.

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I think they are supposed to but it was pretty spotty. And that was before Covid. It was a nice gym when I was going there, about 10 years ago.

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I went once around a year ago, paid the $10 fee to use the nicer gym, and there were no towels. I thought maybe because it was a Sunday. Should've asked for a refund.

If you have Blue Cross Blue Shield insurance, the Greenway Lifetime offers a discount that is hard to beat, $99 per month.

Houstonian or Briar Club, if you have the means.

The Briar Club broadcasts a two year wait list. We've been seeing new members actual wait be about nine months though.

$5k to get on the list, $45k when you get the call up.

damn, I got excited about this for the Lifetime Tennis access, but seeing they're bumping up the prices for ELITE packages to $129. F that noise.