I use Bally's. I got in on their Friends & Family plan and only pay around $200 a year for membership. But, like some other chains, they're starting to increase fees every year.
Bally's is the worst out of all the chains, at least in the LA area. I don't know if they still lock you into a 3 year contract, but that was a ripoff back in the day.
I use 24 Hr Fitness. You can go to Costco and get a 2 year sport membership that averages to about $12-13 a month.
If you're in the San Fernando Valley though, I'd join Powerhouse. All the pro body builders and pornstars go there so everyone is dead serious about working out.
Wirelessly posted (iPhone 4S: Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A405 Safari/7534.48.3)
However they are getting to greedy. They now have Super Sports and Ultra Sports. Of course you can't go to them unless you have a membership to one of those type of clubs and they are not cheap. Of course some folks are being grandfathered in but if you are looking to join a gym I would look at one of the smaller ones. I feel they are way to expensive. If I wasn't on my same payment plan for the past 15 years (15 dollars a month) I wouldn't be going to any of the big chain gyms.
The university's gym. I pay 80 bucks for the whole year, dirt cheap if you ask me (One of my hometown's local gyms has a summer promotion for students at 90$ for 3 months...) Cool thing is, it's not restricted to students and while more expensive, it is still cheaper than other gyms.
Usually my University's gym, but when it was being remodeled over the summer, I signed up at Lifestyle Fitness. Great locker room, good selection of free weights and bars, but it lacked free floor space.
Would anyone with a good workout plan be willing to post one here? I like using dumb bells and not having to rely on a spotter, so nothing too serious.
I lifted consistently for 6-7 months a couple years ago until I screwed my back up doing squats, have gone back to the gym occasionally since then but nothing consistent.
I tried the whole gym thing but hated it. The machines I wanted to use were always being used, interrupting my routine. At $60 a month for membership it just wasn't worth it.
Mainly I just did cardio and light weight training. I realized I could get the same results at home with yoga, proper diet and a treadmill for a lot less money and a great deal more convenience. Yoga also helps a great deal with flexibility and balance.
An extra bonus was not hearing the same songs all the time that they played at the gym. Now I can laugh at Mystery Science Theater 3000 while working out.
YMCA for me and the family. I guess in today's world the Y is probably considered the Luby's of gyms, but it's great for us. The kids have access to the pool and there are plenty of machines and options to go around.
I used to go to 24 Hour and loved it. However, that's only because it was a brand new "Super Sport" or something or rather in a nice end of town. Other ones I went into weren't near as nice.