24 Hour Fitness (24HF) vs. Las Vegas Athletic Club (LVAC).

Edit 12/20/09:  Haven't been to LVAC in a couple of weeks.  24HF has provided me with more of a support structure while LVAC is more of a go, train, leave kind of place.  There's a handful of instructors there that I absolutely adore but the pull of 24HF has been too strong.  If I had to choose right now, I'd choose 24HF, hands down.


Just like some people have two sets of families, I have two gyms. 24HF is mostly my Monday-Thursday gym and Las Vegas Athletic Club is my Friday-Sunday gym. I joined 24HF first back on July 3rd and I just joined LVAC last week.

My most favorite class instructor is at 24HF so that gym will always have a place in my heart while I live in Vegas. LVAC has over three times the classes, more variety, and classes earlier and later. Since I don't do Yoga or cycling and I'm not interested in the shadow boxing class, there's only ONE class I can take Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays at 24HF, so the variety and sheer amount of classes at LVAC is refreshing.

While 24HF has my favorite instructor, LVAC has my favorite class - BodyCombat, a class based on martial arts.

Another thing I like about LVAC is that I get a free training session a month. And I like my LVAC trainer while I really didn't connect with my 24HF trainer (had four sessions as part of my membership). At LVAC I also have Raquetball court use (which I haven't used yet).

A huge thing for 24HF is that it's closer to my house. LVAC is double the distance. But we're talking 5 vs 10 minutes, not something like 30 mins vs an hour. 24HF is 1.5 miles away, while LVAC is 3.1 miles away (hardly a deal-breaker). But for something that's 1.5 miles away it's more spur-of-the-moment, I-feel-like-working-out-right-now thing.

24HF has a more intimate athmosphere, while LVAC is party central, especially the Zumba classes. There's maybe like 50 people in a huge room exercising, and everyone's moving more or less in sync. It's like being in a dance club with the lights on and a leader. 24HF has a more intimate athmosphere with about 10-20 people per class.

The instructors themselves have for the most part all been great. They are very personable and friendly.

Cost:

24HF: $575 for 36 months prepaid, $15.97 a month. Then it's $80 a year to renew, or $6.67 a month. They CAN raise the rate by a max of 8% a year, which comes out to an extra $6.40 a year starting the second year, but the rate is so low after 10 years it's STILL less than the LVAC renew rate. And they say they haven't raised it in years and years and have no plans to, it's more of a cover your bases disclosure.

LVAC: $806 for 40 months prepaid, $20.15 a month. $172 per year for life to renew, $14.33 a month. This includes Racquetball use and a personal training session a month.

So at first it's $36.12, and then it's $26.82 a month for both. That includes personal training, locations for both gyms, pools, hundreds of classes a week at all hours, and raquetball. It's less than Gold's Gym by itself. It's a tremendous value.