Hi there,
As we spent 3 months in Valencia in the summer of 2022, we got into this gym because it had a swimming pool and was relatively close. I did not think about dedicating a post to this gym, but there were so many failures that they earned a publication for the lousy service.
We went to ask prices and to visit the facilities. We were attended by an almost 60-year-old woman with a lot of makeup who was wearing such high heels with which she could hardly even walk. In fact, she tripped going down the stairs and nearly hit a wall.
She gave us the information and was rolling her eyes up all the time, looking like she was going to have a stroke. Then we noticed that she rolled her eyes when she was lying.
We decided to join that very day because we needed to start training as soon as possible and because it seemed halfway decent.
The first good thing is that guided activities were reserved through an app and there was a limited space in each class so that each person had the necessary material insured. In addition to registration and monthly fees, you had to pay for the bracelet that was used to access the center, use the lockers, and mark attendance when arriving at class.
Each of us paid:
- Tuition: 42,65eur
- Monthly: 26,55eur
- Wrist: 5,60eur
Another positive aspect is that the facilities were new and there was enough equipment.
We started on a Wednesday doing the BodyPump class which is one of my favorite LesMills programs. To my surprise, the trainer was a mess. He was late, he didn’t ask if there was someone new (which all instructors should do), he didn’t correct or explain the exercises, he was playing songs which is not done in any LesMills program and to top it off, he made the classes shorter.
The next day we went to the BodyCombat class, and it was taught by the same guy, so again it was a disaster.
It should be noted that in his classes everyone was lost, no one kept the rhythm, and they did all the exercises wrong.
We asked at reception if there was any reason for the trainer not to follow the LesMills methodology and the receptionist didn’t even know who was teaching the class. She told us that she would mention it to her boss but that we should speak directly with the guy.
The next day, after another disastrous class, I asked him why he didn’t teach the LesMills program properly. He began to make up a story that he had been one of the first to teach LesMills programs in the world and that he had traveled all over Latin America working as a sports instructor. His explanation for teaching the class so badly was that “he was bored” and that’s why he kept changing songs.
It should be noted that the songs he put on were from choreographies from more than 10 years ago.
Since neither the receptionist nor the monitor had paid any attention to us, we decided to leave reviews on Google to see if someone paid attention to us and realized that the instructor was teaching the classes wrong.
Two or three days later, the lady who had shown us around the gym ran after Diego when she saw him leave to ask what had happened. We explained it to her and the only thing the lady did was roll her eyes and say that everyone spoke wonders about that fitness center. In addition, she said that she was surprised that we had left the review without having spoken to any of the staff first. We told her that we had spoken with the receptionist who had not bothered to give her the feedback and with the trainer who had told us that he taught classes like this because he was bored.
If you see the negative reviews of the gym, almost all of them are because of the morning receptionist named Diana. This lady is rude and incompetent, but despite all the negative reviews and all the clients the gym has lost because of her, no one has thought of firing her.
Here you can see my review and the response of the lady:
In the response, she said that the LeMills programs began to be only 45 minutes long during the pandemic so that there was time to disinfect between classes, but that an email had already been sent to all the instructors so that they could start doing the full 60-minute classes.
Regarding the cleaning issues, they did absolutely nothing.
It was all a lie because the monitor Cristian, who was the one who taught all the classes in the morning, kept arriving late and doing the classes wrong.
At the beginning of July, he was on medical leave for a week and logically, they put other trainers to replace him.
For BodyCombat, an obese guy who didn’t know that program showed up and taught another disastrous class that lasted exactly 33 minutes. The class consisted of jumping from one side to another without any sense. In addition, there is the fact of placing an obese person to teach in a gym. Spain is the only country in the world in which I have seen fat people working as fitness trainers.
Seeing that the instructors in the morning were clowns, I decided to ask at the reception who would teach the next class to know if we had to make the reservation or not.
As always, the receptionist did not know anything and was not able to ask someone who did know to give the information that the client was requesting. In any normal gym, the reception staff knows perfectly well which instructor is teaching each class.
Fortunately, for the BodyPump substitutions they put a monitor who, in addition to being in excellent physical condition, gave an impeccable and professional class. At the end, I asked him what time he gave his classes and unfortunately, he was only in the afternoon.
We thought about changing gyms, but the ones that had a pool were far from us and it meant wasting time looking for another gym. It didn’t suit us for the short time we were going to spend in Valencia. But the truth is that for the trainers that were there, it was much better to do the classes at home watching the choreography on television.
In August we were lucky that Cristian, the morning monitor, went on vacation for the whole month and Ximo remained, who had replaced him at the beginning of July, teaching all the morning classes. That month was pure happiness for me, to the point that I woke up at 5:40AM as if floating on a cloud.
Even people who were used to doing everything wrong for years, got better thanks to Ximo. A good monitor, which should be normal, there it was like seeing a unicorn.
If I had continued to live in Valencia after August, I would have changed to another gym since I couldn’t switch to the afternoon schedule.
In short, this is another example of how things work in Spain. A gym that could be wonderful for the facilities and equipment ends up being bad for having such a mediocre staff.