Retro Fitness

Beware when signing up for personal training classes. I have been going to this gym for about 2 years now (Jersey City - Garfield). The staff is super friendly and I can say they do their best to keep the gym clean. A few weeks ago I was approached by one of the PT managers to sign up for PT; I shared my reasons as to why I wouldn’t want to join and he convinced me to give it a try. I give it a try sign up, ask if I could cancel at any time. They said yes but conveniently decided not share the fact that I would get charged a 50% fee of my total balance if I wanted to cancel. I tried to speak to them and reason as to how these are very shady practices. Also the agreement states that all sessions must be 30 min, which one of my sessions was not. Regardless, they basically told me that there’s nothing that can be done and will continue to charge me until I decide to cancel and pay the fee which is about ($400). So to break it all down, when you sign up there’s NO WAY to get out of this contract even if you have to move, if they don’t adhere to their side of the contract, or if it’s just not working for you. It really sucks that it comes down to this, this gym was so convenient for me and I really was not thinking about leaving any time soon.

I have recently joined Retro Fitness Bayonne with the Ultimate membership and I am overall satisfied with the Bayonne location. However, my experience with the Jersey City/Twin City location hasn't been very pleasant.First, let's go with the pros.Staff, similar to the Bayonne location, is friendly. Also, there's free parking since this gym is located near other stores and there's a big parking lot so even during peak hours you can find parking.The gym isn't big but it has decent equipment and the percentage of broken machines is small which is good. It does get crowded after 5pm but that's the case with the gyms in the area. Gym is clean, including the bathrooms which is good. The annoyance of people leaving stuff in the lockers without a pad lock is present so if you go during busy hours get ready to open at least 10 lockers until you find an empty one. Once again, this is a problem at other locations, I hope there was someone to check this and enforce the rules so that people can start locking their stuff.Now the cons.I live 2 blocks away from a Planet Fitness location but the main reason I joined Retro Fitness is because of the group classes. My wife takes Zumba and Body Combat and I take Spin classes. The Twin City location only offers Spin classes 3 days a week at 6pm and if the instructor is off by any chance there is no coverage. I took a Spin class for the first time yesterday and although the instructor was friendly, the class was very bad. It wasn't a true spin class. Lots of push ups on the handlebar and the exercises were all over the place. The worst thing in my opinion was when everyone was supposed to pedal backwards. I'm a experienced cyclist and I've been taking hundreds of Spin classes for the past 20 years and I've never seen such a thing. Pedal backwards?Also, this location doesn't update the website/app so according to their site there are Spin classes 6 days a week including Friday and Saturday which isn't true. Also, there are no Zumba classes on Saturdays although they are listed on their website. I'm disappointed because that was one of the reasons I joined Retro Fitness. If you want to know the correct schedule you need to call them every day or go there in person and check the board they have near the front desk.For now I will stick with the Bayonne location. If the twin city location ends up hiring better spin instructors or adding more classes I will update my review.*** Note to owner with canned response - I have already expressed my concerns on my review. If you read it all you will see my complaints and the reason I did not give this gym 5 stars ***

Nelsa is so rude the front short receptionist. The way she talks to guests is extremely disrespectful rude and disturbing I asked her one question about paying my bill she proceeded to scream and carry on and demanded I go to another location when she’s helped me before every time I come in she just has SOMETHING going on ! What is the issue nelsa ? I know we are all adults and have bad days but it can’t be everyday please get rid of this women retro I’m begging you

Twin City is the cleanest facility. The staff and trainers are great.

To many people in a small space weights are thrown everywhere no cleaning wipes just a spray bottle. .. Machines are always broken

The Zumba is great, nice space, multiple machines that are the same so you don’t have to wait for someone else to stop using them, great protein shakes!

pretty crowded, not enough compound movement machines (2 benches and 2 squat racks which wouldn’t be a problem if it wasn’t so crowded), and only of each machine for the most part so on leg days expect to be waiting for a machine almost every time

Great gym, and Sam at the front is the best, always treats everyone with respect and is very friendly!

I wish i could say i am satisfied as i have seen significant progress, but at the same time i am incredibly disappointed and if i could i would give a 2.5. For starters, they don’t have very good leg machines. Which most hardcore-lifters tend to stray away from but this is still a huge issue for intermediate and beginner lifters as this is where they’ll begin to build muscle in their legs so they can progress. I still even use these leg machines and they basically suck. For instance most are incredibly difficult to adjust like their machine (not plated) leg press. From the amount of times i’ve done legs here (which is rare because this gym isn’t really the best to do legs at) i’ve always had people asked me if i need help adjusting. (which is good usually the crowd here are super polite and helpful). Their plated leg press is pretty good though. Another issue i have is with their hamstring machine. because the top half pressed way too hard into my quads comparatively to any other gym i’ve used. Not only that their ab machines really do suck. I’ve used most of them and as a previous consistent individual when it came to abs i lost most if not all of my progress because of how bad these machines are. They are just incredibly difficult to use. (plus i refuse to do cable crunches mainly because when i kneel on their floor some of the black stuff on the floor rub off on my sweaty knees and it hurts more to scrub it off, i can’t say this is a problem on the cleaning staffs end but more of a problem with their flooring.) These few things have made me consider leaving but i wouldnt because of how excellent their machines are for upper body. (Their cycling machines also suck to sit on and i’m a pretty thin individual). Other than all of this, i would bump it up if it wasn’t for these things honestly.

This gym is completely disgusting every morning. No one cleans it the night before