The Best Workout You Can Get With the World's Worst Management

Better Bodies Fitness Center in Westminster, CO looks much like any other gym when you first enter. They've got all their cardio equipment up front in neat rows - treadmills, stair-steppers, ellipticals, bikes, recumbent bikes, they've even got hand-bikes! Behind those they've got some circuit training, including the much-coveted Cybex circuit. They've got their gym mostly full of resistance machines, with a large area in the back for free-weight machines surrounded by dumbbells in neat racks below mirrored walls. They've got a room nestled in the corner for the really serious lifters where there exist heavy-weight leg machines, and another room for fitness and yoga classes.

What really takes the cake, and makes up for the complete lack of a swimming pool, is the WOMEN'S ONLY fitness room. It's got a full circuit of machines of its own, plus lighter-weight dumbbells and a cardio area. The locker rooms are quite nice too, with carpeted floors instead of the typical tile that scares the hell out of me.

They offer personal training services for as low as $30 per session, and each time you're there for at least half an hour you'll get points added to your account, points that can be put towards clothing, gym bags, even a free year added to your membership. And speaking of the membership, it's really really reasonable. We signed my husband up first for $29.95 per month, and they only charged $15 extra per month when I asked to be added on.

But here's where it begins to get hinky.

The pay schedule as explained to new hires is that they will be making hourly plus commission, getting paid every two weeks. One former employee discovered after his second paycheck also arrived without his commission on it that the pay is actually hourly OR commission - something everyone in management failed to mention.

The music played 90% of the day there is really, really slow. I'm talking slow, sad love songs that have me yawning halfway through my workout. When anyone complains about the music, the employees that DO pay any attention to you simply shrug and explain there isn't anything they can do about the music. They have an extremely high turnover rate - there have been 4 new employees hired in the last month and only two are still there. An employee was forced to quit in November because his Type 1 Diabetes had gotten a bit out of control and he had to be in the hospital for a few days. The manager that forced him to quit is an alcoholic who was drunk at work about 50% of the time, and when he wasn't working he would call from home while drunk to check up on the employees.

Aside from that, the owners of the gym completely ignored complaints from the employees about the manager, and ignored complaints from the customers about the manager.

Several employees and customers have put out the suggestion that since the gym membership list includes so many professional bodybuilders, they ought to add a wall of fame to the gym - a wall of signed pictures from all the athletes who work out there. It would serve as an inspiration to the weightlifters there, something that Gold's Gym has done successfully for years now. The owners still have not moved on that request.

Aside from the blonde valley girl at the front desk who would rather talk on the phone than greet customers, and the terrible management, many of the employees there are very friendly and just as upset with management as I am. The gym is beautiful, the machines well-maintained, the customers always ready to lend a helping hand to a newbie, but I just can't say the same about the management. All they want is money.