DH
DeShannon Hatala
Jun 22, 2026
I have been a member for almost a year, and I will not be renewing my membership. I don’t have any issue with the staff because I’m not much of a chit-chatter, and my interactions have been minimal, except for one instance that I won’t get into here.
I will say, however, that I don’t find the trainers particularly helpful. One day, I watched a girl struggling on the floor doing BSS while a group of trainers stood nearby talking amongst themselves, and no one offered to help. Maybe they didn’t notice her, but as an employee, if you don’t have clients at the moment, you should be walking the floor. If you see someone struggling or looking confused, offer assistance. That’s part of the job, and it could even help bring in future clients.
I will say the location is convenient, and there is plenty of parking. I live in Bethesda, closer to the downtown Bethesda OneLife, but that location is old and, for what they charge, not worth it at all, contrary to what they seem to believe.
The Pike & Rose location is small and extremely crowded — too crowded. You often have to wait for machines, and they simply don’t have enough equipment or even enough free benches available. The classes held near the small turf area are also incredibly loud. Some instructors play the music so loudly that I can hear their music better than my own through my Beats headphones.
The stretching mats are low quality, and there isn’t much room if you want to bring your own. Honestly, they probably should have moved into the former LA Fitness space, which is now occupied by Club Studio.
The locker rooms are fine and generally clean, but they should have a place inside the locker rooms to drop dirty towels, especially considering the washers and dryers are just down the hall. Instead, the towel drop is outside the locker room.
They also don’t have a bathroom on the main gym floor, so if you need to use the restroom, you have to walk to the locker room on a different floor because that’s your only option. That’s definitely a design flaw. I understand the building may have originally been designed that way, but that should have been considered before opening the location, and they should have installed an additional restroom. When The St. James remodeled in Bethesda, they added bathrooms outside the locker rooms on the lower level, specifically for client convenience.
So, as soon as I can, I’ll be setting up my cancellation and moving to a gym that offers more space, more equipment, and better equipment options overall.