Goodlife Health Clubs, opinions please

[Dichotomy]

Good Life is okay, I suppose. I usually use the location in the Manulife Tower (free parking) because I know I won't walk that far in horrible weather (which is about 9 months of the year.) This location is a retirement home. The average age is about 70 during the day. A lot of residents of the apartment tower use the facilities, plus as one of the few remaining indoor 'public' pools downtown it attracts a lot of seniors. The morning is tolerable as far as crowding. The afternoons/evenings attract a younger crowd, but the place is busy. Be prepared to wait for everything. There are arguments over the music in this place. I watched as one man in his late '40s stormed out because they were playing hip-hop. I've found the front desk is reasonable (all the people that work there are, like, 20 years old) if asked nicely.
Since Good Life bought the Bloor Park club, you can use your membership there, although they charge $2 for towels. This club is much bigger, brighter and has nicer facilities. Much younger crowd. The renovation they did (under Sports Clubs of Canada) about 6 years ago resulted in the loss of their swimming pool. I used to go to Bloor Park in the early '80s and it was smaller but had a pool.
The facilities at Islington/Bloor are decent, although I've only used it once.

 

[Urban Shocker]

We have a fitness centre at "work" that's a bargain for $5 a week. I use it four times a week to run and cycle.

In the late '80s I used to go to Superfitness at the north-east corner of University and Dundas. They had a nice track. The steroid-enhanced butterball musclequeens, glancing down to admire their own crab-like arms every few minutes and glowering at anyone who came too close to their exercise equipment, were a hoot.

 

[daveto]

I had a membership with the old Sports Clubs of Canada and loved their various locations (Bloor Park, Eglinton were my favourites)

Having not had a gym membership now for the past 7 years (just the office gym, yoga classes etc), I'm presently looking for a gym membership and I'm surprised at how difficult it is! Maybe all of the small in-condo and in-office gyms have served to segment the workout crowd?

I found the following site http://www.myfit.ca/gym_ratings/viewall.asp?search=Toronto&state=Ontario&country=Canada that provides user feedback on gyms.

Check out Extreme Fitness! Holy crap, I've never read such a diatribe of complaints.

A shame since their Richmond location seems perfect for me (and I'm actually heading in for a looksee in a few day - lol - I've printed off the complaints and will look forward to seeing what they have to say).

I've similarly heard varying degrees of satisfaction with GoodLife (although nothing as vitriolic as the Extreme reviews)

I'm on a trial membership at Totum Life Sciences, which I like but the club is too small and has too few classes for me.

So my present frontrunner choice is the Yorkville clubs http://www.theyorkvilleclub.com/ although they are pretty pricey and not in the downtown location I like.