Our quest for a good local gym continues. Today we stopped by the Lacey Athletic Club [1] which just opened. It was disappointing to say the least.

As soon as we walked in we noticed that all the cardio equipment was by one company, Star Trac. Neither of us are huge fans of the Star Trac cardio line; they just don't fit us all that well. At our last gym, no one ever rode the star-trac bikes because of their bad fit.

As we continued on our tour, we discovered that ALL the equipment in the club was made by that one company. That was one of the things that I hated most about our last gym, which was all Nautilus brands, but at least they had some variety in the cardio.

While you may be able to get a great deal by buying all your equipment at one place, you are not thinking of your customer's needs when you do that. You may end up paying more to get a good variety, but in the long run your customers will be happier if you get the best of each type of equipment.

I would much rather join a gym that bought a good variety of individually selected used equipment, over one that just goes to one of these manufacturers and just orders some sort of "gym kit". It may be an appealing image to novices, but it is just plain disappointing to those of us with some experience.

Update: We did pick up one day passes to try out the club anyway. I'm not real impressed with a club that will only give you one day to try them out, but since I've already pretty much written off this club, it isn't worth worrying about.

So we decided to at least give them a try, but when we called to get their hours, we find out that they close at 10 PM on weekdays and at something like 6 PM on weekends.

This club might work out for some people, but it's completely off my list now.

UPDATE 2: A reader has informed me that the club is now open 24 hours on weekdays, and till 10 on weekends.