Planet Fitness is a budget chain gym that has exploded in popularity due to their clean premises and cheap prices. They are best known for catering to fitness noobs and cardio bunnies.
Planet Fitness officially forbids tank tops and water jugs. They believe that these lead to 'gymtimidation', which is their super creative term for noobs getting scared by the mere sight of people who look like they lift. If you get put off by seeing the results of somebody's hard work, then maybe you're not ready for the gym. Tank tops are by far the most comfortable gym clothes, and if I had to wear a cotton t-shirt during cardio I'd probably resent the gym, too.
Planet Fitness doesn't have barbells. Apparently they used to have barbells, but each franchise eventually abandoned their power racks and benches in exchange for Smith machines. Smith machines are problematic for a number of reasons, primarily because they cause muscle imbalances and make you think you can actually bench 2 plates when the bar only weighs 15ibs. Almost every workout program utilizes barbell exercises, some ONLY contain barbell exercises, which makes Planet Fitness unideal for almost anybody interested in building muscle.
Planet Fitness dumbbells typically only go up to 60ibs. This isn't always true, some have dumbbells higher than that, but it's been the case in my experience. Once you've been lifting for longer than a few months, you should be using much heavier weights for some movements (trap shrugs, stiff-legged deadlifts, bench). You'll get to that point, realize you're stuck in a 12 month contract, hit 5 sets of 30 fucking reps, and then what? You gotta start doing pre-exhausting techniques, but for how long? With these limits, Planet Fitness is never a good long term plan for people who want to lift.
Planet Fitness has a 'Lunk Alarm' that it will ring if somebody drops a weight. Not kidding, they are infamously known for this shit. There is video proof of it being used. I joined a Planet Fitness one summer and was there 6 days a week usually from 5am -7am, and never saw it go off. It was in a poor area of Manhattan, so there were huge gang guys there dropping shit all the time, but it never went off. Still, just the idea of the alarm is enough to piss people off.
Planet Fitness demonizes bodybuilders. All of these rules and regulations lead to one conclusion: they don't want bodybuilders, and they want all their customers to know that they don't want bodybuilders. Why wouldn't they want bodybuilders? Aren't bodybuilders the quintessential gym-goer? NO. Bodybuilders are terrible for gyms, especially cheap ones. They use the equipment everyday and wear that shit out, and the gym will need to replace it all sooner. Planet Fitness, at a paltry $10 a month, needs people who will pay their money and never come and wear out the machines. Who are they? People who are not fit, don't have the dedication to become fit, and get scared by people who are fit. I understand that the gym discriminates against people who work hard to improve their lives for financial reasons, but it's still a dick move.
All that being said, my only experience at Planet Fitness was positive. I was an early morning regular, so I got to know the guys who worked there, and they were all chill. I wore tank tops and never got called out. I had no trouble canceling over the phone, despite being warned it would be a problem. These gyms probably vary by location, and I just got lucky.
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