Pump or Dump: Ranking Gyms in Tulsa
By: Cooper Williams & Ethan Logan
Working out is a very important part of living a healthy and productive life. It is also important to gain the habit as a teen and bring it into your early stages of adulthood. Working out not only makes you feel healthier, but it can also help your overall appearance and self-esteem.
This month, we went to the top 6 most popular gyms in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and ranked them in various categories such as: price (day pass & membership), hours of operation, bathrooms/ locker rooms (shower, towels, clean), sauna/steam room, machines (cleanliness, quantity, brand, type, variety), free weights (quantity, weight, variety), equipment (barbells, handles, grips, chalk), rules, busyness, and amenities (pools, basketball, classes). The following information is the result of our investigation of said gyms:
Crunch: 7.4
Location Visited: 7827 E 91st St, Tulsa, OK 74133
Price: (Day Pass & Membership): $10-$37 for memberships, Guest passes are $10
Bathrooms/ Locker rooms: No towels given out. There were lockers for your use for free. The showers are clean and well-maintained.
Machines: The Machines at Crunch had some congestion, causing some wait, but overall felt pretty good and had some diversity.
Free weights: The platforms and racks had lots of opportunities. But the dumbbells and their benches were a bit of a different story. There were lots of people competing for a small number of benches and dumbbells.
Environment: Overall, everybody was just there to work out. If you wanted or needed advice it was a crowd willing to help. It had a welcoming vibe as well, marketing to everyone.
Equipment: Kind of minimal, there were not a whole lot of grips to choose from. Also, there was no chalk offered for a better grip.
Busyness: Between 8-9:30 on a Friday, it was a little busy. There were some issues trying to get a machine or two, but overall, there were no issues.
Amenities: Crunch had a turf field as well as a sauna. They also offered trainers and classes for sign-up.
Genesis: 8.6
Location Visited: 10121 S Sheridan Rd, Tulsa, OK 74133
Hours of operation: The hours depend on the day. It’s 5-10 pm throughout the week, but on weekends it closes at 9 and opens at 7.
Price: For anyone younger than 18, the membership is about 40 dollars a month, and for anyone over 18, it is about 70. Genesis’ prices are not labeled inside or anywhere on the website.
Bathroom/locker room situation: The gym offers a free towel service and personal lockers that are locked with either a key or code each visit. The locker rooms are spacious and organized. There are a good number of showers too.
Machines: The machines at Genesis have lots of variety. Machines such as a hack squat are present, which tends to be uncommon. Though some of the machines are on the older side, they do the job and do it well. There is also more cardio than anyone could possibly know what to do with.
Free Weights: There are 4 squat racks, a deadlift platform that also does hip thrust, a hip thrust platform, and dumbbells that go up to 120 pounds. There are three types of benches to adjust and choose from to best suit your workout.
Environment: The lighting in Genesis is quite awful, as it’s really dark and depressing. Also, the lighting is very inconsistent between places in the gym; there are some areas of the gym that are dark, and others that are very bright. Windows or differently colored walls would help out the environment a lot.
Busyness: Genesis at almost any time of the day is easy to get a workout in. You’ll almost never have to wait for a machine due to nobody using it or there being another one.
Amenities: Genesis has both a sauna and a steam room, certain locations have a pool, hot tub, and basketball courts, there are trainers and classes, a spa, and a Shake Cafe.
Lifetime: 7.7
Location Visited: 10642 S Memorial Dr, Tulsa, OK 74133
Hours of Operation: 4 am-12 am every day of the week
Price: $99-$179 Monthly, it depends on which aspects of lifetime you desire to use. There are certain aspects you cannot use with the lower-level memberships.
Bathrooms/ Locker rooms: The locker room and lockers all work and are clean and nice. There is a towel service and showers that are free to use. The locker room is also massive; it doesn’t feel crowded unless there are multiple people in a section.
Machines: Honestly, for the price, the machines are very underwhelming. They lack machines, such as their hack squat, and have machines that don’t work very well, such as their dip machine. There is also very little variety and opportunities for machines due to the small number of them. There are lots of cardio machines, though, such as treadmills, stairmasters, ellipticals, and more.
Free Weights: There is a decent amount of dumbbells and benches, but there could definitely be more. However, there are lots of squat racks and deadlift platforms so olympic lifts and compound lifts are covered. There is almost always one open too.
Environment: The environment is nice in Lifetime due to the lighting and the amount of windows, providing a lot of natural light. It gives a very pleasant vibe and is just enjoyable to be in, too.
Busyness: Lifetime is very, very busy. It is honestly overwhelming and can be difficult to get a lift in. There are constantly people there doing all sorts of things, making machines hard to get your hands on sometimes. Also, the road that lifetime is built on is Memorial, and that road is very busy, making it annoying and difficult to get to.
Amenities: This is the aspect that lifetime really shines through on. Lifetime has both an indoor and outdoor pool, a hot tub and cold plunge, a sauna and steam room, basketball courts, rock climbing, pickleball, a cafe, a spa for haircuts, a massage lounge, and a variety of different classes and trainers.
Ten gym: 8.1
Location Visited: 3014 W Main St, Jenks, OK 74037
Price (Day Pass & Membership): The base membership is about 20$ a month while as you upgrade they can go up to 35$. The day pass was about 16 dollars post-tax.
Hours of Operation: Ten Gym is open all day everyday.
Bathrooms/ Locker rooms: Half of the towels in the bathroom were out, clean bathrooms were needed, and more space was needed in the bathroom. Looked mopped recently and upkept. Sauna/steam room: Just a sauna at the gym. 192 degrees, which is on the warmer side.
Machines: (cleanliness, quantity, brand, type, variety) “Felt like butter.” There was a great selection, but it needed more isolation leg exercises.
Free weights: Lots of squat racks and deadlift platforms. The preferred material felt like rubber and was of good quality.
Environment: The lighting throughout the gym was very bright, almost unsettling. Walking in felt like a warehouse with walls, and I could see all of it from the entrance. With that being said, the people that we met were very kind and aware of their surroundings, too.
Equipment: (barbells, handles, grips, chalk) There was no chalk, but lots of handles and grips. There was lots of variety for anything and everything a gymgoer could desire to achieve their best lift.
Busyness: Between 7-9 am, we did not have to wait for any machines, free weights, or racks.
Amenities: Ten Gym, like most of the other gyms listed, has a sauna and turf field. They also offer training for members who desire it.
Planet Fitness: 6.5
Location Visited: 1331 E 71st St, Tulsa, OK 74136
Price (Day Pass & Membership): $10 day pass, Memberships range from $15-25 per month
Hours of Operation: Planet Fitness’ hours of operation are all day, every day.
Bathrooms/ Locker rooms: For the amount of people it was pretty clean and well kept. For the amount of people that go through, I think that more showers/space in them would be a good addition. They do not provide free towels, though, but for one of the most public gyms I wouldn’t expect it.
Machines: Many Planet Fitness’ are adding squat racks into their layout, but the specific one visited has not added them in yet. The only kind of squat pattern you can get is from the smith machine. Recently, though, for other body parts, I would say they have added good pieces to the arm, shoulder, and back machines.
Free weights: This is pretty bad; the dumbbells at the location visited range from 5 to 75 pounds. This isn’t enough weight, not even close, even for an intermediate lifter; this would not be heavy enough for various lifts.
Environment: I spoke too soon; this is definitely the worst part. Those who have not been to a Planet Fitness, the color scheme is purple, they have a “Lunk Alarm” which is a “loud, siren-based, staff-activated system designed to deter behaviors like grunting, dropping weights, or acting intimidatingly, fostering a "Judgment Free Zone,"” but in reality, this is counterproductive. The gym isn’t meant to be a library; it’s meant for people to be able to work out.
Equipment: Not many extra things, because the gym is intended for beginners but the basics that they have aren’t bad. Basic movement patterns and machines that are good/easy for progressive overload.
Busyness: Between 4-6 pm, it was what we expected: BUSY. Waiting for machines, not much space to breathe.
Amenities: There isn’t really anything special that Planet Fitness offers. It has the typical gym equipment.
Finding a good place to exercise is a very important step in staying healthy, because staying healthy is more than just cardio or weights. It can be difficult to find a place that works for you. Based on our investigation of a few gyms across Tulsa, we have a couple of results. If you are under 18 and are looking for a good gym to do cardio or lift, Genesis is most likely your best option. If you are 18 or older, looking for the same thing, Ten Gym is likely your best option. If you are looking for very specific training and high-level cardio, or specific exercises or hobbies, with less of a care for weights, Lifetime is a great option and proves worthy of its heavy price.
