First Choice Fitness - Cañon City, Colorado

Lindsey M.

I've been going to this gym since I was a child. It feels like home in there. The trainers are all certified and the environment is young-adult- retiree. It's always clean and I never feel uncomfortable working out. I'll continue to keep coming back whenever I'm home. I looked forward to it for months, in fact.

Caiden A.

Is a great gym in itself but staff is severely lacking I have called and attempted to come in during staffed hours over 4 times and have been sent to voice mail or there was genuinely no staff there.

Guy G.

I took a tour of the gym. It’s a great workout environment and well organized. I am impressed by the equipment and cleanliness. I would recommend First Choice to anyone who enjoys a well trained and knowledgable staff. The owner is passionate about his gym!
- Guy

Janey B.

Great place to workout. Wished exercise equipment was more updated and there was a swimming pool to use. The monthly price is very reasonable.

Matthew H.

Well there aren't really any actual gyms in the canon city area...this is a small room with some old equipment. Treadmills skip, ellipticals are awful, weight room is a mess, poorly fixed holes in ceiling, equipment is worn out etc. About what you'd expect but it's quiet, staff has always been helpful. Probably better than the other option in town.

I would recommend avoiding this place in the summer...there is essentially no A/C...its a 1500 sqft building that's cooled off with enough A/C to cool a college dorm room so it's always humid and hot.

Pool is awesome and price is acceptable.

Samantha B.

To be honest, First Choice Fitness wasn't my first choice. BUT--after having gym-shopped for several months, I don't regret having chosen it for my Fitness needs. It's a hometown gym with a very hometown feel ... actually, it kind of reminds me of working out in someone's basement. It's got it's pros and cons, but in the end I'm happy with my choice.

Admittedly, I'm fairly new in town and I come from St. Louis--home of world class gyms with lots of features for super-low monthly prices. I was a little surprised when I found out that Cañon City gyms lack most of the features I'm used to and charge up to 5x more than I'm used to paying for much, much less. Like I said, I shopped gyms in Cañon City for several months--even waiting over 6 months for the new gym in town to open. Gone are the days of Cardio-Flix, Red-Light Therapy, Aqua Massage, Tanning and all the normal gym necessities for the low price of $19.99 a month for me, I guess.

So, what made me chose First Choice? One, it had some of the lowest membership prices in town, without all of the application fees and so forth. Its proximity to my house helped out, too. 24 hour access was huge, as well. First Choice also had the MOST features that I'm used to-- tanning, classes, pool, dry sauna ... all included with membership. Some of the other gyms I was looking at charged extra for some of those things. Another thing that was huge to me that I was honestly shocked to see missing in the other gyms was a complete lack of locker rooms. Some just had open cubby holes to put your stuff in. The locker rooms at First Choice Fitness are small, but they ARE there ... honestly that might have been the biggest selling point for me. I also liked the laid-back atmosphere ... I just kind of feel free to come in and do my thing. Even the tanning portion doesn't require any sort of sign-up or anything; if the room's empty, you go in there and do your thing. The people who work there seem nice and helpful enough, though in general they're pretty stand-offish. Not a bad thing. I'm sure if they were asked for help, they'd be super helpful and knowledgable. I like the atmosphere in general--encouraging posters everywhere and there's even a little table set up with tape measures and other equipment to track your progress. It never feels very busy, and there's a good mixture of people I've seen going in and out of there and I've never felt judged. Everyone just kind of does their own thing, which works for me. For what I'm in there to do, it works.

So, why three stars? Even though I feel like First Choice tries pretty hard to maintain a nice place, it's a little old and outdated in a lot of ways. While, yeah--it could probably benefit HUGELY from some fresh paint and stuff, I'm more concerned about the equipment. A lot of it is pretty old, even though it's claimed to be "state-of-the-art" ... perhaps for the late 90's, but some of it is a little outdated. Most of the weight machines are extremely rusty, which makes adjusting some of them really difficult. It makes it hard for me to justify paying so much for membership, even if it is some of the cheapest in the area. Some improvements that I think would really help the place out are some cosmetic changes--I think some paint on those stark white walls would really help the atmosphere out. An improved water fountain would be nice. But mainly it would be good to see some new equipment ... a Cybex ArcTrainer would be awesome, and maybe a rowing machine. The weight machines work okay, but it would be nice to get newer versions of the ones that are super rusted.

Bottom line, First Choice Fitness probably offers the best bang for your buck in Cañon City Fitness. With locker rooms, a sauna, a pool, classes and tanning included in membership it's the closest you're going to get to those big city gym perks I'm spoiled on for so much less. If you're looking for a place to go to focus on your health, First Choice isn't a bad place to grow.

Jeff P.

I love this gym! They have alot of great equipment to hit any body parts you wish as well as a bunch of good cardio machines! I love getting my sweat on here!

Zachary M.

Pretty decent place. Fair equipment, decent staff, best bang-for-your-buck gym