Lovely 'lipstick' renovation looks great. New floors and new paint make the interior look as fresh…read moreas the enthusiastic (and mostly young) coaches.

Wow, love the new Worldclass floor! TAISO offers terrific pre-school and school age programs for…read moreall children. Great fun and exercise at the same time.

Elena & Tatyana are amazing managers--always friendly, approachable, and make every member feel…read moretruly welcome, like part of the GoodLife family! Out of all the gyms in HRM, Penhorn is my favorite.

Not a fan. And it's…read morenot entirely fair. There are lots of things to love (good location, great classes, wonderful class schedule) but the cons are also strong. The biggest issue, let's talk about the people. I'm not talking about the staff; they're almost always great. I'm referring instead to the other patrons. I often get the feeling this is a "Look at me! Look at me!" gym. Which is not what I'm looking for in a gym. The body types here aren't as broad as some other locations; you're dealing with mostly fit 20/30somethings who are going to maintain their good bodies. And, hey, good for them. But there's definitely a lot of flash as well. Too many guys making too much grunting noise when lifting their weights. Too many women wearing crazy-expensive workout wear in yoga classes. The equipment is usually in good repair and most people seem to know how to use it most of the time. The layout is a bone of contention. In theory, I like the idea. In reality, I always find it awkward and difficult to navigate. So, while it may not be for me, it definitely deserves 3 stars at least.

It seems peculiar to me to write a review about a vast, fairly empty piece of land. The Common is a…read morelarge chunk-o-field in the middle of the city, with a few baseball diamonds, a fountain, and some trees thrown in for good measure. Now that spring is showing its sunny little face around these parts, I feel compelled to run, skip and dance my way down to the field and play about until night fall. The Common is such a lovely plot of communal land for all to share and is especially wonderful for those of us who don't have back yards to play in. Yesterday morning, I enjoyed a brief yoga session with myself prior to work. Since I cross the land everyday I head downtown, I felt that not stopping yesterday when it was so epically beautiful out would have been a travesty. I love that this space is available to all who wish to use it. You don't need to ask anyone if you can do hand stands or throw a ball around, it's just there waiting for you to visit - no permission needed. In the summer, I walk a couple of blocks blanket in hand, and set up shop on the grass. With my notebook I could lay all day, writing and watching the people pass. On most days, you can find friendly dogs chasing sticks, and on some special afternoons you can watch kites tipping and dipping across the sky. Oh Common, thank you for being such a consistent sunny day companion.

If you are looking to get the kids out on a nice sunny day or just looking to throw a ball around…read morethen drop by the Halifax Commons. As well the Commons has hosted a few concerts such as Kiss and this summer is the Black Eyed Peas. The Commons itself is a large grassy area that is cut with baseball diamonds on each corner and in the summer time are normally stocked with baseball teams having a blast. In the surrounding area there is a playground that houses alot of little creatures meaning kids running around on any given day. Great slides and monkey bars to swings and tunnels. As well it also has that spongy turf under it so when the kids falls from running they do not skin their knees. Right beside that is the Skateboard park that will always leave you gasping when they do their jumps and flips on the boards and bikes. All these areas seem to be growing in popularity. One suggestion that I would like to make to the city is to put in more benches so that the [parents can sit down.

I have to give an update to the Sportsplex. We went over there for the Pirates-Cove Swim on Friday…read morenight. This review is for a particular staff member who was in need of some serious coaching for customer service. Now, before we went , the site says go at least 45 min before hand to line up and they start to sell tickets half an hour before the swim which was at 7:30 pm. The reason for this insanity of earliness was because of March Break. So we went there for 6:30. We went up to the desk to ask for the tickets and she said they would start selling them at 7:00. No problem, she told us to stand in the line, which is what we did. There was another lady there with her children who was there since 5:30 pm, she thought she could buy hers ahead of time. Policy is No! I understand why this policy is, so I do not have an issue with that. The issue was with the lady , who we believe was management. She proceeded to tell us to leave and come back, that we were interrupting the line of the people who were going in for the 6:30 swim. Please take note, there was no one in a line for the 6:30 swim, they simply walked right up to the counter and we are talking a span of 2 minutes. Now, being the person I am, I simply said , no. I was not going to walk around for 1/2 hour to come back and stand at the end of a line when I am standing at the beginning right now, where is the logic there, I will tell you, There Is None! The other lady, however was not quite so diplomatic, she and the manger started to exchange words. The Manger was telling us to leave and come back, the lady was very unhappy that we were being told to go and do something else and come back. Let's just say, after we all had words with Miss Congeniality, we stayed exactly where we were and within 15 minutes the line was down the hall. Hind-site, we would have left and been at the end of the line. I would hate to hear the conversation at that point. It is unfortunate that she was on duty that evening, as she did not win anyone over, just annoyed everyone. And we all thought she was poor with the customer service. Now, the swim, that was good. Lots of life guards. Great Fun!

Growing up I spent a lot of time at the Dartmouth Sportsplex, mainly watching my brother's hockey…read moregames. The Sportsplex is home to a number of health and fitness programs and services. An ice surface, cardio gym, weight room, 2 swimming pools, fitness classes and a new indoor running track are all housed int his building with a number of community rooms available for Bingo and meetings. My "Safe Prom" party was hosted at the Dartmouth Sportsplex and we were given basically full reign over the building overnight. The pools were open for swimming, and the lifeguards that were on duty were very nice, despite the fact that they had to stay awake overnight with a few hundred high school graduates. Hot Hint: If you are looking for a fitness pass that give you a great variety of workouts this is the place to go. A membership gives access to all the facilities, and a discounted rate on exercise classes.

The Sackville Sports Stadium houses a lot under one roof. It is a complex of two pools, hockey…read morerink, fitness centre and even childcare facility. My friend use to drive her daughter her for swimming lessons , she was actually on a team which practised out of there. It is a great facility and well used by people from all over. Summer is here and there is lots of day camps going on.

I've been going to the Stadium for about four months and have been really happy with the services…read morethey provide. Memberships include access to the cardio and weight equipment, skating, swimming, etc. - much more than you get at some of the larger chain gyms in our area, and more affordable, too. The gym gets really busy after work and parking can be a nightmare, but first thing in the morning when I usually go, it's pretty dead. Almost all the cardio machines have their own TV which definitely helps with a long workout. One tip - bring an iPod/headphones as the music they play might not be your cup of tea. Facilities are clean, there's a ton of equipment, staff are helpful, and it's not a snooty gym.

No such thing as too muscular at this gym! But don't be intimidated. They are nice super hero…read morelooking people. I love going to Fitness Fx. If only for the fact that I am an average, skinny, 5'10 male. And a lot of the guys who go to this gym are professional body builder's! Its great to walk up to them lifting eighty pounds or more with one arm and I'm there with my nice and light fifteen or twenty pounds. I try to stare them down but they simply laugh at me. This gym boasts "a full stock of dumbbells ranging from 3 all the way up to 160 lbs." This is very true. I never find myself waiting for a dumbbell set because someone is using it. They have enough for everyone. And they are improving! they have added what they call a "cardio theatre." In other words, they have more cardio equipment. There is an open space concept which has its advantages and disadvantages. The disadvantage is that everyone can see you while you are working out. But in my opinion, just get some confidence and remind yourself that no matter what body type you are, you rock! Then rock it out! The staff are very friendly and extremely helpful. If you start talking to them you find out right away that you feel part of a team or a family. They are there to support you. It feels more like a team or family first and a business second. Which is very important to me. They also have a juice bar and a lot of televisions so you can watch Oprah while on the cardio machines. Their prices are the same as most other gym's. Not very expensive but not quite cheap. In my opinion, you definitely are getting a good price. With the addition of new, on site tanning beds they are showing that they are keeping up with the competition at a steady pace. Fitness Fx has been one of my favorite gyms for all of the above reasons. But perhaps the reason why I give it a fourth star is because they are improving with new equipment, more programs and store renovations without increasing the price of their membership. One of the most admirable things I have seen a gym do in a long time! And I definitely took notice. So stop sitting around, reading my reviews and head for the gym! Afterwards get a protein shake and go back to reading my reviews. :)

A great neighbourhood gym. When I first started coming here I didn't think they had enough cardio…read moreequipment - because that's my fall back - but once I became a regular I realized that's just not why people go to Fitness Fx. Whatever machine I'm interested in is usually available immediately or within 20 minutes. It's a very friendly place, and things are generally tidy and ready to use. I do find that depending on the time of day there are some folks who forget the "please don't drop your weights and scare the jittery among us" rule, and clang their weights pretty hard on the ground. That said, the management have responded well to this kind of problem and promised to remind repeat-offenders to control their dumbells lest they bounce on someone's toes and cause a more serious injury than a simple pulled hamstring. The rates are really reasonable, and they've been good lately at updating their class schedule too. ETA: Within hours of writing my review I went to get some exercise and found new cardio machines all set up! Well done, guys :)