Life Time Fitness vs The Garden MMA: Workout or Practice?

If you live in or around Philadelphia and you're shopping for a gym, there's a good chance two very different places are on your list: a Life Time club out in the suburbs, and a martial arts academy like The Garden in Germantown.

They're both good at what they do. They just do different things. This post is our honest attempt to lay out the differences so you can pick the one that fits your life. We'll be straight about where Life Time is the better choice, too.

Prices and amenities below are as of October 2026. Life Time pricing varies by club and membership type, so check your local club for current rates.

The short version

• Choose Life Time if you want a huge, resort-style club with a pool, courts, a café, a spa, a big workout floor and lots of group fitness classes, and you mostly plan to train on your own.
• Choose The Garden if you want to learn a real skill (Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu in the Gi and No-Gi, or Muay Thai) from coaches who know your name, with a clear path to follow and a community you see every week.

Plenty of people would be happy at either. The question is what you want your training to be.

What Life Time does really well

Life Time's clubs are built around big, high-end facilities. Around Philadelphia, its clubs include:

• Fort Washington (375 Commerce Dr): a 114,000 square foot club with indoor and outdoor pools, a sauna, pickleball and basketball courts, a Kids Academy, LifeCafe and LifeSpa.
• King of Prussia (700 E Swedesford Rd, Wayne): a pool, sauna, pickleball, squash and basketball courts, Kids Academy, LifeCafe and LifeSpa.
• Ardmore (40 E Montgomery Ave, in Suburban Square): a sauna, LifeSpa, LifeCafe and LifeClinic, alongside the workout floor and studios.

The clubs also list group fitness classes, Pilates, yoga, cycling, personal training and stretch-and-recovery sessions, plus luxury locker rooms. If you love swimming laps, playing pickleball with friends, or having everything (workout, lunch, massage) under one roof, it's hard to beat.

What The Garden does

The Garden MMA is a martial arts academy at 4537 Wayne Ave in Germantown. We teach three things:

• Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu in the Gi
• No-Gi Jiu-Jitsu (submission grappling)
• Muay Thai

There's no pool, no pickleball and no café. What we have is a mat, coaches, a structured curriculum, a traditional sauna and a group of people who train together week after week.

Cost

Here's how the published prices line up.

Life Time (adult membership, per Life Time's own club pages):

• Fort Washington: starting at $219/month
• King of Prussia: starting at $259/month
• Ardmore: starting at $259/month

Adding family members to a Life Time membership changes the monthly rate.

The Garden (adults):

• All-Access: $90 every two weeks, with a 6-month commitment
• All-Access Annual: $179/month, with a 12-month commitment
• Evergreen: $215/month, no contract
• 6-Week Beginners Package: $299 one time, for six weeks of unlimited classes
• 13-Class Punch Card: $325 (13 classes at $25 each)

Every Garden plan includes all Jiu-Jitsu and Muay Thai classes, open mat and the sauna. There's no separate charge for the classes themselves. (Paying by card adds a small processing surcharge. Paying by bank doesn't.)

The honest takeaway: the monthly numbers are in the same neighborhood. Life Time's price buys you access to a very large facility. The Garden's price buys you coaching: every class you attend is taught by a coach working on your technique.

What you actually learn

This is the biggest difference between the two.

At a big club, most of your progress comes from what you bring. You choose the machines, the classes and the plan. Group fitness classes are a great way to get a workout, and personal training is available if you want one-on-one help.

None of the three Philadelphia-area Life Time club pages list Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu or Muay Thai, so if martial arts matter to you, ask your local club directly what they offer.

At The Garden, every class teaches a skill. You learn how to escape from underneath someone, how to hold a position, how to throw a clean kick and how to keep your hands up. It builds on itself:

• Skill Track: our 13-week curriculum for each discipline, with techniques that unlock in order and coach verification when you've got them down. Members can see it in their dashboard.
• Video library: hundreds of technique breakdowns organized by discipline, level and curriculum week, so you can review what you drilled.
• Training journal: log what you worked on and what you want to fix next time.
• Belts and stripes: Jiu-Jitsu has a ranking system, and your coaches track your progress.

A year from now, the goal isn't just "I got fitter." It's "I can do things I couldn't do before." That's a different kind of motivation, and for a lot of people it's the thing that keeps them coming back.

Coaching and class size

Most of our adult classes are capped at 16 to 20 people, so the coach can actually see you. They'll fix your grip, slow you down when you're muscling something, and pair you with partners who are right for your level.

Our current adult schedule includes:

• Early mornings: 6:00 AM classes Monday to Friday (No-Gi and Muay Thai), plus 7:00 AM Gi on Tuesday and Thursday
• Evenings: Muay Thai on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, No-Gi on Monday and Wednesday, Gi on Tuesday and Thursday, and a women's Jiu-Jitsu class on Thursday night
• Saturday: Gi Jiu-Jitsu at 11:00 AM, followed by open mat

Check the live schedule for exact times.

Life Time has a much larger roster of classes and long opening hours (Ardmore, for example, lists 5 AM to 10 PM on weekdays). If your schedule changes week to week, a big club will usually be the more flexible option. The Garden is the right fit if you can commit to set class times.

Community

At a big club it's easy to come and go without talking to anyone. Some people like it that way, and that's completely valid.

Martial arts works differently. You can't learn Jiu-Jitsu alone: you need a partner, and that partner needs you. After a few weeks you know the people in your class, and they notice when you miss a week. Our members also connect through the Courtyard, the members-only community space in our app, and through events at the gym.

If you've joined gyms before and drifted away after a couple of months, the community part matters more than it sounds.

Amenities: pool vs sauna

Life Time wins this one comfortably. Pools, courts, spas, cafés and luxury locker rooms are what it's built around, and The Garden isn't trying to compete with that.

What we do have:

• A traditional sauna, included with every membership. It's a stone-and-water sauna, and members use it after class to recover. (Life Time's Philadelphia-area clubs list saunas too.)
• Changing areas for men and women
• Free parking in the Apsley St lot (enter Apsley Street via Berkley St and Greene St), and a short walk from Wayne Junction station

If a pool is a must for you, Life Time is the better choice. If you mainly want to train hard and recover well, the sauna covers it.

Kids programs

Both places welcome families, but in different ways.

Life Time's Kids Academy gives children 11 and under up to two and a half hours of supervised time while parents use the club, according to Life Time's FAQ. Clubs also run kids classes and events, and parents can add dependent children to their membership for add-on fees.

The Garden's kids program is Jiu-Jitsu, taught by coaches, for ages 4 to 12 in three groups: Seeds (4–5), Sprouts (6–9) and Buds (10–12). Classes run Monday to Thursday afternoons and Saturday mornings, in both Gi and No-Gi. Kids learn coordination, focus and confidence, and they get their own belt progression.

Kids memberships start at $129/month (12-month commitment), with a $99/month Saturday-only option for busy families.

The key difference: Life Time's Kids Academy is mainly childcare while you work out. Our kids program is the training itself.

So who is each one right for?

Life Time is probably the right choice if:

• You want a pool, courts and spa services
• You prefer working out on your own schedule
• You want lots of different group fitness formats
• You like the idea of the gym being a place to spend the whole day

The Garden is probably the right choice if:

• You want to learn Jiu-Jitsu or Muay Thai properly, from coaches
• You want a skill path with progress you can see
• You do better with a group that expects you to show up
• You want your kids learning martial arts, not just being supervised
• You live in Northwest Philly and don't want to drive to the suburbs to train

Some people do both. A few of our members swim or lift somewhere else and come to The Garden for their martial arts. That works fine too.

Try a class before you decide

The best way to know is to step on the mat. A Day Pass is $35 and covers any class on the schedule plus the sauna. You can pay online when you book or pay at the gym. No sales pitch after class.

We're at 4537 Wayne Ave in Germantown, with free parking and a short walk from Wayne Junction.

Book your $35 Day Pass →

Or check the class schedule and membership options first.