Does LA Fitness Have Tanning?
No, LA Fitness does not offer tanning at any of its clubs in 2026. Tanning beds and spray tan booths were phased out chain-wide during the 2010s.
Quick Answer
No, LA Fitness does not offer tanning at any of its clubs in 2026. Tanning beds and spray tan booths were phased out chain-wide during the 2010s in response to changing consumer preferences and health-liability concerns.
If tanning is a must-have, look at Planet Fitness Black Card, which still includes unlimited tanning bed access.
The Chain-Wide Removal of Tanning
Through the 2000s and early 2010s, some LA Fitness locations offered tanning beds as a paid add-on. Fitness International removed them chain-wide during the mid-2010s.
The two main drivers: growing scientific consensus that tanning bed use increases melanoma risk, and the operational cost of maintaining tanning equipment and licensing.
What Chains Still Offer Tanning
- Planet Fitness Black Card: Unlimited stand-up and lay-down tanning beds included. $25 to $27 per month.
- Anytime Fitness: Some locations offer tanning as a paid add-on.
- Local tanning salons: Palm Beach Tan, Sun Tan City, dedicated tanning specialists.
Sunless Tanning Alternatives
Spray tan booths at Palm Beach Tan and similar salons offer sunless options at $20 to $30 per session. Self-tan lotions and mousses (Bondi Sands, St. Tropez, Jergens) work at home for $10 to $25 per bottle.
These are safer alternatives to UV tanning with no melanoma risk.
Why LA Fitness Chose Not to Reoffer
The tanning market has been shrinking for 15 years. Melanoma awareness campaigns, sunless alternatives and shifting beauty standards have all reduced demand.
LA Fitness has invested tanning-room square footage into other amenities: functional training zones, cycle studios and expanded stretching areas that appeal to a broader member base.
What Signature Clubs Offer Instead
Signature clubs invest in premium locker rooms, expanded steam rooms and high-end grooming amenities rather than tanning. Some flagship clubs also offer red light therapy panels, which is a completely different technology.
Red light therapy is not tanning; it does not use UV. It is marketed for skin health and muscle recovery.
The Health Case Against Tanning
The World Health Organization classifies tanning beds as Group 1 carcinogens (the same category as tobacco). CDC data links tanning bed use before age 35 to a 75% increase in melanoma risk.
LA Fitness' decision to remove tanning aligns with the medical consensus. It also removed a legal-liability line item that grew heavier every year.
Tanning Is Not A Standard Club Amenity
Tanning beds are associated with the budget gym model rather than with full service health clubs, and the difference is deliberate. Full service clubs allocate floor space to pools, studios and courts, and tanning brings regulatory and insurance considerations that most health clubs have chosen to avoid.
A small number of individual locations, usually franchised or inherited from an acquired chain, may still offer it. That is the exception rather than the pattern, and it is worth calling the specific club if it matters to you.
What clubs do commonly offer instead is a spa area: sauna, steam room and whirlpool where the building supports them.
The Health Position Is Not Ambiguous
Indoor tanning devices are classified as carcinogenic to humans by the International Agency for Research on Cancer, in the same category as tobacco smoking and asbestos. That classification is based on consistent evidence linking sunbed use with melanoma and other skin cancers, with the risk rising sharply for people who start young.
Several countries and a number of United States jurisdictions restrict or ban sunbed use for under eighteens on that basis. The idea of a base tan protecting against later burning does not hold up; the protection offered is negligible, and it comes with the exposure itself.
If You Want The Look Without The Exposure
- Self tanning lotions and mousses using dihydroxyacetone colour the outer skin layer with no ultraviolet exposure
- Professional spray tanning gives a more even result and lasts around a week
- Gradual tanning moisturisers build colour slowly and are the most forgiving to apply at home
- Tinted body products give an immediate, washable finish for a single occasion
None of these provide sun protection, which is the most commonly misunderstood point. A self tan does not replace sunscreen.
Vitamin D Is A Separate Question
Sunbeds are sometimes justified as a vitamin D source, and that reasoning does not survive scrutiny. Many beds emit primarily UVA, which contributes little to vitamin D synthesis while carrying skin cancer risk.
If your vitamin D status is a genuine concern, particularly in winter or if you have darker skin or limited outdoor exposure, a supplement is the low risk route and a blood test through your doctor is the way to know whether you need one at all.
Checking Your Skin Regularly
Whatever your history with sunbeds or sun exposure, a monthly self check takes two minutes and catches the things worth catching early.
Look for moles that change shape, colour or size, have uneven borders or a diameter over about six millimetres. Anything that itches, bleeds or refuses to heal is worth showing to a doctor rather than watching for another month.
Pro Tips Before You Commit
- Tour on a weekday evening between 5pm and 7pm. That is the busiest window. If the equipment is still accessible then, it will be fine any other time.
- Ask for the promotional rate, do not accept the rack rate. LA Fitness runs quiet in-club promos almost every month; sales counselors have discretion to waive the initiation fee if you ask.
- Get every quote in writing. Verbal promises about future price locks are worth nothing once the sales rep leaves the club.
- Read the exact clause on annual fees. Most members are surprised in month 8 by a $59 annual fee they were never verbally told about.
Frequently Asked Questions
Did LA Fitness ever have tanning? Yes, at some locations through the 2000s and early 2010s.
Where can I tan on the same day as a gym visit? Palm Beach Tan and Sun Tan City are common national options.
Does LA Fitness offer red light therapy? A handful of flagship Signature clubs do, but it is not chain-wide.
Is Planet Fitness the only major gym with tanning? Yes, Planet Fitness Black Card is the major chain that still includes tanning.
Bottom Line
LA Fitness does not have tanning and is unlikely to reoffer it. If tanning is a must, Planet Fitness Black Card at $25 to $27 per month includes it. For sunless options, dedicated salons or at-home products are safer choices.