As with any website that focuses on a particular demographic, we wanted to know how Fitness-Singles catered to active people. We wanted to gauge their matchmaking effectiveness and measure the quality of user experience that they provide to their users. Here are the results of our Fitness Singles review.

— Pros and Cons —

Pros

• Simple and intuitive user interface
• Geared toward those with an active lifestyle
• Registration is reviewed by a real person to avoid fake profiles

Cons

• Monthly membership is expensive
• Lack of any stand-out features
• Lack of mobile apps

— In-Depth Fitness Singles Review —

If your idea of relaxing involves getting in a five-mile run before breakfast, chances are that you have an active lifestyle. Fitness and happiness are synonymous to you. For you, forming a relationship requires meeting people that share the same passion for physical activity and fitness as you do. You want a partner that will be able to keep up with you and that will challenge you to go that extra step or push-up.

Unfortunately, as you are well aware, meeting people that claim to be active is easy —meeting people that are genuinely active is more difficult. This is why an online dating site called Fitness Singles.com caught our eye. In operation since 2003, it is focused on people with active lifestyles. The site promotes itself as being the “largest site for fitness dates and exercise friends.”

— First Impression —

When you first visit Fitness-Singles you land on a simple, yet informative homepage. Unlike other dating sites that overwhelm you with a multitude of tiled images of their supposed members, Fitness-Singles takes a more sedate approach. The only image consists of a bike rider cruising up a curvy mountain road. Incorporated into the image is the registration box where new users can sign up.

The remainder of the welcome page offers a decent amount of information regarding the purpose of the site and how it functions. Honestly, we find it refreshing when an online dating site takes this approach. It demonstrates a genuine interest in their potential new users. It respects their intelligence and allows them to evaluate the potential of the site before they register.

— Registration Process —

The registration process for Fitness-Singles starts off with basic questions. These include your age, location, gender, and the gender of the partner you are seeking. Then you must choose a username and password for your account. You must also add a valid email. You know — the stuff that is considered routine for any dating site.

However, being a dating site dedicated to the active lifestyle, after new users finish entering their basic information, they are also required to offer information about their favorite physical activities. You must choose three activities from a drop-down menu that includes 75 options. You can choose from diverse activities such as table tennis and badminton to circus aerials and hang gliding. Basically, if it involves sweat and physical exertion — you’ll find it on the list. You must also qualify your skill level for each activity. This can be novice, beginner, intermediate, advanced or pro.

— There’s More! —

If you think that you are done after that— you are wrong. The registration questions continue. You must then provide a description of your body type, looks and choose your best feature. For the latter, you must choose from 13 body parts or 3 “cop out” answers which include personality, ‘you decide’, and ‘I’d rather not say’.

Wait, there’s more! It’s off to naming your height, weight, ethnicity, hair and eye color, marital status, whether you have any kids, attitude toward future kids, religion, how often do you practice your faith, level of education, occupation and income level, what specialty diet do you use, frequency of physical activity and FINALLY, you get to post a profile picture. Yes, registering on Fitness Singles is a mini-workout of its own.

After you finish providing all of your information you are greeted by an announcement that you must wait for your profile to be approved. Yes, actual humans review all new users to make certain that they are real people and that they are honest about living an active lifestyle. During our test, two of our testers were approved within three hours, another three within 24 hours. You will be notified via email when your registration is approved.

— Lean User Interface —

Once you are accepted, you can sign in with your selected credentials. The user interface is very simple and easy to navigate. Fitness Singles applies a very lean look to its site.

In terms of features, only the basics are present. You can search for other members — filtering results by a list of specific criteria. You can also express interest in other members by clicking on the “show interest” button on their profile. Communication consists of online text-based chat and an internal email messaging platform. There is no video chat capability on the site. Lean and simple indeed.

— Cost —

If you thought that keeping things lean and simple meant that the site would be free or relatively inexpensive — nope. One month will cost you a whopping $39.99. Just think of all of the muscle mass that you can form lifting that amount of dough out of your wallet. Hell, you may even need a spotter.

In our opinion, the monthly membership is priced out of the reach of many people. This may explain why when you visit the site you will notice that user engagement and search results tend to be — how could we phrase it… LEAN. Yes, the members are genuine, but there are so few of them. Our concern is that unless you live in a densely populated area, you may discover that finding a match on Fitness Singles is a difficult proposition.

You may wonder, “what if I pay in advance?” Well, if you pay for three months in advance your average monthly will only drop to $21.99. The only way to get a good deal is to pay for a full year in advance. That would drop the average monthly cost to $9.99.

By the way, Fitness Singles doesn’t have any mobile apps. The best you get is SMS text notifications sent to your cell phone. So-o-o 2003!