How do you choose your gym?

[andygates]

I'm scouring the area for gyms, as after triathlon season ends I have every intention of getting a bit clanky-grunty.  What do you look for when choosing a gym?

Proximity to home?  Proximity to work?
Cheap and cheerful?  No expense spared?
Attached pool?  Sauna?  Running track?
Weights machines?  Free weights?
Classes?  Cardio gear?  Personal trainers?
Plush atmosphere?  Spit-and-sawdust atmosphere?  Eye candy?  Ogres?

The gym nearest home is cheap and has a pool, but the pool has funny hours and the gym no free barbell space and sorry, but I have to squat and deadlift or I shall sulk.  Near work there's the muni gym which I know has good free weights, but the pools are at other sites and it's all a bit run-down.  The good pool in town has a fair gym which I need to check out as it's currently top contender, all on one site and cheap.  Then there's the intimidating Body2000, a hardcore ogre pit run by a former UK bodybuilding lass and her hubby; and a Fitness First (suspiciously plush, lovely locker room (the only one ever to not give me a sense of panic), but cramped freeweights area, no pool, distractingly hot bodies) and out of town is a David Lloyd (de luxe but remote, a possible contender as Temple of Flesh after seeing one but I can't afford it).

Ultimately I know I've got to visit them all to get a vibe, but I'm interested how you folks pick your gyms.

[Ariadne]

Proximity to home - if I have to pack before I go to work, I won't go. If I can get home, changed, and walk there in 5 minutes, I'll go.

I liked the swanky gym when I went there, but the council one is fine - mainly I want it to be empty! I hate queues for stuff. And I want room in the free weights and not too many young men in groups hanging about. That's hard to judge on one visit though.

I do like classes too, for variety.

And in fact I'm not going much to mine any more, because it got really full. Now I do weights with kettlebells at home with the odd visit to the gym: and tonight I went to a KB/self defense/ martial art class in a judo hall, which I loved. I do change my mind a lot with fitness stuff.

Ah, which brings up an important point - the flexibility of the contract and how easily you can get out. The council gym in month by month, cancel when you want - much better than the big chains.

[MSeries]

Close to work
Within my price range
free weights
swiss balls
weights machines
warm up machines
changing rooms that don't ming

Currently going to Virgin Active in the City Centre, no pool and not open weekends. Membership allows use of the other one with pool and everything else at weekends and this one is much more expensive generally. Keep saying i am going to do a Yoga or Spinning or Ball class but so far haven't had the nerve.

Important for me, a tall, thin white 40 something bloke with a dodgy suntan that I don't feel intimidated in the free weights area. Where I go right now I don't as most of the other people seem to be corporate types whereas at the council facilities the others seem to be more rough and ready and much bulkier and more aggressive and I felt like I was in the their way sometimes.

Used to use local council one near home, it's closed for redevelopment, once it opens I may use it again if I can change my schedule to evenings and weekends. Council ones near work are good enough but not very nice, in crap areas. One is not very convenient either and not really any cheaper if I go twice a week.

[Regulator]

I just check out the CMR*.   











*The Cute Man Ratio.  After all, if one is going to sweat one should be able to at least have a good letch...

[andygates]

The Fitness First chain seem to max out the "big arms, tight t-shirt" quota very effectively.  Top totty too.  But I'm an 'orrible ogre and it distracts me, which is, frankly, a terrible flaw on my part. 

[Kathy]

Conveniently, where I work there is a swimming pool, a gym/squash court (with instructor-led classes), football/cricket/croquet pitches, tennis courts, and a weightlifting gym (where we also do yoga), all helpfully cheap.

No contest, really.

[MSeries]

The Fitness First chain seem to max out the "big arms, tight t-shirt" quota very effectively.  Top totty too.  But I'm an 'orrible ogre and it distracts me, which is, frankly, a terrible flaw on my part. 

I looked at the local gyms in December. FF was OK but not close enough to here or home.

[Hummers]

I choose which gym on the basis that it has to be close to the road.

That way, I can wind down the window and just toss any loose change I have at the doors as I drive by.

I have found this to be more productive and cheaper than actually joining and never going.

H

[Zoidburg]

I would never join a gym that would have me as a member.

[Eccentrica Gallumbits]

I just joined the council scheme. They have loads of gyms and pools around the city, 2 are within a 5 minute walk of my flat (one of them I can see if I lean dangerously far out of the window), they're cheapish and they offer corporate discount, and they have a wide range of activities and classes. And because they're so close I don't have to faff about with changing and showers and all that, I just do that at home.

[clarion]

....because they're so close I don't have to faff about with changing and showers and all that, I just do that at home.

Even after the sauna?

[Eccentrica Gallumbits]

Like I said, it's really close. I just sprint.

[andygates]

Doesn't the towel come off?   

I think the local Uni gym may have clinched it with a, "specially constructed Olympic lifting platform along with two power racks ensuring that you can train safely without compromising on the intensity."

There's nothing as viscerally satisfying, gym-wise, as clanking great lumps of iron.  Chucking 'em about overhead is the absolute best.  Too many gyms don't have proper flooring or overhead space, or have silly rules about what you can and can't do, or no space to stagger and lurch.

[Valiant]

When I choice my gym, it was based on atmosphere, look, eye candy, distance from home and most importantly local amenities.

I chose my local Fitness First becuase:

There's a pub next door
There's a chippy close by
It's near the canal
Beautiful oak lockers
Free stuff like shower and showergel
Free DVD library
Free soft drinks
65% female (So I'd actually have to do some work)
Nice clientele, mostly 25-40s
Oh and it's about 100 hundred yards from me house.

[mr endon]

Eh?
If spending an hour plus riding a bike to and from work every day doesn't excuse me from having to mix with Randy the Ram, Mr Motivator and the Green Goddess in a bloody gym then what will?

[MSeries]

Eh?
If spending an hour plus riding a bike to and from work every day doesn't excuse me from having to mix with Randy the Ram, Mr Motivator and the Green Goddess in a bloody gym then what will?

You are drifting off topic, "Who do cyclists need the gym ?". To build strength, flexibility and all round body fitness. Cycling is non weight bearing and there is a real danger that our bones will become less dense quicker without weight bearing exercise, especially for road riders.

My gym wrk has improved my cycling. I recommend it.

[andygates]

After forty, muscle's lost without resistance work.  I'm investing.   

Endon's not drifting, he's goading...

[TimO]

After spending an hour cycling each way to work, I don't have the spare time to go to a gym, and for that matter, if I did, I haven't got the spare cash either.

When I was living outside of London, and did have membership of a couple of gyms, it was very nice to have access to the resistance stuff, and have a pool with a sauna, and hot tub.