Last year, The Boyf came home and announced he wanted to get fit. After checking out 3 local gyms, he settled upon David Lloyds - lovingly called "Dirty's" by it's longstanding regulars - as they offered the best joining rate (£49) and off-peak monthly fee (£45) and the sales staff weren't at all pushy like at other places he went to.
Trundle along to February 2005. We're dressed up ready to go out and The Boyf looks at me and tells me that I should go to the gym as I have grown a double chin. After he'd got back up off the floor and taken some pain killers, I realised he was right.
Anyway, at 8pm one Friday in March, we drove down to D.L's and after going through the various options with the person behind the desk, decided to add-on my details so we were now Couple membership on the Peak Time option 'Health & Fitness' status.
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Basically, there are several membership options at D.L Chigwell:-
Health & Fitness Membership - This is access to the weights, classes and machines, plus the restaurant, indoor and outdoor swimming pools. Tennis Membership - This includes all the above, but use of the indoor and outdoor tennis courts.
Off Peak - You can use the gym from 06:30 - 17:30 Monday to Friday and at Bank Holidays. Peak - 06:30 - closing time (around 10:30pm), Mon - Fri, plus Sat and Sun (slightly later opening and earlier closing).
There are always 'Promotions' going on so obviously the price we got might not be exactly the same as others, but now we pay around £75 a month and we can use the gym whenever we like, plus I didn't have to pay a joining fee - sure they made a mistake but I kindly didn't point it out to them.
I was given a temporary card to use and about a week later, my new card arrived so I could swipe it through the barriers to access the gym.
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New Members:-
Each new member has an induction and you fill in the usual form detailing any health problems, then go through your goals and then you get measured and (gasp) weighed.
The instructor will take you round the machines to get a general idea of your fitness and then work out a detailed plan for you to follow each time you visit. These are kept in the middle of the fitness area, seperated 'Male Surnames' and 'Female Surnames' and A-Z'd so you're not rumaging round forever trying to find your card. All the machines have a number on them so it makes it so much easier to find the machine you are looking for if you are a total gym novice.
The Instructors all wear a blue and orange 'uniform' so they are really easy to spot and there are always several of them in the fitness area, either putting someone through their paces, on an induction or just generally checking everything and everyone is o.k. They are really nice and not at all intimidating - no scary Gladiator types!
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Gym Basics:-
D.L's is massive and I haven't explored the whole of it just yet so....
There is a large indoor and outdoor pool. Both pools have an Adults only time each day so you won't be disturbed by children/teens. All babies under the age of 4 are provided with a kind of 'Aqua Nappy' which must be worn in the pool. There is a machine to use which spins all the water out of your cozzie, plus bags to store it in afterwards.
There are Female, Male and Family changing rooms. The Female c.r's are spacious, with a large number of lockers and some seating, plus around 10 hairdryers, 3 basins, a sun bed (this is FREE to all members but must be booked at Reception or by phone), plus a baby area which has changing mats, child sized chairs plus one of those mesh playpens and 4 or 5 cubicles for the more modest amongst us to get changed in. The lockers work by inserting a £1 coin and each key has a big safety pin and numbered disc attached. The only gripe I have is all the plug sockets have had a metal bar fixed across them to prevent hairdryers being snaffled - this means there are only 2 sockets for tongs / straighteners although members are so friendly they happily rush through their hair do so you can do yours.
The showers are made of frosted glass and have doors as opposed to clingy curtains and are spotlessly clean. There is a shampoo/showergel dispenser in each one. There is also one disabled cubicle with grab rails at the entrance, one disabled toilet next door to the sauna and 3 regular toilets.
There is a door which people go through to get to the swimming pool but as I have never mastered the graceful art of swimming and instead flounder like a fish in a net, I haven't been through there.
There are several studios which offer a huge range of classes - Body Pump, Boxercise, etc. Most classes are free, however, for things like Yoga there is a small charge and the class does have to be booked in advance. Classes are split into Beginner, Intermediate and Blimey, You're Fit!! levels so you should easily find one to suit you.
As I'm only Health & Fitness I'm not able to play tennis but there are around 7 indoor courts and I've never seen these full even at peak Saturday times, plus around the same number outside. D.L's also offer coaching for adults as well as children and have colour coded tennis classes - beginners have a large racket and large ball, Intermediate the racket and ball get slightly smaller and so on, until they can play 'real tennis'. Some of them are so good it makes you want to spit.
Machines & Stuff:-
The fitness area is huge, has a number of TV's tuned to all the 1-5 channels, plus Sky sports and Sky movies. There are huge numbers of cross trainers, treadmills, upright excercise bikes, a few rowing machine, several step machines and two bizarre machines that are like bikes for your arms which I cannot see the point of. Each of these machines has a small purple and silver box attached and if you take a set of headphones, you can plug in, select channels 1-12, turn up the volume and pound away. Music varies from slow and steady through to pop so you can find your own pace, plus you can also get the TV channels by tuning the button to correspond to the number stuck on the TV. The treadmills have an Emergency Stop button and an Emergency Stop pull cord - quite handy as I managed to trip A over T one week....the last time I went running I fell and broke my jaw so I think someone's trying to tell me something!! An Instructor obviously spotted my backside hurtling through the air and came to check I was ok and surprisingly, he wasn't even smirking (he clearly had no sense of humour or went off and laughed like a drain in a cupboard when I wasn't looking).
There rear of the gym is made of of free weights to the right and 'block and pin' and 'gas' machines to the left. Rather than go through each machine, lets just say you can excercise every single part of your body that you want - everything is covered.
The free weights is mainly frequented by men, some of which are VERY muscle bound and take their training very seriously. There is two huge racks of the big weights, several metal stands of what I call Girlie Weights, a bar bell rack and several benches. Again, everything is covered plus there are mirrors everywhere so you can check you are doing things correctly.
To the front of the gym is an area people use for their stretches (diagrams are pinned to the boards), floor work and so on. There is a tall rack containing 10 or so gym balls - large and small sizes, plus mats, medicine balls and several semi-circle 'wobble discs' (obviously not the technical term!) that the Personal Trainers use to get people to practise their balance whilst hurling medicine balls at them and making them do squats.
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The Restaurant
D.L's do food and it's darn good. So good in fact, you could easily undo all your hard work! There is an outdoor area overlooking the tennis courts, plus two indoor areas - one has leather sofas and massive plasma screens for the Grown Ups, the other, not quite so posh seating for those with children.
The menu offers everything from breakfast cereal to fab sausage and egg baps, through to salads, stir frys and full on dinners - plus various calorie laden cakes and chocolate bars. You can have soft drinks, various coffees, wine or beer with your food too. Sevice is a bit so so - if you go at peak times on a Saturday you can wait up to half an hour for your food, but in the mornings its around 8 minutes wait.
Just off the adult seated area are 3 PC's which you can use to surf the net and at the other end of the restaurant is one PC solely for use by the under 18's although they are limited to 20mins surfing at a time.
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Other Stuff:-
If you have little ones, there is a Creche that you can use. As I have no call to use it (and they won't let me leave The Boyf there), I don't know there charge.
There is also a sports shop so if you get there and realise you've left your sports kit at home, no need to excerise in vest and pants - you can buy a whole new kit!
Saks - there is a beauty salon on site that does everything from hairdo's to nails, massages, facials and so on.
Car Park - There is a large car park which only gets busy at weekends, plus an overspill car park slightly down the entrance road. This is covered by security cameras so things should be quite safe. The entrance to the gym has a number of speed bumps which can catch you out plus a very sharp curve which you need to go really slowly round.
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To Summarise:-
OK - so I may have gone on a bit (!), but I cannot sing the praises of D.L's highly enough. They may be slightly pricey for some people but I think you really do get what you pay for in terms of the knowledge of the staff, equipment and so on.
I cannot recommend D.L's enough and am happy to say, I no longer have a double chin!!
More details
Price
Varies club to club
Size
Very Big
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