Complimentary drinks, excellent facilities, friendly well trained staff
Disadvantages:
Could be a little expensive for some
Recommend to potential buyers:
yes
Full review
A multitude of machines and numerous friendly staff make this gym franchise the best I’ve ever been to. They take a great interest in your personal health and enjoyment of their gym. The classes are run by the highly trained staff (cutting down on membership prices) and the gym also employs a couple of personal trainers for that extra training benefit if you need it.
I’m a member of the Coventry branch which is situated behind a small shopping complex on the outskirts of the town, but very near Warwick University (which I'm a student at.)
First impressions ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I joined on the recommendation of a friend and the moment I stepped through the door I felt that I was about to join a very exclusive members only club. Everything from the lounge and bar area to the changing rooms is well decorated and comfortable. There are complementary soft drinks such as coffee, tea squash as well as complementary shower gel / shampoo in the changing rooms.
At first glance I felt a little overwhelmed, I’ve been a member of a local gym at my leisure centre, but this place had about 10x the amount of machinery of my old one. Also, are always at least three members of staff supervising the gym who are happy to give lots of advice on training, diet, and how to lose weight, gain strength etc.
The machines are plentiful with there being about 10 running, 10 cross trainers, 8 different exercise bikes (sit up, down) 10 steppers and two stair machines (like running up an escalator). To complement this there are machines for just about every muscle in the body and also free weights. This is just in the main room. To avoid any dehydration each room is air-conditioned and has its own water fountain. It also has "Cardio-theatre" – 8 TV's facing all the cardiovascular machines and a headphone station on each machine with radio and TV stations available for selection.
Getting started ~~~~~~~~~~~~
At the time I joined I had to pay a fee of £25 but this was an offer, sometimes it's £100 and two weeks ago it had a month where you could join for free (to entice the new years resolutions I presume.)
So at my first time in there I felt a little lost as to what to do since there were so many choices, but with the free induction that comes when you join I was soon pointed in the right direction. You go around the whole gym with one of the staff and are show each machine, how to use it and given tips on training. As well as this you get a score card which has your own personal training program on and goals for the future.
Being a regular ~~~~~~~~~~~
Now you won’t get anything out of it if you don’t put anything in.
I've been there for about 7 months now and go 4 times a week to use the weights and the cardiovascular machines. And it has made a great difference in my overall fitness and the way I look. I mainly use the weight machines followed by about 20mins aerobic exercise (running/cross trainer) I don’t use the classes but there are a lot of different options such as kick boxing, aerobics, steppers, cycling etc. I know quite a lot of people in there and every one is very friendly.
When my shower at home broke it was lucky I was a member since I could just use their very luxurious showers (with cubicles) and complementary shampoo. There is also a sauna in the changing rooms but I haven't looked at this yet since I would prefer just a shower.
One thing that fitness first do not have is a swimming pool, their reason for this is because it is expensive to run and most members do not want one anyway. I have no problem with this as I prefer just getting on with running and weight training.
Membership prices are quite reasonable with the off peak £24 (8am-4pm weekdays, after 2pm weekends) and the Gold £34 (you can use the gym anytime.) As I'm a student, I'm on the off peak membership since I usually go during the day after lectures (as the gym is very close to my Uni.). This suits me fine because the gym is nice and quiet around 2pm (it can get quite busy after 6pm) Being a franchise, I expect that all the gyms look very similar and have the same level of quality. One other aspect of the franchise element is that you can use your membership card at any branch of it, which is very useful for me. You can also freeze your member ship if you have to go away for more than three months, this costs about £5 a month to do
The Coventry branch recently refurbished the whole building adding an extra gym to increase the total to three, though this was also when the price conveniently increased as of next month. Still, for the extra few pounds a month it is still very good value for money plus you get another gym with state of the art equipment.
It's certainly been worthwhile joining. They have a lot of different clubs regular social events and other meetings such as a running club. Their motto is: "There are no strangers at fitness first just friends you haven't met" and their attitude reflects this.
One last thought... Don’t worry about how you look at the moment – think about how you'll look in 6 months time.
More details
Price
34
Size
Big
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