Fitness First, Holloway, London : Read reviews and compare prices at Ciao.co.uk

Author's product rating:

Value for Money	Poor
Is it part of a chain?	yes
Service	Poor
Cleanliness	poor

Advantages:	Good equipment and security
Disadvantages:	Bad service, hygiene and ventilation . It is costly and almost impossible to cancle membership

Recommend to potential buyers:

Full review

Like many who join the gym I was seduced by the offer of a free joining fee. I joined Fitness First in October 2007, being a student I was able to pay the reduced membership fee of £32 per month. The staff were very courteous when I joined up and thanked me for joining. From this point in the level of service I received immediately depleted.

A few days after joining I, with my sister (who joined with me) went for the first time hoping for some form of introduction. We received no such introduction. Our photos were taken and our cards were created, unfortunately they had nothing for us to hold our cards in. Once we had our cards, the member of staff essentially told us that the machines had instructions on them and to go ahead, we were given no assistance, instead we had to work out how to use the machines ourselves.

The gym provided relatively good equipment. They had, well, still have, cycle machines, elliptical trainers, rowing machines and weight lifting machines. All of the machines were of good quality and allowed to user the plan their own training session, for instance, 30 minutes of cardio. A slight downside to the main exercise area is that it is at the very front of the gym in front of a huge window allowing any passer-by to see the people working out. Another downside to this exercise area was that the ventilation was not particularly good, on days when many people were working out (mainly Monday evenings) the windows would steam up and the room would essentially turn into a steam room. Not pleasant at all.

One way of avoiding this problem was to use the smaller areas within the gym for each gender, being female I used the women’s area. This area would often become fully occupied as it was a rather small area. It also did not have the same variety of equipment as the main gym so if you wanted to use the elliptical trainers you would have to be on display.

There is a large variety of classes available at the gym but, of course, not as many as the larger gym in Angel. The classes are easy to follow and always leave with the impression that you’ve had a good work-out.

The changing room and shower facilities did not appear to be particularly clean. It is because of this that I chose to take my showers once I got home. The storage areas were reasonably impressive, the lockers were of a generous size and could be locked using ones gym card, very useful.

Like many, I realised I was not someone who had the will power or desire to go to the gym regularly. Partially due to the fact that I was taking my A-Levels, I decided that I could no longer go the gym so I decided to try to cancel my membership. I sent an e-mail to the gym stating that I would like to cancel my membership due to time and financial reasons. I received no response whatsoever to this email. I forgot about this for a while but then decided once again that I wanted to quite the gym. I rang them and asked how I would go about doing this and was told that I should speak to the manager or put this in writing. I did both. I wrote a letter and hand delivered it, as soon as I said I wanted to quite the gym I was directed to a manger. I was allowed to cancel my membership but was told I still had to pay for the remaining months left on my contract. Once I was told this I saw no point in even cancelling my membership so now, I am still a member of Fitness First.

Something I must say to everyone wanting to join this gym or any other gym probably is that you must be completely sure that you have to time a will-power to attend the gym. I do not, and because of this I am paying membership for a gym I don’t attend.