I joined Peak Fitness after my not-so-brilliant experiences with the Gloucester Esporta (see other op). Peak Fitness is about 5 minutes from our new house, and had been reccomended to me by several people at work. So, shortly after Christmas I decided i'd better wear off all that turkey and mince pies and join the gym.
**Who are they** Peak Fitness is a chain club, but a lot smaller than the likes of Esporta and Fitness First. They have gyms in Cheltenham, Gloucester, Docklands, Palmers Green, Woking, Worcester, Whitley Bay, Tonbridge & 2 in Newcastle. They are also known as Arena in Northern Ireland. You can use any of these gyms as a member for no extra cost.
**Facilities** The Gloucester club is situated on the outskirts of the city, in a large open shopping area. There is plenty of parking, even when it's sale time at Matalans next door, as there is seperate gym parking to the rear of the club.
Inside the brightly-lit building is a reception area leading into the smallish gym and the fitness studio. There are a couple of seats and some drinks machines in reception. Backing onto the ladies and gents changing rooms is the jacuzzi, sauna and steam room. There is also a sunbed room but there's no pool. The club is always spotlessly clean and tidy. The changing rooms have hairdryers and if you forget your towel you can hire them for 50p from reception. Sometimes the floor gets a bit wet in the ladies changing area with people coming out of the showers, but there are signs up asking members to towel off first, so I guess it's more of an illiterate user issue!
**Gym** The gym is fairly small, but the equipment is good quality. Even though they don't have that many machines (between 2-6 of each machine). They cover just about everything; there are steppers, several running machines, plenty of cross trainers, 4 rowers, 4 recumbent cycles and 2 normal cycles. They also have a full range of weights machines and free weights. They have made sure that there's an adequate supply of the most popular machines such as the runners and cross trainers, these are always the first to get used up at peak times. The machines are quite tightly packed in, but they are sensibly arranged in lines so you can get between them easily enough (well, depending on excess pork-pie consumption I suppose). It's also air-conditioned, not that it stops me going fire-engine red when running though!
There's cardio theatre so you can workout whilst watching the tv or listening to the radio on headphones. There's no way I would join a gym without cardio theatre - I just wouldn't go! They have about 6 different channels including MTV, Sky News, Sky Sports 1, ITV, BBC1 although if there's not many people in the gym the staff are happy to change the channels for you if you're desperate to watch the bowls on BBC2...
When you join the gym the staff will give you an induction on how to use the machines. They will also write a programme for you so you can keep track of your progress. The programmes are stored in a filing box in the gym area for you to refer to whenever you like. They will also happliy give you more excersises to do if you feel you're not being challenged enough. Not something I ask for!
**Classes** Peak Fitness runs a range of Les Mills designed classes including BodyPump, BodyBalance, Yoga, Pilates, Fitball, Spin, LB&T, Step, Curcuits, Latino Aerobics. There are both daytime and evening classes. I've very rarely had a problem booking in for a class. They usually only get full after New Years when all the resolutions start again!
I've tried out the Yoga, BodyBalance and LBT (Legs, Bums, Tums) classes, all of which are excellent and run by well trained staff. I hurt my back recently and the instructor made sure that I didn't do any moves that weren't suitable and reccomended other excersises for me to try that might help. The Spin (mad cycling) class looks very scarey and the Latino Aerobics looks great fun, but I have 2 left feet! Rather than go through what each class entails I'd reccomend you look at the Les Mills website http://www.lesmills.com/ which describes them.
The one downside to the fact the club is so small is that the spin bikes in the Gloucester Peak Fitness are in the main gym, so sometimes if you just want to use the bike you end up having to listen to the booming Spin music & the instructor shouting at the class. This is easily avoided by looking at the timetable before you go though!
**Customer Service** For this I can't rate them highly enough. The gym doesn't have any of the corporate dullness of Esporta. The staff are friendly, chatty and always polite. I've rung up booking or cancelling classes and never been kept more than a few rings on the phone. Everything is answered with "of course" or "no problem". Within a month of going they all seemed to have learnt my name, in fact, they seem to know everyones names! OK, so when I swipe my card through the gate the computer screen comes up with my name and a photo of my ugly mug. But the fact that someone says "Hi Liz" when I come though the door makes this the nicest gym i've ever been to.
**Value** The Gloucester Membership Fees: Joining fee £ 50 (although they frequently run special offers where you don't have to pay this at all) Administration fee £ 10
Subscription Rates (per month, payable by direct debit) Full £ 36 (no contract required) Off Peak £ 25
They also cater for corporate memberships and you can get discounts for paying up-front for the year.
Ok, the thing with gyms is that you have to go lots to get your moneys worth. But for convenience, service and range of classes I think this little gym is great value for money. It's also nice to know that if I move or i'm away for work I can still use any of their other gyms for no extra cost.
Further info: www.peak-fitness.co.uk
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