Virgin Active Fitness Club, London

Author's product rating:   

Value for Money	Good
Is it part of a chain?	yes
Service	Good
Cleanliness	good

Advantages:	clean, good key system, membership freeze
Disadvantages:	you have to put the effort in, it's not a magic cure

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

...but at least I'm reactivated...

It has become increasingly obvious over the years that I am prone to vast spells of laziness. Coupled with a love of food this has led to there being more of the Melee in evidence than she (and people who have to sit next to her on the train) might like. And every so often this means she goes on a health kick and tries to fight back against the belly swell.

This particular bout of leaf-eating gym-going has been a long time coming. In fact, I think it has been two years since I last did any proper exercise, and that was a two years filled with particularly dedicated eating of pizza and drinking of wine. But you can only keep your head in the sand so long (and when your belly is in the way and you can't touch your toes, you're hard pushed to lean over far enough to get your head anywhere near the sand anyway). So, with a holiday coming up, I decided to take the plunge and join a gym again in order that I might stand a chance of having a whale of a time at the beach, rather than just being a beached whale.

Having just moved to the salubrious environs of Wandsworth I wasn't sure what my options were. Being sensible, rather than spend time carefully researching (as you are doing now, dear reader), I just wandered into the Virgin Active (VA) gym on the way back from a hungover trip to Sainsbury's. My first impression was that the place was just ridiculously large - the last gym I belonged to was a cosy little ladies-only affair - VA by contrast is big and loud and brash. There seemed to be music pumping from every direction, people swarming around the reception booth, and like the proverbial startled rabbit I just didn't get out of the way in time: a membership lady had me on a tour of the place before I could say 'I've got ice cream in this bag and it'll melt'. Needless to say, these people are good at their jobs, and I left twenty minutes later with a shiny new membership card and a decidedly lighter wallet.

But six weeks in, VA and I are friends, and I am starting to feel the benefit. I've embraced the size and volume of the place, because actually it's a lot easier to feel anonymous there which means a lot less time being self conscious, and more time just getting on with the sweaty business of exercise.

The main gym houses all manner of cardio equipment, an abundance of treadmills and steppers, cross trainers (with and without the swingy arm bits) reclining and upright bikes, proper concept two rowers and even some weird thing that simulates the arm movements of swimming. There are so many machines that you never have to wait for anything other than the reclining bikes. These all take up about half the main gym floor. The rest is populated with many, many weight machines that would have lit up the eyes of any self-respecting medieval torturer. Whichever muscle it is you want to press, you'll find something to help you do it. There is a free weight section as well, but it seems to be very seldom used.

The great thing about all these main machines is that they are all on the TechnoGym system. This is a very clever thing whereby you are given a chunky rubberised key at your induction which is loaded with a training programme for you. You check in at the start of your session at one of the monitors dotted around the gym, and then insert your key into every piece of main apparatus you use. This means you don't have to remember to set the time, your weight, effort level etc into each machine - it sets it up automatically for you according to what your instructor thinks you should be doing. You can go off-plan and do your own thing too. The key records everything you do in the gym, and when you check out at the end of your session it loads it all into the main monitor and you can bring up little graphs that show you if you're hitting your targets for distance, calories, strength etc. I find this really motivating as it means I can see evidence of my increasing fitness, and it helps you stay on the stepper for those last two minutes because you don't want to fall short of your bar chart target, whereas otherwise it would be easy to get off the machine and conveniently forget that you didn't finish the programme for the day.

Other than this array of chunky machines, VA offers a 20m pool with jacuzzi, steam room and sauna; a good sized area for stretching and swiss ball exercises; a cafe serving proper health-conscious food and drinks with free internet access; a kid's zone to dump the little darlings in; a beauty salon; and a dazzling array of classes which take place in one of two studios off the main gym. The initial noise I described turned out to be the background to a V-cycle class (a spinning class which is always in great demand and which plays inordinately loud music). These classes run twice a day, but the rest of the time the volume is fine. There are a selection of TV channels you can plug into if you bring your own headphones, otherwise you have to put up with the odd sensation of listening to music which doesn't match the videos being played on the monitors. In the end I've just got used to this because I find my balance goes a bit screwy with things playing directly into my ears, and I don't need the embarrassment of falling off the cross trainer.

For the most part VA is very clean and well presented, although they do seem to have some problems at the moment with leaky patches in the roof which means there are often buckets sitting around collecting water. The changing rooms are ample, although they have recently converted all the lockers to one which use a padlock instead of a free token and key system, so you need to invest in one of these when you join and remember to always bring it with you - which along with your membership card and TechnoKey means it's easy to turn up without one or more of the requisite items, but you can hire spares from reception if need be.

Opposite reception there is currently a beauty salon and spa, but plans are underway to change this space into a second V-cycle studio, so the array of treatments currently on offer won't be there anymore within the next month or so. This is a shame as it's nice to think you can treat yourself to a massage or something when you've hit your first training goal.

The staff have always been very helpful and there are always lots of instructors lurking around who you can collar if you need help with something. Personal training is also available and lots of people seem to take advantage of this, although I can't afford anything extra on top of the membership fees, so can't tell you much about it apart from that it all appears to be very professionally done. My initial induction did comprise some personal training elements, and you get an update every four weeks, so you do get some personal attention for free even if you can't stump up for hour-long one-on-one sessions.

So, how much does it cost for the pleasure of sweating it out in VA a couple of times a week? Naturally there are a range of membership fees. I pay £64 a month for a standard peak membership. If you work for one of the big companies in the area you will probably get a corporate discount which brings the fee down to £56. There are off-peak and concession rates too which seem to be worked out based on your personal circumstances. There was a small joining fee of £20 when I joined, although it is usually £60. The best thing about membership though is that there is no fixed contract. You can pay on a month-by-month basis, so if three months in you don't want to go anymore, you simply let them know by the 17th of the month before and your membership will stop. A similarly good idea is that if you have been a member for three months or more you can freeze your membership for up to a month - so if you were going on holiday you could put your membership on ice and you wouldn't have lost any money by being away and unable to go.

Gosh. That's a lot of info, isn't it. Well done if you stuck it this far. And well done me, too. So far VA and I are working well together so I have no plans to cancel my membership any time soon. It's clean, it's relaxed, and despite being quite full of beautiful people, there is still room for people like me to wobble away on the machines without being made to feel like a freak.

Virgin Active: www.virginactive.co.uk

Classes include: Hatha Yoga - Ashtanga Yoga - Beginners Yoga - Post/Antenatal fitness - Pilates - Legs/Bums and Tums - Ab Attack - Vcycle - Aqua - Circuits - AeroTone - Dance - Urban Funk -