Following my move into the City back from Canary Wharf, I'm looking for a good gym in the square mile.
I have decided to try out the Virgin Active chain of gyms in the square mile. There's a few to chose from, and the rolling one-month contract means I can play around a bit. (As a bit of history, when I worked in the city a couple of years back I joined LA fitness, which is OK, but the 12 month contract just feels wrong. When I was in Canary Wharf I used the excellent reebok gym).
The gym floow is a couple of floors down, and is rather small.
I predominatly use weights, and it is not as well kitted out as I would like. Here's what I remember there being:
1 x Squat Rack
1 x Smith machine
1 x Flat bench
1 x Incline/decline bench (adjustable)
1 x cable cross over/multi gym unit
Having only one squat/power rack is pretty poor, especially when I see that there's a large space taken up by the TRX suspension equipment, which no-one uses (and why would anyone, it's a silly gimmick).
A reasonable set of Technogym machines the usual leg extension, leg curl, leg press, chest press, should press etc. A few dumbbells, barbells, but not really enough for when it gets busy.
I'm told that the pool is actually the best point of this gym, so I may update if/when I get round to checking that out. There's a couple of dozen of the usual cardio machines, and another big cardio studio.
At the risk of being a little rude, the clientele seemed to appear to be mainly overweight moneybrokers when I went there (it was about 11am on a Tuesday morning).
Taking the gym standalone (ie not including all the other Virgin Active gyms I could also use with my membership) I would not join the gym on its own merits. I've found myself using the better equipped branch @ Bunhill Row (called Virgin Active Moorgate, though actually closer to Old Street). read more