As far as health clubs/gyms/fitness centres (call it what you want) go, I can't think of any other franchise offering as much as Virgin Active.
I've been a member since April last year and I can't complain about many things.
For starters they're located at Parrswood Centre, 5 minutes walk from East Didsbury train station and tram terminus. They have a sprawling floor space with extensive weight training machines and an exhaustive selection of free weights, dumbbells, kettlebells etc.
They also used to have a women's only workout area (but they're undergoing a refurb at the moment).
In addition to the weights training area they have enough equipment and machines such as treadmills, ellipticals etc for cardio enthusiasts.
They have two studios where they have group fitness classes (which are free if you are a member, by the way). This is particularly useful for my wife as she's on an offpeak only membership and is a trained classical indian dancer. So she can walk in during quiet times and use these halls for her dance practice.
They also have a separate studio for spin classes.
In addition to all this, there is a swimming pool which is between 20 anad 25 metres long and about 1.2 metres deep with lane swimming and free swimming sections for adults. There is also a children's swimming pool. Both pools are monitored by pool guards to ensure safety.
The poolside also has a hot tub (possibly Jacuzzi) and a steam room.
There are separate change rooms for men, women and family. The men's and women's changerooms also have separate steam rooms.
They have a cafe with a decent menu and Costa coffee. They do not, however accept your costa coffee points cards as they have their own loyalty system.
My only gripe is that the weights section gets quite crowded during peak hours and sometimes it's a bit of a 'meh' factor as in, the human mind, just like electricity and flowing water, tends to follow the path of least resistance. So crowded gym means, no room to workout, so let's go to Nando's next door or the Balti house across the street ;).
Memberships are pricey, however, on the balance of probabilities I enjoy going here and impressed enough to give it 4 stars. As always I hope they maintain their levels of service. read more