Spoilt for choice - hopefully.

[denny]

This afternoon I finally got around to going to the local branch of Virgin Active and transferring my membership from Colliers Wood to there. This unusual bout of getting-something-done was largely motivated by the ridiculous levels of enthusiasm for exercise which can be found in the journal of easternpromise, which I started reading recently.

Unfortunately, not only is it not all that local (it's at Angel, which from my flat is a ten minute walk followed by a ten minute wait for a bus followed by a ten minute bus ride), not only did transferring my membership cost me 10 quid (bit annoying after I've spent six months paying them 65 quid a month and not actually going at all), not only is the local gym more expensive (77 quid a month instead of 66), but it's also nowhere near as nice as the one in Colliers Wood. The kit is older and less nice to use, it's downstairs in a poky basement instead of in a nice high-ceiling upstairs room with big windows, and it's all crammed together instead of nicely spaced out. On the whole I was greatly unimpressed.

I booked myself an induction session anyway, as I figured I may as well plod on with it now that I've started the ball rolling. Then I came home. A short spod later, and skorpionuk pops up for a chat. On hearing my tale of woe, she informed me that VA have just bought Holmes Place. I google them, check out their site, and what do you know - they have two gyms closer to my place, and they're theoretically part of VA now. I think I shall go and check them both out and see which one is nicer, then transfer my membership again. After the induction, that is - might as well see if she's got anything useful to suggest before I jump ship again.

Actually, I could go and check out the HP gyms tomorrow. Yeah, that sounds like a plan.

Fear my almost productive day. *goes back to microwaving pizza and reading sci-fi*

Comments

[tribeca-tom.livejournal.com]

Gyms in the UK are such a bloody rip off. I'm about to go to a NYC city government gym which is $75 (about GBP 40) for the whole year and there's no paying on the door or monthly subscription crap. There's also a choice of about 50 different places you can freely go to all around the city. There's no transferring fee if you want to go to a different one.

I had a bad experience with Holmes Place back in the UK. The manager of one of the places signed me up on a "special offer" which after a week turned out to be about the same price as VA and the place itself was pretty crap compared to the local VA: that is old machinery, cramped and grubby interior, music provided by old TV in corner of the ceiling etc...

[skorpionuk.livejournal.com]

Urgh, that all sounds horrible :-(

I've never tried Holmes Place. I'm currently with Fitness First, as that's near work and subsidised by same; it's quite good, too, clean and spacious and friendly. I've tried various gyms here and there, but TBH I can't quite remember enough about any of them to recommend them. Except for the very first one, in Germany, which was lovely and absolutely no use to anyone here!

[easternpromise.livejournal.com]

*hop* Well done for getting the ball rolling! :)

[sevenhelz.livejournal.com]

I've never been to a gym. ph34r my pop-eye muscles.
xx