Dublin Southside gym reviews

Jefferson Darcy

Two gym reviews, first ever post...

Westwood Leopardstown:

Trained here for about a year and a half. Cost worked out to about €70 pm which was fairly steep, although facilities were quite good, especially if you played tennis or swam. They recently purchased a large amount of high quality new treadmills and cross-trainers, although the bicycles were not upgraded (most are poked) and neither was the weights section. The dumbells are in bad shape with loose plates and there aren't nearly enough benches especially when more than 5 or so people are training with free weights. This was partly the reason I decided to leave. There are 2 smith machines and two squat racks, a single preacher bench (slightly warped) and no decline benches whatsoever. There are also no ab benches of any kind (apart from the weighted ab machines), they seem to emphasise the use of the swiss ball more than anything else at Westwood. Machines are ok, with a few Cybex ones being the best of the bunch. There's no assisted pull-up machine.

Staff are quite good on the whole and the gym has floor staff constantly monitoring the place. This is good from a safety perspective or handy if you need a spot. Music is dreadful with the same stuff being played over and over - this would be alright if it was decent stuff, but when you have gems like the fast food song and that awful German techno crap like Scooter all the time, you tend to bring your own music like all the other members.

Parking can be a pain in the hole at Westwood, lots of lazy morons will park you in if the place is busy to save having to walk an extra 20m from the adjacent (empty) carpark. I've had to get people to move their cars 3 times as my last car had a 747 style turning circle and I didn't have enough room to reverse out of my spot thanks to these plonkers.

Total Fitness Sandyford

So, down to €55 per month, loads of room to train even during peak periods and better, newer equipment. An indoor running track is handy if you can't stand treadmills and don't want to battle the elements running outside during winter. Hammer Strength machines have fantastic action and great ergonomics, there are loads of pre-loaded straight and ez-bars and lots of benches. Dumbells go heavy and are in good condition. More mirrors to check form would help but its not a huge problem. There's a proper super circuit, though nobody actually uses it. Its never a hassle to find a cardio machine, unless its a stair climber you need as there are only four.

Downsides? Well the staff are offish and downright sour at times. They don't greet as you enter (or even acknowledge you) and can't be bothered assisting people on the floor. I've seen staff walk straight past people quit obviously using really bad form and about to injure themselves. A friend of mine, new to gymming, asked one of the staff to show him how to use the lat pulldown and was told to 'Get a personal trainer!' before the twit walked off. Music is alright-ish, with a few flavour of the moment pop compilations and fm104 doing the duty. Again, best to bring your own.

One thing I hate is the carpet in the male changerooms. There is almost always a strong pong from the wet stinky floor and the toilets should be better maintained (they're hosed down from time to time from what I've seen). The sauna in the gents is almost always out of order.

If you're a fan of cable exercises you'll have to queue behind scores of muscleheads (and wannabees) as they're always busy. You also queue for a drink of water as the fountains are almost always being used by people filling up bottles (this takes somewhere between 40 minutes and an hour).

***

Hope this is useful

SprostonGreen

Very good reviews there. I'm a member of Jackie Skelly's Park West, if you like I could put your name forward for a complimentary session, you could then add them to your review.

Feel free to PM me for more details.

logic1

Seem to be very good reviews. As above I have a few passes for Westwood Clontarf lying around if you want them.

Turn reviewing into a full time... hobby..

.logic.

Jefferson Darcy

Thanks for the offers guys. I'm quite happy at TF for the moment. Its on my commute and I'm making good gains.

Forgot to mention about Westwood that you can use all the branches if you're a member of one. Same with Total Fitness.

On Westwood Clontarf, its a far nicer gym overall than the Leopardstown branch - more spacious, a running track + a climbing wall and tennis courts. Parking at the building is limited though, but there's a second carpark (containing recycling bins) a bit further down the road.

kazzer

Excellent thread!!!!!!!

I'll have a review up soon when I get a chance.

Guvnor

TF is an okay place. A lot of the db's are loose and no one seems to have an allen key to tighten them. 60kgs were fine but the lighter ones were not. Staff are okay - I was always acknowledged going in and out but they are snooty especially the samantha mumba lookalike. Overall the equipment is great and the place as a whole is great just a pity the atmosphere is poor. Fcuk all muscleheads in TF mate - about 4 big guys max. Totty could be better as well which was a dissapointment especially when doing cardio.

eirewest

The following is my experience of crunch fitness Aston Quay, Dublin.

The gym has no squat rack, hack squat rack, calve machine, inverted leg press with free weights, back pully machine with a place to put your feet, rear delt machine, declined ab bench, leg rise machine for lower abs, lying leg curl machine, bench with low back, lat raise machine, inclined bench with integrated rack for bench pressing, declined bench with integrated rack for bench pressing, or declined bench. The gym has one smith machine which is always in use. The gym has one bench with integrated rack for bench pressing. The gym has one olympic bar and one EZ bar. If these are in use with one of the benches then a member who simply needs to exercise with one of the bars cannot.

Recently a cable broke on the cable cross over machine and it took 7 weeks to repair it. Then one of the hooks to attach the various handles went missing and again it took weeks to replace this simple piece of equipment. Many of the TVs on the cardio machines are not working and have not been replaced for months.

There is chewing gum on many of the machines and in the showers in visible positions but are never removed. Some staff wear trainers or shoes in the pool area.

The gym has fancy decoration but the equipment or lack of it leaves much to be desired. Basically if a machine breaks the club does nothing to repair them. They have invested nothing in a long time to deal with the equipment deficit.

Dues Bellator

Hi guys, myself and a pal are planning on hitting the gym in the next week or so , we are just doing a bit of light jogging at the moment to blow the cobwebs away, has anyone any good reviews of a gym on the southside of Dublin, membership has to be reasonable as my pal is out of work at the moment.

Thanks in advance.

greenman09

Rockfitness dundrum.39e pm. Good gym. Classes Inc in price. Only downside is parking at the gym.