Gym Reviews

Hanley

Degsy wrote: »

Probably preferable to a clatter of shaven-headed Dubbalin wideboys,shouting and talking on the bleeding phone.

Lol true story. Everything else about TF is damn near perfect tbh, apart from those guys. Stick a power rack, some bumper plates and a good sharp bar in there and you've a gym that's all you could ever want.

Roper

EileenG wrote: »

Excellent staff, good equipment, terrible showers.

Small gym, but lots of equipment, including a squat rack and a power rack, but shoved in very close together. Someone wearing strong aftershave can gas out the place.

Big workout studio with punch bag.

Excellent staff, many of whom have competed and who really know their stuff. This is the only gym I've been in where staff will spot you without half an hour of hassle first.

Terrible showers, can't change the temperature, usually too hot, sometimes stone cold. Changing rooms have a strange smell. That's the only downside, I usually don't bother showering there.

Don't forget it's also nice and flexible in terms of payment. I paid a yearly membership of €60 plus €10 per week for only the weeks I was using it which suited me at the time as I only needed it for a few months.

Was only down there for a while in between leaving my old one and setting up my place but it was deadly. Lots of kit for the cardio and weights enthusiast alike. Some stuff you don't find everywhere like a really good power rack and a superb cable set-up.

The showers aren't great as you've said, and another downside I would say is that the area where the rack is can be cramped, get 3 lads lifting in there and it's full but on the plus side it's the only place I've ever been where someone actually asked me if I was waiting on them and would I like to work in without me saying anything.

celestial

My gym is FREE so it's all good with me:pac::pac: Work gym. Doesn't get too busy at all really except for Mondays - tapers off over the week then, if ya can believe it;) 2 benches, free weights up to 30kg. Treadmills for me runnin too. Could do with another bench in there but otherwise s'all good!

EileenG

Roper wrote: »

Don't forget it's also nice and flexible in terms of payment. I paid a yearly membership of €60 plus €10 per week for only the weeks I was using it which suited me at the time as I only needed it for a few months.

Yes, I got an extra three months because I asked for it and paid in cash.

Also, they have real whey and other supps on sale in reception, no vending machines selling Kitkats.

EileenG

So-so gym.

Reasonable equipment, not always well maintained, but they have proper squat racks and plenty of free weights. Nice leg press, the kind you load plates onto. The swiss balls and abs gadgets are in a separate room.

The workout studio is downstairs, and they have a good variety of classes, including taekwondo and other martial arts.

There is a pool, but not suitable for swimming laps.

Be aware that while the changing rooms are separate, the sauna and jacuzzi area is shared, so don't wander round wearing only a tiny towel (I did, and regretted it!).

Where this gym scores is for anyone with children. The kids love the pool, and will spend hours in it. And there is a good creche where you can dump kids from baby to pre-teen while you workout.

You can pay either in a lump sum which covers everything for the year, or pay a basic joining fee (190 euro, I think) and then pay for the gym, pool or creche as you use them.

personaltrainer

Camden Court Hotel leisure centre, been a member for over a year now. small but has everything I need, good cardio machines (they just got some new ones in)! Nice pool 16m never too busy jacuzzi,sauna steamroom. Staff are all dead on....:D

WHIP IT!

Citywest gym - not bad at all. I think the rate is about €69 a month. I have it discounted as I joined with my GAA club.

It has everything you want in it, equipment wise anyway. Is fairly big. More threadmills and cross-trainers than you'll ever need and the DBs go up to 60kg. (Not that I use, or ever will use them!).

Power rack, two Smith machines, two bench-presses and one inclinded bench-press. About five flat benches for DB work etc and two "Power Towers" for chins, pull-ups, leg-raises, dips etc.

Loads of other weights machines that I never use.

Gripes: There's alot of nice people working there, but mostly young and none that I would put too much faith in for decent advice.

So many members who dump free weights on the floor and leave them there. Literally all over the place some days.

A certain "Dublin Socialite" who works there now and seems to have upped prices on pretty much everything as well as spending most of his time strutting around and helpfully giving unsolicited "free" advice to - funnily enough - only the very prettiest of female members... never feels the need to offer some words of wisdom to the middle-aged or overweight women.... hmmm...

olaola

WHIP IT! wrote: »

Citywest gym

So many members who dump free weights on the floor and leave them there. Literally all over the place some days.

Drives me batty! I like going in the mornings, where all the weights are racked and where you expect them to be.

A certain "Dublin Socialite" who works there now

He is RATHER orange...

WHIP IT!

olaola wrote: »

Drives me batty! I like going in the mornings, where all the weights are racked and where you expect them to be.


He is RATHER orange...

Yes, rather! Must be taking advantage of employee discount on the Solarium!

Money Shot

EileenG wrote: »

Where this gym scores is for anyone with children. The kids love the pool, and will spend hours in it. And there is a good creche where you can dump kids from baby to pre-teen while you workout.

You can pay either in a lump sum which covers everything for the year, or pay a basic joining fee (190 euro, I think) and then pay for the gym, pool or creche as you use them.

I know someone who might want to check this place out. Can't find anything on the google . Do you know where exactly it is or if they have a website at all ?
Thnks

Money Shot

Found it - a space can make such a difference

http://www.sportslink.ie/

EileenG

Money Shot wrote: »

I know someone who might want to check this place out. Can't find anything on the google . Do you know where exactly it is or if they have a website at all ?
Thnks

http://www.sportslink.ie/

Hanley

olaola wrote: »

He is RATHER orange...

....and could be seen "working the crowd" at last years NABBA's in the venue on Dame Street we're not allowed to mention.

WHIP IT!

Hanley wrote: »

....and could be seen "working the crowd" at last years NABBA's in the venue on Dame Street we're not allowed to mention.

You use that brothel too? Jeez... small world eh... :pac:

deadsoul

Has anyone got the phone number or address of the head office of Crunch Fitness when you ring up any of the places your told we don't know or staff have been told not to give it out ,Need to sort out a problem with them and the Muppet staff don't no anything apart from dressing them selfs .Thanks.:mad:

jebuz

Piste wrote: »

Hrm, that's only down the road from me! How much is membership of the tennis club though?


EDIT: A quick search tells me you can join the gym only for €105. Why didn't I find out about this before I joined curves?!

The only thing is Piste, you need to be a member of the tennis club before you can join the gym, and that'll set you back up to 500 euro coin units! It really is always too good to be true!

spellstar

has anyone mentioned the fitness dock? I joined there last year on a cheap deal but have to say wasnt impressed at all... when i joined there were a few of the cross trainers etc out of action that were not fixed or replaced in full year i was a member. generally the gym is fairly small (weights area for about 4 girls at a time) yet they were constantly signin up new members so that in peak times you usually were queuein to use any of the equipment. I kinda like doin the classes there as well yet you have to get there 15mins early to fight for your token to get in! And then they tried to charge me 525e to join for another year! soo bad, really not worth the money.....

beartooth

i have to agree that i'm not that impressed with the fitness dock either i usually have to wait until about 8pm to go down there or it will be packed earlier in the evening. the mens changing was also skinking, fair play they are refurbishing this at the moment but its taking over a month to complete

dacookie

Carlyle, great gym.Only thing is its fairly packed at peak hours(weekdays around 5:30 to 7)You could be waiting 5min for a machine, but you could just do another one while you wait.Mostly I just go to the womens area as most the machines are the same and less people...and to look at the women of course.

Cant remember the price exactly, I think for 3 of us it was something like 237euro each but we got 15months instead of the usual 1 year.

flywheel

deadsoul wrote: »

Has anyone got the phone number or address of the head office of Crunch Fitness

Crunch Fitness Health & Fitness Clubs
98 Merrion Road, Ballsbridge, Dublin 4, Ireland
Tel: 01 6643829

G-Money

I'm sure others have commented on these two gyms but I just thought I'd give my 2 cents worth anyway.

The first gym I ever joined was Dundrum Gym, unfortunately it has since now closed as far as I know. While it was small, I thought the service was really good. The staff were friendly and didn't treat me like some beast even though when I joined, my weight was similar to that of a hippo. What I also liked was the trainers often would say hello and call me by my first name, which was always a nice touch. I know they're paid to be friendly etc, but still, it's nice. I remember one day I had my back to the stairs as I was looking for my fitness card and one of the trainers was walking down the stairs. I had my back to him the whole time so he could simply have walked past but he said hello and commented about how I'd since shaved my head.

I guess the downside of the place was that it was small. It got to the point where I didn't even bother going near the weights section on a Monday or Tuesday. I remember one night these two french guys were taking turns on the Lat pulldown machine. It got to be a bit annoying as I'd lapped the weights room a few times doing all the other exercises on my programme and the Lat pulldown was the only one I had left to do. When they eventually finished, the took the pulldown bar with them. Lovely

The second gym I joined was Westwood in Leopardstown. It's not the cheapest gym around but it was walking distance to work and about 3 miles from my house, so location wise, it was perfect for me. It was great as I could go in first thing in the morning, spend 60-90 mins doing a workout, shower and then I had a super short walk to the office.

I guess the downsides were the monthly charge. At €70 per month, it's one of the more expensive gyms around. There was also a €200 joining fee but thankfully I managed to get that discounted to €50 through the company I worked for. Although it is my opinion that joining fee's for gyms are the most unreasonable charges I have ever heard of in my life. I'd understand if it was treated like a deposit or something incase you wrecked the equipment, but you don't get it back. I personally think a monthly charge is as much as is required.

The gym had a lot of treadmills which was good, although like any gym, some of the treadmills were better than others. A few of them seemed to need adjusting as I would feel the belt kind of moving around from side to side as I ran, so I frequently would change machines. The staff are ok, but I don't think they're as good as Dundrum gym.

The weights section was kind of small and when you get the neanderthols in doing their weights, forget about it. You'll either have to spend ages waiting for a bench, or you'll likely get a dumbbell dropped on your foot as those guys are unable to set dumbbels onto the ground without dropping them from a few feet in the air. That annoyies the s*** out of me, but I think it's common in most gyms.

When I was checking out gyms, I also went to Total Fitness in Sandyford to see what they were like. To be honest, while the facilities seemed good, the staff didn't. When I went to get a tour etc, the guy I spoke to didn't seem to give a f***. It was like he couldn't care less if I joined and he made no effort to get me to sign up. This along with the location, kind of put me off.

I have since went off the idea of gyms. I may re-join but twice in the last year I've joined different gyms and struggled to motivate myself to go. So until such times that I actually am willing to go, I will give them a miss, as its just throwing away money otherwise.

BTW a previous housemate of mine used to be with Crunch Fitness in Dundreary. As far as I can remember he had mostly good things to say about it.

G-Money

Just one other thing I forgot to mention.

If you are considering joining a gym, maybe check to see if they have any sort of free trial's available. A lot of gyms will give you a free pass for a day in an attempt to lure you in. This is good as it allows you to do a workout using the machines, instead of just getting the grand tour.

One thing I would advise is that you go for your free trial/tour on a day and time that you would be likely to go to the gym if you were a member. While it's very tempting to go check it out when it's quiet, it's a good idea to check it out so you can see how busy it will be at the times you would normally attend if you joined.

candle1976

I joined Westpoint in March 2008, with the pretext that regular fitness classes were included in the full annual membership, but so far every time I have attempted to attend a class they have either been cancelled full-stop, or the only instructor they have available to teach is either sick or on holidays with no back up. He is on holidays now from the 20th of July until the 4th of August, so all classes have been suspended until then (for 2 weeks!). I told them when I signed up the only reason I was joining was for the classes and they informed that this was fine and they had a great selection, but up until now most of them have been unattendable, so this makes my membership null and void. Also having a Health and Fitness diploma myself, sometimes they simply stick on a half hour DVD for the members if they complain enough about not having exercise classes (many complaints have already been lodged directly with the club itself but to no avail, it only seems to be getting worse as they don’t seem to care), then they leave these beginners alone in a room to follow the video, with no supervision or assistance. This is dangerous and definitely not good enough. The DVD is generally well-used and all scratched up so these members, who simply want a good workout, usually spend/waste the full half hour just trying to get the thing to play properly. This is ridiculous and I would love to know who I can report them too? They completely misled me when I signed up, allowing me to believe that I would be able to attend regular fitness classes, which isn’t even close to what I have experienced there so far. Don't join this gym if you want to do classes, pay the extra for a real fitness club!

groovyg

I joined the fitness dock in April on six month membership which runs out in September. I find the gym pretty good, it can be a bit cramped at times especially if you go after work. However its open 24hrs on mon, tue wed and thursday which means when you go at eight o clock at night the place pretty empty. I have to say the classes are good and that was the main reason I joined. The staff are pretty friendly too although I do think they could supervise the weights area a bit better, I have seen some people do some pretty scary **** with weights I'm surprised there haven't been injuries.

tigerforest

anyone know what the gym is like in DIT or in jackie skelly on claredon st?

EileenG

JS is pretty rubbish. Pool etc but the actual gym is small and mostly full of machines. Very few free weights and an instructor told me they discourage squats and deadlifts "because they are dangerous".

Paola L.

i've joined the locker room in cork.
its very good, lots of machines, classes, very clean and spa facilities! sauna, stema room... ehehheh thats very important for me. have a relaxing steam room after the training.

jojobrad

Lets not forget the phlegm infested water fountain that spits out warm and metal tasting water !

estebancambias

need advice on a gym to join in the city centre lads.....im thinking of the fitness dock(dont worry i'd be only using it early) 399 seems decent for the year...anyone know of anything cheaper than this....im looking for a swimming pool as i plan to be the next michael phelps.

Preset No.3

grandmaster wrote: »

When I was checking out gyms, I also went to Total Fitness in Sandyford to see what they were like. To be honest, while the facilities seemed good, the staff didn't. When I went to get a tour etc, the guy I spoke to didn't seem to give a f***. It was like he couldn't care less if I joined and he made no effort to get me to sign up. This along with the location, kind of put me off.
QUOTE]


I think I talked to the same guy today. Rang up, spoke to membership. Its was €675 or just over €800 if you pay installments. NO specials, NO discounts, NO off-peak, NO telephone manner. 'the membership is what the membership is' were the exact words he used to me.

So the recession isnt hitting total fitness then!