Gym advice in South Dublin?

maxheadroom

Hi everyone,

I've decided to take the plunge and join a gym. I'm facing into my final year in college (studying medicine) so want to get into a good routine over the next few months - its one of those "now or not for a few years" moments. My aims are to:

1. Increase my cardiovascular fitness (which is quite seriously horrible at the moment)
2. Lose the gut I've been growing quite effortlessly for the past few years
3. Get my weight back down into a healthier range (currently 79.5kg and 175cm tall)
4. Generally tone up

I know where I need to make changes in my diet to accommodate this. I'm prepared to put in 5 or 6 days a week, probably an hour each day between now and October, and reassess then. I used to swim semi-competitively in school, so I'd like to have access to a pool.

My problem is that I need to join a gym which offers some measure of personal planning - I've never been in a gym before, have no idea what kind of exercises to do, how to do them, and don't really have a lot of time to go and learn it all independently. I'm also much more likely to stick to a plan that I've worked through with someone who knows these things, rather than trying to pull one together myself from the huge amount of info available here and elsewhere.

I live in knocklyon, and have been thinking about either westwood in leopardstown or westpark in tallaght. With traffic conditions, they're both about as far (timewise) from where I live. I was wondering if anyone could recommend one or the other, or if anyone knows of anywhere else I should be considering in the general area of "south Dublin". Anywhere that's likely to offer a student discount to a 25 year old gets bonus points

Kinetic^

If you're living in Knocklyon then I'd join Total Fitness in Sandyford (it's right beside Lamb Doyles). It's got everything you need and offers student discounts as well.

maxheadroom

Kenny 5 wrote:

If you're living in Knocklyon then I'd join Total Fitness in Sandyford (it's right beside Lamb Doyles). It's got everything you need and offers student discounts as well.

Thanks Kenny 5, I'll put it on the list for a visit

Sleepy

I'm a member in WestWood myself and find it meets my needs quite well even if it is a bit of a haven for the cardio bunnies. The instructors are okay but I tend to take more from this forum or teamtestforum.com in terms of how I train.

Total Fitness is a bit better in terms of equipment for more advanced lifting and definitely has more weights. I will consider moving my membership there when my year is up in WestWood but for now I'm happy enough where I am. I didn't notice a plunge pool up in TF when I trained there and that's one thing I love about the WestWood's sauna area. Didn't use the sauna in TF so can't really comment on it.

TBH, I'd say go for whoever will give you the best rate. Both have decent changing rooms, pools and equipment and at the end of the day that's all you need aside from your own effort.

maxheadroom

Thanks for all the advice - after visiting all 3, I joined up with Total Fitness, had my assessment today and am looking forward to a couple of weeks of misery while I get used to actually doing something active

Shrimp

ah u've missed out, i've been a member of TF sandford and i'd definatly no doubt recommend carlisle at the KCR over it anyday! ah well.. make good use of it and you'll be fine!