Recommend me a gym...please

galah

After a recent bollocking by my doctor, I need to do some exercise to strengthen my back...damn.

Unfortunately, it's not that easy - thanks to 3 herniated disks in my neck, I can't go swimming and can't do any classes as such (I'd love to do Yoga or Pilates, but alas, nay). I don't do exercise bikes or jogging by principle, and I'm easily bored (need I mention that I strongly dislike exercise?).

Any suggestions as to what would be the best for me?

Oh, and it's needs to be easily accessible by car (which rules out the gyms near Tesco and anything in town), has to have parking, and should not be too expensive (so I don't feel too bad if I skip a week or two...).

Help!

Steyr

Galway City Gym, Tuam Rd. Brilliant weights etc in fact the only "proper" no nonsense "get in and get your training done" Gym in the city, the rest are..well.....sheite.

tristanc

Are you well versed in the exercises you need to do? If not, I'd really recommend getting a good personal trainer (or even a physical therapist) for a few sessions on the outset so you're doing the exercises properly and don't accidentally do back damage. If you want to strengthen your back, you'll probably want to do a weight training routine, and not just the rowing machine

Can't help with an actual recommendation - I go aforementioned gym near Tesco. It fit my major requirements - walkable, cheap, not crowded. And had the basic equipment I wanted (though half of it seems >20 years old - I swear to god some of their machines have these monochrome DOS-era looking displays.)

tristanc

Oh, and forgive the obvious - but any gym will let you do a tour of the facilities. So I'd make a shortlist of recommendations and then go check them out when you'd normally be going to see how crowded they are.

Price-wise, I feel like most of they gyms are the same ballpark on a short term rate but vary massively on an annual rate. Gyms with pools seems to be more expensive than gyms without pools, not surprisingly.

sharkDawg

If its just your back you need to strengthen, then my advice would be to go see a physio, he/she can give you proper strengthening exercises which you can do at home, no point splashing out on a gym membership if your not going to get your moneys worth

galah

cheers everyone for all your tips!

Problem with back exercises at home is - I won't do them...:rolleyes:
so with a gym I figure I'd have an incentive, and I can do something for the rest of my body, too...

Merry Christmas everyone! (seeing what my mom is cooking for Christmas and the next few days, I will also need to work on my stomach after the holidays... ;-))

Mrs OBumble

I've recently done this little investigation myself, admittedly with slightly different criteria.

It probably comes down to what side of town you live or work on, 'cos you're more likely to go it it's on the way to somewhere else.

The one near Tesco has all the things I'd expect in a gym, and costs about 320 for 12 months.

NRG is flash, has places in Knocknacarra and Boheremore. The latter has car-parking included (former may do too, I don't know). It costs twice what the Tesco-near one costs.

The one in Leisureland Salthill is between these in both price and flash-ness, but probably only good if the location suits you.

The one near the Raddison is superflash, and costs three times what the Tesco-near one costs. Has parking.

The all have personal trainers, some advertise "physical therapists" too: I say don't believe any of their marketing bumph, go to a physio privately if you need one, the folks based in gyms usually aren't as good.

caracal1984

sorry don't mean to hijack thread, didn't think it was worth starting a new one for, but does anybody know what time the Galway City Gym opens in the morning?

Lockstep

For price I think Crunch Fitness is the cheapest.

On NUIG campus, around 200 for the year.

Dunno if the stuff is what your looking for. Have a look round.

gaeilgegrinds

No pool though until September & that gym will only be open to present & alumni members.

inisboffin

Really? Crunch? I am a newish member, didn't know that.

Cool, so I got in under the wire?

galah

Interesting, thanks again for all your replies!

I don't really need a pool anyway since swimming doesn't really help my back. But I heard about Crunch as well, might give that a shot if they still take non-students ;-)

Lockstep

gaeilgegrinds wrote: »

No pool though until September.

Yes I am aware of that.

OP did say that they were unable to swim

gaeilgegrinds

Oh sorry

galah

Update: They're taking non-students, 235 Euro/year. Not bad.

I shall check it out this week!

snubbleste

I'd hold out with Crunch, they offer public memberships as low as €179, they had that before christmas and will likely again at the end of this month.

I'd back up other posters' advice and go for non-gym activities

sharkDawg

Mon - Thurs, Crunch will be packed from about 4pm to closing. Just remember to take that into consideration. Virtually all professionals that use crunch do so before work! I'm a current Crunch member so if you've any other questions about it just send them on.

walt0r

Galway city gym. Rest are for deadbeats

gaeilgegrinds

Just to reiterate, Crunch take non-college members but won't with the new gym. I wouldn't recommend it, it's way too packed. I've waited 20 minutes for machines in there, might be cheap but not worth it.

dafunk

I had heard that the Kingfisher was very good but after going to check the place out I discovered it's a bit of a kip. The weights room looked alright but there wasn't much going on in the Cardio room, it was pretty packed and the changing rooms were pretty manky and cold and the showers were filthy. Maybe I'd a bad experience but I wouldn't recommend it. Have yet to find somewhere myself though.

galah

gaeilgegrinds wrote: »

Just to reiterate, Crunch take non-college members but won't with the new gym. I wouldn't recommend it, it's way too packed. I've waited 20 minutes for machines in there, might be cheap but not worth it.

Hm, thanks for the info. I'll take a look tonight, haven't signed up yet...So does that mean that once the new place is up and running, the "old" gym will be closed?

m83

i joined GCG on saturday and am absolutely loving it. two big muscely thumbs up from me

CPG

dafunk wrote: »

I had heard that the Kingfisher was very good but after going to check the place out I discovered it's a bit of a kip. The weights room looked alright but there wasn't much going on in the Cardio room, it was pretty packed and the changing rooms were pretty manky and cold and the showers were filthy. Maybe I'd a bad experience but I wouldn't recommend it. Have yet to find somewhere myself though.

Your right, Kingfisher is a dirty hole. And I actually witnessed and gave a b*llicking to a member of staff who was having a joke about a customers disability, music playing is always this overpowering speed techno. Stay away from the Kingfisher!

galah

by the way, I joined Crunch, and so far, it's been great. The assessment was well done, your man actually knew what he was talking about and showed me everything I needed to know (which exercises were best for me, how the machines work, etcetc).
It's not that packed (but then I work flexi-time, so I can choose off-peak hours), and it's actually quite fun (I never thought I'd say that about exercise and a gym...:rolleyes:)


The only small thing I don't like are the tiny changing rooms - they could do with a bit more space...ah well...

dafunk

I just joined NRG in Clybaun hotel, it seems pretty good, classes etc. are included in the membership which is good. I'll give some more feedback once I've gone a few times.

It's crap the way these places make you sign up for a whole year though, i've got shafted on that a few times by having to move with work and ending up having to pay for a membership somewhere thats hundreds of miles from where I live. Guess thats how they make their money.

galwayrush

m83 wrote: »

i joined GCG on saturday and am absolutely loving it. two big muscely thumbs up from me

I was a member there for a few years, loved it, a real Gym, not full of Posers like some of the others.

Rincess

galah wrote: »

Hm, thanks for the info. I'll take a look tonight, haven't signed up yet...So does that mean that once the new place is up and running, the "old" gym will be closed?

It'll close and become the new student societies and cultural centre.

galah

Interesting - I hope there'll be refunds or a transfer to the new gym then...
But I guess the new gym will be a while, anyway...

(Pool looks tiny, and why they build the pool in such a way that you can look into it from the bridge is beyond me...)

TerrorFirmer

CPG wrote: »

Your right, Kingfisher is a dirty hole. And I actually witnessed and gave a b*llicking to a member of staff who was having a joke about a customers disability, music playing is always this overpowering speed techno. Stay away from the Kingfisher!

Just to balance that out, I've used the Kingfisher for years and I never thought it was anything other then a good place. As a regular member, I always found it clean sand decently staffed, ok the music might not be to everyones taste, but it is a mixture of popular dance and pop, not 'speed techno'. :rolleyes:

And I'm not trying to be a shill, I actually don't use the Kingfisher anymore, joined the Lodge in Oranmore instead. Much handier for me. Though it's a nice place, it's small but well equipped (speaking about the lodge here), though they only have 80kg of plates for the bench and highest dumbells are 20kg (as in, 2x20kg)....so if you're anyway into weights it's not much of a challenge. I only realised that after I joined. So I have to ask them to order in more...miles better then that laughable excuse for a weights section in the Quality though.

leiwand

hi there,
just wondering if any of you do spinning at any of these gym.I'm thinking about joining one of the gyms in galway and standard of spinning classes is a big factor for me
many thanks in advance!

Allison91

i like the one at the quality but only cos its near home..:)

rinnin

Jaysus. Stay away from those "physical therapists" if you're having neck problems!
Find a proper Chartered Physiotherapist (who are university & medically trained autonomous practitioners) who should get you sorted. They'll tell you about your condition, what is & isn't safe to do & probably come up with other suggestions if you're not a formal exercise lover.

mark.leonard

Do you have a list of exercises that you can do? Will you be doing anything for the herniated discs? It sounds like your back is in pretty bad shape, so any kind of weights will put you under pressure. If you are new to lifting your back will be at risk from any free exercises.

galah

it's grand - got a list of exercises, and double-checked with my GP and my Osteopath as to which exercises are best to slowly get back in shape without doing any further damage....