So Graham Norton (Fitness First (Bow))

Member Name: TonyTHEtiger

Product:	Fitness First (Bow)
Date:	02/06/00 (252 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Celebrity exercisers

Disadvantages: Boring rowing machines

After my morning bowl of Frosties there's no better way to get ready for a hard day's graft than a visit to Bow Wharf's branch of Fitness First.

Apparently if the staff do not greet you by name after they've swiped your membership card you have every right to smack them in the face.

Then it's upstairs to the male changing area, and the tricky task of finding a locker. The Bow gym is renowned for some blokes hanging around for an uncomfortably long time in the all-together. So you have a choice - either a locker by the showers, with your back to them, or a locker right in the corner. A £1 deposit secures your valuables.

The gym lacks the computerised rowing machines with colour VDUs where you can sink the Oxford boat, but the treadmills, bikes and stair things work reasonably enough. The water fountain is a popular feature, where you often find the fat blokes congregating, sweating pouring off their navels.

It amazes me the number of very thin ladies who spend 20-30 minutes reading a book whilst cycling at about 1 km/h. They are often there at 7 in the evening, so perhaps getting in shape for an evening at Benjys nightclub in Mile End.

Once your exercise is done, head back to the changing rooms, and if you are lucky you may here the dulcet tones of an aerobic Welshman talcing himself in the cubicles.

A quick flick of the hair and there is just time for a glass of limeade mixed with lemon from the free drinks machines provided by Ben Shaws.

Then it's out the door, maybe stopping to pick up a free copy of The Independent, often given away.

If you've come by car there is the added bonus of a bloke willing to wash your car whilst you are exercising.

If all this hasn't whetted your appetite, check out the celebrities who use the Bow gym - Bafta award-winning comic Graham Norton, and Peter O'Brien, who played Shane in Neighbours, and also starred in The
Flying Doctors.

Membership is £38 per month.

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