Fitness First (Fitness First in General)

Member Name: wug291

Product:	Fitness First in General
Date:	25/01/05 (1845 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Value for money, all you need from a gym

Disadvantages: In the e.g of Bradford - Poor staff attitude

belong to Fitness First in Doncaster as my 'parent gym', but with the membership, you can go to any gym across the country at no extra charge. As i work in Bradford, i regularly go to this Gym out of convenience.

FIRST IMPRESSIONS :

It's located in Horton Park - Not far from Manchester Road. It looks very clean and tidy from the outside - Light Blue walls, and large car park - adequate parking for approx 70 - 100 cars. There are large pictures of people working out in the ground to roof pictures displayed in the windows, making it a friendly, and inviting building.

INSIDE :

Directly infront of the entrance is the welcome desk. It's relatively large, and behind that is the cafe, which you can access from the main gym. To your left, you have all the machines lined up at an angle to the front desk. It is evidently a very large gym - Cardiovasculour systems at the front of the work out floor, and weights to the rear. To the very back of the club, there is a ladies-only room, and a fitness studio, where the classes take place.

STAFF :

I would grade the overall staff attitude as poor. I have regularly gone to this gym, and no eye contact has been made, along with the absense of a greeting, or a thank you when your membership card is passed to them. Not all staff are like this - but sadly, 50% of them are. I am generally a polite person, and would expect in return, a greeting, and at least a thank you for my custom - Or at minimum - for the members of staff to stop talking amongst each other for enough time to show some courtesy.

CHANGING FACILITIES :

Obviously, i can only rate the male changing rooms!

When you enter the room, there are lockers on all walls, and a bank of lockers in the middle of the room. Due to a new system in place, when the membership card is shown on entry to the club, the staff member alocate you a locker of their choosing. This can be very tiresome, as last week, there were 5 of us all huddled in one cormer of a decidedly large changing room, as that is where they had given us the lockers. A very poor system indeed.

There are two sinks, two shower rooms, - one of which leads off to the health suite, and adequate toilet facilities. Until recently, there were many of the locker doors missing, but this has been resolved, and most of them are back on.

THE MACHINES :

There are :

Treadmills, Cross trainers, Rowers, Steppers, Recumberent excersice bikes, Standard excerside bikes, Many individual weight training units to cover all areas, as well as individual training Matts for sit ups, crunches, press-ups, or anything that does not require a machine. Scales are also provided to the edge of the work out area, so if you want to check your weight in privacy, you can do so.

Whilst you are having your work out, you can watch various channels from the 8 television screens at the front of the work out area, placed above a wall of mirror. There are also radio stations to listen to - asl ong as you find a unit on the machines that work. Many of the TV / Radio controls do not work, or do not work effectively.

I've reccomended this to potential buyers but only because Fitness First Bradford has got all the facilities you need to either lose weight or tone up - what ever you want really, but take heed of what the review says!!!

Fitness First as a whole is an excellent company. Value for money, and offers all that you could want from a gym - Could be improved by adding pools to their gyms, as they do not have any, in order to keep their tarrifs low.

Summary: