Fitness first or social venue, i don't know (Fitness First in General)

Member Name: dannybwoii

Product:	Fitness First in General
Date:	03/01/09 (58 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Pool, sauna, lots of cardio equipment

Disadvantages: Limited selection of weights facilities, 12 month contract

I checked out the fitness first in Birmingham on Streetly Road. I went with a friend who was already a member and so was given a free day pass in order to check out the facilities. I currently train in a no thrills gym so whilst fitness first is a step up in terms of the facilities, i won't be joining. Reasons given below;

My first impressions of the gym were good, the staff were friendly and i went into the changing rooms which were modern and spacious and equipped with tv's. Great i thought.

I went up the stairs and noticed the large swimming pool below and a huge room to my left with matted floors and those balls, i'm guessing the purpose of this room is for stretching and yoga as there was a guy sat on the floor in a rather precarious position.

I head on into the first area which was equipped with a selection of weight lifting machines, there seems to be a lot of sitting down and talking taking place but not much else. I had a brief go on some of the machines, and moved on into the larger area which had free weights. I found this area rather dissapointing as there was only a few adjustable benches and the dumbells went upto 30kg i believe. Which is not a great deal of weight. There was no squat rack and the leg press was not a plate loaded one so once again a limited amount of weight..so this narrowed the options for leg training.

The cable cross over frame was pushed away in the corner and there wasn't much room to move about there once you were using it. Once again there were lots of groups of young lads simply sat on the equipment, talking and socialising and not doing much else. So i had to wait around ages to use a piece of equipment. I looked into the cardio room and saw a never ending line of treadmills, which is great for those cardio bunnies, it's a shame they couldn't kit out the weight lifting area to the same standard. The music they play over the loud speaker is terrible cheesey pop and dance, this is easily combatted though by taking an iPod. On the upside the gym is filled with hunnies in lycra, so the scenery was definitely pleasant.

None of these thing are what really put me off from the gym though, it was the strict membershipo contract of having to sign up for 12 months via direct debit. I much prefer my pay and go gym I'm at the moment. Also if going to take advantage of the free trial, be careful giving out your telephone number as they will relentlessly call you afterwards and ask if you have considered joining.

Summary: All the mod cons but not really the environment i'm looking for