The best Gym/sports club ever! (Reebok Sports Club London)

Member Name: I-tried-this

Product:	Reebok Sports Club London
Date:	09/03/09 (401 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Fantasitc teachers and instructors, friendly and worth the money if you like or need to workout

Disadvantages: Pricey! (But cheaper the Virgin, David Lloyd's or Cannons in London!)

The Reebok Sports Club London is a gym with a difference. Its based at Canary Wharf just above Waitrose. It is essentially a gym, but it really jam-packs a lot in and what it does have, i.e. classes, machines, changing facilities, swimming pool, Pilataes centre... tend to be the cream of the crop. It costs £99 a month, then they took off 2% VAT so its now £97 a month (until July 2009 when the fees are due to rise and will probably rise about £5 seeing as this is the rate at which they had risen in the past). If you want though, a weekend pass is available- meaning you have access to the gym, classes as a full paying member would, but only can use it from Friday 4.30pm until Sunday closing inclusive. This is £53 per month. I have to say, the weekend classes are good, but not as good as the weekly ones in my opinion.

The opening times for the club are excellent: 6.30am to 10.30pm week days, and 9am to 7pm weekends. Classes start at 6.30. The latest class ends at 9pm, but the gym is open for the entire time. The bar and deli which is attached to the club opens for breakfast and stays open till late drinks week days but closes at the weekend. The Spa which is also connected to the gym is open daily.


Starting on your way in, your greeted with smiley assistants who politely will say hello. OK so it may seem a tad cheesy, but your dealing with a gym which has several other centres worldwide, and 3 being in the USA, which I think is where they get all their tips from! Its nice though to feel welcomed into somewhere rather then having assistants who don't care.

The changing rooms, either male of female (I should add here, I have not been inside the male facilities to check, I just spoke to my father who is also a member for verification) are filled with wooden lockers- I love/d these lockers- you do not need a key, a card, a £1 or a padlock. Its a 4 digit code. Just try not to forget it... you can get a facilities member to open the locker (before describing what is inside) should you forget but its often hard to fine one!

There is free use of towels- grab as many as you want though remember the environment! Free use of straightening irons, hair driers...of which there are many of each! I never had to queue for use of any- even in the busier periods. There are also two irons and a shoe shiner to use. Added to that there are free cotton wool buds, cotton wool pads, moisturisers, shampoo/body wash and conditioner.

The showers are excellent- proper power-showers, big and with free shampoo/body wash and conditioner. They are easy to use though can call up a queue in busy lunchtime periods. I think the gym may be working on replacing some additional showers with smaller versions- in fact exactly the type LA Fitness have in (except a lot cleaner). And that's really where this Club excels- the cleanliness not only of the changing rooms, but everywhere, is excellent. 5 star! No dust, no mould, no left over tissues and no dumped towels- OK, so some are, but they get swiftly moved on by the nearest assistants!
Connected to the showers is the sauna and steam room- again, clean, tidy, no dumped junk and a pleasure to be in.
Likewise the toilets are clean, well kept and include disabled use on each set (there are 3 sets of both male and female toilets in the gym, so 6 sets in total). I never had to queue for a toilet once when I was there!


There is a premier membership locker room, you get to have your own locker, it costs £12 plus a month depending on which variety you choose. But having never done this myself, I really am not able to comment.


Moving up to the gym, there are two floors. They are each pretty large. Having now been a member of LA Fitness, (and been to many of the different clubs in London) I can say that the Reebok is about 15 times the size of any one LA fitness club. Its pretty huge.

On the first level, there are weights and stretching mats. One side is for free weights, the other is for machines. There are 3 separate sets of stretching mats, varying from enough space for 3 people, to enough space for 15 people. There are also 2 power plates which are free to use (many gyms charge for the pleasure) and about 15 rowing machines. On this floor are also 4 fitness class rooms, but we'll talk about that later!

The second floor houses the cardio machines and one smaller class room and a Pilataes studio You do have to pay to use the Pilataes class and its not cheap! But there it is a full gyrotronics equipt studio and you do not have to be a member to join. There are roughly 50 treadmills, 25 bikes, 30 various cross trainers moving up, sideways, down, backward, forwards... and the new arc-trainer which is odd, but interesting- a bit like a cross trainer but does different muscles. Now, there are also 4 Stairmasters- the proper ones, not the tredders (although they have these too). The Stairmasters confused me at first- in total there are 8 different flights of stairs as the gym is on 3 floors. It would make more sense to run up and down the stairs! But having used them, I worked out they get you to stand up straight if you want to see the TV, and its also cool to be 3 floors up and stare all the way down at the ground floor!


A climbing wall runs from the ground floor up to the second floor, you have to book to climb and wear a helmet (provided for you) and be supervised, (someone fell from the wall a few years back and this is why!). Its something else to watch from the facing machines and good to exercise in a way that does not only use your legs!


The swimming pool is another feature- it has UV lighting to clean the water over the use of so much Chlorine. It still uses chlorine- but not as much as other gyms seem to use- it will not sting your eyes. Very much better then the local swimming pool.


The sports hall is what the whole gym is based around- from the first and second floor you can look down or through glass windows at what's going on which varies from circuit classes to basket ball and badminton. You can also hire the hall if you want to use it yourself.


The gym do offer some treats too. On the timetable or club wall each month are often master-classes, competitions (with seriously good prizes- were talking about Canary Wharf bankers in competitions here!), neck + back massages happen twice a month and are free to all members and in the past I have picked up two goodie bags from companies trying to appeal to the members- I guess the members are prime target to advertise at as they generally have cash to spare, but I will never turn down a bag crammed full of freebies! Using your membership card will often get a few perks for you elsewhere such as when they had the ice-skating outside, tickets were £9 instead of £12 for Reebok members. There are also some bar and restaurant offers when you show your card, both in the Wharf and at the O2 which a Jubilee line stop away.


There are a huge amount of mirrors in the club, all very clean, on 80% of the walls. Very useful for keeping your posture and making sure your working out properly- its so easy when not in front of one to end up in the most shameful positions going- why? Because curling over feels easier, but unfortunetly does not work you out to the same degree so the mirrors are not just there for vanity!


The classes are what I loved best about this gym. They alter every 2 months and leaflets showing anything from 150 classes per week exist and are included in the membership fee. Classes vary from Aerobics, abs and dance through to spinning, circuits, 'Fight Klub' and Ashtanga Yoga. They also have a new style of bums-tums and thighs which works using sliders. Varying from "the little black dress workout" to "the skinny jeans" or "bikini workout". Ballast ball is another class where you workout with a weighted Swiss ball. I have tried many and loved all of them- some more then others! But the clean and properly air-conditioned rooms and passion the instructors seem to have make you want to come back.

They seem to take pride in making sure your in the correct position when working out, if you have problems with certain moves, they have many varieties you can try, and genuinely seem to care. When I first came to the club, I actually thought they must have all graduated from theatre school as part of an essential qualification, but it on speaking to them, this is not the case- they seem just to naturally have a massive passion and pride for what they do. I learnt a lot from attending the classes- about my body, the fat/muscle issue, the workout, the stretching and injury side of it- its learning things that kept me interested and actually kept up my gym use full stop. They are like walking talking encyclopaedias with west-end theatre experience!

The star teachers who really stuck out for me are Lucy who does various dance-aerobic style classes, Emily and Sharon who are both very focused both very friendly yoga practitioners, John who is challenging but really makes you laugh, and Greg who seems to have one of those personalities that keeps you interested in what's happening as well as interacting with others in the class. All the teachers I had classes with were and are excellent, but personally, these stick out for me!


There are add ons to the gym you can also have: aside from having your own personal locker (i.e. you do not have to empty it every night. There is also VO2 + metabolic testing which tests your metabolism and tells you which types of exercises work best for your goal, be it weight loss, fitness muscle building or whatever. Powerplate Classes, Personal Training, Pilataes sessions a fully equipt Spa, a Reebok branded sports shop and no doubt more to be added.


At the end of your workout, you can visit the Reebok Club bar...just be careful, 1 hour of an intense workout wont get you much further then 2 medium-large glasses of wine!

Summary: Top rated product- I I ever get the money again, I'm back there!