Student Gym Membership in Central London / South London

d.m_3

DjP wrote: »

Ok

LA Fitness central London student rate is £51 a month ... hmm

Its the same concept as a phone contract. It costs them next to nothing extra to sign you on, can be brought down. I'd never buy the quoted price from someone, id be broke in 5 days if I did.

I paid £50 in Jan 07' for a 1 month LA fitness gift box for myself. This was the only way i could have what was effectively at the time an expensive but v short contract. Wasnt eveen a contract when you look at it, I paid up front and in advanced.

I reckon you could get LA down to 40. I leveraged an imaginary offer to FF and said they were offering me £35 for 12 months. Im going to negotiate on Friday with FF after I "talk to LA about my offer and get a quote for 4 months". The quote will be £38, so hopefully FF will come down to £38, or maybe i'll give them some leeway and settle for £40 which will be doable for 4 months.

Edit: DjP, what your situation anyway? You a student in London also? How long you looking to commit for, 4 months or 6 or 12, or anyhing inbetween?

The sales girl at FF did tell me something interesting. Some students get a 12 month contract and, if like me they only need it for 4 months, they advertise it with 8 months remaining or w/e on their studentboard at uni and sell it for the cost of 6 months. FF change the name of the direct debit over and another student takes over the contact as it might suit them more.

melancholly

d.m wrote: »

Also, chain gyms are just better quality all round. Maintained to a higher standard and have a proper atmosphere.. wouldnt want to.. get demotivated 3 weeks into the gym plan would I.

i think that's actually just plain wrong tbh! there are obviously some rubbish council gyms but there are also awful chain ones. i wouldn't touch the fitness first one near me with a bargepole (no a/c for a start!) whereas the council one is great and has a sauna and steam room!

each individual gym is what's important - not the name on the door. one of the best gyms i've been a member of was a private one not associated with any chain. that really was family run with lots of personal attention from staff without paying extortionate 'personal trainer' charges. two FF gyms will be entirely different. just don't close up your options based on your preconceptions!

DjP

The girl I saw at LA Fitness wouldn't budge on price.

She even told me of a cheaper (non LA Fitness) gym to go to (if money was the issue).

But I will call another branch and see if I can weasel them down a bit.

And I'm going to pay upfront, so no rolling DD contract. It seems silly to do it by DD, as most gyms have horror stories regarding people not being able to cancel.

Finally, LA Fitness do 5 day passes. Why can't I keep getting them. And using them? Do they take credit card details to stop you going again and again?

Or is it just you can't go to the same gym without being spotted. As I'm in London I could use a different one each week. Hmmm, now that would be money saving.

robmcdougal90

Which LA fitness was that? i have just been on the phone to Muswell Hill and they offered me loads of free vouchers and gear etc but not budging on the price of £55 a month with £30 joining fee. I get a work corporate discount but they would make me pay the £60 joining fee and its then £47 a month for a 12 month contract.
Might ring someone else and see what they say

DjP

I think the Muswell Hill one is around £80 a month but you get three months free

The £55 price is just for access to that gym and no free months.

I'm really thinking about just getting all the free passes and using a differnet gym each week.

It must be possible in London.

But I guess they send you the free pass, so maybe you can only use it once per house hold. But other gyms do the same offer.

And maybe if you turn up at a gym and say your intersted in joining, they might give you a day or two pass.

Hmmmm

DjP

Oh and just to be clear, LA Fitness as far as I'm aware don't let you haggle on price.

They have been very clear that if you want cheaper, you can get that else where.

Oh and on a side note, they are about to spend £600,000 on refurbishing the Muswell Hill one.

jenniewb

DjP wrote: »

Oh and just to be clear, LA Fitness as far as I'm aware don't let you haggle on price.

They have been very clear that if you want cheaper, you can get that else where.

Oh and on a side note, they are about to spend £600,000 on refurbishing the Muswell Hill one.

I've been a member of LAFitness for the past year and been to several of the London ones. All the gyms I've gone to have had the revamp and TBH its not all that different afterwards. A handful of new machines, nothing more Slightly cleaner but they still need to keep on top of any cleaning which they don't seem to do very well! Some have powerplates but you have to pay £10 for a 30minute session. Now the powerplates are free to use in my local gym and various other gyms I've used!

The best in terms of cleanliness is Picadilly, but its so over full that if your not queueing for the treadmill then somethings up! The queue is normally a few people long and depends on when someone gets off the machine....it can go on for some time! Classes there are also over subscribed and normally bookd out within hours in some cases.
I also went to Bayswater which is a joke! They need to seriously clean the showers and there are again not enough machines to go around. Classes are again oversubscribed and busy. The machines there are the filthiest I think I've ever seen! The airvent on the treadmills are scary!!

jenniewb

d.m wrote: »

Hmm I hadn't even had a clue about the horror stories etc.

The FF im looking to mainly use will be on Tot Court Rd. It's a black label gym (means it has a pool). Most others are blue or grey.. I was told by the sales girl that it has more corporate clients. The 10 mins I was there for didn't disprove that either. It was 4:45pm and people were finishing work, saw many suited city people coming in.Which gym was it that you joined?

Also, how much would you have paid if youd' joined FF when you trialed it

I didn't ever join FF- but if I had I wouldn't have paid much, around £30 a month which considering my local gym is £35 a month is going some! I read too many horror stories: the BBC watchdog did a programme, there were articles in newspapers and I also always do my research online before joining. It seems of all the memberships, FF is the trickiest to get out of as the gyms management seem to develop loop holes to keep you tied in.

I trialled the Lewisham branch and the Woolwich branch (which has since shut) I had a 3 day pass at the time and was able to do this (it came free with a purchase from Boots several years ago). They wont give me a free pass as they say I've already had one so cannot comment on the other gyms they have. Both of the gyms I did try though were very similar and did put me off big time! They make my local council run gym look good- and the chavs who drop litter, kids (they allow under 16s) who play about on the machines whilst staff look on and others who stand chatting on their mobiles whilst hogging machines drive me mad with my local gym so FF have really done themselves proud!!
No pwerplates, tiny tiny gyms and not enough machines. Too many posers not using machines, too fewer sane people and instructors/fitness trainers who looked bored out of their sculls mentioning how long they had left of their shift. Maybe things have changed since but seeing as they wont let me try and see...I'm sticking to what I remember!

Chick

This thread is interesting- I downloaded a 3 day pass from studentbeans for LA fitness just before Xmas but I never got round to calling them to sort out a date, I think it's expired now probably.
In any case, I think they'd be too expensive for me to sign up with.

Have to say, the so-called swanky chain gyms are often not up to much and in my experience council gyms can be great.
The facilities tend to be basic but functional, with no sauna or 'spa' facilities but there's generally a nice mix of people there- youngsters all the way to pensioners keeping active.

Depends what you're looking for in a gym though I suppose- I go mainly to keep up fitness levels especially when the weather is rubbish i.e. at the moment!

However, I do agree that it very much depends where you live/where in London you pass through on a daily basis etc. Whatever the case, gym membership in London costs a lot of £££!

pippaaaaaaa

have a look at soho gyms if you haven't already - i researched them last yr and was going to use them because they had quite a few flexible rates/deals going on, and i seem to remember student prices. they also have a gym within walking distance of waterloo station (it's literally like 1 minute away on wootton street)