On another note, there's nothing like a shower at someone else's expense 😆, And whilst I mean that in jest it's true - I hardly showered at home over the winter for years. Not sure what a shower costs, but I like mine hot and long 😊
This may sound like a daft suggestion, but have you investigated the facilities at your local sports centre?
I have a remarkably good council gym that is 5 mins away from me, big and spacious, 4 squat racks, an ass load of treadmills, clean and orderly, and costs £30 a month. This affront to capitalism presumably cannot last, but these places exist.
My other local council gyms are nowhere near this standard, tbf, so you need to be lucky to find one that is convenient. But I'd definitely take a gander at what is available from the LA.
Am I right in remembering you also had a knee op at the start of the year? I think we were contributing to the same thread.
I joined a gym at my physios instruction and am actually quite enjoying having the facility. I have a turbo at home and a cheap weights bench as well as some dumbbells and a barbell. My suggestion would be to join the closest gym. I looked at a David Loyd and a Nuffield but they were both 10-15 min drive away but a cheaper place is only 5 mins from home and that convenience is really handy and i am sure i go more than I otherwise would.
Never loved swimming but it’s quite nice to get in to the pool once a week now to do some exercise that doesn't put any impact through knee. Also, I am still awaiting final clearance to fully load through the knee and having proper machines can help with this. Leg machines can be set to only work through a certain range, meaning I don’t worry about going past 90 degrees doing quad extensions or leg presses and the smith machines are good for doing squats but can control how far down I go. The equipment is much nicer to use than the cheap stuff I have or could have bought for home.
Also, when in the garage trying to do a session I always have one of the kids or the wife walk in to ask me something or ask how long I am going to be, being out the house takes away the distractions!
Yep me too - local leisure Centre that is new - they knocked down the old one and built a new one on the same location - £33 per month or £26 per month off peak. No sauna but the gym, classes and the pool are good. I go three times a week to swim - £150 per month seems alot....
Until recently I was a member at a Nuffield Gym about half the price of a David Lloyd. Nice enough - good modern gym, nice pool, steam room lots of classes.
I was mainly getting value from classes - yoga and spin when the weather was bad. My favourite yoga teachers moved away though and I get all my strength work through my 2 climbing gym memberships one of which is really well equipped. So I've cancelled the membership and can pick up yoga classes at the newly refurbished leisure centre.
If I wasn't so into climbing I would stiff have the Nuffield membership though so not anti-nice gym.
Do you have a Nuffield locally? May be worth a look
Just to add another twopenneth, I found recently that not all DLs are the same. Part of the attraction is that a membership gets you in to every DL gym in the country…which is ideal if you’re travelling for work. But it doesn’t! Apparently there’s tiers of clubs, so my wife’s friend who is a member in Glasgow west end can not use her membership in our Glasgow south side so would have to use a guest pass. Pretty sure, despite my wife having a platinum membership that guests shouldn’t use the spa. Tier 1 memberships get you into any DL, but I’m assuming it costs £££ more.
…waves at paino 👋. Never met but have probably shared the pool 😎
I am considering joining the local David Llyod Health Club (or possibly another premium gym).
It has some great appeal, local, good facilities, a place to workout and then relax with the Spa facilities. I am training for a marathon so the use of treadmills in the winter misery would be welcome. I can pop in on the way home from work, do some exercise, then be home an hour later.
But.... its a ruddy lot of money. Approx. £150 a month. Which l
Just get your trainers on. You need to run not **** about at the gym. Mara training is just more is more. Travelling to the gym is time you could be running.
I worked in a DL (a couple of decades ago!) and have a £34 a month gym membership now at a local powerlifting/ bodybuilding gym (I'm neither), IMO DL best suits those who are retired / don't work and have the time to spend most of the day there socialising, working out, dining, attending events etc..
For marathon training you'll be needing lots of time running, I can't think of anything worse than an hour + on a treadmill, even in the cold damp of winter. For some warm intervals maybe, but not time. But that's me.
I think DL suited those with a disposable income, if your already ? the cost, maybe it's not for you.
i am finding that if its not a 'health club' the cardio equipment is an afterthought
Arsey response: You can buy a good turbo trainer for £500 and running shoes are cheap (join a local running club)
Everything above that is just what you need as motivation ie whether that’s a £30 gym membership or a £150 membership
Just re read OP’s last post.
OK you already have a turbo ? Sounds like the gym is just a good excuse to avoid the fact you need to just get out and run!
I don’t know any serious runners who enjoy treadmill running
You will get much more benefit joining a running club (which costs peanuts) than joining an expensive gym. You will get fitter quicker too. You could then just join a cheap gym to do basic weight training
My experience of marathon training is that you need to do a lot of running outdoors. I know people who work miracles indoors, but they're the exception and I could never run f. eks 2 hours indoors. If you want to do runs indoors, get the incline up a couple of degrees or it's a different muscle/movement pattern.
I know people will tell you do some strength work for it , and that's true, if it's a choice between that and running, go running.
In general tho' I have nothing against DL or other expensive gyms if you're going to use them. Sure it's super cheap to do it at home, but that's not the point. Especially if you go bonkers, get super bored at home
I appreciate the replies. As I put more thought into this, it does seem the price of DL isnt something I would be comfortable with. It does sound like you need to spend a lot of time there to get VFM, which I probably cant justify as yet.
I am still going to use the guest pass I have and spend a few hours in there, so never say never. But it currently feels like an extravagence.
And whilst the convenient location is a big draw, as others have said, if i can use a Gym thats a quarter of the price, but maybe 10-15 minutes drive away, it makes sense.
And whilst I have mentioned I want to use it for my Marathon training, I would also use the other equipment, so its not like thats the only draw.
But ultimately, I do just need to lace up my shoes and get out there, come rain or shine. There just isnt a hot sauna waiting for me at the end of it!
If you can afford it and got plenty of use out of it there's worse ways of spending your money
20 quid a month spit and sawdust place for me though
•••••••
Off the back of this thread, I’ll be using the 2 week £35 trial offer to maximise their facilities during this cold spell
•••••••
Outdoor whirlpool
Outdoor swimming pool (adults only)
Steam room
Sauna
Hydro massage beds (?)
Cryo massage beds (?)
Pickleball sessions (equipment provided)
Badminton
Spirit sound bath
and if there’s time, the gym
•••••••
I’ll then return to my £30 gym which is a 5 minute walk away and has a climbing wall and swimming pool, but alas no sauna, outdoor pool, pickleball…
Am I right in remembering you also had a knee op at the start of the year? I think we were contributing to the same thread.
Indeed, tibia plateau fracture in May. Thankfully, its healed really well. I did 10 days of riding in the alps about 12 weeks post break and also achieved a 10km PB a few weeks back at the Brighton 10k (48:08). So overall, no issues thus far. Hence the marathon.. i am not getting any younger, so thought its now or never (i say now, i mean 3rd May in Southampton!)
•••••••
Off the back of this thread, I’ll be using the 2 week £35 trial offer to maximise their facilities during this cold spell
My local DL (Worthing) is doing the same 'offer'.... but for £75!!!
https://www.davidlloyd.co.uk/clubs/worthing/membership-trial/
Indeed, tibia plateau fracture in May.
so that money you save not going to DL will probably get eaten up with physio sessions 😂
I started going to the gym at a local council owned sports centre along with a bunch of friends, and we’d then spend some time afterwards chatting in the attached cafe, but gradually people stopped coming due to other commitments getting in the way, until I was the only one, so I stopped as well.
I was doing quite a lot of riding and walking, so it wasn’t like I was sitting on my ass in an office all day, but now I’m retired, and I’ve some physical issues, I’m thinking of looking around to see if there’s any local gyms that have training for people with lower back issues, knee arthritis, and such like, and staff who actually know how to guide people like me, so I can build up supporting muscle without aggravating the existing injury.
