Cannons Health Club

I’m sorry, but in what world is this a five-​star gym? While its fees are prohibitively exclusive, I find the gym ridiculously cramped, with far too many machines crammed into the space. By way of an example, when you enter on the first floor, the door hits a step machine. And reaching the machines at the front of the balcony requires the most limber of individuals (at least you won’t forget to stretch!). I have received so many dead legs from people on Xtrainers, it’s not funny any more. Still some of the machines have TV screens, making watching the football healthy and there is a variety of weight machines, replete with glowering, mocking, territorial users (though that is hardly the gym’s fault). The pool is nice, but I’ve never used it. The steam room is variable, sometimes not living up to its name. The men’s showers, though recently rennovated, reek of urine. And there is a bar/​seating area for watching sports events. There are many classes for varying abilities, but it just unfortunate that the ones I always want to do seem to be taken by the same ex-​military wanker and contain his fawning minions. And I thought their philosophy was ‘exercise is fun’?!? Oh, and the car park is a crime scene waiting to happen.

Funky gym with the usual offerings including aerobics classes and dance classes as well as exercise machines. The best thing about this gym is the fact that you can keep track of your progress by entering a password into a piece of equipment you’re using. It then retains details of e. g how many miles you’ve walked on the treadmill and this information is built up. You then receive emails regularly from the gym detailing how many miles you’ve completed and motivating you to keep going. They tell you how many calories you’ve lost and its the one thing that keeps me going!!! I tend to check my emails at work and when i see that ive burned another 100 calories i feel motivated to go the gym that evening. Its genius!
You can try Cannons for free as they do offers so you can see if you’ll like it. I think its great and i have tried out a few different gyms in london.

I’ve been a member of Cannons in Wandsworth for just over a year and I love it there. My usage is mainly of the gym which has a huge amount of equipment. The room is air conditioned, there are loads of tvs and all in all it’s a very pleasant place to work out. Every time you use a machine you log in with a password and it clocks how much you’ve done and sends you regular emails telling you you’ve burned enough calories to eat 45 ice cream sundaes or lifted the equivalent of 10 Indian elephants. Very good for encouraging you to go more often! You can also book in for personal training sessions to improve your progress. There’s a lovely pool which I take my kids to at the weekends — there are set times when the children are allowed in. And there are loads of different classes for the children as well as adults, everything from Pilates to yoga and water aerobics. My daughters do a dance class on a Friday evening which they really enjoy.