virgin active

Falls at the first hurdle — this club is unhygienic.
I go to the gym to get fitter — not make myself ill. This equipment on the gym floor was dusty and covered in days old sweat marks. Virtually everything needed a jolly good scrub with soap and water. However, nothing prepared me for the diabolical showers where every wall was covered in mould and the pool area had various patches of mould.
See the attached photos

Just moved to this gym and am loving every day of it. It comes with a price but it’s well worth the money. The classes are flexible and and facilities are top class.

The building looks impressive on the outside, and the everything-​brand-​new makes the gym look very nice and promising.
A lot of the space on the actual gym floor is given over to the-​latest-​trend equipment like; 15 vibrating power-​plate machines for the ladies, a TRX Suspension frame, heavy plastic tubes you swing above your head, and a (small) climbing wall.
All these are very good but have been at the expense of excluding traditional equipment you would expect to find in any gym, especially one claiming to be a luxury top of the range gym.
Once you get used to the gym you start realising the familiar pieces of machinery that are missing. Like a bicep curl machine, triceps hammer or push down machines, crunch machine, or the lay down leg curl amongst many others.
In the peak period around 5pm to 8pm the machine hoggers move in and its very difficult to get on the one smith press, or the one bench press, one rack etc. This means it difficult to do your exercises in the correct order, eg doing the compound exercises first followed by isolation movements on the machines.
When my friends have asked the staff if more equipment is coming they get all defensive and say that it’s better to use free weights and it’s against the ‘Virgin concept’. Though when you visit their other gyms they do have this equipment and they are not designated as the top-​draw Classic clubs.
Machines are great for those new to the gym, or not been for a while, as they allow you to strengthen your muscles so when you do use free weights you don’t damage you joints. They are also very good for those recovering from injuries as you can isolate muscles
The lack of basic machines at this gym would suggest to me it’s not a good place if you are not already a regular gym goer or someone with deep pockets to pay for the £410 package of personal training (though you get a 10% discount if you pay by direct debit).
The induction I received was a hard-​sell for personal training as all the gym floor staffs are personal trainers who do the general gym floor supervision on a rota. This means they are reluctant to give you tips or a program as they want you to pay for personal training. All you get included in your membership is a pre-​printed out ‘cookie-​cutter’ programme with four routines entitled Burn Fat /​Get Fit /​Tone Up /​Build Up.
If you want to be shown how any of the machines work have to attend group ‘how to sessions’, which is a bit rubbishy. If you have never done a lunge before or a squat, its not really safe trying to pick it up from a group demonstration as you have to get the position just right to avoid injury.
There is a 20m sized swimming pool, whirl pool and a large steam room and sauna thought the last two is little used as you have march down a double staircase and the full length of the pool to reach them.
Virgin has classified it as a ‘Classic-​Club’ and thus charge a premium; Yearly membership is £72 a month, whilst a rolling monthly contract is £89. Though, you can only go to other Classic Clubs if you pay the guest rate.
Overall it’s a disappointment, they need to buy more basic machinery, and give people proper programmes and guide them a bit more.
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UPDATE: The Mystry of why its a Classic Club
Orginally the gym was going to be 50% bigger, but to save costs the RFU scalled back the size of the hotel and the club to save cash. But they decided to keep the prices the same.
If you go onto the Richmond Upon Thames planning portal you can see the orginal plans of the clubs. Had they built it to the orginal specs it may have been worth paying the classic Club Premium — but with Sunbury 10 minutes away and of a higher spec — you have to have more money than sence to pay the inflated price.