6 Gyms and a Snax Cafe Breakfast :o)

• Tweet

In the light of my recent announcement regarding the sad closure of Factory Gyms and with our livelihoods now under threat Kyle Farningham, currently my fellow personal trainer here at Factory and also the manager of Urban Gym Edinburgh, and I thought it would be prudent to check out some other facilities

With this in mind we headed out to see what we could find within walking distance of Factory. We only found seven gyms but we checked out six of them anyway and here’s our verdict for you all

I would firstly like to state that every single gym can be a bit crowded at peak times. That’s why I train in an afternoon I should also mention firstly that I already train myself at Thompsons in Leith and Pure Gym at both Ocean Terminal and The Meadows. I’ve always used multiple gyms. I’m a bit of a gym slut

Thompsons is a bodybuilding gym and an excellent facility if this is what you are looking for. It has lots of excellent equipment – 45% Leg Press, Hack Squat, Smith Machine, a few Hammer Strength (my favourite equipment range) pieces etc, plenty of free weight and exceptionally heavy (160lb plus) dumbbells. It’s friendly, privately owned, reasonably priced (£20 a month off peak) and all it’s really lacking is floor space.

Pure are the latest cheap ‘n’ cheerful style of gym chain. The new ‘The Gym’ opening in Waverley Gate is the same style operation. There are plenty of machines and cardio equipment (Matrix) and it’s good. There are free weights but less than at Thompsons or Factory but no less than at most other gyms in the city though, as we will see. The price is amazingly cheap at only £16 a month with no contract. I’ve trained in both venues in the city, the Meadows and Ocean Terminal and while I prefer the open plan layout at the Meadows I use Ocean Terminal more often as it’s more convenient and the kits the same. Lovely view of the city too, seriously

Let’s move on now to today’s adventure report I was really tempted to use the good, the bad and the ugly as my sub headings but I’ve somewhat uncharacteristically restrained myself

The Hotels

We visited 3 hotel gyms. First up was the Carlton Hotel. This was a bit poor to be honest. Run down and rather shabby they haven’t fixed the floor since Factory owner Tom Robertson worked there over 2 years ago The equipment isn’t bad as such but there isn’t a lot of it. It’s nowhere near as good as Thompsons or Pure and as neither of us fancy taking either ourselves or our clients there we move on and don’t even ask what the prices are

The Scotsman Gym

Our second stop is at The Scotsman. I like it here, so does Kyle. It is clean and well presented. The gym area is small but has everything you need and a nice atmosphere. I can’t remember what the kit was, Kyle thinks it was Cybex and I think he’s right It was good anyway Not lots of free weights but enough given the size of the facility. I am shocked when Kyle tells me it is £60 a month to be a member here though. I’ll be looking in to this place further and Kyle is investigating getting a deal here too. I’ll keep you posted

The Breakfast

The Scotsman Pool looking so cool I had to include this pic

We stopped at this point to visit Snax Cafe, a traditional greasy spoon, an Edinburgh institution and one of our favourite places Today we go there and eat in, sometimes they deliver to us but we’re always happy. We recommend the Biggest breakfast (2 Link Sausage, Bacon, Fried Egg, Black Pudding, Tattie Scone, Hash Brown, Haggis, Sliced Sausage, Beans, Fried Tomato & Buttered Roll) and a big latte

The Scotsman Hotel looking so amazing I inclued this too

The Last Hotel

The third hotel we visit is The Roxburghe. Kyle’s comment of ‘It’s like walking into someone’s living room’ about covers it It has some nice Techno Gym kit but only 2 flat benches and a few dumbbells Cleaner and better presented than the Carlton though. Again we don’t even ask prices

The Health Clubs

Our next stop is Bannantynes on Queens Street. Kyle and I are given forms to fill in while we wait for Christina the membership girl .We are amused, very amused The gym is disappointing. I forget what the kit was but the gym was small and cramped, especially for £48 and a minimum 6 months contract. There is a pool and studios and classes and sauna things iirc and these are included in the membership but we’re not interested in these or the dual membership we’re offered so we wander off to our next stop

Virgin at the Omni Centre is spacious and well equipped and it has a pool and studios and saunas and jacuzzis and towels too I like it here but it’s also £57 a month which seems expensive, especially when compared to Pure. It equates to an extra £41 a month for lots of ‘extras’ which I’d most likely never use. The other Virgin in the city is half the size Naomi the membership girl tells us so we decide not to visit there at all

The Gym

Yes we also visited a gym It was actually the first place we visited but it was the best so I saved it for last The Centre For Sporting Excellence (CSE) at the Pleasance is brilliant It’s by far the best facility we visited in terms of equipment, size and price. There are literally 100’s of pieces of cardio equipment, loads of machines, plenty of free weights, heavy (70kg or so) dumbbells and everything else you can think of spread over 5 rooms and it’s only £29 a month We both like this a lot and it gets our vote for the best gym of the day

CSE cardio room

Coming Soon….

Stay tuned for part 2 when David Lloyds (not looking forward to this, I’ll have to fill a form in ), One Spa (quite excited about this as I’ve never been) and anywhere else I can think of in the meantime are on the list If you can think of anywhere comment below please