Leisure Centre Gym refurb

[NewWave]

I Just wondered who has been and used the gym since the refurb?

And what your feedback and impressions are.

[sebastiondangerfield]

Still a dump.

[the_hermit]

I went on Xmas Eve and thought it was pretty good.  Water fountains not plumbed in yet.  Despite there being ample space there's only one level bench press station (which is admittedly the same as before but seems a shame not to use the space to duplicate a popular piece of equipment).

The bench press stations also only now have one (adjustable) hook so it's more difficult to bail out without a spotter.

[Brian up the hill]

The refurb has made it brighter and smarter with greater emphasis on weights and other exercise. Seems that cardio is restricted to the quarter of the floor area as you enter. This seems fair enough as I rarely saw more than half the cardio equipment being used at any one time. I have been told that some cardio will be on the newly created gallery space overlooking the main gym floor. Free weights area looks bigger and there is a good range of resistance machines offering to exercise most muscle groups. There are some new types such as a squat machine, whereas core machines for abs and back seem to have disappeared. I have been told that some machines have yet to arrive. Overall, it’s a great improvement. 
To say it’s still a dump is unfair and untrue. 
The alternative would be to traipse over to Beckenham where David Lloyd will charge you the same for two months’s membership as you would pay for a year at DLC. 

[NewWave]

I've been a member for many years (through 3 different organisations running it..) and a regular attendee of the gym though not the classes.

I'm REALLY REALLY disapointed that it now feels very much geared toward weights and strength training with the cardio machines cut down considerably in number (only about 5 or 6 X trainers..I had to wait to use one) running machines halved in number and a lot of wasted space.

Also I thought the actual cardio machine I did use was pretty rubbish (It felt like something from Argos) and not by one of the well known gym equipment brands that I've used in other gyms..also no screen display settings so you can 'run on a beach' etc. And the Wifi still was'nt linked to machines so no youtube netflix etc.

I felt the gym seemed less inclusive the ab crunch has gone, seated row gone, the seated machine you make cycling movements with your arms, gone...these are all machines I see older members using, I did'nt notice if the recumbent bikes had gone or the two step machines, the ski-movement x trainers of which there were 2 have also gone

My general impression was that these was a distinct scarcity of weight based machines and the focus was very much on free weights with this taking up the majority of the space.

BECAUSE ITS A COUNCIL RUN GYM SURELY WITH THE AGING POPULATION AND OBESITY CRISIS THE EQUIPMENT IN SUCH A LARGE FLOOR SPACE SHOULD OF A RANGE THAT CAN BE USED BY OLDER AND LESS FIT MEMBERS OF THE COMMUNITY?!

Kings hospital used to bring groups to the gym to use the use the cardio equipment-I don't know what they'll use now?

I raised concerns about the majority of the space being used for free weights when I saw the plans and asked for member feedback prior to the refurb, I must have been in the minority I guess.

I was also suprised that the changing area is still the same and looking pretty tired.

I felt that with all this new equipment they should have had lots of visible staff on the floor helping people get to understand settings and so forth.

I wish Everyone active still ran the gym..in my experience they were the best.

But having really looked forward to the reopening I found it a real let down☹️

In a nutshell if you want a muscle gym its great and I understand there will soon be a boxing area-I was not told that there would be more cardio machines coming.

Edited 16 hours ago by NewWave
spelling

[claresy]

Anyone know what's happening with the pool? It was meant to reopen today and I have a swim booked. I've had no notification that it's cancelled and there are no updates on the app but the website says the pool's closed. The phone line is dead when I try to call. 

[Dulwichway]

1 hour ago, claresy said:

Anyone know what's happening with the pool? It was meant to reopen today and I have a swim booked. 

No! but hopefully we will get an update soon.

[Del in ED]

Was there any attempt by the gym/provider to harvest requirements/opinions/preferences from the gym-using cohort before the detail of these works were commissioned, to ensure they're a pertinent fit for the gym-using community at that location?