Gym Survey

I am a member of a well known chain of gyms in South Africa and recently I have had the opportunity to visit several of their gyms. I was amazed how different they were, okay they all share the same decor scheme and obviously they are all branded the same. But that is about where it ends, most of them have different bits of equipment, some have spin dryers in the changing rooms others don't, one will have an out door shower area, another an indoor lounge type area outside the sauna and so the list could go on.

But for me, the most obvious difference is directly linked to the location of the various gyms. For example the one at Westlake is an out and out a fitness gym, its nicely laid out and is functional. Its located in a business park with an excellent bike shop just around the corner. The only reason to be here is to train, there are no distractions.

Then there is the Constantia branch, where the car park is full of Porches and people sit for ages waiting for a space to park their pride and joy as close to the entrance as possible. They then only have to make a short walk to the gym, then run 10 kilometres on a running machine. Obviously the need to park so close to the entrance is not to conserve energy, but to be seen and more importantly for their vehicle to be seen by everyone who enters the gym. This gym also has a rather swish Woolworth's cafe and even a small, but practical Woolworth's shop.

Paarl, where men are men and most become Springbok rugby players. Here there is no fancy bits, the gym equipment seems to be made from girders and everything has heavy weights attached to it. The only concession to namby pamby training is the swimming pool, which is not only small, but the only above ground indoor pool I have ever seen in a gym. I guess it just does't get used that much as no one has invented a way to swim with 30 kilo dumb bells in their hands.

Sommerset West is just full of business types on their phones arranging the next big deal and 16 year old school girls on their phones arranging the next night out or talking about prom dresses that cost a fortune. Its in a shopping centre which allows the women to do a spot of power shopping in their lycra outfits either before or after their work out. To be honest it doesn't matter if they go before or after their work out as this gym is not for sweating in, its to be seen in and to be seen doing some mild exercise whilst on your phone.

Which brings me to Green Point in Cape Town, the gym is terribly laid out and the equipment is limited, but none of that matters because there are a hell of a lot of mirrors all around the place. Its no surprise then that this is the domain of the body conscious gay community of Cape Town. The cliental also appear to need some clues as to what to do, as there are big signs around the gym such as WEIGHTS and SWIM.

The latest gym I have turned my attention to is the brand new one at Sun Valley in Noordhoek, Cape Town. Being brand new everything is, well brand new and they seemed to have got things right. Its not a massive gym, but it ticks all the boxes, yes if you want to be picky its missing a few bits of kit, but so what. The gym has its fair share of young budding wannabe supermodels, who seem to spend their time walking around the gym with their super sexy slim iPhone 6's in hand and ear phones firmly in. I guess they are searching for the right inspirational music which will actually get them started, or they talking prom dresses with the mob at Somerset West. I think the only thing I could complain about and to be fair its a big problem at this particular gym. They have forgotten to put just outside the entrance a hitching rail, so people can tie their horses up when they go for a workout.

Now lets move up country to Johannesburg and the first gym I visited here was clearly one of the originals. In the city of gold where its said the pavements are covered in the stuff, I can tell you the tread on the running machine is still the boring black colour. This gym is not for the switched on, upwardly mobile crowd, this is for the old style Afrikaans you know the guys with the tight short rugby shorts and the women with the high back brushed 60's hair, smelling of cheap flowery perfume. Its been a long time since I saw a running machine with no headphone socket, or no interactive TV screen, in fact there was next to no technical stuff in the place at all. The changing rooms were also worthy of note, there was no nice colour scheme here, the lockers were more like industrial lockers you would see in a factory, constructed of box girders. The lock plate was heavy duty steel and welded to the locker. They are the maximum security locker of the locker world, of course you will have to lug around a padlock that matches up to this level of security, I felt mine probably didn't.

Next was a brand spanking new gym also in Joburg, this was a world away from the other one, although only a few kilometres as it happens. Now this place had not one, but two fantastic swimming pools. One was outside and the other inside and had wonderful LED lights all along the length of it just below the surface of the water. The water by the way was crystal clear, a nice shade of blue and perfectly flat and still, not a ripple on it. Indeed that is how it was for the three visits I made to this gym, flat and still and the reason is simple. Unlike the gyms in Cape Town, 80% of the customers here are black and the 20% whites are all body builders with lost of tattoos from what I could see. Now both of these groups never swim. So here we have a superb gym with not one, but two very expensive swimming pools that absolutely do not get used. What a waste, Branson sort it out.