LA fitness Piccadilly

LA fitness

Rex House

4-12 Regent Street

London

SW1Y 4PE

 

 

Tel: 020 7849 8448

 

Date of visit: April 2011

I booked my three-day free pass on the Internet in the morning and then called in to arrange my first session. The pass enables you to use an LA Fitness gym for 3 consecutive days for free. It’s a great scheme and I believe that letting the customer “test drive” is always the best way to sell.

 

On arrival I was presented to Hanna, who showed me around. All the staff seemed friendly. The gym has a cardio room with about 15 treadmills and another 25 other cardio pieces. There are also four Power Plates, a stretching area, a couple of studios, a room with machines, a room with free weights, a swimming pool, mixed sauna and steam room.

After my session Hanna advised me that I’d be looking to pay a £50 joining fee and then from about £50 to £60 per month, depending on the scheme that I went for.

Good Points: The staff seems nice and when I asked the manager to turn the music up, he did it straight away. The equipment itself is fairly good; it’s all Technogym, as in all LA Fitness gyms. The location is very good (just a few door down from Lillywhites).

Other Points: On the day that I went, I had forgotten to pack my ipod, so I was dependent on the clubs music. It’s a shame that they had it on so low that you couldn’t even hear it in most parts of the gym. It was as if the staff had assumed that on that day (a public holiday) its members were all hung over and just wanted to go through the motions. Like most people, I find that good music (that is at least reasonably loud) helps pump adrenaline through my body. This in turn helps me push myself harder, feel less pain and enjoy myself so much more!

There was no air conditioning in the free weights section and as a result the place was super stuffy and stank of male sweaty bodies (not my cup of tea!). Hanna told me that this was temporary and they were fixing it there and then. She also offered to find some air freshener (believe me, there was no air in there to freshen!).

Although the equipment is ok, the machine section is so drab. They have no mirrors, no ambience, no natural light (there is no natural light in the whole gym) and low ceilings. The free-weight section is also tatty!

Summary: In general this gym is nothing special - it's just ok!. Unless you are looking for a pool, you can find much better places (e.g. Gym Box). I’m sure that on weekdays it gets packed and there is more energy in there (also more of a wait to get onto machines). If you’re looking for something ordinary, go and get yourself a free three-day pass.