Cityfitness - Paraparaumu

[dr-pain]

Yeah, I know that Paraparaumu is not a tourist destination for those people who like to workout, but I did get the opportunity to check out the new Cityfitness health club that opened up last week (early March, 2008).

For all of the advertising leading up to the opening, I found the weight lifting stuff to be very disappointing. Sure they had lots of treadmills and bikes, and a large aerobics and spinning area, and they did have dumbells up to 50 kg, BUT....

-no squat rack and no leg press

-only one bench press

-mediocre selection of machines (all with nice paint)

-weights in lbs. instead of kg. (fortunately Dr-pain can convert metric).

I asked a few of the staffers if they would be getting any more leg equipment delivered, and got the same corporate response from each: "we're not targeting the gym to those who do heavy lifting." Ummm....I know a lot of people who aren't heavy/serious lifters who use the leg press/squat rack.

The place seemed like it had a lot of bells and whistles, but with these major omissions, I'll probably stick with my old gym, if it can manage to stay open with the new competition being present.

--dr. pain.

[Pseudonym]

Nice review. Thanks, doctor.

[The Legend Killer]

That's really quite a shame, I hope they don't plan on having all their branches go in that direction.

[rotangs on]

I disagree. If you had of (which I do every second day) asked some of the other trainers, the squat racks are on their way.

There are 3 bench press (incline, decline, flat) but agreed there could be more.

Dumbell range is excellent (in kgs). Alot of new and improved machines apart from being in pounds. I'm happy to join.

[doitcatstyle]

Hi Ya all - I worked at CityFitness Palmerston North for several months before moving south to chch and when I first looked at changing gyms I didn't really like it either as you get used to your own gym and is very hard to change.

At first we didn't have all the equipment to start with and had some missing dumbells etc but over time we managed to locate some extra equipment.

I guess with new gyms you have to allow the gym to develop, and you have to decide if that gym has the gear you need for your type of training.

Also it takes a while for a gym to buikd up an atmosphere - where you walk in, it feels friendly, you have some faces to say hi to & get used to your new training routine in a new setting.

I'd say give it some time and in time as equipment is rotated from other clubs or new gear or sourced maybe it will have what you need. In my experience the cityfitness clubs has been really good. The clubs have a large focus on LesMills classes also which might suit other types of members.

I must admit we didn't have a smith machine which I really missed from my old gym buy I worked around it and sometimes I'd meet with mates at other gyms on Legs day which kept training interesting & meant I could use equipment I needed to have a good session.

Go CityFity Team :clap:

[dr-pain]

I've been to the other City Fitness clubs and was pretty satisfied with the equipment they had.

I wasn't even terribly disappointed to see the Paraparaumu location not completely kitted out during their grand opening. What was disappointing was the implication by many of the sales staff I talked with that the reason for the missing equipment was that the gym wasn't being targeted at us heavy lifters.

dr-pain is awaiting the arrival of the rest of the equipment - and will probably check out the place again once it has arrived. In the meantime, dr-pain has to do squats someplace.....

Cyall laterz

dr-pain

[teamfatboy]

Yep, City Fitness Johnsonville's not too badly equipped as long as you don't mind the weights room being two floors away from the changing room (only a PITA on leg day!) The weights room, although it's in a rather stuffy windowless basement, has enough squat racks, incline presses and power racks that there's not often a lot of waiting...good dumbbell selection.

Their machine floor's not bad, but the SM's are rickety...so I just go for free-bar. They've also got a machine circuit next to the cardio equipment which isn't bad for newbies.

Their group fitness programme used to be great (Radical Fitness affiliate) but the grapevine suggests that's all changing and their bike room is quite well set-up if a bit small.

It'll be interesting to see how CF Paraparaumu goes, the goss was also that one of the womens' gyms (Configure?) was opening up there too.