Gym just off Lordship Lane

[eater81]

Was passing by that new gym at the bottom of Lordship lane a few days ago, (edit):ESPH (not push studios!) its called, apologies if im wrong. Am thinking about joining a gym so I went in to have a look round. Had a look at the membership fees, (its about 70 to 80 quid a month if I remember), and was thinking "must be a good gym if they're charging that much."

Went upstairs to have a look round and what do I see? Absolutely sack all! A couple of treadmills and rowers, some dumbells and a few pathetic looking pneumatic resistance machines! Was not impressed to say the least, how they can charge so much for so little is beyond me. If they are reading this my advice to the managers would be to pull their fingers out and put a decent gym together asap, or they're going to loose out big time!

[Flapjack]

I think you must mean esph. Push Studios, run by the lovely Kevin, Colette and Nat, does not charge a membership fee and it's all pay as you go classes and personal training. I really recommend them.

I know nothing about esph but my neighbours like it as they do some pretty good off peak deals and they are going for various health reasons, rather than fitness, if you get the drift. There has been a lot of discussion about esph on this board when it first opened.

Just wanted to make sure that people didn't think you were talking about Push..!

[James]

That gym will be shut by the eand of the year I reckon. If I was getting that for ?50 I would feel ripped off

[jumpinjackflash]

totally agree! ?80 is a joke for Push Studios. I am with 2 gyms - Reebok gym in Canary Wharf where I work which is ?90 per month - it is the best gym in the country - has EVERYTHING! (My work pays for it so may as well use facilities at lunch!!)

Also with Hamlets next door to Sainsbury's at ?25 per month - very basic but friendly and dirt cheap. The two are chalk and cheese but you def get what you pay for!

[bon3yard]

?42 a month for the Fusion Gyms and whilst East Dulwich is a bit scabby Peckham is great. Clean with wonderful amenities and helpful staff. Plus you can actually move in the pool during lane swims unlike dulwich in which rubbish swimmers block up all the lanes so you can only do 1 lap every 10 mins. Bah.

[eater81]

Just to confirm! Im not talking about push studios, im talking about esph. APOLOGIES TO PUSH STUDIOS FOR ANY DAMAGE DONE TO YOUR REPUTATION.

[LuvPeckham]

WOW

?70 - ?80 a month

Personal recommendation is spend that money on a Wii Fit - have fun whilst working out at home and scare your neighbours by doing the hula-hoop exercise with no clothes on, facing your front windows with the curtains open (sorry to the lovely people over the road who have now started a pertition after calls to the police failed to stop me last week :-$ )

Seriously a good fun way to work out, providing you do a little every day and ignore the barbed comments it throws out if you put a pound or two on over night

Downside is you sometimes feel a right twit jogging on the spot, ski-jumping in your lounge or trying to break past the 400 hola-hoop record in under 6 minutes... and don't even get me started in Super Step arobics... (6)

[Mark]

This argument's gone around before where you get what you pay for. I pay ?40 a month to use at Fusion by Goose Green and there's no one supervising people, there's usually 3 or 4 machines broken, hardly ever space for stretching or free weights and you have to put up with shit music. For an extra ?30 a month I wouldn't expect to put up with the above, I've had a look around the esph and I thought it look pretty tidy but right now it's not in my budget.

[Cassius]

I haven't joined the new gym as it is beyond my pocket, but when I went to look around before it opened it seemed to have a lot more going for it than eater81 mentions. The assessments are done by qualified physiotherapists, the pilates machines are second to none, and I believe that the membership fee includes classes as well as use of the very high spec equipment.

[karter]

and talking about the equipment i just dont think pneumatic equipment compares to weighted and corded equipment. Personally the results one gets with weighted is far better.

[eater81]

I suppose its horses for courses when you choose a gym. Its just that ESPH is not the course for my horse.

As a 27 year old bloke who is in half decent shape, in a gym I look for:

-a decent amounts of free weights and resistance machines which can be set to quite a high weight. ESPH has basically no free weights, the highest dumbell I seem to remember is 20kilos! Also those pneumatic machines are a load of crap compared to cable and pulley machines.

-Some cardio machines, eg treadmills and rowers. Ok, esph has these.

-Im not interested in a) classes or b) assesments and instruction / supervision.

Perhaps Im not really the target market for this gym, for me fusion on goose green is double more useful and half the price. Perhaps if you were a female pilates/ yoga addict who went to every available class then the 80quid fee might be worth its money, but I still think this gym has really poor facilities compared to fusion and to its price tag.

If they could just stop playing such crap music in fusion then it would be perfect!

[Spangles30]

I am in agreement with the latter posting. The exercise classes at Fusion, East Dulwich are, in the main, fabulous. So what if they sometimes get packed. Instructors like Theo, Chris and Cheron really give value for money. It's great if you can afford ?80 a month on gym fees (I can't).

Admittedly Fusion can sometimes be rather disorganised, and the equipment isn't as 'snazzy' as it could be, but all I care about is getting a good workout.

And eater81, even if I were a yoga/pilates fan (I'm not) I wouldn't pay ?80 amonth to do it.

[giggirl]

Nothing wrong with ESPA. A gym should not be "one size fits all". You get what you pay for and ESPA has a lot of happy members.

[Ant]

As I understand it ESPH is not meant to be a run-of-the-mill gym. They're after a different target market - one that will be happy to cough up a load of cash for all the pilates/physio stuff they offer.

[bon3yard]

Do they offer a rub'n'tug service in with the monthly fees?

[coachkelly]

Check out the Brockwell Lido. It's amazing and all for ?47 per month !

[wee quinnie]

My sis and brother in law are staying with me at the moment, and have just joined ESPH, (they are not rolling in dough by the way), and they can't praise the place highly enough.

[alieh]

In defense of ESPH, our membership is ?60/month (I think if 2 people join together that is what it works out to?). That is a ?20 premium on the goose green gym, which to me is worth it -- clean, not busy, equipment in good condition, really nice shower facilities. And a ?13 premium on the Brockwell Lido, which for me is worth it for proximity to my house. Think you're right in that if you're not looking for classes, it may not be worth the money for you. For someone who does yoga or pilates classes regularly, it probably does make sense to join as most one-off classes I have seen elsewhere are ?15-?20/class.

I know the physio angle does seem like a gimmick, but it was incredibly useful to have the 1.5 hour session with a physio when I joined (I didn't expect it to be) as they tailored an exercise programme specific to me.

I like ESPH and I generally hate gyms!

[Sam]

There has been a huge amount of vitriol directed at ESPH. I love the place.

Know a lot about opening and running a gym eater81? Going by what I've heard from the staff, they're meeting their targets and subscriptions are where they want them to be.

I was a member at a central London gym for a long time - it had loads of aerobic machines, a boxing ring, punch bags and tonnes of free-weights. It also had all the usual creatine guzzling meatheads that go with it. As you have said, it's horses for courses and everybody has a different opinion of what constitutes a decent gym. The fact that it isn't massive and that there are classes and help etc. freely (in all senses) available works just fine for me.

Your biggest gripe was the number of, or lack of, free weights. I did go to Fusion a couple of times and found the free weights section to be something that looked like it had been cobbled together from purchases at car boot sales. Maybe they've done something about that recently and would happily stand corrected. As for the weight machines, you can set them pretty high on the pneumatic ones and the reason the physios give for choosing those over weights is that they are a better action for you and your joints (something to do with a smoother, more consistent resistance or something).

If you're lucky enough to be a big guy with slabs of muscle and that is what interests you, then I agree that ESPH probably isn't for you. Again, you acknowledge that. But to wholesale slag it off seems unnecessary. When I was going to my previous gym I was using fairly high weights of dumbbells for things like bicep curls. Now, at ESPH, I'm using much lower weights because the technique and type of exercise they've got me doing is far better i.e. it isolates the particular muscle. Again, using bicep curls as an example, it's easy to "curl" a 30+kg weight if you're chucking it up using your arm AND your shoulder. Unless you're a total beefcake, curling the same weight with good form and just using your bicep is a totally different kettle of fish.

I'm sure that any of the PT's at the old gym would have happily pointed out the error of my technique. I'm not saying that ESPH is unique in that regard. What I am saying is that when I first looked around I too thought "22kgs? That's not enough" but when I was doing my assessment and first session I was (unpleasantly) surprised that at the moment 22kgs is plenty to aspire too!

I'm not having a pop. I'm also not suggesting you don't know how to work out. I just feel that people don't give it a fair crack of the whip. It isn't cheap, admittedly, but to have a go at the place just because it doesn't suit you seems a bit harsh. Of course, I recognise, and embrace, that forums are precisely the place where people can air their views and speak freely. It just felt a little bit like an attack.

[jumpinjackflash]

oo er, got any pictures then?!;-)

[Sam]

Ha ha! Unfortunately JJF the post was posted when I didn't mean it to and was about to take that line out because it made it sound like some sort of personal ad!

[jumpinjackflash]

:'(

[RosieH]

Agree wholeheartedly with Sam (not about the personal ad, although that said I have seen some cuties in ESPH...)

I'm not a massive lover of gyms - used to be a member of Fusion - I could never get on the resistance machines for the muscle marys grunting away. I joined a wanky gym in town - Ministry of Sound DJs, climbing wall, glass walkways, wheatgrass juice - and it was run by people who ignored everything I told them about what I needed and devised an entirely unsuitable programme, and offered no help subsequently. I've also been a member of places somewhere in between - Cannons and Holmes Place - and remained uninspired.

At ESPH the staff are the friendliest and most helpful I have ever encountered. My programme suits me, and I actually enjoy it (which is a near-miracle in itself). I'm thrilled not to have to wait for men in low cut vests to get off the machines before I can use them.

I thought that ESPH was expensive for a place that doesn't have a pool or sauna, but the fact is that the atmosphere, the staff and my excellent programme keep me going back. And I've already had better value for money than I did when I was paying less at Fusion.

[redan]

Yes, it is expensive but I see it as an investment in myself as I'm about to hit my 50th birthday! I didn't expect to be able to get my body back into a reasonable shape and I never imagined I'd find myself running on a treadmill but esph is getting me there. The physios are very encouraging but also very firm - understanding why I need to build up certain muscles to avoid injury is a further incentive to put in the work and if it means avoiding a hip or knee replacement in 20 years time, it's worth every penny.

[Dulwich Born And Bred]

I joined ESPH, and I didn't really rate it, my sister joined with me, I didn't think the assessment was worth it either.

My sister was told she had flat footed and was told to buy an insert to help correct it, so she did, but she does not suffer from flat foot because she checked it out!

I then said to my personal instructor that my sister was told she is flat footed , she then said to me ( and that was a week AFTER my assessment with her) "Oh, you are slightly flat footed too so you should buy the inserts also" naturally I didn't because she didn't mention anything about it at the time, she only mentioned it when I informed her about my sister.

The instructors ARE helpful and extremely friendly, but we still went on the machines and did what we wanted, I certainly did not feel like I was being supervised to ensure I was doing it correctly, though if I had asked for advice no doubt they would help me, but I find Government gyms and gyms such as LA fitness will offer advice if you ask also.

I didn't try the classes out in ESPH because they did not appeal to me. my sister and I have now renewed our membership with fusion and we are loving it! We go 4 times a week, the classes though packed are great fun and the machines does the job for me.

Different strokes for different folks!