By Laura Conaghan, Health and Wellbeing Editor, @LauraPB

So you’ve just moved into the city and left your local gym back home with the one squat rack and dodgy selection of mismatched dumbbells, this is now your opportunity to find your holy grail, your mecca.

But where the hell do you start?

Whether you’re massively into your cardio, weight lighting or even cross-fit *shudders*, Glasgow has plenty of options. From my own experience I’ve tried to create a guide that might help you navigate where you should sign up for your new gym membership.

Strathclyde University Gym-

Naturally, most people are inclined to join their university gym. It’s on campus (so to speak) and about a ten-minute walk from halls. At only £101 for the year I can understand the attraction. If your aim is simply cardio then I would recommend a membership, given the size of the cardiovascular suite I can’t say I ever had issue with finding a free treadmill.

However, if you want to incorporate weight training into your fitness regime this is where I become slightly critical. Granted, the weight rooms are decent in size, but the sheer volume of students who are members makes it near enough impossible to get use of any equipment, ever. Want to superset squats with walking lunges? Unless you can physically lunge through people it’s impossible.

The opening times are Mon- Fri 7am-10pm, Sat 9am-5pm and Sun 11-5pm, not amazing but you get what you pay for. In third year I essentially paid £30 for three sessions within the place- my lesson, try before you buy.

The Gym-

Instead of paying a block membership, the Gym (creatively named), allow you a pay as you go membership.

The three most central gyms all vary in price and are broken down as follows:

• Bothwell street costs you only £10.99 a month.
• Jamaica Street (opposite sub club) costs £15.99 a month.
• The Quay costs £14.99 a month.

All have plenty of equipment, decent sized changing rooms and even during peak hours is never too much of a battle and a fight to get on the equipment you want.

Also, if you want to make a commitment and don’t think you’ll move gym then they also offer a student membership that will cost you £99 for ten months.

With 24 hours access it’s not too shabby a deal. It’s also pin access and is pretty safe to be using during the un-staffed hours.

Pure Gym-

It’s a little pricier than the Gym but for reasons I can’t quite pinpoint, perhaps the extra money a month is for better marketing? (Pure at least gave the gym a name).

With three in the city centre Pure Gym is pretty much on par with the Gym in terms of access, facilities and equipment.

All three, Bath Street, Hope Street and Charing Cross will cost you £18.99 a month and right now they have a £0 joining fee.

Again, if you’re pretty certain you won’t change gyms they are currently offering a 25% student discount (as long as you sign up to uni days then this will work for you).

Using hope street as a template the discount would work out as such:

• £90.99 for a 6 Month Student Membership (rather than paying £113.94 through your £18.99 per month)
• £135.99 for a 9 Month Student Membership (rather than £170.91)
• £169.99 for a 12 Month Student Membership (rather than £227.88)

*All prices stated are in line with information available on the 28/09/2016*

Cross-fit

Not as purse friendly but given the type of training it’s no surprise. I’ve only published two with the pricing because the third would mean being borderline financially hustled.

Classes at CrossFit Glasgow are as follows,

• 2x Per Week: £37.50
• 3x Per Week: £55.00
• Unlimited: £67.50

Unit4CrossFit

• Unlimited: £60.00 per month
• Quarterly Unlimited (valid for three months): £150

 

Both websites have a lot more information to access than I have space to provide, but both offer a free taster session so if you’re interested it’s definitely worth trying before you sign up.

Obviously where you join will depend on your fitness goals, it’s a matter of finding one that suits.

Wherever you do end up joining I send you nothing but happy training vibes and continue to cross my fingers that cross-fit muscle ups die a death along with stringer vests that hang by a thread.}