Nuffield Health

I was a member of this place when it was under Virgin Active, but same still applies.
Nuffield Health recently took over so i assume it is still the same.
The gym is in good size and do gym classes which were pretty good, the gym was up to a good standard. Obviously you had your usual gym goers in the weight area some hogging all the weights, posing in the mirror for an hour and taking selfies.
The pool was pretty upto date always open for lane swimming and was always open.
I mainly went for the classes in the studio, the studios were very small for how many people they had in there sometimes, apparently they can take 38. no way can them studios take 38 for the likes of Body Pump. It did have a nice spin studio, there was plenty of classes avaliable but they use to put a lot of the Les Mills classes on the 45 minute format which i didn’t really like since it was a 55 minute class.
Some of the events they did when it was run under Virgin were quite good, they did a 2 hour mash up called combatattack, I went to that, that was amazing. They once did a 3 hour body combat marathon but that was before I joined. The participants I didn’t find very friendly a lot of them were so stuck up their A****s, a guy set up Bodypump right so close to me, i was there before him, and he complained I was too close to him to the instructor… well don’t set up so close to me then.
In general the classes were upto a good standard.
Customer service was very good there, they had a decent attitude at the front desk. If you live close to the city centre, it is a good place to join when I was there, but there are many gyms in the area which offer many facilities.
I didn’t find the place very sociable with the crowd there and the atmosphere but I guess you get what you pay for.

For the last few months I’ve been attending Nuffield Health in Birmingham City Centre, having moved from the Rubery Great Park branch.
As gyms in the city go this is one of the pricier ones, with membership costing £40-£50. However, I’ve found that it’s a nice place to exercise, and it is conveniently located for the city centre.
The gym has all of the facilities you’d expect. Upstairs there’s a large cardio exercise area, with running machines, bikes and more, as well as a rock climbing wall and a large weights area with a good mix of free weights and machines. There’s a separate weights area for women and there’s an area dedicated to boxing (if that’s your thing). I’ve found that the atmosphere is fairly relaxed and I don’t have to waste time waiting to use the weights/​machines that I want to.
The pool area is a great place to swim or just to relax after a work out. It doesn’t seem to get overly busy and it has two Jacuzzis, a steam room and a sauna.

All in all this gym is a solid one. It doesn’t have any of the frills you get at some places– no toiletries in the changing rooms, free teas/​coffees etc but it does have:
— a pool
— a decent free weights section
— a good selection of classes (particularly great yoga class)
I’ve never had to wait for a cardio machine and the staff are always friendly.
This isn’t a grunting gym, you know, there are the odd few who make bizarre noises (Although I did once hear someone shout «I am spartan» whilst doing a dead lift), but mostly they seem to go elsewhere. It’s not a lift the heaviest thing you can lift then slam it down it on the floor because you can’t actually lift it properly kind of gym either. All in all I’m a fan.
It went a bit downhill at the end of it’s stint as a Virgin Active (I left it was looking so shabby) but a fresh lick of paint has done it some good and it’s looking better again now under the new branding of Nuffield Health.