Virgin ActiveLabels: gym, health, exerciseReviewer: Andrew Date: 27/12/2006 Rating: 5/5 The Virgin Active gym in the Omni Centre was bought from Holmes Place. In fact, Virgin Active bought all of Holmes Place in the UK. This is not a cheap gym. This does not need to be a cheap gym as it as central as anyone could hope for. The Omni Centre is just off the end of the ever popular Princes Street. Members enter the gym via the top floor, pass through locked barriers (opened by a swipe of the membership card) and can access either the male changing rooms or go down the stairs to the female changing rooms. Alternatively visitors can pop into the Bagel Factory. From the outset visitors notice just how clean the place is. When I'm at the gym cleanliness is important to me. It could be the best gym in the world but if it was dirty then it simply would not do me. The male changing rooms are cleaned constantly and the showers are frequently hosed. Some of the small touches make all the difference – touches such as the swimming shorts drying machine which works its magic in just a few seconds of frantic spinning. Not having to cope with a damp gym bag is a godsend. The pool isn't bad. It is kept at a fairly warm temperature and, again, it is clean. Half of the pool is roped into three lanes – fast, medium and slow. In the gym you'll find me paddling along in the slow lane. The lanes can cope with about three people before swimmers have to pay attention to the pace at which they are going. The other half of the gym is there for freeform but thankfully I've never yet had to paddle around a family there to simply play. The hot bath bubbles nearby and is a frightful temptation when you should be doing laps! Virgin Active gyms run daily classes – body combat, keep fit, aerobics, that sort of thing. In the years I have been going I have once had one of these classes get in my way. Bonus. The main area of the gym is, as you would expect, where the exercise machines are. The bulk of the machines are simply running treadmills but there is a good collection of bikes, various weight machines, various different walking/stepping machines and rowing machines. This seems to be just about the right balance. It is the treadmills and the walking machines which fill up first. I prefer trying to work out how the more obscure weight machines work so I do not have to waste effort on unnecessary exercise. Virgin Active in Edinburgh has a few blessings for those of us with poor attention spans. In the main exercise area there are several large monitors which display various channels. Most – but not all – of the exercise machines have 3.5 audio plugs for visitors to plug their headphones into. I bring my ipod and listen to that or swap the headphones into the machine if there is something interesting on the news. It works for me. No gym is perfect. I would rather that they had more machines towards my bias. A more fair criticism is that sometimes the audio plug in the workout machines does not work. Blocking out the background music, which is played quite loudly, is impossible. I've found the staff at the gym to be pleasant and helpful. They had better be at the costs involved – I pay around £65 a month. When Virgin Active was Holmes Place UK they would ring me up if I hadn't turned up in a while and attempt to lure me back by offering me a free program, ie, someone putting together a tailored exercise plan. I can think of nothing worse but do appreciate the call! Simply put; if you can afford it, I do recommend Virgin Active in Edinburgh. |