David Lloyd Oxford

Overview

Set aside in a business park, round many small roundabouts is the blocky building of David Lloyd Oxford, about 20 minutes drive with traffic from the town center of 10 minutes from the nearest park and ride.  Set up with a clean and fresh open feel with ample parking and a 6am opening time week days I went and had a morning look around.

The layout is quite similar to some of the other large business park unit based David Lloyds, you come in and walk through the café to get to the changing rooms on the ground floor with then the gym itself being on the first floor and all other facilities really appeared to be on the ground (excluding spin studio). The gym area is laid out quite nicely with a central synergy as we often see, surrounded by a sea of cardio equipment of quite varying age and then with the main weights area to one long side.
The downstairs of the gym boasts quite a good range of the standard David Lloyd facilities with café, swimming pool and if you have paid the extra squash and tennis courts. All up quite a standard and strong DL offering in this location.

Moving onto the metal, the weights area is spread out with a long mirror and about 4 free benches with dumbells behind them, moving down into the far end of the long area there are 3 squat racks with deadlift platforms which was nice to see as they were busy I was still able to get one!
The weights area at the end nearer the stairs has a  very standard selection of plat loading machines, these are the older ones for David Lloyd prior to the 2016 refurb, hammer strength brand these are still great bits of kit but the range here wasn’t great lacking an incline chest press only having a standard I have seen better.
That said in between all of these pieces there were the benches and with 2 flat benches they get a big tick for me for international chest day and all of the kit I used felt well cared for and clean which was quite nice.

Along with this there is a second small free weights area as I have started to see which houses some lighter dumbells, a second set of fixed barbells, a couple of free benches and some miscellaneous bits of cable kit. These areas are set out to be used for functional users or away from the big heavy lifters and I really like this idea as it spreads people out and for people who aren't keen on being near those dumping the weights gives them their own area away from me !

Between these two areas is a small area housing the cable equipment which was appropriate but not extensive, with one of each machine and nothing particularly new or exciting it certainly did the job but again this isn't new since the refurb of most DL's in 2016. But a leg extension, curl, chest press etc are all present and accounted for which is more than enough.

The rest of the space around the synergy in the center is taken up with a mishmash of cardio equipment from over the years, I started on an older life fitness treadmill to warm up with the worlds smallest touch screen and ended on one of the brand new ones you can log into using your phone. This seemed a little odd but given that they had so much I can't really complain as it meant there was more than enough to go around. Though that said there were not TVs for most of the kit so you would be limited to the on screen apps which I am not such a fan of hunching over using.
With a stretching area to one side upstairs along with a couple of studios the gym itself is large and with good spacing between kit.

One final point is that the whole upstairs of the gym felt incredibly light, with huge windows and a good selection of mirrors training in the morning in summer as I did it really woke me up and got me going. The fresh clean feeling in the gym added to this to really energise me for my workout which I loved during my trip here.

Overall a very standard David Lloyd offering set in a reasonable location which I will certainly use if I am passing through the area again, nice staff and felt very fresh!


How busy?
Not too bad first thing on a Wednesday. Given the range of equipment and breaking up of areas along with sensible spacing between kit I think even when busy you wouldn’t have too hard a time here. By the time I left there were a few more people but even then plenty of room to get on with what I wanted to do.



Equipment
Free weights area
3 squat racks (3  with deadlift platforms)
2 flat bench, 1 incline, 1 decline
6 free benches
Dumbells up to 50kg
Set of plate machines including
Chest
Row
Shoulder press
Cable machines including
Low row
Cable cross over


Facilities
Indoor Tennis courts
Outdoor Tennis courts
Badminton courts
Squash courts
Indoor Pool
Café
Steam room/sauna
Changing/showers
Studios (inc spin)
Free weights area
Weights machines
Cable machines
Cardio area
Synergy 360


Pricing
As ever David Lloyd can vary by location on where your base is, recently talking to a friend they got a starting rate of
£90 for standard
£70 per person for couples
I have as other reviews had between £60-90 as the range and worth a haggle
Remember there is a premium over this for tennis/squash etc

Other bits
I loved how bright it felt in there
Loads of parking with a barrier which meant that getting a space near the door was easy, petty I know but made me happy
There is good wifi throughout which as ever makes me a happy chap
​

https://www.facebook.com/DavidLloydOxford/
https://www.davidlloyd.co.uk/clubs/oxford