 Overview
As a general public center and up until a year or so ago just a swimming pool the center here has been through quite an impressive transformation to add a full gym facility! As gyms go this tends to fit into what I would term a "community" gym, these are perhaps not as focused on your more "lifting" types and are setup to facilitate a more casual gym goer. The facility itself is split across 2 floors, the ground floor with the swimming pool along with food/café and changing areas, the upper floor housing the gym area. The gym area is not the largest even for a community center having been the main piece built on, the floor is split between cardio equipment which takes center place mainly with treadmills/bikes, stretching down one side and then free weights against the far wall. As with most community centers there are no plate loading machines, no flat/incline/decline bench, just a smith machine and the free weights are limited to a max of 40kg. That said I was happy to find a squat rack with enough plates to load up a pretty good weight. The free weights dumbell area was a little squashed and probably not good for more than about 2 or 3 people at a time using wider ranges of motions. This is again pushing people towards the isolation machines or dumbbell exercises, with a few free floating benches and 2 cable pulley machines which are a little close together it is a center which meets your needs. The isolation machines are a reasonable range covering the basic movements with a couple of lat pull down machines as well, it did feel like the setup though not extensive had been considered to give a maximum set of variety and his as many muscles with the space available as possible. The stretching area is quite oddly placed just down one side of the gym, I get it needs to go somewhere but I was a bit confused and it was heavily populated with PTs instructing people and I never really got a spot on it. The cardio equipment is set out well enough and have TVs which is fantastic compared to some locations that have gone a bit cheaper with these! The two main challenges I had here were first off parking, it was totally rammed with the car park the same size as when this was just a community pool I had to park at a paid for carpark, I could still see the gym but this is another cost that would need to be considered. The other challenge, the biggest one, was that to be a guest I had to sign up. Now this was free, but before I could go into the gym I had to complete about 40 minutes of online video instruction on how to use each machine!! After this I had to receive a card at the door when I arrived, pay to go in and then receive texts until the end of days offering me to sign up or do a class. This was something I fortunately had the time to do but was not a very easy gym to just get a guest pass and go, I get protecting themselves but for someone travelling this really doesn’t work. (note: this can all be done online though at any point and then collected which was a massive plus and far better than being trained on arrival) All in for a new build in a small town its got what you need and gets the job done, the price is ok for a one off visit for me. How busy? I trained in an evening here and it was quite busy. The cardio equipment wasn’t too bad but the weights and cable kit were a queueing system for most of the time there. I can imagine given the size of the weights area that it wouldn't take a lot to make it feel busy and with a thriving PT community I would pick your times carefully Equipment Free weights area Dumbbells up to 40kg 1 squat rack 1 smith machine 3 free benches Limited plates No plate loading machines Cable machines including Chest press Shoulder press Lat pull down Facilities Café Swimming pool Gym Exercise studio Free weights area Cable machines Cardio area Pricing Complicated! I signed up as pay as you go for free and then £6 a visit for a gym pay as you go Aside from pay as you go the price ranges from £33 for students to £42 a month depending on what you want access to Other bits I cannot impart how fiddly the online sign up process was and that I also had to get a card printed on arrival, this is not being a guest you must sign up to attend the gym. The parking was crazy It was a little bit of a sweaty box at the time I visited quite warm https://www.everyoneactive.com/centre/wickford-swim-and-fitness-centre/ https://www.facebook.com/EveryoneActiveBasildon/?ref=br_rs
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