Target Fitness offers four different membership packages with the most expensive being about 35…read morepounds a month. It offers a pretty good selection of classes, and has two swimming pools, a large and a small. The gym itself is upstairs cardio machines and weight machines and mats with freeweights, with a more hardcore weights room next door. Most of the machines are pretty new and in good working order. A few of the exercise bikes need some TLC and a couple of the seats dont adjust anymore on the weight machines. The cross trainers are excellent and have some really challenging interval settings on them. Don't expect all the heart rate monitoring plates on the machines to work either. The free weights area has a good range of weights benches and balance boards, including those irritating vibration plate things. As for classes they do all the usual Body Pump/Vive etc as well as yoga, tabata training and Spinning and many others; all are available on the website for you to look at. I attend the Spinning most frequently and you can pretty much go every day of the week if you are a sadist, though you have to book early but can get the odd last minute appointment if you're lucky. The instructors are friendly and make the classes fun and I would really recommend them. I haven't used the pool but I mean it's a pool it looks ok. Blue and splashy. The female members changing has three showers, two cubicles and a lot of lockers. All good here. Opening hours are pretty good, 6:30 till 10pm in the week, 9-5 on saturdays and open till nine pm on sundays SO hard to find excuses not to go. So if you are looking for a midprice gym that is there when you want it I would recommend Target, but if you can afford more, you can probably get better machines at a posher gym.

This is a top class bodybuilding and power lifting gym. The equipment and the atmosphere are both…read morefirst class. Thoroughly recommended for anybody who is serious about training. It also has free wifi and car parking. It's what you might call 'old school' with nothing fancy, just exactly what you want to get in, focus, and get your training done. Everybody is friendly and shares a hard training mentality. Check out the website cattsgym.co.uk for info.

This is a well known bodybuilding gym in Wigan. Everyone you meet in there will be more than your…read morecasual gym go-ers you may see in the Total Fitness and JJB gyms not too far away. This may be a plus or a negative for you going here it all depends on your viewpoint. As a bodybuilding gym it has everything you'd expect, heavy weights and good equipment all around. If your into serious training you wont feel out of place here. Good place to go if you dont like the more commercially orientated ones in the area

This is the best gym I have been too for getting everyone included and making friends. Everyone…read morehere is also really fit, although many say they didn't start off that way. The training here is based around a functional approach, and I have had really impressive results with both weigh loss and fat loss. There is also brilliant yoga and they also have monthly nights out and have events for everyone to join into with. It really is the best gym I have come across in Northwich.

Withington 'Baths' is a seriously old school swimming pool - and has played host to entire…read moregenerations of South Mancunian schoolchildren who have been dragged their by their teachers in the pursuit of being taught how to swim. I should know, I was one of them (as was my Dad). I still have incredibly fond memories of the place - this huge Victorian monument to the pursuit of health, which towered over Withington belching out steam and chlorine fumes. The changing rooms smelt of feet, and our swimming teachers ranged from the disinterested to the downright sadistic. I still have nightmares about having to dive into the pool in my pyjamas in order to locate a plastic brick from its slimy depths. I still go to the baths occasionally for a quick swim, as well as to sweat out various accumulated impurities in its sauna. Not much has changed since my primary school days. The main tiled pool still looks slightly dilapidated, the lockers still look as though someone's been going around headbutting them, and the building still looks like an old Victorian sanitorium for the mentally disturbed. Yet, it still provides a vital service to the local Withington community, and is great value for money. And, it's nice to know that whilst Withington may be changing all the time, the baths is still a small moment of the past suspended in time - always different yet always the same.

If you're looking for an affordable place to keep fit, or just want to go casually for a swim/gym…read moresession/fitness class this place is ideal. I'm not one for being tied down. In gym contracts I mean. So, this centre is great for me. You can pay monthly for under 30 (student and Manchester city council workers have discounts) or just pay as you go. There'a pool, gym with free weights as well as cardio equipment, and a dance studio for classes. Everything you need really minus the swanky changing rooms and posh jacuzzi. But then, you're not being charged the Earth either!

Walton Hall Park Sports Centre is located in a quiet park, offering a range of sporting facilities…read more Although it falls short of a swimming pool, it does have other excellent facilities indoor and outdoor. There are 4 badminton courts available in the sports hall which is bright and spacious for groups. However, the floor could be more solid. In terms of the gym, this is one of their better features. Though small, it still has all the usual apparatus you would expect a gym to have. If you love football, then here is a good place to come as they have a large synthetic football turf with real size goal mouths. There is even a stand for spectators to cheer you on! As a whole, this sports centre ticks most boxes when it comes to your fitness needs. They offer classes too which is always popular with the locals. In addition, they have a nice little cafe on the ground floor so you can sit down and relax once you've finished.

An excellent compact gym attached to the large Holiday Inn Hotel next door. However you don't have…read moreto be in the hotel to enjoy it's facilities you can 'join' like any normal gym for a nominal fee each month. However even as a 'add on gym' to a hotel it is not the run of the mill. Built on it's own separate 'island' its very unique. Most of the modern machinery you find in all gyms is here and it does have a tv in the exercise room to watch while you're jogging those miles. It also has a small swimming pool about 1/4 of the size of the average gym pool. Includes it's own mixed sauna.

I'd been a traditional gym member for years after getting into the habit of going whilst at…read moreuniversity, but I became aware that I wasn't really pushing myself and had seriously plateaued fitness-wise. It was a trip to see some friends down in London which changed all this. Walking past Clapham Common I saw a large group of people wearing coloured bibs running and doing different exercises whilst under the instruction of three blokes in camouflage trousers. Making out that their t-shirts had 'BMF' on them I was intrigued so did an internet search (http://www.britmilfit.com/) when I got back home. Fast forward three-and-a-half years and I've not been in a gym since. The great outdoors has become my cross trainer, treadmill and step machine (cheesy yet true). The BMF philosophy is simple: outdoor fitness with like-minded folk by qualified and passionate former military instructors. Though some people might think this sounds intimidating it's not at all, everyone is welcoming and encouraging regardless of your fitness level. Personally, I love going to Heaton Park in particular. Not only because it's a huge park with different terrains and parts of it are stunning, but the people who attend every week are one of the main reasons you keep going back. Everyone motivates you and you can have a laugh during the sessions, all whilst getting the heart pumping and fat burned away. The aforementioned bib colours correspond to your fitness level with beginners (blue), intermediate (red) and advanced (green). Classes start with a warm up followed by at least 50 minutes of individual, paired and team exercises, ending with a cool down and stretches. The beauty of the classes is that no two are the same, each one differs in park location and exercise choices, that's what keeps it interesting compared to a standard gym session. Tip: Your first class is free and there is no obligation to join. Just fill out the online form to enroll before you go. Tip: A decent pair of outdoor running shoes is all you really need. Other than that, an old t-shirt on top and shorts, tracksuit bottoms or running leggings are ideal. In winter, base layer top and bottoms are recommended as well. Tip: Some parks also hold a dedicated 'Running Club' session which is at the same time as a normal class.

From personal experience, having lived alongside the 14th fairway for 18 years and having been a…read moremember for 2 years before I started university, I found this course to be both beautiful to play on and challenging at the same time. The variety of hole from short 100-yard par 3 to long 500 yard par 5s through the brilliant Cheshire countryside, make this a great course to play on. It provides a challenge with varying wind conditions, extensive foliage and water hazards throughout the course but its upkeep is pristine. Other facilities at this course include the big clubhouse/small golf shop, knock-up holes on the other side of the road from the course and a small putting green right before the first tee. This knock-up hole facility is available to all members at all times and is handy for ironing out problems in the swing, however I would recommend fetching a few hundred old golf balls from the garage before heading out as some are always lost throughout a warm-up. The putting green is exact replicas of the green speed and firmness out on the course so gives early indications to those heading out on the course of the greens on all 18 holes. The clubhouse itself has a pool room/function room and large bar area along with a balcony area for a perfect view down the 18th tee to watching the weary hacker or pro finish his round. The bar also has a large restaurant area for those wanting to hire out a large room for a function/wedding reception etc. The course itself during the summer months has pristine greens both undulating and simple ones dotted around, along with the added challenges of lakes, the canal and even a large wood separating tee to first fairway on the 13th hole (where I have fell victim many a time). Most holes provide a challenge with slanting/dogleg fairways with varying pace and ball carry at times. During the winter months, these pristine greens are unfortunately swapped with small winter greens which are essentially small slightly shorter parts of the fairway and unfortunately ruin the experience. Also, a tee-off mat must be bought and used throughout the round of golf to avoid divoting the ground during the winter months. Competition days are Saturdays and club games are played on Sundays and Wednesdays I believe. The membership cost is rather steep at £300 sign up fee plus £250 a year for an under 18 with adult pricing hitting nearly £700 a year. The course would have to be used regularly personally to get money's worth, but definitely worth it for the keen and regular golfer.