From the outside the Y Club looks an idyllic gym. Situated literally on the picturesque canal at…read morethe start of Castlefield, a 5 minute stroll from Deansgate, it looks like a posh gym for young professionals. The lovely little swimming pool is visible from the canal itself. So you can imagine my delight when I discovered it was relatively cheap, especially compared to gym groups such as Virgin Active or Fitness First. You can also avoid a contract and sign up for as little as 2 weeks, and it works out at around a pound per day. So alls well so far. Then i went inside. I think the point about the gym not really being for girls is valid, though I think lots of men should be added to that list too, as its only really suitable for bodybuilders who love dingy spaces as seen in American boxing films. Its small and dark, and pretty damp. Basically its no good. Its got all the equipment you need so if you want somewhere to go for just a couple of weeks then it serves a purpose, but its nowhere near as nice as it looks outside, and there are some better value gyms out there, so if it's a longer term membership you're after, give this place a miss.

Once again I have to question the effect that living in a big city has on the expectation levels of…read morethe people who populate it. EVERYONE had raved about this gym so I was really excited when the day of my prebooked free trial finally arrived. Now I don't go to the gym for a lie down, I will put the effort in but one of the reasons it's nice to go to is for the luxury- anyone who has spent a day in a David Lloyd's or Total Fitness will know what I mean. The first disappointment was the space, or lack of it. The Y Club is deceptively cramped- from the outside it looks as though it deserves its own postcode, inside you can see the pool, gym and fitness suite all from the reception. The layout of the gym is ridiculous, with the weights room being split in half by a narrow corridor of a fitness suite, making the planning of a routine unnecessarily difficult. The range of equipment is pretty thin on the ground and the surroundings are extremely dated- it feels like an 1980s swimming baths. The centre is very male centric and I imagine quite an intimidating place for a woman to go to. Not that the men does anything particularly masculine- all too often you are held up from getting on a piece of equipment not by a guy using it to work out but by several guys using it as a meeting place to hold a mothers meeting. Y Club? Y Bother Club more like.

Sienna Spa is the Spa and Health Club found within the Radisson Edwardian, Manchester. Built on the…read moresite of historic barrel vaults, this inner sanctuary has a sense or calm and stillness far removed from busy city life. If you want luxury, pampering and fitness - then this is your place. The spa and health club are never packed full and on numerous occasions I have had the swimming pool to myself. The pool is 1.4m deep and approximately 15 x 10 metres. There is a chill out area surrounding the pool, along with a jacuzzi, steam room and sauna. The gym offers a good range of equipment, including two running machines, three cross trainers, four bikes, one rowing machine, two weights machines and more. There is also a weights room for those wanting to focus! After exercising, the changing rooms have powerful hot showers with Gilchrist and Soames shower gel, shampoo and conditioner. Also great hairdressers and straightners for the ladies! Want some pampering? There are various packages - a day or couple of hours etc. Facials and massages tried and tested - and I would highly recommend them. If you go for the Premier club (gym, pool, sauna etc) membership you get a complimentary spa treatments per month - so cool! Lush green apples are beautifully displayed for you to munch on after exercising or your pampering session and two choices of newspapers to read as you chill out. Cost wise - pretty good value for what you get. Love it love it!

Sienna is central Manchester's most luxurious spa facility with its relaxed atmosphere, friendly…read moreand professional staff and contemporary facilities it offers the perfect opportunity to chill out. The club is inside The Radisson Edwardian. The Health Club includes a spacious new gym offering the latest in easy to use fitness equipment. A stunning indoor pool, luxury spa bath, sauna and steam room. Wow!

I've just started using this gym. I do like it the time table, lots of spinning…read more I like the changing rooms, dark wood lockers and lots of room. There are a number of stations where you can sort out your hair and make up. There is also a steam room and cold shower which is good for relaxing in after a really hard workout. The staff are help and seems to be in to fitness.

This is the first time I have wished that I could give more than 5 stars…read more They seemed to be more into service and not the horrible pushy hard sell that other gyms are into. The people working there showed me the facilities and also let me have my own space to look around. They were so helpful and when I only had jeans, one of the people even lent me his personal spare clean shorts. He also would not accept anything for the laundry when I gave them back to him and was just all round amazing. I was staying at The Premier Inn hotel and so using it for the day waa £5 instead of £10. This is a great sincere gym for people who are serious about training, really friendly and does not have the annoying slimy sales person stuff that other chains have.

Been a member of this gym for a few months now. I was previously member of LA Fitness. I only left…read moreLA Fitness as membership expired and instead of renewing, decided it was time for a change. Nothing wrong with LA Fitness. Pure Gym has benefits that it's pretty cheap and open 24 hours. Also it's bigger than LA Fitness so almost always able to get on treadmill. It lacks the personal touch though since u join online. None of the members of staff have ever said Hi. That's what I miss from LA Fitness. Staff would say hello now and then and being a smaller gym, got to recognise other members who went at similar times and say hi etc Not done any classes or even induction yet. As a member u do have various offers like money off hair cuts from certain places.

Great gym that has everything you need... except a swimming pool/steam room/sauna…read more It also contains the usual suspects on, pretty much, all the free weights and smith machines. There is also no PT's available to get advice for free

I come to Sugden fairly often, mainly to play badminton with my friends. I must say that prices for…read morebadminton courts are very reasonable, but I don't find the service much good. Once all the fields were taken, even if we had booked one and we were there on time, yet no one was there to check that players were respecting their times. Lockers are provided to drop your stuff, but you have to pay 20p to use one. I considered signing to Sugden just after moving to Manchester because it's very close to uni. Therefore I took their gym induction to give a look at the place and at the machines. The gym is ok, not very big to tell the truth. I was actually rather disappointed with the induction itself, cause it lasted only five minutes, the instructor just hastily showed us the rooms, we didn't even have time to try any machines. Also, we were more than ten people taking the induction, and I was expecting something more serious and personalized since I was paying for it.

I'm not a student at Manchester University, but one of my best friends is and that means that I get…read moreto in to Sugden Sports Centre every week to play a bit of badminton. There are loads of sports halls and courts and stuff here, so lots of space to do whatever sport you're into - be that squash, badminton, basketball, circuit training, etc. If you're playing badminton like we do, then it costs just over a fiver to hire a court for an hour once you're a member. This isn't too expensive, especially when it's split between the two of us. The one thing that annoys me here just a tiny bit is the fact that you have to pay 20p for a locker and you don't get it back. It's quite cheeky to get you to pay for the privilege of having your stuff safe whilst you're exercising. Surely, after membership and court hire, that should just be a given.

Great selection of equipment and very helpful staff. Clean and has 99% of everything I want in a…read moregym.

If you're not looking for luxury and don't want to be tied into a contract, but still want to work…read moreout in a gym, this is the place for you. It's £15.99 a month with a £20 joining fee (and it seems as though they occasionally waive the joining fee) on a rolling contract. This is one of the cheapest gyms in town to the best of my knowledge (Ben Dunne on Whitworth Street I think is cheaper). Here are the things I love about it: - You get a code that gets you through the main door and the freaky little entrance pods. This means you have one less card to lose/you don't have to stand around raking through your bag for it. - On the member's area of the website it tells you how often you've been to the gym and for how long each time. Good for motivation, and just handy if you like to keep track. - There are loads of machines. Even at busy times I haven't had to wait for a machine yet. The equipment all seems pretty modern too - they have spin bikes with inbuilt personal trainers. - All the classes are free (I haven't been to any yet so can't vouch for quality). Notable exceptions are that there's no pool, no sauna, and no free towels. But none of those things bother me: I don't like swimming, saunas are weird, and I can bring my own towel. Everything is clean and well-maintained. Staff seem nice though I've never had to have much to do with them. You can buy a padlock for £3 if you don't have your own. The biggest downside for me would be that the music is too loud - even with headphones on and my own music playing I can still hear it! In the fairly short time I've been a member here I've been really pleased with it - and I like that I can quit whenever I like if this stops being the case.

RE the other review - good effort but not particularly funny. Swing and a miss…read more Achieve Fitness is a real gym, not one of these over-priced, new-fangled Fitness clubs. If you want an affordable price, wide range of free weights (dumbells up to about 70k), relevant equipment, good atmosphere and knowledgeable, helpful people then join AF. Alternatively, if you're the kind of person who does their make-up before/during gymming, just wants to 'get toned', or wants a million useless wrist curl and 'glute stretch' machines and a 5 star restaraunt - for 50 quid per month, then join Bannatyne's.

My conscience is telling me to modify my rating of Moss Side Leisure Centre, that is probably one…read moreof the places where I spend most time in Manchester. This is due to some issues that arose over the last month. First of all, the policy about classes has changed, and now it's necessary to register at the counter before each session, whereas up to a few weeks ago it was enough to take the receipt of your booking using the screen at the entrance. This is often causing very long queues, and it's actually incredible if people manage to get to their classes on time. There is a stupid detail that made me think members of staff don't care enough about checking regularly the gym: in one of the rooms all the weights of less than 4kg mysteriously disappeared. I found it funny when my instructor said: "Well, try and do this exercise using 5kg, cause someone stole the lighter ones. If it's too hard you can reduce the number of reps." It's almost two weeks now, and they haven't yet reappeared. All in all, the place is always enjoyable; staff is very nice and the instructors are usually willing to help and give an induction even without booking an appointment.

I tried out Manchester Aquatic and the Y before deciding on this one. The deciding factors were 1)…read moremembership sale -- £95 for 6 months (the sale is now over) 2) proximity to my house and 3) machines. Facilities: steamroom, dry sauna, pool, about 3 rooms for squash etc, two adequately-sized rooms for machines, weightroom. Prices: You can get a free membership for 7 days, but you need to book the induction appointment first in order to use the machines (also free). Call a few days in advance to book the induction, which is very thorough (!) and will take 30-40 minutes. -The normal non-student membership price as of Ferbruary 2012 was £23.99 monthly without contract, or £18.99 with annual contract. There was also a 4 week pass for £25. Pros: - The machines in the front room by the entrance seem to be constructed for people who are neither massive nor tall. I'm short and skinny, so this was perfect for me. - Other than the weight room, other areas of the gym never seemed too crowded. I very rarely had to wait to use a machine in the front room. - Attentive staff in workout areas - Good mix of different ages, genders, races: mostly working class, some yuppies - Easy and free parking - Affordability Cons: - If you basically use a gym for the free weights, the most popular room seems to be that one, as it's often packed to the gills. I recommend showing up about an hour towards closing, when it seems to thin out. - During busy times, the spacing of the machines in the back room is a bit tricky; once or twice, I was concerned about accidentally hitting a guy who was using a mat which had been placed next to my machine (why the mat was there to begin with, I have no idea.) - Their pool isn't huge like at Manchester Aquatic. To use the pool, you should check the schedule beforehand, because some days and some nights are booked up for private groups. Note: Access to Chorlton Park gym is included with a Moss Side membership last I checked, and karate is held at Chorlton Park-- but, karate costs extra. At some other gyms such as the Y, you can buy a membership that includes unlimited martial arts. I don't play basketball, but in case you're looking for a gym with a court, call ahead and find out if they have one-- I didn't notice one there.