David Lloyd - is it worth it?

[windmill121]

We went to look around our local David Lloyd centre, it was great and we were totally sold on the life style but realistically we both work ft and have 2 kids and I'm unsure whether they will like the kids activities as they are both ridiculously shy.

I used to be s size 14/16 about 2 yrs ago and now and 18 creeping to a 20 so desperate to lose weight and be a good role model for the kids. So the classes really appeal to me.

Im worried about joining and then not using the membership?

Are there other members here that do use it as a family ?

Myself and my partner joined last year and loved it . However i joined mainly so i could do classes while my son did the clubs and gym . But he did not, hes also quite shy so i ended up with him not able to do what i wanted, also not able to use the spa as kids not let in . We have now cancelled but i would defo go back in a heart beat. Its immaculate the spa is fabulous as are the classes and the outdoor pool, we loved it was just the wrong time for us . We will retire there :)

Losing weight is more about what you eat.

I wouldn't pay DL prices when there are so many other gyms charging a fraction of the price.

I’ve been a member of a very swanky C London
gym (not DL) and also PureGym. A class is a class, no matter where it is. I didn’t end up using the spa facilities of the former as I work FT and didn’t have the time. PureGym classes were brill and cheap.

I think it's worth it personally! I have to disagree with user in my experience with Puregym though as although I found the classes (well...the PTs taking them) to be absolutely awful. I prefer Les Mills classes or other mainstream ones, which is what's put on in DLs and other more expensive clubs. In puregym the PTs make up their own which I found to be boring, stagnant and mostly not to music which I struggle with. I'm afraid I've become a gym snob and absolutely love the more expensive ones because they're cleaner, with less "meatheads" grunting in the weight area and just generally make exercising a pleasant experience! I'd go for it op

I was with DL and I loved it, worth all the expense to me. I think the trainer who take the classes as far more enthusiastic and encourage you more.
I stopped because my circumstances changed and I’m not so financially well off, so have joined a gym run by the council. Although some areas of the gym have been nicely refurbished, some areas are not nice, and the classes are fewer and less choice.

They do Les Mills classes though at the council gym so not all bad, and it’s a fraction of the cost.

It’s not worth it for us as a family on the whole but because it’s at the end of our road it’s a godsend during the wet school holidays when we can just pop down for a swim for an hour or hire a badminton court.
I won’t ever go back to a different gym now, the one we go to is immaculate, pool gym and spa areas are spotless and well maintained, the gym has plenty of equipment and it’s always working. I use it more than anyone else in the family, but every time I think about taking the rest of the family off I remember how handy it is for a very small fraction of the time!! Dds are old enough to come to the gym with me now which they really enjoy.
I’ve found some of the classes for ds to be a bit hit and miss but that’s because they seem to employ older teens to run them- some of them really can’t be arsed (although they aren’t rude or anything you can tell they just get the equipment out and leave them to it whereas you get others who will organise games and make sure everyone is getting involved).
Ds has his swimming lessons there too.

Can I ask how much it is for a family of four please? I'm looking at joining a gym and would like to get the kids away from X Boxes!

Oh and the fact that they have no clear and available pricing structure puts me off.

I havent done David Loyd but i am on occasion a member of a different chain gym and wanted to pick up a few points

Echo what other people have said about weight loss being mostly about what you eat. The gym is about making your body work better. If you want to lose weight you want something that helps you reeducate your eating habits. Im evangelical about the my fitness pal app. 6 stone lost with that app (and ive maintained in the bottom stone range since)

I would have hated being forced into activities as a kid. Also look seriously at what your kid will be doing, are they into tennis? will they actually swim up and down the pool happily? Rarely are they the kind of stuff tgat my grown adult self knows i enjoy and works best for my body. I have had the kids added to my gym membership in the past, i found it very hard to exercise whilst they were there, your focussed on their needs not yours.

The gym is great if you have time but i would seriously consider home options in your situation. Zumba strong is fantastic, requires no equipment you can fit it in when you have time and costs £6 on DVD. (The DVD has still very effective joint friendly modifications) Same with 30 day shred (incredible for building fitness rapidly but challenging on the joints) abd fitness blender is free on you tube (generally i prefer my exercise to music though). You can get ALL the les Mills stuff on their subscription service. Setting up with a decent set of weights and step costs a bit initially but once you have them you have them. And the quality of the instructors is uniformly fab, ive learnt as much about form from them as real instructors) theyre so daft they have me in stitches on occasion.

Dont get me wrong I do love my gym membership when i have it (mostly because i enjoy a swimming pool). But the cost and time cost, especially of David Lloyd, is an absolutely massive commitment. There are very effective other options.

We did a £14 for 14 days trial over the summer. It was lovely but we didn’t sign up, they wanted £200 a month for 2 adults and a 6yr old for the full membership. The off peak one is impossible unless you are retired or don’t work

We have family membership to DL. It is extortionate. We can only justify it as a) being able to use the creche for ds2 when he was a baby so I could swim saved my sanity b) our local pool is disgusting and we would otherwise not swim as a family or dc would not have had lessons c) the outdoor pool on a cold sunny day is glorious and good for my mental health d) the included yoga and pilates classes seem to be helping prevent a recurrence of my sciatica which would otherwise leave me unable to work for a week or so at a time.

I hate spending that amount of money on it, but there's not an alternative that is anything like as convenient or nice.

I LOVE my DL membership, it's all mine and I get it nearly half price through a benefit from work. Can't afford for the kids to join, and they're too old for the crèche and there aren't any classes that they can do regularly and the older two aren't really interested. I take my youngest swimming every so often on a guest pass, or take them all in for breakfast while I work out!

Never signed up to DL though did enquire a few years back, it did seem many of the kids classes in the holidays were at an additional cost. Tbh we have a local bannatynes that is a third of the price and fabulous- yes no additional kids activities (though they can use the pool) but with the left over money I didn’t spend on DL I’d put children is local classes they want to join

I looked again at David Lloyd as used to be a member years ago. A lot of the classes I wanted were via webcam so you might as well pay for the Beachbody app.

I looked into it, £200 ish a month and a lot if guilt it you don't go. Local authorities where I live have improved their facilities so I use theirs. Agree weight loss is more about food really.

It just seems extortionate to me. I’m a member at DW Fitness for £35 a month and it’s absolutely fine. The classes are great, the pool is nice, the gym is good and people are friendly. I don’t have crushing guilt if I can’t make it when work is busy.

I’ve had various memberships that have lapsed and I think different clubs have different stretches. The David Lloyd I was at had the nicest pool by far, Nuffield had the best classes and in terms of equipment, my leisure centre gym actually had the best access to machines. So, it really depends on how you’re going to use it as to whether it’ll be worth the money. I’d say David Lloyd is only really worth it if you’re going to be swimming a lot and making use of the tennis and social activities as a family.

It has a proper pool with lanes so if you like swimming then it’s great, and it’s good for children’s lessons. The children’s clubs are good as is the soft play. People join go to classes and spend a lot of time socialising. It’s expensive.

Different strengths not stretches.

Yes, we love it.

DP joined up recently on the full platinum membership, as a friend of his goes there so he has a gym buddy. They do spin classes or weights together before work and play tennis every fucking evening regularly.

He asked if I wanted to join too - I was hesitant as it’s a lot, but then as he said it’s half price for me, so £100 ish for him £150 for us both so he encouraged me.

The kids are £33 each so with 4 of them it’s about £300 a month for us all, but DP earns well so he’s happy to pay it, as long as the DCs do go along regularly.

We take the DCs for badminton and swimming, plus DS14 enjoys the weights stuff at the gym too. DD is 12 and doesn’t get as much interest from the gym as she’s not allowed to use all the machines, but she got a complimentary PT session when we joined (we all did) where she was given a routine of different things to do using some of the other equipment so she does that sometimes and likes to swim with me.

Personally I just use it as a spa, hanging out at the outside pool feels like being on holiday - this summer has been glorious there! - and wallowing in the hot tub. I’ve tried a couple of yoga classes.

Mainly as a family though it’s badminton, and we sometimes stop for dinner there afterwards as the food is really nice and you get a discount with platinum membership.

I go with my DCs 2-3 times a week and probably another once or twice during the day as I work for myself so can go when they’re at school. DP goes daily and his DCs maybe once or twice a week, so all in all I think we get good value out of it. No doubt it would be cheaper elsewhere if it were just the gym side of it, but as we’re enjoying the racquets and the outdoor pool most of the time - racquets were an unexpected bonus as we hadn’t thought we’d use that side of it as much - I’m glad it’s DL.

I don’t have crushing guilt if I can’t make it when work is busy

I think the crushing guilt when you’re paying DL prices helps motivate me to go . I know DP isn’t at all motivated by money and will either go or not regardless of how much he’s spent (he once paid for a v expensive PT and didn’t turn up to half his sessions!) but for me it’s definitely a factor - I feel like I had to make a business case for my DCs to join so I want to make sure we uphold our half of the bargain and actually go!

My friend pays £350 per month for a family membership.

We have a family membership and use it a lot. My daughter does swimming and tennis lessons and I take my son swimming whilst she's at school. I go swimming myself and do yoga classes in the week. It's really local to us so easy to just pop in for a coffee and play on the soft play.

Can anyone tell me price of swimming lessons?