Gyms in Hitchin: an honest local guide

The quick answer

Bannatyne Health Club, Fairfield

A full health club on Kingsley Avenue at Fairfield Park, on the north side of town. You are paying for more than a weights room: proper cardio and resistance floors, classes, and the general feel of a club rather than a warehouse. It suits people who want the gym to be somewhere pleasant to spend an hour, not just a room with equipment in it.

This is where Dom coaches his Hitchin clients, so if you want 1:1 personal training rather than a membership and good luck, this is the venue. Worth an honest counterpoint too: if all you want is a barbell at 11pm, a health club is not the cheapest way to get one.

Personal training with Dom at Bannatyne Fairfield

PureGym Hitchin

The budget heavyweight, right in the town centre next to the Town Hall. Open 24/7, advertised from £29.99 a month at the time of writing, no contract, and over 200 pieces of kit. If price and opening hours are your deciding factors, it wins both, and that is not faint praise. Plenty of people train well at PureGym for years.

The trade-off is the one every budget gym shares: it can get very busy at peak times, and nobody is going to notice whether you turn up or what your squat looks like. Self-starters thrive. People who need structure often drift.

Archers Gym, Hitchin Swimming and Fitness Centre

The council leisure centre on Fishponds Road, run by Everyone Active. Archers is the gym half; the other half is the indoor pool, and in summer the famous outdoor lido next door. It is the obvious choice if swimming is part of your routine, or if you want one membership that covers a family with different interests.

As a training environment it is honest and unpretentious. Leisure centre gyms are built for the whole town, so the kit covers the basics well rather than going deep on any one thing.

The Training Gyms, Hitchin

An independent on Bury Mead Road, north of the town centre. As the name suggests, the focus is training rather than treadmills and televisions, and independents live or die on their community, which tends to make them friendlier than their intimidating reputation. If you already lift and want a gym that takes it seriously, put it on your shortlist and go have a look around.

How to actually choose

Ignore the equipment lists. Every gym on this page has enough kit to get you in shape several times over. The membership that works is the one that removes your personal excuse:

If your barrier is money or hours, PureGym. If your barrier is boredom and you like swimming or classes, Archers or Bannatyne. If your barrier is not knowing what to do when you get there, that is not a membership problem at all. That is coaching, and it is the difference between owning a gym card and getting results from one.

And if the barrier is the gym floor itself, the noise, the crowd, the feeling of being watched, Dom also coaches from a private studio in Letchworth, ten minutes up the road.

Questions