I was wondering if anyone had any info on when they are open or how much it costs to use the gym.
I went there a few weeks ago and I thought I snagged a brochure on the way out. But I must not have.
BTW, the place looked fairly nice. The archery range on the top floor looked great. I was surprised they had that. The gym looked acceptable. Lots of space and some great rowers, but free weights were few and far between. The pool looked good but seemed a bit a crowded. The kids area was a bit of a joke – few toys and play area was not weel-thought out IMO.
The price is NT50 to work out in the gym for an hour, although I doubt they’ll notice if you go over. There are lots of pics on the page of the facilities, the pool, etc .
Considerig it’s location right across the street from CKS with the MRT so close, I would guess that this is one of the easiest to get to and cheapest places in Taipei to workout.
“JJsports” (the link you gave) is actually short for Jhong Jheng Sports Center. Jhong Jheng is one of the 12 districts of Taipei city. So the rest of the districts should each have a sports center that offers similar facilities and charges the same rates, no? Does anyone know? Those rates can easily put Alexander and California out of business.
It was great in the beginning, when it first opened. New, clean, shiny, no annoying sales people, no chain-feel to it, and most importanly, it was almost EMPTY!
It was a wonderful change from Alexander.
But now, after they’ve promoted it, it’s become just as overcrowded as any other gym in the city. Maybe even worse, because you can never find a free cardio machine in the evening and the only way to get on weight machines is to stare someone down until they’re embarrassed and leave.
So now there are tons of people who don’t belong in the gym, just as in any chain gym in the city. Abusing machines, hanging around, getting in the way, watching tv too loud, not using towels on benches (ewwww!), etc.
The only part that’s still good is that the staff is not sales-minded like in Alexander and California. Which I guess I should be grateful for. Glass half full and all that.
Yes, this is part of the “healthy Taipei city” campaign. Each district is eventually supposed to have their own facility like this. The one in TienMu is supposed to be huge. There are already a few scattered around in the districts, although most haven’t been completed yet.
I think it’s a good idea, and should give the other gyms a run for their money.
But as tash brought up, they quickly become crowded and suffer from a definite lack of gym etiquette. Working out is still quite new to Taiwanese so it’ll take 20 years or so for that to seep in, if it ever does.
For one, I plan to go during odd hours. Also, they have mats and rowing machines – things no other gym I know of have. Plus, you can’t beat the price. Everything is a trade off, I guess.
It’s commendable that the city government is supporting and promoting exercise culture. This country desperately needs it, and as the OP pointed out, it will take years.
However, a lot of opportunities to educate the public are lost due to lack of professional staff and no policy to approach individual gym-goers to instruct them.
The kids that are manning the info desk are very nice but are neither fully capable to assist, nor are they instructed to offer assistance in the first place. Mostly they just sit at the desk, take tickets as people come in, chat to each other and browse the internet.
I’ve not once seen them walk up to someone who was obviously clueless and at risk of injuring themselves. Seriously, not once.
The people themselves of course don’t ask for help either.
In commercial gyms the situation is similar. Trainers come up to you sometimes, but you can quickly tell if that’s a sales approach (for private PT hours) or if they’re just trying to chat you up, practice English, whatever other reason.
I would say this is a serious problem. Very small percentage of population actually knows what they’re doing at the gym. I’m now not complaining about the bad gym etiquette that annoys me personally, but more importantly about the lack of knowledge that, at best leaves them with no positive exercise effect, and at worst can cause serious injuries.
EDIT: Hmmm… instead of just complaining here, I think I’m going to write them a letter.
The 50NT is only for the gym part and that’s per hour. They do track your time, so if you stay over, you have to pay for another hour. Also, the gym area is pretty small. The equipment is all in one room and they don’t have near the variety of cardio and weight machines that gyms like California or Alexander have, nor do they offer any classes. If you go to work out in the early afternoon it’s an adequate bare-bones gym, but after 4pm, it gets very crowded and you have to wait to use pretty much all of the machines.
Also, the showers/changing rooms are very small and you have to pay to use the lockers and hair dryers. And there’s no suana or steamroom.
So, it’s definitely not as good as the other “member” gyms in Taipei, but it’s ok as a cheap alternative if you can get there before 4pm.
BTW, I’m only commenting on the gym part, as I haven’t used any of the other facilities. If you want to use the swimming pool, for example, I believe the price is 80NT/hour just for use of the pool.
Tash,
That’s funny that you WANT them correcting people. No way would I want that, because they probably wouldn’t have a clue what they were doing.
Example, I only got “corrected” once at a commercial gym for doing squats all the way to thigh-parallel. The “trainer” came over and informed me that all I needed to do was partials – he demonstrated quarter squats. I informed him I had been working out for years and knew what I was doing, but he hounded me nonetheless for my “ignorance.”
Please think about that before writing your letter.
[quote=“netrealist”]Tash,
That’s funny that you WANT them correcting people. No way would I want that, because they probably wouldn’t have a clue what they were doing.
[/quote]
I seriously want them to. Have you seen what some people are doing to themselves in gyms here?! Even if the instructors aren’t perfect, they can still do a lot to improve things.
I don’t think they will be correcting me. Even though I’m not perfect and there’s certainly room for improvement, I always assume that “approach me and you will die, fool!” look when I’m at the gym, to avoid wasting time on silly chit-chat. If anyone does address me, then I know it’s for something really important.