Bally’s is an American gym that takes itself and fitness seriously. It’s the biggest and most successful chain of American fitness centers, and so unsurprisingly it’s well equipped and well run and you can almost always find someone who can speak English.
They have two branches in Dalian, one in the basement of the Guangdong Development Bank building at Zhongshan square and one at the Roosevelt Centre. I have only ever been to the Zhongshan branch, but I am assured that the Roosevelt one is almost exactly the same only a bit bigger. Your membership gets you access to both.
I’m not a gym rat, but even I can tell there’s an impressive array of machines and free weights. The machines are all imported from America, and so all the instructions are in English. There’s also plenty of walking, cycling, and step machines, which all have TVs attached to help the grueling time pass. Shame they all show CCTV then. There is also a large exercise room where you can partake in whatever form of aerobics, yoga, tai chi or martial arts they are offering. There is a wide choice and they even have the occasional guest yogameisters from India. At the back of the gym there’s another room with a lot of bikes for frantic group music biking sessions. Oh yes, and there’s also a corner with a punchbag, some skipping ropes and lots of balls.
I joined mainly for the not too busy (and no kids!) swimming pool, as well as the dry and steam saunas. A swim and a sauna at the end of a day is wonderful and the Zhongshan branch stays open till 9 so you can manage it even if you work late. A little grumble though…the dry sauna is only just hot enough for a proper sweat and so it’s necessary to keep putting water on the heater to “loyly” up the temperature a bit. The steam sauna is only operational about half the time. And some of the punters seem to like gobbing and hawking in the sauna. Classy!
The staff are friendly and you can be assigned a personal trainer who speaks English if you so require. I had two personal training sessions with the lovely Phoebe. The first was in the pool where she improved my freestyle in 30 minutes and the second was in the gym where she quickly told me I was fat and unfit. Ah, Chinese straightalking!
The décor inside is nicely done. Softly lit corridors with potted plastic plants and eerily genuine looking plastic palm trees, and the main gym is well lit and decked out with large photos of beautiful and multicultural people getting fitter. There are also motivational slogans all around such as ““BE A WINNER, BE BEAUTIFUL, BE POWERFUL, BE DIFFERENT, BE SPECIAL, BE YOURSELF, BE THE BEST as well as TAKE IT TO THE MAX and my favourite, GO HARD OR GO HOME”. There’s always some music playing and it’s mostly English, and mostly hip-hop or rock ballads. Eminem and Queen seem to be popular. And there’s free Internet access and a little shop that sells gym related stuff like clothes, drinks, and bucket-like pots of whey and vitamins.
But perhaps the best thing about the place is that it’s never busy. I go there fairly regularly and have never had to wait for a machine or swim around someone in the swimming pool.
All in all, a good place and reasonable value at 5000 a year, or 8000 for two years. For a little while yet there’s a modest discount available so if you’re interested in joining soon then you can phone the English speaking “Vane”, a friendly young lass, on 15998572095. Please mention Dalian Xpat.
bozzom13
Coltsfan
