Willows Health & Lifestyle

Been a member of Willows going on 4 months now and thus far couldn’t be happier — super friendly staff and personalised attention from PTs makes you feel welcome and pumped. Good selection of group fitness classes running everyday. The gym DOES NOT close for lunch on Saturdays (or any other day) and the equipment works fine; you can safely ignore Kimberly P’s review — she was either unlucky or clueless. Membership runs at $ 19/​week which, given the level of service (and facilities — pool, sauna, squash court, crèche), is quite reasonable although there are cheaper gyms around if you only care about the bare basics. You may also want to consider other options if you want 24 hour access as it does close nights. If, however, you’re after more than just weights and treadmills, and don’t want to exercise at 2am, you probably won’t find better in Toowoomba.

Trial run fail…
I got up the nerve to head to the gym to enquire about memberships, and I brought my gear to do a dry-​run.
First of all, the gym closes down over lunch on a Saturday, so I had to kill 90 minutes and get up my nerve again (doesn’t take long for me to lose my work-​out motivation).
I went back, and as the young woman behind the desk was the only staff member on at that time, I had to show myself around. She did let me do a free-​trial, but informed me it would normally cost $ 15.
I went upstairs to the cardio floor and set out on an elliptical. Away I went until the machine was unable to read my heart rate. Beep beep beep. Try again. Nothing. Beep beep beep. This is bullshit. Quit my workout and stepped over to the next elliptical. Same thing. Next elliptical, ended up coming up with an error. Epic fail.
There’s no designated stretching area, and as the AC units were blasting full blast and not even taking the edge off, I decided to book it. At the desk, the young woman told me that some machines won’t read your heart rate unless there is a certain amount of moisture on your palms. Soooo they are aware of the issue…
Lame. Bah. I want to work out when I want to work out. I want central air. I want cardio machines that work the way they are supposed to. It’s a bonus if said cardio equipment has individual tv’s.
Joined Jetts. End rant.