You do not need to wait for January to get your body moving again – there’s no time like the present.
The trick to sticking with your health kick is often to find the right routine for you, and when it comes to exercise, finding the gym that will make you feel supported as well as pushed physically is key.
There’s no shortage of brilliant gyms here in Manchester, from the do-it-yourself commercial gyms to the fitness facilities manned by highly qualified trainers who will guide you every step of the way.
Whether you’re a fancy girl who needs fancy facilities to coax you into the gym, or you’d rather get your head down and save some cash, we’ve got you covered.
Here are a dozen of the best gyms and health clubs to try in 2024 – and how much it’ll cost you.
ADVERTISEMENT
12 of the best and most popular gyms in Manchester
12. Ultimate Performance – Spinningfields (bespoke prices available on request)
Ready to transform your body or lay the foundations for lifelong health, and feeling pretty serious about it? Ok, game on.
Ultimate Performance is the gym in Manchester to join if you want to stick to your plan and achieve whatever goals you set yourself, from fat loss to muscle building to general health, with some of the world’s best personal trainers coaching from here.
Barry’s is the gym loved by all the famous LA-dwelling beautiful types, and first opened here in Manchester in 2018.
ADVERTISEMENT
Workouts take place in the ‘red room’, where rows of benches, dumbbells and treadmills promise a total body workout.
It’s now a global phenomenon, with gyms everywhere from the USA to the UAE to Australia to Mexico.
It ain’t cheap though: memberships start at £125 per month, which gets you eight classes, or you can book a drop-in class for £20. The most expensive membership will set you back £308. Check out all the offers here.
10. Blok – Piccadilly (£205/month for unlimited)
Blok in Manchester has a mix of classes and is one of the city’s best gyms. (Credit: Blok)
This gym is genuinely very beautiful, taking over a corner of the historic Ducie Street Warehouse.
It’s another one with three different studios to choose from – you can do pilates and yoga, take on full-body strength-focused or boxing workouts, or try out barre and cardio exercises.
ADVERTISEMENT
There are top-notch changing rooms for getting refreshed in afterwards too.
Unlimited membership is £205 a month, but if you’re happy to commit to a set number of classes there are cheaper packs available too. Check it out HERE.
You will not find a nicer or more supportive group of trainers than the ones who work at FORM – you also won’t find any who take away your ability to walk up stairs quite so efficiently.
As well as one-to-one training, they offer their ‘reload’ programme with small groups training together at their New Bailey Street gym, and the best pilates and yoga classes in town at their Reset gym on Marble Street.
FORM promises a long-term change to your life – this is no flash-in-the-pan fitness phase.
ADVERTISEMENT
Memberships start from £168 a month and we promise you get a lot of bang for your buck. Find out more on the FORM Manchester website.
First created in Australia, there are now more than 1,000 F45 studios all over the world, creating what it claims is the most innovative fitness gym on the planet.
Each 45-minute session blends cardio and HIIT-style workouts for ‘sweat-dripping, heart-pumping fun’.
The circuits in their Manchester gyms will kick your ass, in a good way.
It’s £165 a month if you commit to six months, otherwise you’re looking at £195 a month – check it out HERE.
ADVERTISEMENT
7. Zeno Training Clubs – Angel Gardens (£99/month)
Hero/Zeno Training Club gym in Manchester. They even do protein/health smoothies to go.Credit: The Manc Group
With four different fitness studios to choose from, Zeno (formerly known as Hero) offers a little something for everyone.
You can seriously test your cardio in their spin studio or in the Athletic studio (where you can also take on boxing classes), push your strength in the Stronger studio (which is basically like small group PT sessions), or reset a bit in the Rejuvenate studio. There’s also an open gym upstairs.
Zeno has some of the best facilities in the city – seriously, there are more squat racks in here than in some of the biggest commercial gyms – and a bloody lovely group of trainers to guide your every move.
Memberships start from £99 a month, and there are class bundles available too. Find out more HERE.
This ‘next-level fitness studio’ follows a pretty similar model to V1BE, but factors in assault bikes (ouch) and has classes with a more tailored focus.
ADVERTISEMENT
There are three different TRIB3 classes to choose from – upper body and core, lower body, and full body – broken down into three zones: treadmill, resistance and intensity.
It’s proving to be a very popular option for Mancs.
Unlimited memberships are £79/month but there are loads of other options too. Find out more online.
5. V1BE – Central (£39/month)
It’s all about the cardio at V1BE, Manchester’s boutique gym group that will literally display your heart rate on a giant screen for all to see.
Most workouts are spread between sprint sessions on the treadmills and weighted circuits on the floor, but they also have ‘STR1KE’ classes that factor in some intense boxing drills.
ADVERTISEMENT
You will be sweaty, you will get competitive with yourself, and you’ll definitely love it (once the hill sprints are over).
Membership starts used to be £59 a month, but since they’ve reduced to just one site over on Mosley Street, prices are now just £39 for unlimited access to the gym and their range of classes. You can go find out more here.
4. The Y Club – Castlefield (starting from £35/month)
Over in Castlefield, you’ll find one of the most decked-out gyms and health clubs in Manchester city centre at one of the best value-for-money price points too. Put simply, it’s an old-school YMCA with plenty to offer.
The Y Club, which is attached to The Castlefield Hotel – where you also have access to 20% off food and drink with your membership – features a comprehensive range of gym equipment and facilities, as well as a large pool, five courts, football, badminton and more in the large sports hall, as well as studio classes.
There are also in-house personal trainer and physiotherapy sessions available; they even offer free health checks and lunchtime fitness classes as part of their corporate packages where employees can even get a 9.6% discount on selected memberships.
ADVERTISEMENT
Standard prices start from £35 a month for a 12-month contract and full access to all facilities, but you can go cheaper with the £30 off-peak rate (6am-3:45pm). You can see the various tiers including reduced student rates HERE.
3. Nuffield Health – Printworks and Didsbury (£51/month)
Nuffield is one of Manchester’s biggest gyms, with its own pool.
What makes Nuffield Health so extraordinary of all the gyms in Manchester is that it has a real-life swimming pool, which is quite a luxury in a city centre as crammed as ours.
The gym has an army of treadmills and bikes, plus a functional fitness room, a free weights room, and several different studios.
There are also physiotherapists and personal trainers based here to help you build the healthiest body possible. They also have a Didsbury site too, if that helps.
It’s £51 per month, or you can go off-peak for £43 a month. You can sign up HERE.
ADVERTISEMENT
2. JD Gyms – Central (£19.99/month)
Doesn’t need much of an intro this one (Credit: JD Gyms)
With a rapidly growing number of gyms nationwide, it’s easy to see why JD Gyms are becoming more and more popular – and it’s got a lot to do with the price.
Their refurbished gym in Manchester city centre over on Whitworth Street has more than 300 classes a month, a sauna, and literally hundreds of pieces of strength and cardio equipment.
There’s a large free weights zone, a sprint and sled track, boot camps, boxing, and personal trainers. They also have a smaller Salford outpost over on Regent Retail Park.
Basic membership is £19.99 a month – which includes classes – but for £25 a month, you can also get 10% off at JD Sports online and use any of their gyms nationwide – find out more HERE.
1. PureGym – Central and Salford (£14.99/month)
PureGym has several gyms around Manchester. (Credit: PureGym)
As one of the country’s biggest gym groups, they’re famed for being cheap and practical, with 24-hour opening times.
Facilities are very good for the price and there are four PureGym gyms in the city centre alone – make that 14 in Greater Manchester. You just have to get used to their weirdly futuristic ‘beam me up, Scotty’ entrance vestibules.
You can get a base membership for just £14.99 on average depending on which venue but you can find out exact details for each place online.
Meet Larishka – the DJ making her mark on Manchester’s Garage scene
Emily Johnson
It’s time to meet Larishka – Audio North’s Artist of the Month for October.
For Larishka, music has always been around her in some form. Growing up surrounded by classical and rock music, she never expected her route into electronic music to begin with a Parklife set from Carl Cox, before eventually becoming a DJ, promoter, and co-owner of Manchester’s Ghosts of Garage.
Today, she runs events, DJs across House, Garage and Bass, and is helping build a community around one of Manchester’s most exciting electronic music brands.
From promoter to DJ
Larishka actually started out as a promoter while doing an apprenticeship at a music booking agency. She always knew she wanted to work on the events side rather than bookings, but felt like she wasn’t going to make many connections within the industry while living in Oldham.
Her plan was to go to university to study music, with the hope of learning to produce while also moving into Manchester and making connections within the city’s music scene.
Quite quickly into her studies, she joined Ghosts of Garage. After about a year, she had something of a lightbulb moment.
Meet Larishka, the DJ making her mark on Manchester’s Garage scene / Credit: Supplied
“I was studying music, I run my own nights, and I was always on the aux at house parties, so why have I not learned to DJ yet?” she explained.
That realisation came while she was sitting on MATTIK’s living room sofa, where she asked if he would teach her. Before long, she was calling him every day asking if they could go to the studio and practise mixing.
“I owe it to him really, he was a brilliant teacher.”
“I get it” – the Parklife moment that changed everything
Larishka’s introduction to electronic music wasn’t exactly the traditional one.
“I grew up on classical and rock music – my dad was a sound engineer in the 70s so that was his thing really, and my mum played the piano every single day so that’s what I was constantly around.”
She first heard house music when she was around 15 or 16, after a friend sent her a track they had found on SoundCloud.
“I listened to it out of my phone and didn’t really get it, it was too repetitive.”
A few years later, everything changed. After hearing Parklife from her window every year growing up, Larishka eventually went to the festival for the first time and watched Carl Cox close The Valley. He played ‘Finder’ by Ninetoes, and it was the first time she had experienced electronic music on a huge sound system.
“I remember being in absolute awe and turning to my friend and saying ‘I get it’ and from then, I was just absolutely hooked.”
It became a genuine turning point.
“I had my A Level exams that following week and when I was revising all I was listening to was house music and I remember my Dad coming in and saying ‘Is this you forever now?’ and I said ‘Yeah I think it is'”.
Larishka is Audio North’s Artist of the Month for October / Credit: Supplied
Why Manchester means so much
“I mean it’s home, and always has been.”
Having become part of the city’s music scene, she says she feels incredibly lucky to have found a community around her.
“There’s a certain camaraderie that exists here that I don’t know that you’d find anywhere else.”
For her, that sense of community is what makes Manchester’s music scene so special.
“Seeing people you know everywhere you go, you kinda feel like you’re never alone and that you’re actually part of something.”
That spirit extends beyond electronic music, too.
“And it’s not just in electronic music either, that spirit exists across all genres – Manchester music history is so rooted across such a broad spectrum of genres, and to see that still prevailing today is something we should all be proud of.”
Building Ghosts of Garage
It’s impossible to talk about Larishka’s journey without talking about Ghosts of Garage.
She’s a co-owner of the brand, having joined in 2021, and works across its marketing, bookings and creative direction alongside Rich Reason. For her, one of the biggest things that makes a Ghosts of Garage night stand out is its commitment to the music.
“The music and lineups truly never miss, which is a credit to Rich. The guy knows how to program a lineup.”
The team makes a conscious effort to champion new talent, often including at least one Manchester or UK debut on a lineup.
“A big part of each event is making them unique while keeping the brand consistent – each event has to have its own USP or else the nights get boring and people think they can just skip this one and go to the next and it’ll be the same.”
For Larishka, music has always been around her in some form / Credit: Supplied
Community is a huge part of the brand.
“We’re also big advocates of community and want to create the gap between audience and DJ as little as possible, so try to get the crowd involved as much as possible through things like our WhatsApp community.”
The aim is to make people feel like buying a ticket means becoming part of something bigger.
“We want people to feel like if you buy a ticket for our event, then you’ve unlocked a key to be part of something.”
Larishka’s advice for getting into Manchester’s music scene
For anyone hoping to break into Manchester’s music scene, Larishka’s advice is simple – go out.
“I’m way more likely to book you if we’ve met and we’ve had a good chat because it means I can put a face to a name and I know what you’re like.”
For her, being part of the community is about more than simply sending messages and asking for opportunities.
“Being an active member of the community means you’re already part of the night, so booking you to DJ just makes you even more part of it than you already are, rather than someone I’ve never met before who’s in my DMs.”
Ultimately, it comes back to the same thing that has shaped so much of Larishka’s own journey – showing up, meeting people, and becoming part of something.
Featured Image – Supplied
Manchester
First look inside Locker and In Hand, a brand-new music venue and gig-friendly food concept at New Century
Lydia Mastrolonardo
There are two fresh new concepts taking over the ground floor of our well-known and loved New Century, serving up a brand new menu of gig-night bites as well as grassroots music events.
Launching side-by-side are Locker, a 450-capacity grassroots live music venue, and In Hand, a food offering that promises ‘gig-friendly’ food like Detroit-style focaccia pizza pies, 24-hour brined chicken tenders, sandos and sides.
Both concepts will launch in sync today, marking a significant new chapter for the restored venue, which has pivoted away from its previous New Century Kitchens food hall concept.
With the previous food traders moving on to fantastic new ventures, this new chapter allows one sole food offering to sit alongside the beloved bar area, keeping simplicity at the forefront of the concept.
The menu is designed for speed and ease, ensuring you can grab a quick bite in between sets at Locker or New Century Hall without missing out on the music, whilst still holding your drink of choice in your other hand. Perfect for keeping the night going, instead of having to leave mid-event to get some food to fuel you.
This no-mess menu is serving up deep pan Detroit-style focaccia pizza slices or 8×10″ full pies, featuring everything from a classic margarita or pepperoni through to a chicken parm, mushroom and truffle or Detroit hot loaded with jalapenos and ‘nduja hot honey. Oh – and every pizza comes with their signature caramelised cheese crust – have we said all of your buzz words yet?
Detroit-style pizzas at In Hand at New CenturyThe main bar at New Century will serve Locker and In HandIn Hand food is designed to be gig-friendly
If it’s more just a bite you’re after, there’s a wide selection of grab and go sides. Our personal favourite were the 24-hour brined, double fried chicken tenders, available in a range of flavours such as lemon pepper, garlic parmesan, ‘nduja hot honey, smokey BBQ and masala mayo.
Though if it’s something more filling you’re seeking, then there’s their delicious selection of sandos, all served with seasoned fries, like the classic chicken sando, prosciutto and ricotta on focaccia, chilli cheese chicken sando and a roast harissa halloumi.
In Hand will also be open during the day, making it the perfect spot for a post work pint, to quench your thirst and refuel after a shopping spree or as a new lunch spot if you work in and around the Northern Quarter, especially with their lunch time deal.
Inside gig venue Locker at New Century. Credit: The Manc Group
The deal consists of any chicken tenders or a quarter Detroit pizza, plus a side and a soft drink, all for just £10 – it would be rude not to.
Matt Harvey, Head of Food and Beverage at New Century, commented: “The menu is built around what people actually want when they’re at a gig, something that tastes great, travels well and doesn’t slow you down.
“We’ve spent a lot of time getting the foundations right, from developing the dough recipe for the Detroit base through to the brining process for the chicken tenders. Every element has been thought about to ensure In Hand is comfort food done properly, and we think people are going to love it.”
Locker and In Hand are both open at New Century in Manchester today.
Daisy Jackson -
5th January 2025 
