With the chills and rains of autumn looming, tune in for a look at some of Moscow’s best indoor fitness options.
Exotic resort in autumn city
World Class is a chain of 20 premium and business-class gyms around Moscow. Their largest and most luxurious clubs are located on the outskirts of the capital.
Membership of the gym in Kuntsevo district costs around $3,000. Clients say the chance to feel as though they’re in an exotic resort without leaving the city is worth the money.
This is one of the few Moscow gyms that boast an outdoor swimming pool. Together with its green setting, open-air café and beach-volleyball playground, it does not feel like Moscow at all.
You can tell this gym was created for those with money and cars. There is no path to it from the metro, so autumn slush often makes getting here a challenge.
There are more accessible options located in the city centre. They are smaller and cheaper and group classes here start around an hour earlier than in other chain’s clubs – early enough for you to make it to work on time. Your kids will not be left out either.
“We have kids as young as 18 months coming for early development classes,” Ekaterina, manager of World Class fitness club, told RT. “There is also choreography and karate for older children and special attention is paid to swimming classes. Membership for kids is almost half price.”
American quality
Gold’s Gym is another landmark on Moscow’s sporting map, located near Dinamo metro.
It represents one of the oldest American chains.
The club occupies a building, spacious enough to keep planes inside. Apart from standard training equipment, it has probably every facility you can think of, from a football field to tennis and squash courts.
Add to it 40 types of group programs and it is well worth the price of around 50,000 rubles a year, based on Moscow standards.
“Prices for fitness in Russia sometimes shock foreigners,” Dmitry Solodovnikov, marketing director at Gold’s Gym told RT. “Fitness in the US, for example, is a lot cheaper. They have much higher level of competition and more clients.”
Fitness for ladies
Another notable gym is ‘Molla Fitness’ near Strogino metro. The gym was built especially for ladies looking for unwanted attention from men and more of it from a personal trainer.
The price of a year’s membership here costs 30,000 rubles and includes a monthly visit to a dietician.
The club’s interior is very stylish and you will be pleasantly surprised with the number of services included in the price. A fitness session here, unlike in many other clubs, lasts only 30 minutes.
“If a person doesn’t have any medical conditions, they can burn between 700 and 800 calories or as much as you would during an hour-and-a-half work-out in a regular gym,” Mikhail Rad, director general at Molla Fitness, told RT.
This effect can be reached through non-stop circuit training on eight step platforms and eight machines developed especially for women. You switch them every 30 seconds, and the trainer is always there to show you all the right moves.