Gyms in Tulum – Dharma Gym
Calle Júpiter Sur, Tulum.
Opening hours: Mon- Fri 700-2200. Sat: 700-1500. Sun: closed.
Cost: 100 pesos per day or 300 per week.
I spent just one night here whilst on a whistle-stop tour of Mexico and was looking centrally for gyms in Tulum that I could find quickly and easily. I initially sought out “Gym Tulum”, supposedly two blocks away from Dharma Gym Tulum on Google, but it didn’t seem to exist. Or they hid it well if it did. So, I continued my hunt for central gyms in Tulum on the main street…
Location and Entry
To put it bluntly, Dharma Gym Tulum would definitely be in the “roughing it” category if I had one! From the main road, the sign is easily visible, one floor up. But where’s the entrance? Well, if you turn down the side road and look to your left, you’ll see an uninviting alleyway with “GYM” spray-painted on the wall. Helpfully, there’s an arrow pointing up some stairs. You’d be forgiven for wondering at this point whether you’d be likely to be mugged if you followed it. I thought twice myself, but as I had seen people working out through the window and it was broad daylight I decided I’d go for it. Nothing like taking a gamble in the name of adventure.
Facilities
It was 8am on a Monday morning and this Tulum gym was comfortably attended by around ten people. It is a medium sized gym, the machines are mostly old, the decor is basic and frankly if cockroaches had been roaming around, they would not have seemed out of place in this rather run-down gym.
However, the combination of good music, presence of locals working out and a friendly face at reception certainly did something for the atmosphere. Staff told me it would be $100 for one day of use ($300 for a week). I asked if there was discount available but they said no. After looking around, I agreed to use it. Why? Just call me adventurous.
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The gym is divided into two rooms. Aircon? You must be kidding. Fans? Nope. (And this is probably the first gym in the world I’ve found without one!) Ventilation takes the form of open windows.
Weights
If you can get past the ageing building and equipment, you’ll find an extremely good range of weights. There are numerous fixed-weight barbells – you’ll have to guess their weights though, they aren’t marked! You’ll also find discs and dumbbells, along with a few adjustable Olympic bars.
The resistance equipment that I used all worked but it was difficult (if not impossible) to adjust some things as they were old/rusty.
The larger of the two rooms contains barbells, benches, most of the resistance equipment, disc weights and a few mats. Although equipment is comfortably spaced out, I noticed a section at the far end where particularly tatty equipment is located and crammed in. I’m not sure how much of that worked.
Cardio
The room on the left contains cardio equipment; whether any of it worked I’m not sure, I haven’t seen anything like it for decades! The cardio equipment consisted of Spinning bikes and upright bikes, steppers and cross trainers. Interestingly, I saw at least one person successfully using a bike successfully…
Functional Training
Although I couldn’t find any designated floor space area, it is feasible to create your own, eg for abs/stationary exercises and the mats were located in random places around the gym. I found plenty of dumbbells, some benches and a few other bits – impressively including kettle bells, a skipping rope and a Swiss ball.
Summary of Gyms in Tulum – Dharma Gym
All in all, I found Dharma Gym Tulum was very acceptable for my purposes, though I’d certainly have appreciated some fans. I felt the gym was overpriced for what it was, especially given the monthly rate of 450 and weekly rate of 300.
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