California Fitness Danang
3rd Floor, 271 Nguyễn Văn Linh, Vĩnh Trung, Thanh Khê, Đà Nẵng
Opening Times: 5am – 22:00, 7 days a week.
Cost:
Location
California Fitness Danang is located on the city side of Danang in Thank Khe district. If you’re staying in the popular An Thuong / My An area on the beach side, it’s around 4.5km away. You’ll find it 12 minutes walk south of Big C supermarket. You’ll be able to see the building upon approach if you look up – the gym is on the third floor, which is roughly where the outside sign is for it! I didn’t see stairs but there are 3 busy lifts that’ll take you there.
Facilities
As a leading chain with clubs throughout Vietnam, I had high expectations and sure enough, this large modern club lived up to them.
The gym is roughly split into cardio, weights and a functional training area. In addition to the gym facilities, you’ll find a studio for regular classes and three yoga studios! They also have a Spinning studio.
You’ll find some water refill stations around, but bring your own towel unless you want to pay to rent theirs. The cost is VND 25k for a large towel and 15k for a small one. (Roughly $1 and 50c respectively). Also take a padlock for the lockers.
Oh and the showers are great – plenty of them, clean and with a powerful flow!
The gym temperature was great, though I am here in winter when little aircon is necessary. The main studio and gym were definitely airconditioned though and an ideal workout temperature.
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Weights
The weights area here is pretty extensive and what you’d expect from a large gym. The weights area was tidy and everything was in good condition.
There are two full sets of dumbbells which go up to 95lbs. Barbells are a 50/50 mix of straight and curled. They range from 20lbs to 115lbs and go up in 5lb increments, alternating between straight and curled.
For your upper body, you’ll find two flat and one inclined bench press station. They also have two narrow cable crossover stations which double up as sets of pull-up bars. There’s an assisted pull-ups machine, a wide set cable crossovers with four pulley stations on each end.
For your legs, they’ve provided a Smith machine and a squat machine.
The plate-loadable range of resistance machines is good, with seven stations. I found a chest press, inclined chest press, shoulder press, row, low row leg press and pull down.
Head down an “alleyway” where you’ll find a couple of abs benches and the two pull bar bar stations. You’ll also a find a hip extension bench down here.
Cardio
The cardio area at California Fitness Danang is everything I hoped for and expected. The range, number and quality of equipment was all at a high level.
I counted around 30 treadmills, 14 crosstrainers (different types), five lateral trainers, two steppers and 2 rowers. There are also four upright bikes and five recumbent bikes. That’s in addition to the Spinning studio!
You’ll also find a stair-climber in the functional training area.
Functional Equipment
This medium sized floor space area is very well equipped and laid on attractive green astroturf.
Guess what I found here? A Jacob’s Ladder! First spotted (by me anyway!) in Canada 2.5 years ago. An excellent functional exercise.
You’ll find all the usual gym toys here, including resistance bands, ViPRs, a large range of kettlebells, BOSUs, medicine balls, wobble boards and foam rollers. They’ve also provided a large rig, stools and some good quality mats.
Boxing
Here you’ll find a dedicated boxing ring! They’ve provided ample gloves and pads, and outside it you’ll find two heavy hanging punch bags, near the dumbbells.
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Studios and Classes
I’m struggling to remember how many studios are actually here! Basically you’re spoilt. California Fitness is unrivalled in Danang in terms of the number of classes it offers. Though the other large chain, Elite Fitness certainly has a reasonable number of quality classes to choose from too.
CF Danang has a main “Group Exercise” studio in addition to three yoga studios. There’s also a Spinning studio.
The group exercise studio has around 70 classes a week! These include Body Pump, Lift, Step, Calistep, Calibeat, Body Combat, Bums ‘n’ Tums, various dance classes, Polefit Core and Stretch. The classes I went to were all taught in both Vietnamese and English. The instructors were welcoming and professional.
The Spinning studio has 14 currently, mostly in the evenings. Note that there are no early morning classes as I write this. The earliest is 11:50am.
The yoga studios combined provide a huge 150(!) approx classes a week. These start as early at 5:15am and the last class is currently at 19:15. No excuses for not being able to fit one in!
Summary of California Fitness Danang
CF Danang is an awesome club, with an unrivalled number of classes. The large attractive gym caters very well for all workout types, with a large range and number of cardio machines, free weights and resistance equipment. The functional area is well equipped too, although not huge. I am loving my month here, although I will point out the gym can get quite busy. I didn’t train at all in peak times, but I found it to be quite busy off peak, so getting on equipment could be an issue at peak times.
For those who prefer a less busy club, I recommend checking out the other leading chain here Elite Fitness Danang which seems to have less members, but comparable facilities.
Want an Overview of all Gyms in Danang?
I went to eight different gyms here and I’ve summarised, compared and recommended my favourites for each budget level. Check out Gyms in Danang.
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