Celebrity Fitness Bangsar Village, Kuala Lumpur
3F-11, 3rd Floor, Bangsar Village II No. 2 Jalan Telawi 1, 59100, 59100 Kuala Lumpur
Opening Hours: Mon – Fri: 6:00 – 00:00, Sat: 6:00 – 22:00, Sun: 8:00 – 22:00
Cost: RM 69 per day or monthly rates range from RM 175 to RM 285, with the more expensive rate giving you use of all Celebrity Fitness and Fitness First Clubs.
Location
Celebrity Fitness Bangsar Village is located inside Bangsar Village II shopping mall on the third floor. Like most malls in KL, there are multiple entrances; the simplest way to get in and up is to enter from Jalan Telawi. You’ll see a single transparent door with info about access to Celebrity Fitness. Go through here and take the lift (it’s right there) up to floor 3. The rest is simple – turn right out of the lift and the club is right there!
Having registered for a free trial, the friendly reception team were expecting me and presented me with two towels, an electronic locker key and (when I left) a temporary trial membership card valid for three days.
Note, it seems you need a Malaysian mobile number to register for the free trial. SIM cards here are pretty cheap – I have a Celcom one which has worked well for me so far throughout KL. Even though I only purchased data, I can still receive confirmation SMS messages on it. 🙂
Facilities
This fairly large club has a Spinning studio by reception, whilst everything else is upstairs. All facilities looked very new and in excellent condition. I saw staff dusting off some of weights area as I was training one Friday morning! In addition to a fairly large modern gym, Celebrity Fitness Bangsar Village also has three studios – the main studio, a yoga studio and a Spinning studio.
The gym area is broadly divided into cardio, resistance machines, a free weights area, small boxing area and a large functional training area, aptly called The Playground. You’ll also see a strip of Astroturf behind the free weights section.
The changing rooms here are strikingly luxurious, including individual seating areas with mirrors and hairdryers. There are a huge number of showers here (just as well too, this place gets seriously busy in the evenings!), and I was probably unlucky in that the first one I tried to use had no hot water. (I tried another which did.)
The club is well air-conditioned and slightly warmer than others I have used where I have actually got a little cold stretching off at the end of training. For me the temperature was here ideal.
In addition to free towels, you’ll find free water fountains.
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Weights
The popular free-weights area of the gym thankfully contains two full sets of dumbbells from 2 – 40kg. I was amazed at how busy this club was, even at 21:00 on a Thursday evening, so seeing two full racks – tidily racked in ascending order – was a huge plus point here!
You’ll also find numerous adjustable barbells here in different shapes and sizes, along with several straight fixed-weight ones. The weights of the fixed-weight ones weren’t all clearly labelled (I’d guess they went up to at least 30kg), but unusually, the empty bars for loading up were labelled on the ends, so you don’t need to guess your weight.
You’ll also see two Olympic lifting platforms in this area, along with a Smith machine, loadable inclined leg press and two bench press racks, flat and inclined. You’ll also find a hip extension bench and abs bench along with a large rig.
The rig has a generous four adjustable squat racks, plenty of overhead bars and rings attached.
The cable crossovers are also located here and there’s a small stool for getting up to the chin-up bars at the top of it if you need it. You’ll also find three pulleys attached at each end here for lat and tricep pulldowns and rows. Next to the Playground you’ll see another set of pull-up bars with narrow set cables. If all that’s not enough, check out the assisted pull ups machine too!
You’ll find a good number and range of pin-operated resistance machines here – they favour these over the plate-loadable ones.
Functional Training
For me, the club’s functional area is one of its best points; in addition to the rig mentioned earlier, you’ll find a long strip of astroturf where you can do your own thing. But best of all, the large area called The Playground is dedicated to floorwork. A number of classes also take place here, making great use of the functional equipment and space.
The wide range of gym toys includes ViPRs, power balls, medicine balls, skipping ropes, plyoboxes, resistance tubes, BOSUs, Swiss balls and hurdles. You’ll also find step boards, core boards, foam rollers, kettlebells up to 20kg, yoga blocks and a lot of lightweight dumbbells.
There’s a good number of both yoga mats and thicker mats here to use as you prefer.
Boxing enthusiasts can enjoy a free-standing punchbag, a hanging punchbag and a boxing exercise machine. By this, I mean an upright piece of equipment with numerous pads at various angles and different heights, so you can practise your punches and kicks. You’ll also find several sets of gloves and pads.
Cardio
All the cardio equipment at Celebrity Fitness Bangsar Village is top of the range new equipment. I found twelve treadmills, six bikes (three upright and three recumbent), three ellipticals and three lateral trainers. Wondering where the rowing machines are? You’ll find one in the Playground area. It’s not quite as new as the rest of the equipment but it works well enough.
Studios and Classes
All three studios looked brand new and in excellent condition, much like the rest of this attractive club! The main studio is one of the best I’ve used in KL – super spacious and very well equipped with a good sound system. It contains loads of equipment for use in its classes, for example, step boards (with risers), BOSUs, ViPRs, kettlebells, trampets, mats, bars and disc weights.
The yoga studio contains Swiss balls, mats and TRXs, and there are no prizes for guessing what the Spinning studio contains!
The studios all have extensive timetables with something for everyone. I counted 44 classes in the main studio, 54 Spin classes, 43 classes in the Yoga studio and 20 in The Playground. Click here for an up to date timetable and be sure to select Bangsar Village as the club.
Classes I Did…
I did the Friday morning Energy Aerobics class and really enjoyed it. The instructor was really friendly and enthusiastic and brought in birthday cake for everyone as it was her birthday the day before!
The 9pm step class was less successful. As a step junkie and former attendee of fitness conventions where I’ve successfully mastered all sorts of choreography, I expected an “Intermediate Step” class to be a walk in the park. However, the friendly instructor warned me upon arrival that it was an advanced class, during which we’d be using four step boards each and moving around them. I was excited as I’ve done this before at conventions and loved it. I’d never expected to find this level of step on my travels! However, my enthusiasm was short-lived…
He didn’t use a microphone or otherwise cue the moves, let alone break them down at all. Regardless of experience, it was simply impossible for a newcomer to pick up the choreography, as he just launched straight into the full routine that he’d previously done with his class and made no attempt to teach it at all. I left very disappointed after ten minutes – the choreography looked great fun and very achievable, if only he had taken a little time to teach it.
My final class here was Body Pump, which was extremely well-taught by a highly motivational instructor who made many good teaching points throughout the class. Awesome workout and I’m still aching as I write this – thank you, James!
Summary
Celebrity Fitness Bangsar Village is certainly a top club in terms of its facilities and classes. The downside to this is how busy it gets on weekday evenings – it was hard to get on some equipment even as late as 21:00, so avoid evenings if it’s practical for you! The two things which stand out to me about this club are its awesome functional area and the large number and range of classes in four different areas. It’s also open later (until midnight) than all the other clubs I’ve used in KL.
Staff were all very welcoming and the free towels are certainly a convenient bonus, especially when you’re travelling. I’d definitely use the club again but would stick to mornings and weekends!
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