CLB Gym Manh Hung, Ninh Binh
55 Chiến Thắng, Đông Thành, Ninh Bình
Opening Hours: 5:00 – 7:00 and 15:30 – 19:00
Cost: 20k per day or 200k per month!
Location and Entry
Gym Manh Hung is located to the northeast of Ninh Binh, around 1.5km from the main intersection by the river. It’s easy to spot from outside, even when closed, as there are various signs around. Note the limited opening hours before you go (l didn’t!). It is correctly positioned on Google maps. I’m currently unclear whether this gym opens on Sunday or not as I’m not clear on the translation of the sentence below the prices on the sign. (See image) If you speak Vietnamese, please let me know?! Thanks.
Facilities
Bear in mind the 20k dong price of using this gym and have realistic expectations – this place is not fancy. It’s not very clean either, but if you just want to weight train and aren’t fussed about any particular apparatus, you’ll find sufficient things to work out with. Gym Mang Hung is a medium sized gym set over one floor. The guy I found working here was presumably the owner; when I asked him what was upstairs, he replied “my house”!
I attended just after a pour down of rain, when the weather had cooled significantly from the scorching temperatures I had been experiencing. Unsurprisingly you won’t find aircon here, but the overhead fans were pretty effective. This may not be the case on a hot day though – despite the fans, I finished my workout pretty hot and sweaty!
Weights
You’ll find a good selection of dumbbells here. However, the absence of a rack means they are untidily “stored” on the floor. As they are also unlabelled, count yourself lucky if you find a matching pair of anything vaguely resembling the weight you wanted. I’m unsure what the weights went up to, but there did appear to be a considerable number and good range, so I’m sure you’ll find the weight you want. You might just not be 100% sure it’s correct!
There are several adjustable barbells here in various shapes and plenty of discs to load them with.
In terms of equipment you’ll find five bench presses, a Smith machine and a squat rack.
For upper body there’s also a cable crossover station with pull-up bars, a lat pulldown, rowing cable and pec deck attached. You’ll also see a couple of benches for weight-training.
You’ll find a limited amount of resistance equipment, namely a leg curl and calf raise machine. There were a few other unidentifiable machines here; these were easily pre-millennium.
Functional Training
I found little here for functional training apart from some kettlebells. I couldn’t find any mats either and although the gym is fairly spacious, there is no dedicated floor area per se. There were at least some press up bars (ie to protect your wrists from hyperextension), but that was basically it.
Cardio
Well, not a lot. There were a couple of treadmills propped up against the wall but I’m not sure if they worked! No-one was using them when I was there on a weekday evening anyway!
Summary
CLB Gym Manh Hung is the cheapest gym I found in Ninh Binh – good news if you’re on a budget. Although it caters adequately for weight trainers, if you want anything more than the basics, you’re better off checking out one of the other gyms I found for 50k. I recommend Roman Fitness and Yoga, or see all Gyms in Ninh Binh here.
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