CLB Gym T & V Fitness, Ho Chi Minh
55B Đ. Nguyễn Thị Minh Khai, Phường Bến Thành, Quận 1, Thành phố Hồ Chí Minh
Opening hours: 6:00 – 22:00, 7 days a week
Cost: VND 80k per day, VND 980k for a month, VND 2450k for 3 months
Location
CLB Gym T & V Fitness is located fairly centrally in District 1. If you’re staying near Bui Vien, you can enjoy a nice walk across the park to get to it. Its location is correct on Google maps. Turn right off the main road and walk straight, keeping the puppet theatre on your left. Keep walking for 50m or so, past the security guard (who I made shoulder press gestures at to confirm I was going the right way!) and you’ll see the gym on your right, just past the little barrier.
Facilities
I actually decided to try this place out as a change form Mach’s Gym, during a shortish stay here. The day pass rate is the same, they are close to each other. So what are the differences?
Well, CLB Gym T & V Fitness is waaaay bigger. Literally 2 or 3 times the size. I trained early to avoid peak times and I was glad I did (quite a few people at 7:30am). You’ll find a good range of equipment here and a lot more of it, particularly when it comes to weights.
All the equipment is strikingly silver and shiny! Now, that may sound slightly odd, if irrelevant (I appreciate you want a gym not an art gallery), but the downside of the shiny silvery glint is that the equipment generally didn’t seem to have comfortable grips, eg for pull up bars, lat pull downs etc. Your hands will be gripping metal, not the nice black padding you may be used to. So if you’re doing that kinda thing and don’t use gloves, it’s actually pretty uncomfortable to use. But maybe your hands are less delicate than mine. 🙂
That aside, I loved the facilities – the place was a good temperature, with both AC and fans and even the bathrooms were decent. CLB Gym T & V Fitness has one large main room, with a back section and a room off to the side to the left, where you’ll find most of the dumbbells. Separately there’s an upstairs section. In general there wasn’t too much structure to the layout, but it doesn’t take long to figure out what’s where.
The bathrooms looked decent and I spotted some lockers near the back too.
Oh and the bananas on show at the front are free! Or at least mine was included in my day pass rate anyway – bonus.
Weights
CLB Gym T & V Fitness really came into its own here – this gym is certainly weights-dominant. You’ll immediately notice a large number of plate-loadable resistance machines. These can be found all over the gym, interspersed with the regular pin-operable machines.
At first I couldn’t find the main free weights area, but it’s near the back in a room off to the left. This includes a huge array of dumbbells up to 60kg and barbells up to 55kg.
In addition to the above, I counted 4 Smith machines, scattered around this rather unstructured gym, along with a couple of squat racks, 2 cable crossovers, 3 sets of pull up bars and at least a couple of bench presses.
Cardio
CLB Fitness T & V Ho Chi Minh has a large number of treadmills in particular. I counted 12 in a couple of different places, as well as 3 ellipticals and 4 Spin bikes. That’s your lot.
Functional Equipment
Considering the size of this facility, I’d have liked to see a bit more on the functional training side. However CLB Gym T & V Ho Chi Minh does have a decent range of kettle bells, a few mats, a foam roller and punch bag.
You’ll also find a couple of abs benches and a hip extension.
Summary of CLB Gym T&V Fitness
Initially I was surprised at the low price of CLB Fitness T & V Gym, considering its size and vast range of equipment, which is in condition. That said, I’d definitely be forking out for some weight training gloves (which I have never bothered with) if I was to use this gym regularly – the unpadded hand-grips are pretty uncomfortable.
That said, the extensive amount of weights would surely satisfy the most hardcore of weight trainers and far surpasses most other gyms I’ve visited here. The cardio section in contrast I felt could have been more varied. With a gym this size I’d have hoped to find rowing machines, stair climbers and perhaps some alternatives to the cross trainers on offer.
Overall this is amazing value for money for weight trainers. If you prefer other forms of exercise, then well, it’s ok.
Want an Overview of Gyms in Saigon?
I went to nine different gyms here and I’ve summarised, compared and recommended my favourites for each budget level. Check out Gyms in Saigon.
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