Elite Fitness Vincom Center, Ba Trieu, Hanoi
6th floor , Tower C , Vincom Center 191 Ba Trieu , Hai Ba Trung, Hanoi
Opening Hours: Mon – Fri: 6:00 – 22:00, Sat and Sun: 7:00 – 20:00
Cost: 600k for a day pass
Location
Elite Fitness Hanoi is located on the sixth floor of Vincom Center shopping mall, 600m south of Ho Hoan Kiem lake. The Vincom Center is easy to find, with its unmissable sign. The gym however is not. I found myself taking escalator after escalator, only to find myself in the wrong part of the shopping mall, unable to see a route up to floor 6. Come to that, there didn’t even seem to be a floor 6 here! Security staff helped. To avoid my errors, enter here and take the lift straight up to the sixth floor. The gym is now straight in front of you.
Facilities
Absolutely top of the range. This luxurious gym is now my favourite club in Hanoi (sorry, California Fitness!). You’ll be given both a large and a small towel upon entry as standard and there is free water available throughout the club.
The gym and changing rooms are all one on floor (just as well too, it took me long enough to find it) and there’s a pool, jacuzzi, sauna and steam room upstairs. But you guessed it, I forgot my swim stuff again.
The pool is 25 metres long, has plenty of space around it for lounging around, and a nice view through the full length window. Don’t forget to do your workout first.
The gym is broadly divided into cardio, resistance machines, functional training and free weights. You’ll also find a Spinning studio, yoga studio and regular studio. The aircon works brilliantly and is set to an ideal temperature.
The staff were friendly and helpful; whilst English is not widely spoken to a great degree in Vietnam, both reception staff and the personal trainer who struck up conversation with me spoke it to a good level.
Weights
The spacious, attractive modern weights area is all in superb condition. You’ll find dumbbells up to 50kg, barbells from 10 – 46kg in 4kg increments and several adjustable ones in different shapes too. Everything is neatly racked and in its place, including the adjustable barbells.
You’ll also find a squat rack, Smith machine and around six bench press stations with adjustable benches. There’s a cable crossover station with pull-up bars and related cable equipment, ie two lat pulldowns, a row and a tricep pulldown cable. Good news if you’re tall – the pull up bars here are refreshingly high! In addition to the cable crossover station, you’ll find another station with high pull up bars. Grab a BOSU or use the sides of this to get up. If that’s not enough for you, there’s an assisted pull up machine too!
Loadable resistance machines include an inclined leg press, row, front pulldown, inclined shoulder press, preacher curl and calf raise station.
Next to the cardio section you’ll see a large variety of resistance equipment for both upper and lower body, laid out on fancy carpets. It all looked clean (though I’d draw the line at eating my dinner off it) new and in perfect condition. Next to that are a few pieces of equipment you can use to assist with your stretches. Enjoy!
There are also a couple of inclined abs benches and a hip extension bench.
Functional Training
Christmas has come early…!
It would be far quicker to tell you what they don’t have here than what is here, but I’ll give it a go! You’ll find a well-cushioned floor-space area next to the Spinning studio, with a lot of boxing gear – gloves, pads and punchbags nearby. There’s another floor-space area by the free weights which comes with resistance tubes and loops, in addition to a good range of kettlebells. So, two good options already and I haven’t even mentioned the studios yet.
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The kettlebells are measured in pounds and go up to 45lbs; there are plenty of them including duplicates . You’ll also see some powerbags – I found 10, 15 and 20kg ones. I also found sandbells with the same numbers on, though it escapes me now whether these were pounds or kgs. If anyone can let me know, that’d be awesome!
What next? Ah yes, there is a rig with TRXs attached and a couple of punchbags, plyoboxes and battleropes. You’ll also find several ViPRs, stepboards, mats and Swiss balls. Did I mention there’s a whole rack of medicine balls too?
My personal favourite was however a wobbleboard; having recently twisted my ankle pretty badly, I’ve been doing my best to strengthen it up and rehabilitate it back to full power. This was a welcome find, along with BOSUs to use for this purpose.
Cardio
Another attractive area in this hard-to-find-fault-with gym! No shortage of equipment either – I found 18 treadmills, nine crosstrainers, two stair-climbers, three recumbent bikes and three upright bikes at Elite Fitness Hanoi.
Been missing rowing machines in Vietnam? Well, they’re back! You’ll find two right here.
Studios and Classes
You’ve probably got the idea by now that this is pretty luxurious club. The studios are no exception, with the three I found all being in immaculate condition. One is dedicated to Spinning, one to Yoga and one for mainstream classes.
Summary
Elite Fitness Hanoi was the priciest club I found here and the best. A simple case of “you get what you pay for” and it really comes down to your budget. And of course, whether you can find it in the shopping mall, in my case! The other gym south of the lake that I visited was a sports centre-style club and relatively run down, although well-airconditioned at a bargain 60k. See Olympia Vietnam for full details.
The closest gym I found to Elite Fitness Hanoi in terms of quality of facilities was California Fitness for 420k. See here for full details.
Want an Overview of Gyms in Hanoi?
I went to several different gyms here and I’ve summarised, compared and recommended my favourites for each budget level. Check out Gyms in Hanoi.
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