Ideal Fit Eira Helsinki
Jääkärinkatu 10, 00150 Helsinki
Opening Hours: Mon-Thurs 6.30-22.00, Fri 6.30-21.00, Sat-Sun 8.00-21.00
Cost: 1 free trial by contacting them through their website.
Usual rate: €44 per month (off peak hours) or €59 per month including peak hours.
Location
Ideal Fit Eira Helsinki is one of the most centrally located gyms in Helsinki, and one of several Ideal Fit clubs in Helsinki. It was very easy to find and clearly marked outside – just head on in. I had requested a trial day on their website by clicking on the “I’m interested, contact me” button, without knowing the cost and was subsequently invited by email to try it out.
Facilities
Ideal Fit Eira is fairly modern without being fancy. All the equipment I used was in good working order and was clean (or as clean as gyms ever are!). Staff were friendly and spoke good English (normal in Finland, luckily!).
The gym has a good range and quality of equipment, including a lot of floor space for functional training. This gym is fairly large and split into three main rooms plus a studio, with several mini-rooms in various places. Strikingly, no matter where you are, you will always find a good number of kettlebells within arm’s reach! These are dotted around throughout the facility.
Although I went here during mid-summer on what was probably one of the hottest days of the year in Finland, the gym was a still a comfortable workout temperature.
You can drink the tap water in Finland (a novelty for me after spending a lot of time in Asia) and the changing rooms have lockers, with keys provided, as well as showers. Take your own towel.
Weights
Ideal Fit Eira Helsinki has a large room dedicated to weight training equipment, with both free weights and resistance machines in one part. The dumbbells go up to around 40kg and you’ll find 2 sets of lightweight dumbbells from 1 – 10kg. There are also several adjustable barbells in this area.
You’ll also find cable crossovers and a reasonable range of resistance machines for both the upper and lower body, along with three weights benches. If you’re wondering about pull-up bars, you’ll find them downstairs in the functional training room.
In an adjoining room, you’ll find a number of kettlebells, a lat pulldown, bench press and both a hip extension and abs bench.
Cardio
You’ll find a dedicated cardio room past reception, which is split into two parts. The first room contains various bikes and cross-trainers, and if you continue left, you’ll find a second room with two regular treadmills, two curved treadmills and two rowing machines. The bikes are a mixture of upright and recumbent.
Functional Training and Studio
Ideal Fit Eira Helsinki has a large dedicated functional training area downstairs and a studio on the main floor, which staff invited me to use. Additionally, you’ll find a few other small areas with gym toys around.
Downstairs you’ll fine pull-up bars, step-boards, BOSUs, mats, resistance bands (including looped bands for assisted pull ups), Swiss balls, adjustable barbells and randomly, an airbike. There’s also a fair amount of floor space here for mat work. Have I mentioned kettlebells yet? There are some more here.
The medium-sized studio contains mats, boxing gloves and pads, punch-bags, lightweight dumbbells and lightweight adjustable barbells as well as…. yep, you guessed it – kettlebells.
And if at any point you were missing kettlebells whilst walking from one room to another, don’t panic, you will probably find some tucked away in various alcoves, of which this gym has many. 🙂
Summary of Ideal Fit Eira Helsinki
I really enjoyed my workout at Ideal Fit Eira Helsinki. Overall a good range of facilities that would satisfy most people’s needs, whether you’re into cardio, functional training or weights. I was especially impressed with the amount of functional training equipment and available floor space. The central location in Helsinki is ideal too!
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