Monsoon Gym and Fight Club, Koh Tao
4/14 Moo 1, Sairee Beach, Koh Tao, 84360
Opening Hours: 7:00 – 21:00, 7 days per week
Cost: 180 baht per day, or 500 per week or 1500 per month.
Location and Entry
Monsoon Gym is well located in the centre of Koh Tao, just a couple of hundred metres walk up from the main (Sairee) beach on the west coast of the island.
It’s signposted outside and you’ll see the Muay Thai boxing area outside as you approach. The gym entrance is just to the right of this area, go through the door and enter and a nicely air-conditioned room. Welcome relief, given the hot climate here!
The price includes free use of a towel for your workout. You can also refill your water bottle for 5 baht which is a bargain – take your own bottle.
Facilities
This small to medium sized gym is well equipped with weights and cardio equipment. I joined for a week since I’m going to be here for a while. (Like most people here I’m doing a fair amount of diving including my Advanced scuba course!) 500 baht for a week is the best price I have found in Koh Tao, and reasonable considering you’d have to leave the island to find cheaper!
I used the gym at different times of day and always found it be a comfortable workout temperature – there are both aircon and fans in operation throughout.
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Weights
The club is well-equipped with a full set of dumbbell freeweights up to 45kg. You’ll find several adjustable barbells with plenty of discs to load them with. There is also a Smith machine and squat rack, along with several sets of pull-up bars and 1 x cable crossover.
Although the club lacks resistance machines, you will find an inclined leg press. For lat pulldowns you can use the cable crossovers (learnt this trick early in my travels!) and you’ll also find bench presses, a hip extension bench and preacher curl station. There are plenty of benches around too for whatever free-weight work you wish to do.
Cardio
There is good range of cardio machines here, including a rare rowing machine! It’s not often I’ve found one of these in a gym in Thailand, except when I’ve been in a large chain, so to find one in little Koh Tao was quite a welcome surprise! Yes it’s a little old but it does the job.
You’ll also find several treadmills, two crosstrainers and a bike, all of which appeared to be in good condition. Doing cardio in an air-conditioned room is certainly a huge bonus in a country in a country as hot as this!
Functional Training
This smallish gym certainly packs a lot in and their range of functional training equipment is extensive; you’ll find Swiss balls, a range of kettlebells, a hoop, some skipping ropes, and best of all, a few good yoga mats for your floor work. Although there’s no dedicated floor space in the gym, it’s easy enough to find space to work between the equipment. Failing that, go outside to the spacious Muay Thai area. If there’s no class in progress, you’ll probably have this large space to yourself! In addition to the other gym toys, you’ll also find medicine balls here, along with more skipping ropes, boxing gloves, pads and bags.
Classes
The club runs Muay Thai classes which are currently on at 8:00 and 16:00 daily, Jiu Jitsu from Mon – Sat at 18:00, as well as HIIT classes three times a week on Mon, Wed and Fri at 18:00. Classes cost 300 baht. Note that these are outside (ie no aircon, but sheltered and with fans). See their website for more details on pricing. You’ll also find class timetable here.
Summary of Monsoon Gym
Monsoon Gym is perfectly located in the centre of Koh Tao and the cheapest gym I’ve found here, making it ideal for those on a budget. Whilst some of the equipment is not the most modern, it all works and the gym is clean and tidy. Unless you especially want to use resistance machines, it has everything that most weight trainers would need. Definitely recommended!
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