Seven Star Gym Chowrasta, George Town
2nd Floor, Pasar Chowrasta Market, 10100, George Town
Opening Hours: Mon – Fri: 8:00 – 23:00, Sat – Sun: 8:00 – 21:00, public holiday 8:00 – 13:00
Cost: RM 10 per entry or RM 69 per month (plus RM 60 membership card fee)
Location
Seven Star Gym is well-located centrally in George Town, close to much of the accommodation. It’s above Chowrasta Market, just a couple of minutes walk from the main bus station, Komtar. You’ll see a sign on the wall outside for the gym – to enter, go into the market and climb two flights of stairs up to the second floor.
Facilities
I stumbled across Seven Star Gym just as it was opening! I’d spent nearly two months in Penang, walking past this building every day, when I suddenly saw a sign up outside with “Gym” on it. Ooh, the excitement! The ground floor is a market, so as soon as I saw this, I got rather excited and ran into the rather smelly food area to ask where to go. Two floors up, I was told. Sure enough, Seven Star Gym Penang has recently opened with all new equipment and is looking rather pleased with itself.
Less attractive is the lack of aircon though. I saw overhead fans, but none were in use at around 10am when I went to use the facility. I rapidly sweat without doing much (which inevitably increased when I did start exerting myself!).
You’ll find a good range of weight training equipment, some cardio machines and a couple of gym toys in this medium-sized gym. Everything was tidy, clean and staff were cleaning as I training. I’d like to say the place is well-maintained, but it hasn’t been around long enough to need any maintenance yet! Long may it stay in this exquisite condition.
Free water is provided and I think I even saw drinking cups.
Affordable and reliable travel around Asia
Weights
You’ll find a full rack of dumbbells up to 40kg, along with two racks of barbells from 10 – 30kg. These go up in 5kg increments and there’s a rack each of straight and curled, along with a few adjustable barbells.
If you like to lift heavy, you’ll find Hammer Strength machines for working biceps, a shoulder press, chest press and leg presses.
Regular resistance equipment includes a leg extension, curl and pec deck.
You’ll also find wide-set cable crossovers with pull-up bars and three cable machines on each end for pulldowns and rows etc. There’s a narrow-set cable crossover machine with pull up bars too, and further options for pull-up bars around the gym. You’ll even find assisted pull-ups here, as well as a couple of lat-pulldowns. Also for your upper body, I found a preacher curl and three bench presses – one each of flat, inclined and declined.
For your legs, you’ll see two Smith machines and a squat rack.
Cardio
Seven Star Gym Chowrasta has a reasonable assortment of cardio equipment. I found five treadmills, three Spin bikes and two crosstrainers. The equipment looked brand new, although it was not a brand I recognised.
Functional Equipment
I found limited functional equipment here, although there is a vast area just outside the gym – I’m not sure if this is going to be used as a floor-space area further down the line. Currently all I can find is a couple of step boards, a mat and two hanging punchbags. Beneath the punch bags are some fixed mats on the floor where you can stretch off.
Summary
Seven Star Gym is an aesthetically appealing gym with all new equipment. At RM 10 a go, it’s got the joint cheapest casual rate I could find in Penang (with The Olympic Gym). The downside for me was the steamy temperature in here, even earlier in the day. I found the weight I was setting on resistance equipment needed reducing significantly from my normal weight. No, I’m not getting weaker(!) so perhaps there are differences between manufacturers – but surely 40kg should be 40kg?!
The location was perfect for my accommodation, and if you’re on a budget, this place is definitely worth checking out if you are in Penang a short while. Otherwise check out Fave for deals on 1 month gym memberships.
Want an Overview of all Gyms in Penang?
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