SmartGym Fitness Phuket
42,44,46 Nimit Soi 1, 83000, Phuket
Opening Hours: Mon – Fri: 9:00 – 22:00, Sat – Sun: 9:00 – 21:00
Cost: 200 baht a day, 1000 per week or 1500 per month.
Discounted if you’re aged 15-22: 170 baht per day, 800 per week or 1300 per month.
Location
SmartGym Fitness Phuket is located 200m east of Ocean Shopping Mall, close to much of the accommodation in Phuket town centre. It’s clearly marked with a large banner outside, with gym equipment visible from the street.
Facilities
SmartGym Fitness Phuket is split over two floors and caters especially well for weight-trainers and functional training enthusiasts. This large gym has one whole floor dedicated to free weights, resistance machines and some cardio equipment, whilst upstairs hosts a studio and a large functional training area with additional weights.
The weights equipment is middle-aged and in good condition, but as most of downstairs gets little natural light, you won’t be too worried how it looks! Upstairs is a lot more open and bright and generally more attractive and modern. Here you’ll find further free weights in addition to the functional training equipment.
The gym did not seem to be air-conditioned although I saw units for it – perhaps they save it for later in the day – I trained late morning. Plenty of fans are in operation, and I found downstairs noticeably cooler than upstairs.
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Weights
This place is a weight-trainer’s paradise, with the majority of the club being dedicated to it. In addition to free weights, you’ll find both plate-loadable and pin loadable resistance machines.
The dumbbells go up to 100lbs and there are plenty of duplicates too. The weights were all (amazingly!) neatly racked along the length of this large room. As well as duplicates on this floor, you’ll find a complete rack of dumbbells up to 50lbs upstairs. They’ve provided plenty of benches to work with too. In addition to weights benches you’ll find a hip extension (upstairs) and abs bench.
Upstairs hosts numerous adjustable barbells and disc weights too, so there’s no shortage of those either.
For your upper body, you’ll find two wide cable crossover stations, two lat pull downs, assisted pull-ups and a seated row. There are also a couple of sets of pull-up bars and various attachments for the cables.
For lower body work they’ve provided two Smith machines, a squat rack and some resistance tubes are also lurking here.
If you want to lift heavy (and you’re not already exhausted reading this!), there’s a fair number of loadable resistance machines here. These consist of two leg presses, a decline and incline chest press, two shoulder presses, a biceps machine and calf raise.
And for us mere mortals, they’ve provided plenty of regular pin-operated weights equipment too and an abdo machine.
Cardio
Thankfully someone remembered to put some cardio machines in amongst the weights. Like the weights equipment, whilst it wasn’t the most modern, the machines appeared to be good quality StarTrac equipment for the most part. They’re also located by the window, overlooking the street. I found nine treadmills, three airbikes, two upright bikes, two recumbent bikes, three ellipticals and two steppers. Want to row? Head on upstairs – they’ve put the rowing machines up here!
You’ll also find a ski-trainer upstairs.
Functional Training
Head on upstairs for functional training heaven. Well, kind of. It is a little warm up here without aircon, but in terms of the facilities and functional toys, it’s pretty good!
First up, you’ll see a large rig, which includes overhead horizontal bars and a couple of squat racks. You’ll see TRXs and rings attached to these and there’s an Astro-Turh section too. Alongside, they’ve provided several plyoboxes, battleropes, a large tyre and what looks to be a pair of 10 and 12kg golf clubs! There are also some good quality mats up here.
You’ll also find kettlebells up to 16kg, somewhat larger in size than the average kettlebell – and there are lots of them. I also found power bags from 5 to 25kg in 5kg increments, medicine balls from 2 – 10kg in 1kg increments, and powerballs, which are weighted in pounds. These go from 6 – 25lbs.
The additional weight-training equipment up here includes two deadlift platforms, a flat and inclined bench press and several adjustable barbells. You’ll also find a full set of dumbbells up to 50lbs on this floor.
All in all, I doubt you’ll be getting bored at SmartGym Fitness Phuket!
Studio
Also upstairs, you’ll find an attractive, modern and well-equipped studio. It looks clean and hosts the club’s ten classes per week. These run Mon – Fri at 18:30 and 19:30. Four of these are Power Yoga classes and the rest are a range of Zumba, Dance, Kettlebells, Functional Training, “Fat Pump”(!) and Tabata.
The equipment in here is pretty extensive and includes new-looking lightweight adjustable barbells (as in Body Pump), step boards, Swiss balls, two BOSUs, foam rollers and a good number of kettlebells up to at least 14kg. You’ll also find both normal (thick) mats and yoga mats.
Summary of SmartGym Phuket
I really liked this well-equipped down-to-earth gym, which is neither fancy, nor basic. If you’re a heavy lifter, SmartGym Phuket is ideal, especially as there are so many duplicates of free weights. I can recommend this place for functional training too, with its extensive range of gym toys and a fair amount of floor space in which to use them. There’s a good range of cardio equipment here too, although the gym was a little warm for comfort when I attended. However, aircon units are present (though not on when I went) and fans were in operation which kept the temperature acceptable on the ground floor when I went late-morning.
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