TG Fitness Chaiyaphum 2020
Nai Mueang, Mueang Chaiyaphum District, Chaiyaphum 36000
Cost: 70 THB per visit, or 699 THB per month.
Opening times: Mon – Fri: 6:30-22:00, Sat – Sun: 6:30 – 20:00
Location
So here I am, back in Chaiyaphum, a town which will always hold a place in my heart. I finished my teaching stint here a year ago and now I’m back to visit! Really enjoying eating at my old favourite restaurants and the night market, catching up with familiar faces, doing Aerobics (it’s free at the night market!) and of course, visiting the gym again.
You’ll find it less than 1km north of the night market, easily walkable. It’s just 100m further than the big Tesco Lotus here.
Facilities
The first thing to say is that this gym is easily the biggest and best in the area – 70 baht is a bargain. Naturally prices here will be a bit cheaper than touristy areas – which works for me!
I was wondering what, if anything, might have changed here at this large Chaiyaphum gym, in the year I’ve been away. Actually I can see quite a big difference as they’ve invested a fair amount into weight-training equipment here whilst I’ve been gone, most notably into plate-loadable stuff.
This large gym caters very well for weight trainers, reasonably well for cardio enthusiasts and has a few mats and plenty of floor space, though there’s little in terms of functional equipment. You will find a table tennis table though!
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As ever, there are just a couple of toilets here, I believe one doubles up as a shower, but considering the size of the gym, it doesn’t have much in the way of showering facilities, just small rooms. The lack of aircon here is the main downside though as it does get rather hot. Several fans help, but I would definitely advise training early here if you can. It was rather warm by late morning and I remember doing many a sweaty workout after school at 16:00!
Take your own towel and water – you can buy water and protein products here but you’ll be paying extra.
Weights
Weight-training is where TG Fitness Chaiyaphum really comes into its own. You’ll find an excellent range of free weights, pin-operated resistance machines and – thanks to recent investments – plate-loadable machines. They had a few of these before, but I counted over 20 plate-loadables yesterday – ideal for heavy lifters and far more than most gyms offer! These include (but are not limited to) leg presses, standing squat machines, a pulldown, chest presses and shoulder presses.
You’ll find two cable crossovers here with a total of five cables between them. Each has a set of pull up bars too.
They’ve also provided one each of a flat, inclined and declined bench press.
Amazingly, they have three Smith machines here, but still no squat rack. However, there is a full rack of barbells from 7.5 – 25kg, of both straight and curled. The weights in the middle are 10, 15 and 20kg for each.
You’ll also find a preacher curl and some abs benches here.
Best of all, TG Fitness has two full sets of dumbbells up to 50kg – ideal to have everything duplicated in peak periods – and yes, it can be busy here after 16:00!
Cardio
The cardio equipment at this Chaiyaphum gym all looks modern now, and the days of the dodgy rowing machine are in the past (there is no rower). What you will find are numerous treadmills (like, 20+), four crosstrainers, four Spin bikes and four upright bikes. Everything was in excellent condition and worked well.
Functional Equipment
Whilst you’ll find little in the way of gym toys at TG Fitness Chaiyaphum, you will have the benefit of ample floor space. I believe Zumba still takes place here a few times a week and when that’s not on, you can use the space for whatever you like! Note, it’s all part of the same room and not sectioned off.
The gym toys I found include an abs roller and a foam roller (the latter I donated when I stopped living here!). There are also a few yoga mats.
Classes
As far as I know, Zumba classes still take place here a few times a week, which always used to be Mon, Wed and Fri. (It was at 18:00 or 18:30 – check days as it seems to change.) However no-one spoke English to confirm this when I went on this occasion. I saw a sign up saying Zumba though!
Summary of TG Fitness Chaiyaphum
TG Fitness is the place to train in Chaiyaphum, as it is both the biggest and most modern facility. It caters for well for most types of workout, though if you’re used to doing a lot of functional training, this place is short on gyms toys. Otherwise, you’re in luck – cardio and weight training equipment are in abundance here! Train early to beat the heat. This is Esan and it’s not cold.
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