The Movement Playground Sukhumvit 69
36/ 4 Sukhumvit 69 Alley, Bangkok 10110
Opening Hours: 9:00 – 21:00 (may open at 8:30 sometimes)
Cost: Open gym: 150 baht an hour, 450 for a day, or 2000 for a month. (outside of class times only)
Classes: 550 baht per hour, or 2500 for five sessions, or 4400 a month (unlimited). These sessions include both the classes and open gym.
Location
So here I am in Ekkamai, mostly known for the location of the Eastern Bus Terminal in Bangkok. Why am I here? Because I’ve just come from Koh Chang and this is where the bus stops. 🙂 And after such a long journey, it made sense to stay close to the bus station. So, what do we do after a long bus journey? We go train!
I was curious about this intriguing gym name – The Movement Playground. Sounded like a lot of fun to me, so I went to check it out. You’ll find it just a couple of minutes walk form the main road, very close to Phra Khanong BTS, which in itself is 1km east from Ekkamai / 1 metro stop. Turn left just after the the BTS station (the road is at an angle) and take the second significant right turn. When the road goes around to the left, it’s not a dead end – the gym is right at the end of it on the left! You’ll see huge signs in any case.
Facilities
The Movement Playground is most definitely not your regular gym. This place truly is a playground, and suddenly I feel like I had a deprived childhood. Both children and adults can take parkour lessons here and similar. Whilst it does contain a significant amount of main stream gym equipment, a lot of what you’ll find here looks like skateboard ramps (to the untrained eye!) and walls at funny angles. You can also jump over specially designed obstacles and generally have a lot of fun!
The more mainstream gym equipment is basically some free weights, a lot of functional training equipment and a lot of floor space.
Water is provided free of charge here – take a bottle. The changing rooms are very modern, clean and spacious, with a few showers and toilets in each of the male and female rooms.
Take the stress out of A Day Out With Urban Adventures!
Weights
I found a full rack of dumbbell free-weights which go up to 60lbs. There are also some lightweight bars and a coupe of adjustable barbells. You’ll find plenty of floor space in which to use themtoo – that’s what the Movement Playground does well – space!
The other mainstream piece of weight training equipment was a squat rack.
Functional Training
This is where this club comes into its own – you’ll find all the functional equipment you’re used to seeing in a gym – and some. Don’t worry if you haven’t mastered running up vertical walls, you’ll find various sets of bars here for all your pull-up needs, a large rig with a rope to climb and several sets of rings suspended from it.
You’ll also see typical gym toys such as ViPRs, a range of medicine balls, BOSUs, Swiss balls, power balls and power bags of different weights (10-25kg) and some resistance tubes.
They’ve provided numerous mats laid out under the rigs which you can also use for floor work, and help yourself to foam rollers too. I also found tyres and kettlebells up to 16kg.
And if you’re feeling like boxing someone, there’s a large hanging punchbag here.
Next to the entrance, they even have bales of hay, which I could smell before I saw!
Although the main room is not airconditioned (it has a very high ceiling), there is an absolutely huge ceiling fan which was doing a very good job when I attended at 8:30am.
Upstairs
Upstairs has a separate medium-sized room which can also be used as an educational/conference room, or for additional floorspace area as a functional training area, I was informed. Bonus – it has aircon!
Cardio
Although there are no standard cardio machines as such, if you wish to attempt jumping over the obstacles and running up the walls, then you’ll probably find yourself cardiovascularly challenged. Joking aside, the floor space here allows for no end of burpees and other circuit-style workouts.
Classes
You’ll find around 27 classes a week here for adults and 17 for children / teenagers. As well as parkour, classes have titles such as Powermove, Steel Body, and Oct Lift & Load. The one I briefly observed was taught in English by a native speaker.
Summary of The Movement Playground
The Movement Playground Sukhumvit 69 is a gym with a difference. Being Bangkok it’s not cheap of course, especially considering it offers something fairly unique here. Well worth checking out for the novelty aspect if you’re not on budget.
If you are more budget-minded, check out the Benjakitti Park where there’s a free running track and outdoor gym.
Please also see my article on Gyms in Bangkok for an overview of each gym I’ve visited here.
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