I go to Exercise4Less in Hull, although there ain't a lot of them around. They are brilliant value imo. I pay £10pm has about 12 benches which is a lot compared to some gyms that are lucky to have a handful. Plenty of free weights and smith machines. A crossfit section and group activities area. Spinning class section. Loads of treadmills and cross trainers, half a dozen rowers plus more and even a boxing ring. The only thing it doesn't have is swimming pool/jacuzzi or saunas. But that's why it's so cheap. Brilliant gym without heavy costs. Saying that I would go to David lloyds if it was close to where I live or on route to work but I also refuse to pay roughly £60pm for it.

I train at a little backstreet gym and I know a few other members also go to xercise4less for the convenience, heard it's pretty good when it's quiet but that's a rarity with the massive membership base they have.

Why?

Yeah you're right it has shed loads of members, but I work shifts so I go first thing in a morning or straight after work at 2 o'clock. I wouldn't even attempt going after four as it'll be hectic.

Getting old. Thought I'd try to top up a bit of fitness while I, hopefully, still can.

There's a really good exercise culture here in SA, and things happen earlier in the morning - e.g. more people work 8-4 than work 9-5. There are two major gym chains: Virgin Active (was an SA company, went into admin and bought by VA) and Planet Fitness (nothing to do with the US PF)
Both charge around 40 pounds a month for membership for there. The gyms have a pool, couple of studios, cardio machine area, weight machine area and free weights area - typically couple of squat racks, 3 BP benches 3 incline benches, 8-10 adjustable benches, DBs 2-60kg, Olympic bars for all benches and racks, and fixed bars (straight and EZ) up to 60kg. They're open 04:00 until 22:00. Both chains also have a more upmarket gym that charges twice as much, but has less free weights kit.

As I mentioned earlier, things are earlier in the morning. I leave home at six and see people out running and cycling. I train from 6:30 until 7:30 at a VA gym near work, getting into town ahead of the traffic. It's busy at that time but I rarely have to wait for a squat rack of BP bench. I can do that and be in work soon after eight. The times I have trained in the evening, it's been busy but less so. Being a chain gym means I can use another VA near home at weekends....5 minutes drive rather than the 15 minutes to the city gym.

Get a dog and walk, best free exercise you'll find and far less boring than plodding along on a treadmill in front of Sky News or MTV.

Got a cat at present who would not tolerate a dog.

This is potentially a problem. I had to give up previously because I developed tennis elbow. Got to the stage where I was struggling to hold a newspaper in my right hand! After lots of treatment that cleared eventually. Since then I have developed a neck problem, which means I should not use weight machines
- at least with my arms. So, I will probably be restricted to leg-based aerobic activity and a few leg presses. My worry then is, as you say, can I stick the boredom and will I then mess up my knees through overdoing things? My problem is I have an obsessive nature and if I get over the initial boredom and get into going I just overdo things and do not take account of my age!

You should just give up then.

Or get some sensible advice that gets you on to a sensible programme.

I had been nursing my legs through some quad tendonitis lately, but they felt good this morning, so I decided to load up the bar on squats today. After warmming up I kept to just 5 reps at 120kg, then another 5 at 140kg (I've hit 6x140 before but powerlifter style low bar and wide stance, meaning less ROM) then another 10kg for a set of 3 at 150kg. The third might not have hit parallel but the first two were beyond parallel. Another set of two reps, then back down to 140kg for five again that felt easier than first time around. 120kgx8 and 100kgx12. A nice final squat session before going on hols

Not true. If you get a puppy then the two will soon get used to each other, and become bosom buddies. Indeed a relative did just this 2 years ago now, its funny watching the two grooming each other. Last week they have now introduced a new kitten. With no problem whatsoever.

If you get them together I think that works. I do not believe there is any way our cat would tolerate a puppy. It's taken her over 14 years to let us stroke her and we feed her every day!

Are you sure its a cat that you have ?

You seem to have a good example of why people should not keep wild animals as pets, release it in the garden and see if it comes back, if it comes back only at feeding time then don't feed it and see if it comes back tomorrow, if it doesn't come back tomorrow then its gone - go buy a dog and start your exercise routine with it.

Oh, it'll come back. It'll have a well-established feeding-station round, and will visit each feeding station daily. I don't know how many no-feeds it would take to cross any given one off the cat's list, but after 14 years I should think it'd be a lot