The gym at Bromley’s The Spa at Beckenham is to benefit from a £400,000 facelift as part of a long-term, multi-phase investment plan by Mytime Active to maintain its status as a state-of-the-art, high-end health and wellness facility over the coming years.

Work on phase one, a total refurbishment of the main gym floor including new fitness equipment, will start in March and is expected to take around five weeks to complete. Mytime Active will temporarily move the gym into studio D (downstairs) whilst the work is underway to minimise disruption to customers. The new look gym will reopen in April.

Jason Stanton, Mytime Active’s CEO, says: “The refurbishment of the gym at The Spa at Beckenham is very important to us as we continue to invest in our services and assets. As a charitable trust we don’t have shareholders to pay and all profits are reinvested back into the community with the aim of helping local people to improve and maintain their health and wellbeing.

“We’re upgrading the facilities to ensure we have the very best equipment there is to offer and maintain The Spa as an industry-leading facility, as well as keeping up with new training trends. The refurbishment will enhance the overall experience for our members and hopefully encourage even more people in the community to try out what we have to offer.”

As part of the detailed planning behind the refurbishment, Mytime Active has designed a safe, natural journey around the gym for both new and experienced users, creating a series of zones using different coloured lighting to help vary the experience by changing the atmosphere.

The areas naturally flow through:
• Health orientated training – light blue lighting

• Fixed resistance equipment – green lighting
• Cardiovascular equipment – purple lighting
• eGym specialist strengthening and toning equipment – orange lighting
• Functional training – red lighting
• Free weights – dark blue lighting

Darren Anderson, Mytime Active’s Principal Fitness and Wellbeing Manager, who is leading the redevelopment project, says: “We very carefully considered the new layout to minimise any ‘gym intimidation’, putting equipment to help our Fresh Start members, those who may be new to exercise, recovering from illness or living with a long-term medical condition, as well as our GP referral customers and less confident gym users, near to the entrance. Fixed resistance machines and eGym strengthening and toning equipment, which creates a personalised workout for each user, tracking and adapting for each user’s progress and goals, will also be located on the ground floor. We hope this will encourage progression once members are more comfortable with the gym floor setting and equipment.

“There will also be a selection of cardio equipment with the most up-to-date interactive viewing screens. The gym will feature brand new, top-of-the-range fitness equipment from Life Fitness, Keiser, Physical Company and Power Plate, to name a few.”

A functional training zone will be placed at the rear of the gym, along with a small free weights area for those not wishing to train in the main free weights area in the upper gym.

Anderson continues: “The zonal lighting will simplify navigation around the gym and has been selected based on a psychological match to the activity being undertaken as, like music, lighting can really make a difference to the focus, energy and mood of a fitness space. For instance, in the dedicated free weight section on the ground floor, the lighting will be dark blue, as blue is shown to be energising and increases productivity. It also calms the mind and improves concentration levels, where as red light, used in the functional zone, stimulates the fight or flight response, giving a burst of energy!

“Music choice is also very important and the genre will be selected to match different customer groups. For instance, we will have upbeat modern music playing for the mixed age range we see on a Monday morning, but quieter 80s music during our Fresh Start session on Tuesday mornings and mainstream music on Friday afternoons when it’s a mixed demographic.”

A selection of small group exercise classes for adult, junior and Primetime over 60s customers will also be delivered on the gym floor, including free weight lifting clinics, eGym athletic and muscle building classes and a series of different functional training classes.

Anderson explains: “These small, bookable classes will help increase interaction, exercise education and promote the new training equipment to ensure our customers get the most from their workouts, as well as creating a training environment we hope will appeal to people who may not normally participate in conventional group exercise classes.”