I used to be a member of Activ Fitness in Central, which was fine, but switched to McFit in the Shopville/Hauptbahnhof for reasons of convenience.

McFit opens daily at 06.30 and 9am on weekends. It's open almost every day of the year, even with sunday hours on some public holidays.

There are four sections, the main gym is full of carido stuff: cross trainers, steppers, treadmills, bikes and a few power plate stations. The mezzanine level has various "David" weight training machines. There's a studio for group classes (there are two classes per day during weekdays) and finally there's a weights room (where the real action takes place, baby).

The equipment is not bang up to date, bleeding edge technology stuff but it's also not old junk. It does the job no frills, no fuss.

The staff are quite competent and friendly and the general aura of things has improved in the last year with the new management.

I go early in the day and it's not usually very busy, although you'll be advised to get there PFQ if you want a cross trainer first thing Monday morning. I think it gets busy in the evenings, but someone else will have to comment about that.

The other customers are mostly "real" people too. I can only think of one woman who has to be in full make up before starting on the stepper and there's only one macho dickhead I can think of.

I haven't shopped around for pricing lately, however I remember it was quite reasonable. Also, they have "Morgen-Abo" which is about half the price of the full membership - the only rule is that you have to be in there before 11am.

=DM=