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I thought I heard on the radio that three of the Body Workshop gyms have been placed into recievership and members arrived this morning to find the doors firmly locked, one chap had bought his membership three days ago....

Does anyone know what has happened and how many outlets are affected? Will members be able to use their memberships at other franchises still running?

I bloody hope not. I've got a membership to the Richmond gym.

Brock Landers wrote:I bloody hope not. I've got a membership to the Richmond gym.

Hopefully the liquidators try to run it as a going concern, otherwise bad luck BL.

Reynella, Westbourne Park & Rundle Mall

Brock Landers - my partner also has a membership at Richmond .... phew!

A Terrible Sign of the Times.

You have to feel sorry for all the family incomes.

The issue is that Body Workshop as a group are starting to become a little dated yet expect to be able to charge top $$$ for memberships. Their competition Goodlife are backed by the Macquarie Bank and bought and expanded the business in direct competition with them. Richard Branson has some of his Gyms open on the East Coast and they are reputed to be heading to Adelaide, so who knows there is three that he can buy outright and rebrand should he so wish to!

To try and cut a long story short, I got in the lift on Tuesday morning on my way to the Body Workshop Rundle Mall. The lady who I caught the lift with was without gym gear/in work gear. She said, "are you going to the gym" and I said "yes". She said "it's closed, but it's supposed to open at 11am". I said "why". She went into detail a story about going to the gym on the Monday, the doors closed, blokes in suits doing a stocktake and a figure (which I wont mention here), owed in back rent written on a bit of paper visible to those outside the door.

Effectively, Rundle Mall was behind in rent, big time. Other debts, I'm not sure about.

I know full well when I was in there on the Friday past that they were taking new memberships. The likelihood of those members getting their money back is zilch I'd say.

A mate of mine who's also a member has been trying to phone them all week to ascertain if his money is gone - he has a membership that lasts till May. The phone was ringing out at all three centres.

He rang the other owner of B Workshop at Sth Rd and said that there is a possibility to have a reciprocal arrangement with one of the existing centres (Sth Rd & Reynella?) as an act of good faith and branding concerns. If I were a member and wanted to somehow recoup my money, I'd contact the Sth Rd centre, talk to the owner and see if they will meet you with regard to continuing your membership.

I had actually gone to the gym early that morning and I was deciding whether to extend my membership because my membership runs out on Easter Monday - how lucky!

I've found another gym in the city thankfully!!!!

Best of luck to everyone else.

PS. Sojourner - your comment about cost may be true in the burbs, but there is no cheaper gym in the City Centre than Body Workshop. I'm having to pay extra to get far less facilities in town.

Dog_ger wrote:A Terrible Sign of the Times.

You have to feel sorry for all the family incomes.

who's incomes Dog_ger?

gadj1976 wrote:Sojourner - your comment about cost may be true in the burbs, but there is no cheaper gym in the City Centre than Body Workshop. I'm having to pay extra to get far less facilities in town.

Fair enough! I am paying $659 at Modbury which isnt to bad compared to some, There is a new Goodlife gym in North Adelaide which might be worth a look if they price at the same as in the suburbs?

Richmond and West Lakes branches are operating as normal.

I went to the Richmond gym this afternoon, the girl on the front desk seemed to be rolling over memberships for one of the closed centres for some people there.

I know that when I got there and when I was leaving the phone was ringing off the hook!

Sojourner wrote:

gadj1976 wrote:Sojourner - your comment about cost may be true in the burbs, but there is no cheaper gym in the City Centre than Body Workshop. I'm having to pay extra to get far less facilities in town.

Fair enough! I am paying $659 at Modbury which isnt to bad compared to some, There is a new Goodlife gym in North Adelaide which might be worth a look if they price at the same as in the suburbs?

You must be around the place near me. I live at Modbury but work and gym in town during lunch breaks. The membership at BW was going to be 470 this year and I can't get close to that price nor facility wise in the city.

Did you check out Changes at Milne Rd Modbury, $499?

They must vary greatly as the Body workshop at Reynella was ridiculously cheap (about $260 pa if you caught the specials at the right time) but it was always run down and had machines broken and dodgy hygeine standards in the pool, etc IMHO.

Best thing I ever did was set up my own gym in my back yard a year or two ago, I love it, never have to wait for a machine to be finished with, put some music on and its so much easier to get motivated.
All up might have cost me about $1200, (over 2k including the missus treadmill) but Ive bought it in bits and pieces over 19 years, good thing about weights is they don't break.

Yeh Wegs, that was my renewal fee. The initial fee to get in was 260 then they base your renewal on the amount of usage/visits. The conditions of the gym were pretty ordinary with machines broken and only replaced/repaired sporadically. The change rooms were ok, the showers good, however 3 of them were out of action for one reason or another at the time it closed.

Wedgie wrote:They must vary greatly as the Body workshop at Reynella was ridiculously cheap (about $260 pa if you caught the specials at the right time) but it was always run down and had machines broken and dodgy hygeine standards in the pool, etc IMHO.

Best thing I ever did was set up my own gym in my back yard a year or two ago, I love it, never have to wait for a machine to be finished with, put some music on and its so much easier to get motivated.
All up might have cost me about $1200, (over 2k including the missus treadmill) but Ive bought it in bits and pieces over 19 years, good thing about weights is they don't break.

And you always have a towel!!

The Ash Man wrote:

Wedgie wrote:They must vary greatly as the Body workshop at Reynella was ridiculously cheap (about $260 pa if you caught the specials at the right time) but it was always run down and had machines broken and dodgy hygeine standards in the pool, etc IMHO.

Best thing I ever did was set up my own gym in my back yard a year or two ago, I love it, never have to wait for a machine to be finished with, put some music on and its so much easier to get motivated.
All up might have cost me about $1200, (over 2k including the missus treadmill) but Ive bought it in bits and pieces over 19 years, good thing about weights is they don't break.

And you always have a towel!!

lol, good point!
Don't have to worry about the gorilla in front of me wiping the machine down too!
Seriously though I'd recommend puchasing gym equipment to anyone, especially free weights if you like lifting them like I do as they last forever and they're great for your health.

It doesn't matter if you go off the fitness thing for 6 months of 6 years at least they're still there.

Wedgie wrote:

The Ash Man wrote:

Wedgie wrote:They must vary greatly as the Body workshop at Reynella was ridiculously cheap (about $260 pa if you caught the specials at the right time) but it was always run down and had machines broken and dodgy hygeine standards in the pool, etc IMHO.

Best thing I ever did was set up my own gym in my back yard a year or two ago, I love it, never have to wait for a machine to be finished with, put some music on and its so much easier to get motivated.
All up might have cost me about $1200, (over 2k including the missus treadmill) but Ive bought it in bits and pieces over 19 years, good thing about weights is they don't break.

And you always have a towel!!

lol, good point!
Don't have to worry about the gorilla in front of me wiping the machine down too!
Seriously though I'd recommend puchasing gym equipment to anyone, especially free weights if you like lifting them like I do as they last forever and they're great for your health.

Not after 3 shoulder recos on the same shoulder and another scrape in the next month.
Swimming and swimming only for me, id love to be able to do weights!
I just hope my next hydrotherapy person is as hot as the last one!

The Ash Man wrote:Not after 3 shoulder recos on the same shoulder and another scrape in the next month.
Swimming and swimming only for me, id love to be able to do weights!
I just hope my next hydrotherapy person is as hot as the last one!

Ive always had sore shoulders and especially when I played cricket from the training when we were throwing the ball long my shoulders felt shocking but weight training has helped them immenseley.
My shoulders are stronger now than they've ever been including when I played footy, cricket, baseball and basketball.

But I do realise its different horses for different courses and it depends on the sort of injury you have, if its muscualr obviously lifting weights is no good.

I should've said last night that Klemzig is one of the two open still - from what I've been told.

I had a gym membership last year. Then I started using the treadmill as part of my routine, then something clicked inside my head.
Now I go for a walk/run for 50 minutes every morning and do push ups every second day and save a lot of time not packing bags, not driving to the gym etc. It is much cheaper too.

My 2p on Body Workshop. Please excuse my lack of concern for all those involved in running that poor excuse of a business.

I had a membership a few years back. The deal where you get unlimited use for 12 months for $250 odd. To cut a long story short, I used it 5 days a week for a year, then after my 12 months, they wanted $1,000 to renew because I'd used the gym so much. Are they ******* kidding? Not 1 piece of equipment was improved/replaced or even serviced during my membership period. It was a tatty dung hole of a place that was always filthy and smelled like sweaty arse. I explained that I was happy to pay a reasonable amount to use the gym - somewhere in the vacinity of $500 - a going rate at the time. They refused to budge a cent below $1k. At the time, I could have had a Next Gen membership for $850, which included a carpark.

At the same time, the owner was happy to purchase a $180k Nissan NSX and kit it out to the hilt. As I walked out for the final time I made the comment that the only thing that got serviced or upgraded was the owners NSX. Staff agreed.

The Blackwood Gym offered a far more competitive rate, not to mention significantly superior equipment, classes and a friendly service at all times. It's still IMO the BEST gym I've been to world wide and I've been to at least 30 across the planet.

Anyhoo, to the owners of the Body Workshop I say - YOU IDIOTS - LISTEN TO YOUR STAFF AND CUSTOMERS WHO OBVIOUSLY KNOW BETTER THAN YOU, YOU MUPPETS.

Sad for the staff and those unfortunate enough to have been hoodwinked out of their money by these scumbags. Anyone wanting a fantastic gym experience - get in touch with the Blackwood gym. If you don't live close - it's worth the trip.