Les Mills – Auckland City

great gym! great staff, friendly members and hard workers who trains hard there! setting the standards for most gyms in nz! it cost a little more but it is well worth it!

Love it or hate it, Les Mills is part of my day to day routine. The main Victoria Street gym is a collection of hideous buildings and tiny spaces that have been converted into Auckland’s largest gym — the spaces are awful and having to constantly duck because the ceiling is too low is a real pain. Similarly Studio 2 is populated with concrete pillars — perfect for obliterating the view of the stage during a class. Despite all that, it’s a great gym and has a really fun atmosphere. The staff are pretty friendly and happy to help out. It’s a shame we’re still waiting for that pool they promised years ago!

Les mills is the best gym I’ve ever been. I really enjoy the body balance and body combat class. The time schedule is very convenient, there are not many gyms in town with evening classes. Great facilities! The food in the café is delicious. There is a bus stop just in front of it.

Awesome gym cannot really guess for more. Classes are so diverse and dynamic. Gym has all the machines you dream of. And overall a good atmosphere even if a bit show off. Sometimes get a bit crowed but otherwise very close to the perfect gym in my view.

Les Mills — the beast to conquer all others in the world of health and fitness. A company than prides itself on providing the best group fitness classes — with guaranteed results. The gym itself is state of the art — from the bathrooms (sauna, spa, ice bath, provided lockers and GHD hair tools) to the gym floor (cardio rooms, boxing arenas, 3 group fitness studios, a womens only gym, weights area, outdoor cross fit gym, basketball hoop and stretching area), Les Mills, Victoria Street (or AKL City) has everything you could possibly need for your health and fitness needs.
They also have a nutritionist and personal training services (additional to membership fees), and gym instructors dress in red who are available during your workouts should you need any assistance. The Auckland City branch is the largest of their Auckland Studios (Britomart, New Lynn, Takapuna and Howick) and has the most expansive group fitness timetable also (which can be found on their website.
Like most gyms — its busy during peak hours — but I like to take advantage of the womens gym which always seems to be accessible and alot quieter than the general gym areas. Memberships are pricey — but you pay for access to all their gyms (including the ones outside of Auckland), and obviously the ‘extras’ that come with a flashy building. There are student and community rates available.
The gym also run competitions (weight loss or transformation related) and event related campaigns (e.g. Round the Bays or the Auckland Marathon) where members can sign up to participate with other members to train together in preparation for such events.
Only down side is the gyms aren’t open ²⁴⁄₇ — a feature most cheaper gyms boast these days. To compensate for this, they do open Britomart complex is open 24 hours Monday-​Thursday (not ideal for those who work and would like to train later on the weekends). Hopefully they’ll extend these hours sometime in the future.
Having been with Les Mills for a long period of time now, I can’t imagine moving to any other gym simply because it is home. The instructors are fantastic, the gym area is unmatched and the changing rooms (which, lets be honest are an important part of your experience, especially when youre going straight to work after a morning workout) make the whole «gym» thing more bearable. Les Mills definitely gets a thumbs up of recommendation from me !

Where Grecian gods are made. Or maybe just go to get laid. This place is massive — a universe of sweaty torsos. The tricky part is to stay smiling through the pain

There are alot of hot bodied beautiful people here but don’t let it fool you. I am very overweight and quite frankly a lot of the times dress like I’m homeless so I couldn’t be further from the usual frequenters and I’ve never had a problem. Don’t know if I just don’t notice but you know, ain’t nobody got time for haters lol. If girls want to get away from the main floors there is a dedicated women’s gym taking up a whole level. I frequent the wet areas and use it like a spa — spa, sauna, steam room, plunge pool, ghd straighteners and hair dryers. Sometimes I even exercise: P lol.

Les Mills Victoria Street is the granddaddy of all Les Mills. This sucker is huge — 3 floors to be exact. There’s cardio & weights machines, two huuge group fitness rooms, a boxing area, a spin studio, a café and a shop. And I see they’ve now put in what looks like crossfit studio!
I’ve been a member of Les Mills for over 10years and I’m still a fan but the vibe at their Vic St location scares me a little — the weights room is a total meat market. I tend to stick to the classes. Preferably, the 6am classes, which don’t seem to be too crowded. In and out without talking to anyone. Perfection.
Also worthwhile is their boxing classes. It’s bloody hard but also fun so the time flies. They do provide gloves but if you are going to get into it I would suggest buying your own bc those bad boys stink!

You have to already be skinny and beautiful to come to this gym. So I like to come here and offend beautiful people with my fat rolls that stick out from my $ 10 leggings and I often get really sweaty on my ugly face as I’m walking up the stupid amount of steps to the café.
I think I actually sweat the most when I see the direct debit come out of my bank every fortnight. So yeah.

As far as gym facilties go, it’s kind of skank at this les mills. I’ve been a member of 3 around the country and apart from the new ones they all follow the same formula of being thrown together. The bathrooms are mediocre and the main weights room seems very exposed. BUT i only come here for classes, i’m not the sort of person that exercises at free will, i have to be told what to do and sometimes yelled at.
The classes at Les Mills are exceptional, studio 1 where I go for Yoga, Pump and CX works has just been refurbished so it feels really nice to exercise in there. They’ve also just designed their own weights that are so easy to use and have a friendly rubber coating. The instructors are mainly all great, some you grown accustomed to and some have better technics than others. I’ve recently started going to Grit which is like Cross fit without the ridiculous outdoors props like ropes and tractor tyres. The class is small and the instructors give each person attention. It’s only ½ hour and you can feel the affects hours afterwards, it’s also really addictive as it doesn’t take up your whole evening.
I really wish they had more evening classes and earlier morning classes for Grit.

The original and still the best, Les Mills Victoria St is the first gym opened by the former mayor of Auckland and campion bodybuilder, Les Mills. He’s created the perfect formula for successful excersize with an incredible number of group fitness programmes available, so successful that he now sells these programmes to 1000s of other gyms worldwide. It’s not so long ago I was taking a «video bike» class in Cannes watching NZ Les Mills instructors on a giant plasma screen.
If there is a downside to this gym it’s kind-​of rambling in building structure and you have to walk past the posers open plan gym area to get anywhere. With plenty of eye candy on display that’s not always such a bad thing.

To help with team bonding, we went here for a work function last year and did a body balance class together and I have to say I was very impressed! This gym is much nicer than most of the other gyms I’ve been to. For starters, the changing rooms are awesome, there’s plenty of room to get changed and heaps of lockers, the showers have good pressure and heaps of hot water. Not only that there are complimentary GHDs to straighten your hair with after you’ve had a shower and blow dried your hair. The actual class was great as well, we had a very enthusiastic and encouraging trainer who didn’t let you get away with not trying as hard as you possible could and always reminded us to «smile!». This gym is understandably pretty expensive though but it’s ideal if you work nearby and like to squeeze in a gym session before work.

I’ve been a member of Les Mills on Victoria Street on and off for the last 10 years or so. At times I’ve gone regularly, at times I’ve felt like I’m making a weekly donation for the benefit on one Mr Mills. The only reason I’d pick Les Mills over other gyms in the city are for its group fitness classes. They are good, they get you going, they pump a lot into a 55 minute workout and therefore are great for those of us who want to fit exercise into our day but don’t have all the time in the world to do so.
One thing that does grate me is the fact that you have to pay extra for spin classes. In fact, at one stage I left Les Mills and went to another gym that offered free spin classes. But what can they do — people pay and the classes are always full so why would they offer them for free? It’s just frustrating when you’re already paying a weekly membership sub to have to cough up extra for a ‘special’ class.
I’ve recently moved back to Auckland after living overseas and I signed up to Les Mills’ free January — but I hated it — the gym was so packed, probably with freebie newbies like myself along with all the new year resolutioners, and it made my decision that Les Mills is not the place for me. For now, anyway.

The problem I’d like to share with you today is my addiction, and total dedication to the infectiously beautiful Les Mills. It was still dark on my first day, I felt like I’d entered a small intergalactic university campus, people sprinting from their cars in order to make to 6:10am Monday weights class. There’s something motivating about being surround by hundreds of people all with the same goal «Get fitter, get stronger, get better». The classes are really fun, I’ve noticed that they are a lot more popular with the women than men (males prefer to be in control of their own work out? Not sure…) and all the equipment is relatively easy to use. The bathrooms can get a bit clogged at peak times, but I suppose that’s inevitable…(they offer communal hair dryers, GHD straightners, iron and sauna). Plus there is a women’s only section which is a good option if any of the females feel uncomfortable working out in the presence of big muscly «manly» men :|

I have been a member of Les Mills for two years now and I can honestly say it has made such a difference in my exercise routines. Before joining I found it hard to do anything but now I am fit, healthy, and running 12 km races.
The staff at the gym are always really helpful. I especially love their classes because I don’t even feel like I’m working out. Before I know it the class is over and I’ve done a massive work out.
I went to their new Grit class the other day and it was really hard, as they warn you it is, but they weren’t kidding. 30 minutes of hell. Despite this the instructor was really motivating and helpful.
Even though Les Mills is a bit out of my pay cheque, at the end of the day what they help me with is priceless.