In February 2017, Solan Fitness opened its second gym in East Grinstead, West Sussex. Designed to offer its members premium quality, the 15,000ft² facility aims to build on the success of the brand’s first gym in Orpington, which opened in 2015 and was voted the UK’s Best Strength Training Gym at the National Fitness Awards that same year.
While the gym openings are recent, the team isn’t new to the industry; the founders were previous owners of a successful martial arts club in South East London, which counts several national and international champions amongst its alumni.
Central to the appeal of Solan Fitness gyms are their strength training offering. The new East Grinstead club has no fewer than 50 pieces of strength equipment, while the Orpington site is an official Hammer Strength Training Centre – one of only 33 gyms in the UK to have this accreditation. “Our mission is to take strength training facilities mainstream, making them easily accessible to all those who want to achieve serious results,” explains owner Rachelle Solan.
Cybex equipment was chosen for its high quality and build-to-order policy, which allowed the Solan brand to be incorporated throughout. Francesca Cooper, regional sales manager for Cybex, says:
“Every piece of equipment was carefully selected to ensure that the gym not only delivers on its focus as a specialist strength training facility but crucially, that it also appeals to members of all training abilities and interests.”
An extensive offering
The new gym includes strength equipment from Cybex’s Eagle NX and Prestige selectorised series, Big Iron racks and lifting platforms, an extensive range of free weights and plate loaded equipment, a nine-station Jungle Gym and the Bravo Functional Trainer.
The gym’s cardio provision is also very extensive, with Cybex’s 700 series treadmills, lower and total body Arc Trainers, and 600 series recumbent and upright bikes, all with E3 View embedded entertainment screens. Life Fitness Powermills, Row GX Trainers and Concept2 SkiErgs complement the cardio provision, while Cybex’s self-powered SPARCs feature in the gym’s dedicated HIIT zone.
Solan said: “Cybex’s heritage lies in sports science and biomechanics and this is something that we’re very passionate about – our staff are trained to educate people and the diverse range of equipment supports our aim to build a broad membership demographic.”
Member support
At the forefront of Solan Fitness’ philosophy are its club members. “We’re really passionate about making a positive difference to people’s lives and we believe that fitness is central to this,” explained Solan.
The gym adopts a holistic approach to training and helping its members get results – the East Grinstead club offers a sports supplements store, restaurant lounge, fuel drinks bar and physiotherapy clinic, all located onsite.
The club also hosts regular social and community events including fundraisers, seminars and DJ nights. Every Friday, members can also ‘bring a friend for free’ – a popular scheme that welcomes potential new members into the gym.
“We’re ambitious and have strong visions of where Solan Fitness will be within the next five years,” said Solan. “We aim to expand the number of clubs significantly, with each one retaining the core values of Solan, while offering a unique twist to keep training fun, fresh and motivating.”