Does anyone have any recommendations for private gyms for women in Tokyo they’ve had a good experience with?
I went for counseling at GYMS the other day and the trainer was very pushy and in the end if you don’t sign the contract right there the price will double. Also due to hidden fees the advertised 23,900 is really 29,900. If you quit before 6 months you also have to pay every amount that was discounted due to the campaign! It left a bad taste in my mouth so I didn’t sign up. Besides some reviews say it’s difficult to get a reservation even if you do sign up.
It seems almost every other gym has large 入会金, then is at least 50,000 per month with most being in the 100,000 range. Maybe my expectations are unrealistic but that seems so expensive…40,000-50,000 is fine, but over 100,000 seems so much.
Has anyone (or your wife/gf) had good experience even from these expensive gyms? Despite googling in Japanese it seems so many reviews are really ads in disguise. I’m not looking to lose much weight, maybe a few kilos, but I want to tone up a bit and get some esthetics service or training advice.
Thanks!
Edit: I’m not looking for gyms targeting foreigners or offering services in English. I’m looking for gyms that focus on slimming/esthetics/diet for women. What is written on Google and websites is entirely misleading so I’m looking for personal recommendations. I want to work with a professional taking into consideration my unique issues. I don’t want to chat in DMs or use YouTube. Thank you.
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You might want to consider training mostly by yourself and only meeting a trainer once a month or so to check in with you on your progress and training program. Training with a trainer for every session is gonna cost about that much. 2 times a week can easily add up to 100k. With 1 personal training session per month and a regular gym membership you could cut that to below 20k.
One of the city run gyms that I go to has personal trainers that work mostly with older women. To go, there’s no contract and it’s about 280¥ each visit. I have no idea what the trainers charge.
11,000-20,000 would get you into most CrossFit boxes.
There are a few Strong First certified trainers in Tokyo. That might be worth a look.
Unless you are a complete beginner and need help with your form and detailed exercise instructions, your best bet is to sign up for a regular gym and hire the best trainer you can afford for a consultation/plan, and maybe check with them biweekly or monthly. The good ones will usually also work with a dietitian (which is just as important, not necessarily for losing weight but making sure you hit your macros and don’t waste your effort).
I can’t really recommend any in Japan though, in my experience, the level of fitness education and personal training in Japan is abysmal. I just keep in touch with my trainer from my home country instead.
Dr Training have a pay-as-you-go system, and if you catch a campaign then you can avoid 入会金 as well.
Some locations have women trainers, although they are mostly men.
Tokyo is a huge place….
1, Enter “personal trainer near me” (in English) in google maps
2. Sort by distance
3. Read the reviews (with a pinch of salt)
4. Choose one or two to trial
This has the advantage of being within 1-2 kms of you. Doing this in my quite neighbourhood in a smaller town than TKO gets me 7 within 2 km…
I don’t understand the need to get a trainer. For some reason Japanese people seem to treasure personal trainers and consider them necessary. You might get a trainer once or twice but anything beyond that is ridiculous.
I can’t help other than to say if you really engross yourself in fitness youtubers who really know what they are talking about then you can just do it all yourself.
I don’t have a gym trainer but that didn’t stop me developing a chest and dramatically increasing my strength. I just watched a lot of YouTubers and not just one because some people just spout lies and anecdotal stories with no scientific basis. Instead I watched several different fitness YouTubers to see what the general consensus is regarding sleep, form, eating patterns, the level of intensity required, whether or not a certain supplement has scientific backing etc.
Club 360 in Azabu
This is not what you want to hear, OP, but my answer is as a female that works out by herself and has done so for a long time, including experimenting with various methods and diets.
1) Personal trainers are glorified way too much. A lot lack experience and much understanding of how things actually work and correct, safe form – they did a quick course and got a piece of paper saying they’re certified. Many teach poorly or incorrectly because of this, from what I’ve seen, but suck all money out of you.
Trainers purposely don’t give you enough to go on so that you have to keep coming back to them. Sure, there are good people in the mix, but unless you are training for the Olympics or some competition, they do not contribute much once you have good form (so, after a few months their usefulness goes down a -lot- because by then you will have a good understanding of the concepts). Best option here is to find a really knowledgeable trainer that is focused on technique, not repetitions or motivation, learn from them, and then branch off to work out on your own and just check in with them when you want to change your routine drastically.
2) If you want to tone up, cardio and diet are bigger factors than machines or weights. Simple weight training will help get definition underneath, but it won’t show without fat loss which comes from cardio and diet (or super-light, high-rep, high intensity weight training which will feel like cardio). You don’t need a trainer for cardio, they’ll just be a glorified cheerleader standing nearby playing on their phone and sucking money out of you, and for the diet you need a dietician not trainer.
3) unless you have certain conditions, imbalances, deficiencies, etc, a dietician will just make you go on healthier foods and suck money out of you while telling you to eat salads and reduce fast food. I understand you have hesitations and need the motivation, but it’s not rocket science unless you have special dietary needs to work around.
4) If you need to pay someone to motivate you long-term, and want to stay slim, it will be a lifelong expense with little personal enjoyment. You should be looking at it all as a “How do I start it off so I can do it myself, independently, as soon as possible?” and not a “Where can I find someone to give me the motivation forever.”
5) if you are looking into workouts with weights, all you need to understand is literally 3 simple concepts – bracing your core/protecting your spine, controlled movements and mind-muscle connection. Form will come with that. Progressive overload will help you progress a lot faster. It’s a lot simpler than it seems.
‘Motivation’ will come with you achieving results by yourself and pushing yourself way more than from someone half-assed telling you to do another set because you paid them to tell you (and not because it will benefit you).
The personal gyms you are referring to seem to target women for a lot of the stuff you mentioned, and also added privacy. Some people like the sunk cost forcing them to go to the gym. However you can usually get a normal gym sub and just get a personal trainer for much cheaper (and usually they have a larger variety of equipment due to extra space). I recommend that route. Good luck on your fitness journey
I have had a good experience with NAS
https://www.nas-club.co.jp/area/index.html
Not in Tokyo, but they are a national chain.
I joined on a special so there was no join fee and discounted monthly rate in the beginning as long as you stayed 6 months. No fee to quit. Though monthly fee is on higher end (a little over 10000 yen), they have a lot of classes, big bath & a pool.
They advertise private personal trainers as well as PT through the gym that are staff. The staff PT are generally cheaper than the private ones, about 6600 yen/hr or you can buy packages of time which is what I do.
I am 40sF who wanted to learn weight lifting without injuring myself, avoid knee pain as well as get in better shape. I had a great experience- I went 1hr about twice a week for over a year now. I found having the appointments got me to the gym consistently, took the mental load off of it &, I had fun with a hot fit young guy to look forward to. So I highly recommend the experience.
Not quite personal gym but I go to a women’s only group lesson in the dark type gym! You can get monthly counseling sessions with the trainer where they give you advice on food planning/dieting and if you ask they can help you practice your form. They also fix your form during the lessons too but in my experience you have to be direct and tell them that you want their help.
Personally I hopped around a few locations, but I really like my current trainer since he’s super nice and knowledgeable. All of his lessons seem to be more effective too so I tend to focus on his, or people that he recommends.
I can send you more info via DM if you want!
I go to a beanch of beyond gym in osaka. Theyre really good. They have some tokyo branches too.
Most trainers in Japan flat out don’t know what the fuck they are doing, they are just young and slim people who needed a job and the only training they had was a 5 pages manual when they got hired.
If you want some quality advice, you are better of finding trainers who actually compete, they may be more expensive but at least they give proper diet advice, know what exercises you need for your body type/muscles you want to develop and they can teach you the proper form.
Bonus point if the coach is over 35, anyone who can stay toned up past their mid 30’s is almost guaranteed to have more knowledge in fitness and nutrition than someone in their early 20’s.
I sometimes go to Esquatir for coaching. It’s not a diet gym for women, it’s a powerlifting gym but both coaches are world class athletes and they know much more about nutrition than any diet gym coach you will ever see. If you just want to tone up and lose a few kilos, they will be more than able to do that.
[Also, Kotomi (one of the coaches) is a freaking beast who can squat 3 times her bodyweight while looking like your typical cute petite japanese girl.](https://www.instagram.com/kotomi_hayakawa/)