Cheap Gym Membership & Fitness

MoveGB: 5 free passes

Over 5,500 venues, incl selected Virgin Active venues

Get five activity passes by registering your email address with MoveGB*. You'll then need to enter the code moneysavingexpert to redeem the offer. You'll automatically get a temporary membership that will expire once you've used up your five passes at five different venues - one pass at each - which you must use within 14 days.

MoveGB doesn't have its own clubs, but rather gives you access to selected gyms, yoga studios, climbing walls, swimming pools, leisure centres etc. To see which venues are participating in the free trial, go via the link above, scroll to the end and zoom on your chosen city - all those included will have a green tick.

You'll feel the biggest benefit of services like MoveGB if you like your workouts to have a bit of variety. However, if you prefer to stick to the same gym nearest your house or place of work, MoveGB recommends you sign up with that particular gym directly.

Over-16s only.

Anytime Fitness: free 3-day pass

148 branches across the UK

You can get a free three-day pass if you register with Anytime Fitness. There are 148 branches across the UK (over 4,000 worldwide) - find your nearest.

You'll need to use your pass within two weeks of signing up. It's valid for non-members only and the days have to be used consecutively.

DW Fitness First: free 1-day pass

121 gyms across the UK

Get a free one-day pass by registering with DW Fitness First (formerly just Fitness First). You'll get a phone call soon after to confirm your application and arrange your first visit. The one-day pass has to be used on consecutive days and cannot be split up.

Valid at all DW Fitness First clubs but must be used within 14 days. See the full T&Cs. Find your nearest DW Fitness First. Over-16s only.

PayAsUGym: free 1-day pass

3,000+ venues across the UK

PayAsUGym* gives you access to 3,000+ gyms UK-wide (find your nearest*). Sign up with the code MSEFREE to get your free 1-day pass, which is normally between £5-£30 depending on the location.

The offer's only available for new customers, or if you've not used PayAsUGym for over six months you may also be able to get it.

Better leisure centres: free 1-day pass

257 leisure centres across England, Wales & N. Ireland

You can get a free one-day pass by going to the Better website - find your nearest leisure centre. Once you've signed up, you'll be able to print your voucher or show it on your smartphone to redeem.

The free pass is only available to non-members, and you'll need to book an introductory session before you can use the gym. The pass has to be used on the day of your introductory session.

Nuffield Health: free 1-day pass

111 clubs across England, Wales and Scotland

You can get a free one-day pass at selected gyms by filling in the form on the Nuffield website - check if your nearest club is participating, as those promoting the offer can vary.

It's one pass per person and you must book an appointment at your local Nuffield Health gym in order to take up the offer.

The pass is only valid for seven days, so wait until you're ready before you sign up.

Fusion Lifestyle: free 1-day pass

71 participating venues across England

Fusion Lifestyle has nearly 100 branches (71 of which are participating in this offer), mostly in London and south-west England. Fill in the form to get your free 1-day class pass if you're new to the gym. And if you sign up before Wed 28 Feb, you won't have to pay a joining fee and could get 50% off your first month.

Some locations are excluded, see Fusion Lifestyle for more info.

Xercise4Less: free 1-day pass

54 clubs across England, Wales and Scotland

Xercise4Less has 54 branches, mostly in the north of England, including Leeds, Wakefield and Wigan. Fill in the form to get your free 1-day pass.

Xercise4Less also offers free exercise classes for 3-5 year olds. This is an ongoing offer, and you don't need to be a member - simply register your child online to take part.

Simply Gym: free 1-day pass

8 clubs across England

Request a free one-day pass when you fill in your details at Simply Gym (scroll down to the bottom of the homepage).

There are has 8 branches across England (find your nearest).

Q-Hotels: free 1-day pass

23 clubs across England and Scotland

Get a free one-day gym pass for you and a friend by filling in your details on the Q-Hotels website.

Q-Hotels is a chain of 4* hotels which has 23 health clubs across England and Scotland. Find your nearest health club.

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Pay-as-you-go from £5

Paying as you go can work out more expensive. Yet if you've used up free passes or you're new to gyms, it can be worth paying a little more for a few months until you're sure you'll continue.

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Here are some of the main pay-as-you-go gym options:

• The Gym - day pass from £4.99. The Gym has 89 branches in England, Scotland and Wales. Gyms are open 24 hours a day and MoneySavers say equipment is plentiful and high quality.

• Simply Gym - day pass from £6 (if you've already used your free day pass). Simply Gym has 12 centres including Cheltenham, Reading and Wrexham. It offers classes to non-members for £4, and a day pass is £6. However if you go via gym broker PayAsUGym*, you can currently get a discounted day pass for £5.40.

• Pure Gym - day pass from £5.99. No-frills chain Pure Gym has more than 180 branches across the UK, including several in London, Edinburgh and Manchester.

• EasyGym - day pass from £6.99. If you live in Birmingham, Cardiff, Slough, Southampton or London (and like the colour orange), EasyGym is another option. It offers day passes from £6.99, depending on the location of the club.

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Slash the cost of gym membership

So, you've decided a gym membership is for you. Here's a comprehensive set of tips to ensure you pay as little as possible.

Cut the cost of year-long contracts

Swanky gyms want you to think contract prices are fixed. They're not. The gym sector is fiercely competitive, so there are tons of ways to slim down the price such as:

Haggle, haggle, haggle

Check if your employer offers cheap corporate membership

Get a mate to refer you

Find special new gym rates

Go off-peak

No-frills gyms from £10/month

If you can do without saunas, jacuzzis and fit gym instructors, there's been an explosion in no-frills gyms, with prices from £10-£20/month. You can usually cancel any time and MoneySavers' feedback is hugely positive.

More are opening every month, so if you can't find one near you, check again later. The other boon is that there's often no minimum contract length, though you may need to bring your own towel, shower gel and padlock for the locker!

Full list:

Consider special short-term memberships

Longer trials are a good halfway house between paying as you go and signing up for a year's contract. They're usually more expensive than annual memberships, but you're free to go elsewhere once the trial's up, or to stop paying if you no longer go.

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Fitness First: one-month membership

You can get a one-month membership at Fitness First from £22, depending on where you live. Find your nearest club.

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PayAsUGym

If you can't get a short-term membership direct from your local gym it's worth going via gym membership broker PayAsUGym* which sells five-day, 30-day and 90-day passes for more than 1,500 gyms, including Simply Gym, Bannatyne's Health Clubs and Active4Less.

While a one month pass for Simply Gym in Reading costs £14.99 direct, there's a £10 joining fee. From PayAsUGym, it's a bit more expensive at £21, but there's no joining fee and once your month's up, that's it.

Many are discounted, but how good it is depends on your local gym - just do a search in your area to find details. Always check what the gym offers directly too.

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Exchange loyalty points for gym passes

Tesco Clubcard

When you convert Clubcard vouchers into Tesco Boost* tokens they're worth up to four times as much as when you spend them in-store.

Nuffield Health* accepts £18.50 worth of Clubcard vouchers for a one month trial membership and £5 in vouchers gets £15 to spend at PayAsUGym.com*.

There's more on maximising Clubcard points and reclaiming lost vouchers in our Tesco Boost guide.

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What to watch out for in contracts

If you're signing up for a year, remember sales staff often work on commission. So if their slick patter says, "If you're ill you can freeze membership, or take a holiday", ask to see it in the contract.

If they say, "It's not there, but it's fine", make notes there and then, which have legal weight and, if possible, get them to sign to show the promise.

Here's a list of what to check. For further examples, read this useful publication by the Office of Fair Trading (the OFT has since been replaced by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), but its guidance is still relevant).

• Be wary of 1yr+ contracts. This is the biggie. Be wary of contracts longer than 12 months. Also check that they don't renew it automatically.
• Check what notice you need to give. Even when you're out of contract, gyms often require 30 days' notice to cancel. Make sure you understand these conditions.
• Ask what happens if your circumstances change. Check the policy if you are ill or injured, move house, get pregnant or change jobs. Think about the proof you'll need, such as a doctor's letter. Can you freeze your membership or transfer it to someone else?
• Ask what happens if your favourite service stops. If you're only joining because the gym offers a creche, Zumba dance classes or certain equipment, check if you're allowed to cancel if this is withdrawn.
• Note whether the contract automatically renews. Most contracts for gym membership automatically continue once the initial membership period expires. Make a note of the date by which you should inform them if you don't want this to happen.
• Check others' feedback. If you're taking a free trial, ask folk in the changing room if they're happy with the gym's contract or service (wait till they're decent first!).

Work out without a gym

You don't need to join a gym to get buff. If you're on a budget, read these quick tips on working out without a gym:

Free apps and online fitness videos

If you have a smartphone, or can workout at home in front of your computer, there a plenty of free workout apps and online videos you can use to get fit for free. Take a look at our Deals Hunters blog to see our Top 10 free fitness videos and smartphone apps.

Free Sweaty Betty classes

Women's fitness shop Sweaty Betty offers free pilates, ballet and other fitness classes (for men and women) at more than 30 branches across the country. You need to sign up for its free membership card, then call or pop into your nearest store to book a session.

Buy some running shoes and run outside

Rather than paying for the privilege of being sandwiched between two sweaty blokes while listening to dodgy house music, run in the park for free. All you need is a pair of trainers. For free weekly 5k timed runs, check out Parkrun.

Do a work-out outside the gym

Examine your fitness requirements. You can run, cycle, do light weights (with those bottles of pop), yoga and a lot more without gym membership. Why not do workout DVDs with friends or see if there is an Outdoor Gym near you?

Buy your own weights or equipment using special discounts

Amazon often offers 75%+ reductions, yet it directs people to other areas, sending them to products with higher profit margins instead.

There's a geeky way to manipulate Amazon's web links to display all heavily-reduced bargains. All you need to do is fiddle with Amazon web addresses (URLs) to bring up lists of knockdown prices, eg, running gear 75%+ off*, fitness equipment 55%+ off* & Sportswear 75%+ off*. See the Amazon Discount Finder guide for full details.

If you are looking to start free weight lifting though, bear in mind it can be dangerous, so seek medical/professional help before you do yourself any injury!

Use an outdoor gym

There are hundreds of local council-funded outdoor gyms that are completely free to use. Check out our blog on what kind of equipment they have and how to find your nearest one.

Join the Debt-Free Wannabe Running Club

Join the Debt-Free Wannabe Running Club, where MoneySavers support and help each other reach their goals.

Tennis for free

Children, young people and families can get free tennis coaching sessions and free use of thousands of tennis courts across the UK with Tennis For Free. Free coaching sessions run at weekends and are suitable for all ages, with equipment also provided for free.

Your gym cancellation rights

Escaping a gym contract can be more difficult than outrunning Usain Bolt (even when he's only warming up). Sadly there's no one-set of rules when it comes to your cancellation rights, though gym-goers have been given more protection in recent years.

Rules tend to be based on a hotchpotch of different guidelines, codes of conduct and legal precedents, so it's rarely black and white. But you SHOULD normally have some protection.

• Your contract should not be longer than 12 months. In 2011, the High Court ruled it was unfair for gyms to tie in members for more than one year (see the Tens of thousands can cancel gym memberships and More gym-goers will find it easier to cancel contracts MSE News stories). If your contract's longer than a year, you may be able to challenge it.

You can also check to see if the Office of Fair Trading's (OFT's) guidelines on unfair terms, some of which we've listed below, apply. The OFT has since been replaced by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), though these guidelines are likely to still be relevant.

• You MAY be able to cancel if your gym's made big changes. The OFT's guidelines say contracts are unfair if they allow clubs to supply something different from what was agreed, unless the change is minor. So if, for example, your gym closes its creche you may be able to leave.
• It's unfair if they've drastically hiked prices. If your contract says the club's allowed to make unrestricted membership fee hikes, this is likely to be considered unfair.
• The gym shouldn't auto-extend your contract. The guidance says it's unfair to automatically extend contracts, relying on people's inertia or ignorance.
• Membership terms should be clear. The OFT (now the CMA) told gyms that contracts should clearly explain minimum membership periods and notice periods. If the wording's unclear, you may have a case.

The following three rules should also apply. Six of the big chains – Pure Gym (which has taken over LA Fitness), Dave Whelan Sports Ltd, Harlands Group Ltd, Fitness First, David Lloyd's and Bannatyne's – agreed to them after an OFT investigation in 2013. They're also written into UKactive's code of practice, which more than 3,500 members are signed up to.

• If there's a change in circumstance you MAY be able to cancel. If a change in circumstance such as serious injury or job loss makes going to the gym difficult or unaffordable, you may be able to cancel mid-contract – though it'll depend on the nature of the change in circumstance.
• The gym shouldn't say it's a fixed contract length if it isn't. If membership automatically continues on a rolling basis after the initial period expires, the gym should be clear about this.
• The gym should be transparent about key membership features. For example, it should be clear about your cancellation rights, and this info should be provided upfront as part of the sales process.

If you think your gym isn't complying with these standards you can report it to the CMA.

MoneySavers' cancellation successes

Here's what some of you said when we asked you to let us know if you managed to cancel your gym membership:

My gym cancelled my membership during the 12-month contract period. I just went in and asked if they could because I was having to move away, and they did it straightaway, no problem.

I've been a member at Virgin Active for years, and now I've a new job, it's difficult to get out during the day, the classes I love have changed time so I'm hardly going these days. I decided to cancel and I was ready to argue. But I got an email to say it's all sorted and my membership will cease. Easy peasy!

A friend was four months into a 12-month contract and wasn't using the gym much. I advised him to write a letter asking if they would allow him out of the contract as he wasn't getting full use of his membership. A week later, he thanked me and said the gym had been brilliant and allowed him to terminate with no penalties.

Let us know how you got on in the Cheap Gym Membership forum discussion.

How to complain

If your gym's breaching the contract or it contains unfair terms, you've every right to fight back. It's always worth trying to complain in person first, but if that doesn't work...