Posted By Steve Cartwright Have you tried your local council. They might be able to offer some advice. Also speak to your insurance company, let them know what you are planning to do. Steve

Posted By John Donaldson Our gym is supervised at all times and any person using it must first attend an induction session on the use of the equipment. Only then are they given a user card which must be shown every time they use the gym. First aid cover is provided at all times either by the Sports Centre staff or by our Patrol Officers. I would suggest this is essential. So far as layout is concerned it would be dependent on the equipment you have. However you do need to consider ventilation requirements and we have found the only acceptable method is to provide air conditioning if heat exhaustion is to be avoided with the warmer climate we now seem to be encountering. We have found that the equipment is subject to a lot of wear and is therefore checked at frequent intervals as well as the annual maintenance and inspections by the manufacturers. I don’t know of any particular reference documents but would suggest the above is good practice.

Posted By AHS It depends on the type of equipment if free weights I would say yes if multi gym a thorough induction should be sufficient.

Posted By Brian Weaver Hi Just to inform you I advise the latest and most modern gym in the Country. Yes it must be fully staffed, trainers fully qualified both in equipment demonstration and first aid. Depending on membership how many qualified trainers on hand. We have a membership of over 2000 with over 300 items of equipment available. our gym is open from 06.30 untill 22.00hrs and have at least 6 equipment trainers on hand at any one time. All qualified trainers are full time employees. Yes insurance companies can advise along with local authority. All members have a two hour initial induction session. Afterwards an induction session for each individual gym equipment item, including boxing ring. Members issued with own security key which registers them on the premises. Security key then registers them in the gym and on each individual equipment item, key also highlights whether initial induction has been undertaken by the member. Full H & S policy and risk assessments undertaken, gym trainers quals logged in etc. No jewellery, chains etc allowed whilst using equipment. Swimming pool no lifeguards are required under 4ft deep approx. Regards Bri

Posted By Shaun Sayers I have recently undertaken a small piece of work with my local authority's health & safety audit team, part of which looked at the management of leisure centres. I can confirm that my take on this matter as a result of this "inside work" is exactly the same as Ken Taylor's. I know that a very robust "supervised at all times by qualified etc etc" approach has been adopted by some gyms, and this is excellent, but not all public and private leisure facilities adopt such rigorous staffing practices. That does not mean they are falling foul of legislation. Clearly there is a link back to the risk assessment here and not all gyms are the same. For example it does not sound like your facility will be used much (if at all) by the very young or the very old, therefore certain types of risk inherent to other facilities might not apply to the same extent to you, but then the risk of horseplay and people over-testing themselves may be a bit higher, because of the age of the users. I must say I'm surprised that your local authority were not much help. Because of the structure of LA's its sometimes difficult finding "the man who knows". Maybe you didn't get put through to the right person.