Burnden Park Fitness Academy has reached the list of the top ten finalists.

It won favour with our Bolton readers who took to the polls at the start of the month to vote for their favourite gym in the borough.

Burnden Park Fitness Academy opened in the pandemic on the location of the former DW Fitness First gym that went into administration and shut in 2020.

It has been going strong for five years with over 3,000 members.

Sophie Longden, assistant manager at Burnden Park Fitness Academy, the gym said it owes its success to its sense of community.

She said: “Everyone here knows each other and wants to help each other out. If someone’s missing for a week, people notice.

“Even if you come in and don’t know any of the members, by the end of the week you will.

“It’s a community gym. It’s quite close-knit and like a home from home.

“We have a mixed range of ages coming in. There are people as young as 18 up to 80. It’s a vast range.

“Staff go out of their way to try to make every member feel comfortable.

“For example, our personal trainers offer free inductions at the beginning, but there’s no pressure to take them.

“But some staff members are gym-qualified, so anyone who has an exercise-related question can just come to the reception and ask.

“We’ll help them out as much as we can without them having to pay the extra charge for a personal trainer.

“Staff are friendly to each other, too. Nine times out of ten it doesn’t feel like ‘work’.”

The gym has a range of facilities like a holistic studio for yoga and meditation, a spinning studio, and an indoor swimming pool, spa, sauna and steam room.

Sophie said: “We offer classes that are different – like our Hype class, which is like circuit training and HYROX [which is fitness training that is running and functional workouts] mixed together.”

Pick up a copy of today’s paper to vote for your favourite gym.