VietNamNet Bridge - You slump into the sofa after a long day at the office, dying to slip on your comfy PJs. In the morning you were all pumped up to work out, but now you’re finding it hard to get motivated – and that box of cookies is just too tempting.

That may be the common feeling among today’s white-collar workers, but a body-beautiful craze is heating up in the big cities and more young people are starting to hit the gym.

Fitness centres have been popular regionally for decades, particularly in Hong Kong, Singapore and Bangkok. But the craze is only really beginning to sink in locally.

Here, the notion of paying to keep fit is not an idea older people are likely to empathise with. In their time, there was plenty of exercise to be had doing chores around the home or in the garden.

But today, physical work is a rarity for desk workers, so many turn to gyms as the only way they can stay healthy and keep fit.

Eyeing their Western counterparts, local people with sufficient expendable income and time to spare are taking to exercise like the proverbial duck to water.

In Ha Noi, young people are emulating the Western trend for lifting weights, tapping up the speed dial on the running machines, doing push-ups and other exercises – but good facilities come at a price.

The best equipped gyms are found at a four or five star hotels, including towels, sauna and swimming pool. But a month’s membership will set you back a princely US$100 a month.

Less state-of-the-art centres can cost around $60 a month, pricey but still cheaper than similar services abroad.

Most average-wage earners opt for the cheapest, at about $10 per month.

While luxury fitness centres set out to attract long-term customers, the majority of cheap gyms just want to pull in as many people as possible.

There is really a big gap between modern fitness centres and the cheap ones, says Kieu Van, a regular gym user.

"Some of the $10 clubs have shocking services. Owners may be sports experts but their employees, including the instructors, are not professional. Many of them haven’t even taken a training course," she says.

"They just watch a DVD or copy the chief instructor. I’ve even heard of some centres employing their maids to work as a gym instructors."

Van says one gym on Tang Bat Ho Street employed their cleaner to work as gym instructor.

"It was unbelievable. This girl had no knowledge about sports or aerobics. She just learned from her boss and copied the DVD she watched everyday at the club," she says.

Safety is another problem, Van says.

Van says one gym near Khuc Hao Street groups everyone together for the workout, no matter what their age or ability.

"There’s only one bathroom and people have to bring their own towel to use as a mat when doing the exercises," he says.

Experts have warned that sub-standard fitness centres are posing a serious health risk to the general public.

Services should be strictly controlled or managed by health or sport authorities, says Dr Nguyen Van Phu, an expert from the Viet Nam Institute of Sport Science.

"Apart from the social side of it, people use fitness centres to improve their health – the most precious thing you have in life. Gyms should set out to protect health at all costs," he says.

"Along with modern equipment, a fitness centre must have professional staff who are trained in sport science or health. They should know how to give good advice on health while introducing facilities to their members and should know what to do if there is an accident," he says.

"Instructors must be able to tell people how to use equipment and how to exercise so they do not hurt themselves."

Dr Phu says some of his patients were members of fitness centres.

"It is a very serious matter. Gym owners need to treat fitness as a science, not just entertainment, and need to study the subject carefully before they open a club."

Dang Kim Ngan, manager of Activelife fitness club in Trung Hoa Nhan Chinh ward, Thanh Xuan District, agrees the most important factor for a successful fitness club is professional staff.

"As well as modern equipment and a comfortable environment, including well-designed and clean facilities, one of the factors that determines the quality of a gym is the competence of the staff," Ngan says.

All the employees at Ngan’s centre are graduates from the University of Sports and have received gym training. They also work closely with doctors and nurses in nearby rehabilitation clinics.

"Our personnel should be qualified enough to ensure complete customer satisfaction. We don’t just aim for high membership, we want to provide top quality service."

Activelife advertises itself as one of the few high-standard but low price fitness centres in the city. It is installed with modern equipment imported from Finland.

Half of their total 300 members are foreigners, most of them Korean. The remainder are Vietnamese. The club provides a variety of promotional service packages, including 50 per cent discounts for students and privileges for female members.

Long-term members can also get health checks through her fitness centre.

VietNamNet/VNS