Inside the Warwick Sports Hub

The Sports and Wellness Hub is the home of health and fitness at Warwick, with its prime location – just a short walk away from central campus – making it the perfect place for students to work out, destress, and socialise after a long day.

At the heart of the Sports Hub is the gym, which is perfect for both gym lovers and newbies alike. As a recent gym convert, I found the Sports Hub to be the perfect place to challenge myself to try out new exercises, as well as stick to the cardio workouts that I knew and loved.

The gym at Warwick offers a range of cardio equipment, including treadmills, elliptical machines, and exercise bikes. There is also expansive space and equipment for resistance and functional training.

Over the summer break, the gym has undergone a £1 million renovation

Over the summer break, the gym has undergone a £1 million renovation with the upgraded gym offering a host of new equipment including additional cables and pulleys, Concept2 ergometers, dedicated bench presses, and a larger free weight area.

The gym has also been reconfigured to offer a more streamlined and motivational experience for gym goers, with new dedicated zones for functional training, Hyrox, and stretching. The refurbishment places the gym at the centre of Warwick Sport’s broader strategy for wellness and sport, which is epitomised by the Sports Hub’s inclusive and welcoming feeling.

If the gym isn’t for you then fear not as the Sports Hub really has something to offer for everyone. With studies proving that swimming has a range of positive benefits for your mental health, the 12-lane swimming pool at the Sports Hub is the perfect place to destress after a long day of lectures – it certainly was one of my favourite ways to unwind in first year.

You can turn up and swim whenever you like with the online timetable showing which lanes are available, and when. The pool also offers a ‘female-only’ swimming session, every Friday from 2pm to 4pm.

Those wishing to follow in the footsteps of Paris 2024 gold medallist Toby Roberts or Warwick’s very own Joshua Bruyns can also check out the 15m-high climbing wall

Those wishing to follow in the footsteps of Paris 2024 gold medallist Toby Roberts or Warwick’s very own Joshua Bruyns can also check out the 15m-high climbing wall, which literally ‘watches over’ the rest of the Sports Hub. Offering 144 routes to climb on its 706 square metres of climbable surface, you can take in all the thrills of climbing, whether you’re a complete novice or an absolute pro. You could opt to take some ‘learn to climb’ sessions or, if you’re feeling confident, get clipped up and head off straight away with a climbing membership.

While this insight into the Sports Hub may offer just a quick whistlestop tour, I’d urge you to go and check out everything it has to offer – maybe you’ll end up spending half of your free time there, like I did last year. There really is a multitude of things to do with fitness classes, squash courts, and sports courts among the centre’s other offerings.

Students can access discounted memberships at the Sports Hub, with the gym and swim membership costing £26 a month.

The balcony is also the perfect outdoor study spot

A final sidenote too: if you’ve found yourself reading The Boar Sport but are thinking that exercise isn’t your thing – firstly, the Sports Hub could quickly convert you, but secondly, the Sports Hub is also a great place to study! Grab yourself a seat and get a coffee from the on-site Caffè Nero, and you’ll be able to plough through your revision or essays with that much-needed caffeine boost. The balcony is also the perfect outdoor study spot – if the weather stays nice, that is!