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Esporta Health Clubs
Esporta Health & Fitness Clubs (usually known as just Esporta) was a chain of health clubs in the United Kingdom, which also once owned clubs in Spain. The clubs offered a wide variety of different fitness facilities, including gyms, swimming pools and courts for racquet sports. In addition they offered a choice of bar food and drinks, spa treatments and live sporting coverage. On 26 April 2011, after two years of ownership, Société Générale confirmed that it had agreed to sell its Esporta health, fitness and racquets clubs to Virgin Active for £77.5m. History After expanding quickly, in 2004 the firm announced their six Spanish clubs were up for sale. Selling all six in 2005, they sold seven UK locations to Virgin Active Virgin Active is a chain of health clubs in South Africa, Botswana, Namibia, Italy, Australia, Singapore, Thailand and the United Kingdom. History Virgin Active was founded in 1999. Their first club opened in Preston, Lancashire that year. I ...: Birm ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Health Clubs
A health club (also known as a fitness club, fitness center, health spa, and commonly referred to as a gym) is a place that houses exercise equipment for the purpose of physical exercise. In recent years, the number of fitness and health services have increased, expanding the interest among the population. Today, health clubs and fitness centers are a reference of health services, rising the adherence to physical activity. Facilities and services Main workout area Most health clubs have a main workout area, which primarily consists of free weights including dumbbells and barbells and the stands and benches used with these items and exercise machines, which use gears, cables and other mechanisms to guide the user's exercise. This area often includes mirrors so that exercisers can monitor and maintain correct posture during their workout. A gym that predominantly or exclusively consists of free weights (dumbbells and barbells), as opposed to exercise machines, is sometimes ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The United Kingdom includes the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland, and many smaller islands within the British Isles. Northern Ireland shares a land border with the Republic of Ireland; otherwise, the United Kingdom is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, the North Sea, the English Channel, the Celtic Sea and the Irish Sea. The total area of the United Kingdom is , with an estimated 2020 population of more than 67 million people. The United Kingdom has evolved from a series of annexations, unions and separations of constituent countries over several hundred years. The Treaty of Union between the Kingdom of England (which included Wales, annexed in 1542) and the Kingdom of Scotland in 170 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Physical Fitness
Physical fitness is a state of health and well-being and, more specifically, the ability to perform aspects of Outline of sports, sports, occupations and daily activities. Physical fitness is generally achieved through proper nutrition, moderate-vigorous physical exercise, and sufficient rest along with a formal recovery plan. Before the Industrial Revolution, fitness was defined as the capacity to carry out the day's activities without undue fatigue or lethargy. However, with automation and changes in lifestyles, physical fitness is now considered a measure of the body's ability to function efficiently and effectively in work and leisure activities, to be healthy, to resist hypokinetic diseases, improve immune system and to meet emergency situations. Overview Fitness is defined as the quality or state of being fit and healthy. Around 1950, perhaps consistent with the Industrial Revolution and the treatise of World War II, the term "fitness" increased in western vernacular by ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gymnasiums
A gymnasium, also known as a gym, is an indoor location for athletics. The word is derived from the ancient Greek term " gymnasium". They are commonly found in athletic and fitness centres, and as activity and learning spaces in educational institutions. "Gym" is also slang for "fitness centre", which is often an area for indoor recreation. A "gym" may include or describe adjacent open air areas as well. In Western countries, "gyms" (or pl: gymnasia") often describe places with indoor or outdoor courts for basketball, hockey, tennis, boxing or wrestling, and with equipment and machines used for physical development training, or to do exercises. In many European countries, ''Gymnasium'' (and variations of the word) also can describe a secondary school that prepares students for higher education at a university, with or without the presence of athletic courts, fields, or equipment. Overview Gymnasia apparatus like barbells, jumping board, running path, tennis-balls, cricket fie ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Swimming Pool
A swimming pool, swimming bath, wading pool, paddling pool, or simply pool, is a structure designed to hold water to enable Human swimming, swimming or other leisure activities. Pools can be built into the ground (in-ground pools) or built above ground (as a freestanding construction or as part of a building or other larger structure), and may be found as a feature aboard ocean-liners and cruise ships. In-ground pools are most commonly constructed from materials such as concrete, natural stone, metal, plastic, or fiberglass, and can be of a custom size and shape or built to a standardized size, the largest of which is the Olympic-size swimming pool. Many health clubs, fitness centers, and private clubs have pools used mostly for exercise or recreation. It is common for municipalities of every size to provide pools for public use. Many of these municipal pools are outdoor pools but indoor pools can also be found in buildings such as natatoriums and leisure centers. Hotels may ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Racquet Sports
Racket sports are games in which players use a racket or paddle to hit a ball or other object. Rackets consist of a handled frame with an open hoop that supports a network of tightly stretched strings. Paddles have a solid face rather than a network of strings, but may be perforated with a pattern of holes, or be covered with some form of textured surface. Sports that use a netted racket * Badminton * Ball badminton * Frontenis * Battledore and shuttlecock * Crossminton (previously "Speedminton") * Qianball * Racketlon (a series of other racket and paddle sports) * Rackets * Racquetball * Real tennis * Road tennis * Soft tennis * Speed-ball * Squash ** Hardball squash * Squash tennis * Stické * Tennis * Tennis polo * Touchtennis * Lawn Tennis Sports that use a non-netted racket, or paddle * Basque pelota * Beach tennis * The Downside Ball Game * Four wall paddleball * Frescotennis * Jokari * Matkot * Miniten * One wall paddleball * Paddle ball * P ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Société Générale
Société Générale S.A. (), colloquially known in English as SocGen (), is a French-based multinational financial services company founded in 1864, registered in downtown Paris and headquartered nearby in La Défense. Société Générale is France's third largest bank by total assets after BNP Paribas and Crédit Agricole. It is also the sixth largest bank in Europe and the world's eighteenth. It is considered a systemically important bank by the Financial Stability Board. From 1966 to 2003 it was known as one of the ''Trois Vieilles'' ("Old Three") major French commercial banks, along with Banque Nationale de Paris (from 2000 BNP Paribas) and Crédit Lyonnais. History 19th Century The bank was founded by a group of industrialists and financiers during the Second Empire on May 4, 1864. Its full name was ''Société Générale pour favoriser le développement du commerce et de l'industrie en France'' ("General Company to Support the Development of Commerce and Indus ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Virgin Active
Virgin Active is a chain of health clubs in South Africa, Botswana, Namibia, Italy, Australia, Singapore, Thailand and the United Kingdom. History Virgin Active was founded in 1999. Their first club opened in Preston, Lancashire that year. Initially headquartered in Milton Keynes, in 2013 headquarters were moved to the Barbican in London leaving a small call centre in Milton Keynes which closed in 2018. In South Africa the company bought the assets of the 'Health and Racquet Club' chain after the latter's parent company, Leisurenet, had been placed in liquidation in October 2000 for 319.6 million South African Rand (approximately £24.5m as at November 2011). The South African company also runs Virgin Life Care. In 2002, by which point the company had 350,000 members, Branson sold 55 percent of the company to Bridgepoint Capital for £40 million. In 2005, Branson bought out Bridgepoint's stake in the business for £134.5 million. It subsequently expanded its operations in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Health Clubs In The United Kingdom
Health, according to the World Health Organization, is "a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease and infirmity".World Health Organization. (2006)''Constitution of the World Health Organization''– ''Basic Documents'', Forty-fifth edition, Supplement, October 2006. A variety of definitions have been used for different purposes over time. Health can be promoted by encouraging healthful activities, such as regular physical exercise and adequate sleep, and by reducing or avoiding unhealthful activities or situations, such as smoking or excessive stress. Some factors affecting health are due to individual choices, such as whether to engage in a high-risk behavior, while others are due to structural causes, such as whether the society is arranged in a way that makes it easier or harder for people to get necessary healthcare services. Still, other factors are beyond both individual and group choices, such as genetic disorders. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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