Overview
Between lifting weights, attending yoga classes and pilates sessions, millions of Melburnians are keeping fit in the gym day in and day out. And while your local chain has got you covered for the basics, those looking to step up their training or benefit from a more personalised program usually turn to our city's boutique gyms and wellness clubs.
Instead of pushing and pulling heavy things in just any old place, we've picked out the best spots around Melbourne that not only elevate the equipment on offer, but also provide top-notch training advice, nutritional plans and recovery tools to boost your progress. Here are the gyms and wellness spaces ready to upgrade your sweat session in 2026.
The Commons Health Club, South Yarra and Richmond
In years gone by, The Commons was best known for its thoughtfully designed coworking spaces. Now, the brand has integrated wellness into the workplace, having launched its debut The Commons Health Club in Richmond in 2025, before following up with a second location rising eight levels above Toorak Road in South Yarra this March.
With both locations teeming with natural light and greenery, the amenities are first-class, spanning expansive gyms and studios for reformer pilates, yoga sessions and spin classes. Meanwhile, recovery is a major focus, with a fully kitted-out bathhouse alongside speciality classes such as candlelit yin and sound healing. All in all, not your average workplace.
Inner Studio, Collingwood
Set within a rather unassuming brick facade down a Collingwood side-street, Inner Studio is one of Melbourne's most refined boutique bathhouse and wellness spaces. Presenting guests with a peaceful combination of sauna and cold plunge, expect this lush green inner-city oasis to deliver immense relaxation and recovery.
In addition, an acoustically engineered studio hosts breathwork, yoga and pilates classes, where a standout sound system enhances your movement and focus. Once your spa session or class is complete, a dedicated chill-out area is made for even more rejuvenation, featuring a cosy fireplace and a well-stocked tea station.
Wellness Social Club, Preston
Wellness Social Club combines state-of-the-art technology and more traditional modalities with a communal — dare we say, a social — approach to wellness. Whether you're stopping in for a spot of yoga and contrast water therapy with mates, or channelling your inner biohacker in the in-house hyperbaric oxygen chamber, the club is here to help you recharge and reconnect.
Alongside traditional and infrared saunas and magnesium-infused hot and cold plunge pools, you'll also find full-body red-light therapy, vagus nerve stimulation, lymphatic compression therapy and loads more, all immersed in clean lines, soft archways and ambient lighting. "Think of it as a health club meets a high-end lounge," says Co-Founder Tamara O'Dowd.
KICStudio, Cremorne
Over the course of a decade, Steph Claire Smith and Laura Henshaw's wellness brand KIC has gradually evolved from a digital fitness platform into something broader. What began as a workout app has expanded into a larger wellness universe shaped by movement, mindset, nourishment and daily rituals. In April, the brand revealed its first brick-and-mortar offering.
Centred on somatic movement, KICStudio follows an approach that places less emphasis on performance and more on internal awareness and connection. In practice, that means four focus class types — unlock pilates, strength, yoga, HIIT and breathwork — plus a dedicated community space and tea bar designed for post-session decompressing and lingering.
Upstate, Various Locations
You've probably noticed it by now — its neon colours are hard to miss — but Upstate's studios have sprung up all over town. With locations in Richmond, South Yarra, Fitzroy, Oakleigh and beyond, this now-familiar brand bursting with yellow and steel has built its success on showing up both in and outside the studio — think retreats, events and collaborations.
Widely loved for its positive approach to working out — spanning hot pilates, reformer, yoga and boxing classes — Upstate strives to be empowering, inclusive and high-vibe. "It's still about helping people feel good and giving them the confidence to take up space — in the studio, at work, in life," co-founder Gail Asbell told Concrete Playground earlier this year.
KĀYA Health Clubs Chadstone
KĀYA Health Clubs' most ambitious project to date, its recently opened southeast sanctuary in Chadstone follows the same format as locations in Prahran and at Emporium in the CBD. Designed as all-in-one wellness destinations, husband-and-wife duo Christian and Koula Ruggeri have put all their 35 years of industry experience into this new landmark location.
Here, you'll discover two dedicated reformer pilates studios, a yoga studio, a HIIT studio for circuit classes, distinct cardio and weight zones and a recovery lounge complete with an infrared sauna, red light therapy and compression therapy. Plus, with 120 expert-led classes running every week, you won't be short on opportunities to make the most of your membership.
EQ Wellbeing, South Melbourne
Where better to find your balance than at EQ Wellbeing? Situated in the Domain Precinct in South Melbourne, this cutting-edge facility is designed to fade out the noise of the outside world. Instead, a top-to-bottom reset takes the form of a guided light-and-sound therapy session, aka the three-hour Signature Journey, which gradually deepens the serenity-inducing unwind.
Phone-free and in near-silence, step through the immersive theatre room, light-and-sound therapy dome, breathwork and meditation lounge and bathhouse. Yet for those after something a little less involved, there are also 60- and 90-minute bathhouse-only sessions, featuring a hot mineral spa, a traditional Finnish sauna, an aromatherapy steam room and cold plunges.
Saint Haven, Various Locations
Saint Haven opened its exclusive Collingwood wellness club in May 2023 and sold all of its memberships before it even had the chance to open its doors. Now, this ultra-exclusive lineup of luxury wellness and social clubs has added like-minded locations in St Kilda and South Yarra, offering members an incredible array of next-level amenities.
Think thermal pools, hammams, saunas, coworking spaces, restaurants, fitness studios, wellbeing treatments, barbers and hairdressers — essentially a spa, gym, coworking space and social hang-out all wrapped up in one. If you're keen to socialise with the well-heeled after your workout, a membership here offers near-endless possibilities.
Project Better, Various Locations
While some gyms are loading up on futuristic tech, others are nailing the basics. In Project Better's case, it falls into this latter category, now offering eight locations spread throughout Melbourne's inner 'burbs. With a membership providing access to all its venues, expect superior 24/7 gyms primed for cardio and muscle-building goodness from Kensington to Collingwood.
Alongside saunas and ice baths at each location to aid your recovery, certified personal trainers are on hand to perfect your form. What's more, Project Better is for the big dogs. That doesn't mean just you and your fitness junkie mates. These gyms welcome doggos of all shapes and sizes, so you can bring your four-legged pal to watch on as you pump iron.
STILLE, CBD (Coming Soon)
Launching late in 2026, STILLE will aim to define longevity and wellness clubs in Australia, offering a premium, performance-focused space guided by evidence-based programs, advanced recovery therapies and personalised lifestyle interventions. Spanning 1000 square metres from its Spring Street address, it will offer an experience normally reserved for elite athletes.
Not a casual wellness encounter, incoming STILLE members will take part in a comprehensive face-to-face assessment with a longevity doctor, resulting in a personalised program based on clinical insights and tailored recommendations. Step into a comprehensive spa, optimise with medical-grade fitness tech, then make the most of social and wellness spaces.
1R South Yarra
Take gym-life seriously? In 2021, UK-born fitness chain 1R touched down in Melbourne, becoming its first Australian outpost. At the time of its opening, it spanned an impressive 800 square metres and was the largest 1R gym in the world. Still pumping in South Yarra, expect industrial-style decor and a trio of high-intensity classes.
Centred on reps, reformer and reshape, each class will achieve the burn you crave, while darkened rooms and weekly curated DJ playlists take things up a notch too. When your workout is complete, top-notch hair dryers, showers, fresh towels and skincare, plus a selection of post-session shakes packed with protein round things out.
Air Locker, Various Locations
Sure, you could add more weight or increase reps to level up your workout. However, you could always head to Air Locker to put your body to the test in low-oxygen conditions. Designed to simulate altitude training — a practice used by many of the world's best athletes — you'll burn more calories without having to get yourself above 3000 metres.
Now with locations in Brunswick, St Kilda and Cranbourne, with Northcote currently in the works, each studio offers similar sessions to what you'd find at your regular gym — just with around 30 percent less oxygen in the air. With the shift setting a new foundation for your workouts, get ready to increase your power, strength and endurance.
4D Gym South Melbourne
Training comes first at 4D Gym South Melbourne. Conceived as a private facility with a strictly capped membership, consider the days of waiting in a queue for the squat rack over. Instead, two jam-packed levels feature the full spectrum of elite equipment, with career personal trainers always ready to guide and adjust your technique.
Yet don't think 4D Gym is just for high-performance athletes. It offers 4:1 small group personal training suitable for all skill levels, alongside one-on-one platinum coaching. With personalised nutrition plans, body composition scans, and infrared saunas for recovery, finding your motivation to hit the gym won't be such a struggle.
Total Fusion, CBD
Set along Flinders Street, Total Fusion sets a high benchmark for health and wellness amenities. Of course, it has a fully equipped gym, stocked with Technogym and Gym80 stations. However, it goes much further, adding a 25-metre lap pool, a recovery zone with hot and cold plunge pools, multiple saunas, steam rooms and yes, even compression therapy.
But beyond working out and kicking back after your session, Total Fusion delivers high-end lifestyle benefits too. Primed for busy people working in the CBD, coworking spaces and meeting rooms enhance your productivity. And with exclusive cinema access, a podcast studio, and private lounges, this place makes 'living at the gym' feel like a reality.
Sweatshop, Armadale
The name Sweatshop is no misnomer, with this sleekly designed spot just beyond High Street's main shopping and dining hub, home to dedicated fitness fanatics. That usually means those who spend as many waking moments as possible in the expansive open gym or sweating it up as part of action-packed group sessions.
However, Sweatshop's offering goes much deeper, with HYROX-inspired sessions to maximise your race-day results and community-led sessions that combine fun-loving teamwork with hard work. When it's time to recover, slide into a traditional sauna or slip on compression boots to get back on your feet before your next session.
OneGym Port Melbourne
Getting jacked is only part of the equation at OneGym Port Melbourne. As you'd expect, the gym is brimming with top-notch bodybuilding equipment from high-end suppliers like Prime and Cybex. But this private facility also features its fully stocked PowerBar Café, serving ready-to-go meals, supplements and nutritional advice to level up member gains.
At the same time, OneGym is home to a members-only recovery centre, equipped with an infrared sauna and magnesium salt hot and cold immersion tubs. Yet what makes this gym really stand out is its on-site treatment centre, RGNR8 RCVRY, where athletes can access expert physio, rehab injuries and take part in performance testing as part of their everyday sessions.
EdgeTraining Prahran
When it comes to lifting weights, you might not think a gym's aesthetic would have that much of an impact on your psych. Yet at EdgeTraining in Prahran, this 24-hour strength gym has complemented its extensive array of Iron Edge machines with premium finishes that make the place feel more design studio or upmarket cafe than steely-eyed fitness space.
However, it's all part of shaping a distraction-free environment. With capped memberships, no contracts and no ice baths, saunas or HIIT — what EdgeTraining might describe as fluff — this gym isn't trying to be for everyone. Instead, the focus remains firmly on giving serious lifters everything they need to reach their training goals, fuss-free.
Like what you see? Subscribe to the Concrete Playground newsletter to get stories just like these straight to your inbox.
Top image: The Commons South Yarra.