Search pilates Brunswick and you will get a wall of booking directories. None of them tell you whether the room is dark and loud or quiet and technical, whether the class is capped at ten people or thirty, or whether you can bring the dog. That is the sort of thing you only know if you live here.
So here is the version we would give a neighbour who asked. It covers the gyms and pilates studios in Brunswick and Brunswick East that we rate, from 24/7 warehouses that have been going since the nineties to reformer studios with a disco ball. It is not a ranking and it is not in any order. Two of them happen to be at our doorstep in the East Brunswick Village Wellness Centre, and we have said so where that is the case.
Find the one that suits how you actually like to train, then go and book a class.
F2 Collective: reformer pilates in Brunswick East
Location: Suite 105/6 Bluestone Way, Brunswick East
F2 Collective was started by Janelle Williamson, who spent a decade in corporate advertising in New York before leaving it for fitness. She designed the studio with her partner Aaron, an architect, and it shows. The room is dark, club-lit and loud, which is either exactly what you want or exactly what you do not.
The timetable runs reformer, mat, hot mat and TRX suspension. The signature is Disco Pilates Club, and it is the reason people who say they do not like pilates end up with a membership. F2 was named in Urban List’s Best Pilates Studios of 2025.
You will find F2 Collective in the East Brunswick Village Wellness Centre, which means you can walk out of a class and into a coffee shop without crossing a road.
Project Better: a full gym at the EBV Wellness Centre
Location: Level 1, 6 Bluestone Way, Brunswick East
Project Better is the gym in the East Brunswick Village Wellness Centre, and it is built around the things people actually turn up for. Saunas, ice baths, a body scanner to track where you are at, no mirrors anywhere, and a free run club. It is also dog friendly, which is rarer than it should be.
Memberships start at $25 a week with no joining fee and no lock-in contract. The premium tier is $120 a week and includes two 30 minute personal training sessions. One membership gets you into every Project Better location, so you can train in Collingwood or West Melbourne on the days you are not home. There is a second Brunswick East site at 421 Lygon St.
Access is 24/7 and the trainers have a reputation for being useful rather than intimidating.
Doherty’s Gym: the Brunswick institution
Location: 45-49 Weston St, Brunswick
Tony Doherty opened this place in 1994 in a 400sqm warehouse with worn out equipment and no members. Three decades on it is the old-school bodybuilding gym in Melbourne, still family owned, and open and staffed 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
If you want a training room rather than a wellness experience, this is it. Weights, cardio and boxing, a coffee shop on site, a fully stocked Pro Shop for supplements and Doherty’s apparel, showers and change rooms, and a filming area set up with mirrors and lighting if you are shooting content. Park at the gym or across the road at Barkly Square.
The Fit Project: coaching built around movement quality
Location: 316 Victoria St, Brunswick
Founding director Roy Hanford runs The Fit Project on semi-private and one-to-one coaching, with a focus on how well you move rather than how much you lift. No mirrors, no TV screens, no egos.
This is where to go if you are coming back from an injury, managing an ongoing one, or you have had enough of programs that treat everyone the same. The classes are small, and the coaches work across all ages and abilities, which matters if you are training alongside a parent or restarting after a long break.
Top Gym Brunswick: 24/7 gym access in Brunswick East
Location: 52 Holmes St, Brunswick East
No frills and no fuss. Top Gym is $7 for a casual visit, with no lock-in contracts and no sign-up fees, which makes it the obvious choice if your training is seasonal or your work hours are unpredictable.
Access is 24/7, and there are group classes and personal training if you want more structure than a swipe card and a squat rack.
Urban Athletic: boxing and small group training in Brunswick
Location: 28 Wilkinson St, Brunswick
Urban Athletic calls itself Brunswick’s favourite little gym, and the little part is the point. Boxing classes, HIIT, customised programs and personal training, run at a scale where the coaches know your name by the second week.
It has a strong reputation for making beginners feel like they belong there, which is worth more than any equipment list if walking into a gym is the part you find hard. Showers, lockers, mats and parking on site.
BFT Brunswick: group strength and conditioning on Sydney Road
Location: 520-522 Sydney Rd, Brunswick
BFT was founded by Cameron Falloon, a strength and conditioning coach who has worked with AFL clubs and international soccer teams, and the programming reflects that. Sessions run 50 minutes and sit inside eight week progressive training blocks, so what you do in week one is designed to make week eight possible.
Workouts are programmed around heart rate zones using BFT’s own tracking technology paired with Myzone, so you are training to a number rather than a feeling. There are 13 program types on rotation across around 200sqm of floor space, no lock-in contracts, and eight week challenges if you need a deadline to stay honest.
Pilates Republic Brunswick: reformer, hot pilates and hot yoga
Location: 11 Weston St, Brunswick
Three disciplines under one roof. Reformer, hot pilates and hot yoga, so you can switch it up without switching studios.
The intro offers are the cheapest way into pilates in Brunswick that we have found. Three weeks of unlimited hot mat starts at $30, or five reformer sessions for $50. Pilates Republic has six studios across Melbourne including Ivanhoe, Kingsbury, Preston and Collingwood, and it is an AUSactive accredited course provider if you ever decide you would rather teach than attend.
Cheeks Pilates: reformer pilates and recovery on Lygon Street
Location: 74A Lygon St, Brunswick East
Cheeks pairs reformer pilates with an infrared sauna, so the recovery happens in the same building as the work. The signature CHEEKS Reformer class runs 45 minutes and covers the full body with cardio elements built in.
What makes it good for a first timer is the way the classes are layered, so someone on their first reformer and someone who has been coming for two years can work in the same room without either being bored or lost. A casual class is around $39.
Good Times Pilates: reformer on Sydney Road
Location: 172 Sydney Rd, Brunswick
Come as you are, and they mean it. Good Times runs 45 minute reformer classes capped at 10 people, which is small enough that an instructor will actually correct your form rather than shout at the room.
It is the most practical studio on this list to get to. Tram 19 runs right past the door, there is on-street parking plus Barkly Square, and bike parking within 100 metres. They also run Mini Moves classes where you bring the baby, which makes them one of the few genuinely post-natal friendly options in Brunswick, and there is an online studio if you would rather do it in your living room.
Living close to the best gyms in Brunswick East
The reason we know these places is that they are our neighbours. East Brunswick Village was designed so the things you use every week sit within a short walk of your front door, and the Wellness Centre is a good example of what that looks like in practice. F2 Collective and Project Better are both in it, which means a reformer class and a full gym with saunas and ice baths are closer to your kitchen than most people’s car park is.
That changes how often you actually go. The hardest part of training is rarely the training. It is the twenty minutes of travel either side, in the rain, in July.
East Brunswick Village (EBV) is one of the inner north’s largest urban renewal projects, located just 6 kilometres from Melbourne CBD with everything you need a short walk away.
Elm Grove is the latest chapter at EBV, and it is now complete with apartments ready to move into.
Register your interest to learn more about life at Elm Grove.
