Sunderland AFC legend Julio Arca officially opens the city's newest gym in Ryhope

Sunderland football legend Julio Arca has officially opened the city’s newest gym, Gym Group Sunderland, in Ryhope.

The former Black Cats star visited the Gym Group Sunderland, at Toll Bar Retail Park, in Ryhope, to have a look around the new facility and welcome members as it officially opened its doors for the first time today, December 13.

The Gym Group has locations across the UK, but its new club in Ryhope is the first in Sunderland and offers a range of exercise and weight equipment as well as a number of free classes delivered by qualified instructors.

The new facility is open 24 hours, seven days a week and Julio Arca believes it will be a great addition to the city.

He said: “It’s great to have these facilities around Sunderland where people can join and get fit. It’s a big place and there’s a bit of everything here. It looks fantastic and it’s great to have this in Sunderland. There’s a lot you can do here from classes to one to one sessions as well so it’s a great place to be.

“It’s great to have places like this, especially for your health and at this time of the year people try to stay at home because it’s cold but things like this incentivise people to come and get fit.”

Manager at The Gym Group Sunderland, Andrew Kelly, said: “This is the first Gym Group that we’ve got in Sunderland. We’ve got everything in place, all the equipment, all the personal trainers and classes on later. It’s a really good investment from The Gym Group to bring this to Ryhope and we have a full team of personal trainers and a full class timetable ready to go.”

“It’s great to have Julio Arca here today, he’s a Sunderland legend. I’ve been a Sunderland fan all my life and Julio’s just a legend around there area so it was great to get him on board.

The gym is also hoping to offer a community feel for residents and will be partnering with local charity The Red Sky Foundation, who help provide defibrillators across the city, for some charity fundraising events in the coming months.