Dirt-cheap gym membership... and not going
spartan_d
Posts: 727 Member
An acquaintance of mine just told me that she specifically chose a dirt-cheap gym membership. "That way," she said, "I won't feel guilty about not going for months."
<<smh>> That's entirely the wrong way to think. It's one thing to fall into the habit of not going. When you start out with by resigning yourself to failure though, you're pretty much guaranteed to fail.
<<smh>> That's entirely the wrong way to think. It's one thing to fall into the habit of not going. When you start out with by resigning yourself to failure though, you're pretty much guaranteed to fail.
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Omfg seriously?0
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Hahah. She may as well pay for someone else's membership - save herself the guilt of it being wasted and feel good that she's done something altruisitc for someone else.0 -
I am going to look around a nice and cheap gym, no pool, but sensor boxing equipment and surfboard workouts. I want to find a dirt-cheap gym (they are few and far between along the South Coast of the UK) because I want to be able to afford membership - my really local gym is nearly £80 a month and I so cannot afford that for anything.
Shame your friend is doing this - but perhaps she is happy as she is - I can't wait to get back into the swing of proper workouts and know that when I get that membership the card will burn in my pocket if I don't go when I say I will
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I am going to look around a nice and cheap gym, no pool, but sensor boxing equipment and surfboard workouts. I want to find a dirt-cheap gym (they are few and far between along the South Coast of the UK) because I want to be able to afford membership - my really local gym is nearly £80 a month and I so cannot afford that for anything.
Shame your friend is doing this - but perhaps she is happy as she is - I can't wait to get back into the swing of proper workouts and know that when I get that membership the card will burn in my pocket if I don't go when I say I will
Try
http://www.thegymgroup.com/find-a-gym/
http://www.puregym.com/gyms
Btw im more with the acquaintance. If shes lost money in the past by being tied to long expensive contracts, then what she says makes sense. We arent all perfect and some of us can maintain a consistency in going to the gym, whilst others find it more difficult. Her choice.0 -
An acquaintance of mine just told me that she specifically chose a dirt-cheap gym membership. "That way," she said, "I won't feel guilty about not going for months."
<<smh>> That's entirely the wrong way to think. It's one thing to fall into the habit of not going. When you start out with by resigning yourself to failure though, you're pretty much guaranteed to fail.
What she does with her time and money is up to her, however, I'm sure many people would love to have a gym membership but can't afford even a dirt cheap one! I have a cheap swimming membership and go swimming for about 8 hours per week. If I didn't have a cheap membership, I couldn't go at all, so I feel grateful and make the most of it. I love swimming though. Maybe your friend needs to find an activity which she finds more inspiring (gyms are not for me either!).
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I did that in the past because I knew I would only go for three months before losing interest. Then I started signing up for various series of independent class offerings instead. You do what you is best for you at the time. When my approach changed, I chose a gym based on distance to be sure I would go; when distance wasn't a deal breaker, I joined a gym based on facilities.
Now I see my old club is running a special for $20 a month, while I'm paying $80/month at the Y and going less because I'm teaching fitness more and don't have the time. Who knows what will happen when my current membership is up for renewal.
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I am very satisfied with The Gym Group and a regular member. Cheap and Cheerful , nice staff0
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HI Tigger,
Thanks for those - unfortunately, the nearest gym on the first is 25 miles away and the second has no records for my area at all - I live in a small coastal town and don't drive so I am very restricted. Hence being happy that I have found this new gym, it has quiet times - which for me is very good as I suffer quite badly from social anxiety disorder and experience quite serious panic attacks when in a crowd (I am slowly getting better), so it will be pleasant to be able to have some relatively quiet uncrowded workout time - I am determined that getting fitter will help me further on the route to recovery.0 -
That's actually how those gyms want it. People who buy memberships and don't fully use them or go at all. If the cost of your membership determines your desire to work out, then you aren't working out for the right reasons and you're probably going to fail.0
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bingo.That's actually how those gyms want it. People who buy memberships and don't fully use them or go at all. If the cost of your membership determines your desire to work out, then you aren't working out for the right reasons and you're probably going to fail.
It's the only reason Planet Fitness is still in business.0 -
I'm all for value for money but I also know i need a gym that's easy for me to get to, and I feel confident going to. There is a gym about 3 miles away that's pay as you go, and for a while that worked as I was jogging and working out at home, so just wanted the gym stuff occasionally, but now I want to be able to do classes and more circuit stuff so I go often, so I am a member. I am fortunate that there is a gym near me that is quite cheap but reasonable condition and good classes. There is a slightly cheaper option but I found it rather intimidating and don't think it's for me - I am not a very confident person.0
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To be more precise, here is part of what my acquaintance said about why they chose a dirt-cheap gym:"'Fitness' is a lifestyle choice (obviously not OUR lifestyle). People who are really fit move around deliberately every day, like for a living or as a hobby. Eric and I do absolutely nothing in our daily lives that you might consider exercise. We don't dance, we don't bowl, we don't play tennis, we don't golf, we don't play baseball and we don't walk anywhere.... So, it works for us. And if it is something that falls by the wayside, financially it doesn't hurt us.
That right there is the problem. If you join a gym thinking that you are NOT interested in pursing fitness, tnen why bother? You're basically throwing money away. And if you go into it with the notion that you're ready to throw that money away, you're already setting yourself up for defeat.0 -
I love my cheap gym membership (I'm with The Gym chain in the UK). £11 a month, a short walk from my house, 24 hours, and has all the equipment I want - where can I go wrong?
I was grateful that it was so cheap the end of the last year when I stopped going for a few months, though.
£30-40 lost is much better than £150-200. Would I have been more likely to have kept going during that period if I was paying Bannatynes prices? You bet.
That said, there's not really any point in joining if you have no intention of using it. I go because being active is important to me - something I enjoy - and the gym is the most convenient way of fulfilling that for my lifestyle. If you're doing it out of obligation and know you're likely to give up, surely buying some exercise DVDs or equipment for home would be more cost effective. Easier to do on a whim, too.
Each to their own though, and it helps to support all those cheap gyms out there.
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bingo.That's actually how those gyms want it. People who buy memberships and don't fully use them or go at all. If the cost of your membership determines your desire to work out, then you aren't working out for the right reasons and you're probably going to fail.
It's the only reason Planet Fitness is still in business.
Yep. That's their business model - market to people who don't normally go to gyms...because they don't normally go to gyms...collect $10 a month.0 -
I pay $20 a month for the ymca two blocks from work, I go at lunch maybe 2-4 times a month, I can't bring myself to cancel it cuz it's a pretty good deal and the days I run at lunch I am thankful for the shower. I have my evening gym near my house that I go more regularly.0
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bingo.That's actually how those gyms want it. People who buy memberships and don't fully use them or go at all. If the cost of your membership determines your desire to work out, then you aren't working out for the right reasons and you're probably going to fail.
It's the only reason Planet Fitness is still in business.
Yep. That's their business model - market to people who don't normally go to gyms...because they don't normally go to gyms...collect $10 a month.
AND they enact policies that are designed to discourage people who are seriously interested in becoming fit. No grunting, no heavy lifting, no deadlifts, no jumping rope, no "intimidating" exercises, no gallon jugs of water, etc.
It's pretty bad.0 -
I pay more than I'd like to but when I joined I was only doing aqua classes and swimming so it was important to find one with pool that was near enough to walk to. If I miss a week ill or on holiday I do find it spurs me on to get every penny out of my membership the following week, which isn't difficult as they have a wide range of classes I can now do. To join with the intention of not going though is like volunteering to pay a Fat Tax!0
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This isn't terrible. I've gone a few months before. I think the point is she wants to go and if it is cheap enough she won't cancel even if she isn't going.0
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An administrator at the Y that I belong to said that if everyone who signed up and paid their monthly dues actually came even only once or twice a week, it would be total chaos.0
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I've talked to 24-hr Fitness folks and they say only about 10% of people with a membership show up in a given month.
Whether you think it's "slammed" or not is irrelevant. What you can't see are all the people not going.0 -
And this is one of the ways how people set themselves up for financial failure.0
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I've been going to Planet Fitness, no doubt there are a lot of people who pay and don't go. My budget wouldn't afford more and I wasn't sure I would stick with it to begin with. I've been going for 20 weeks now (3-4 times a week is normal for me, but I have had a week where I went 5 days). It's not close to home, but it is close to work. But I see no point in paying more to do the same things I'm doing there. I could wish for classes or a pool but I can't see paying an exorbitant amount in order to get these things.0
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This is pretty much every gym's business model, not just Planet Fitness. The number of memberships they can extend/collect dues is wildly high compared to the number of members who show up on any given day. It's a great deal for those of us who do go several times a week.0
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The way I figure it is, people who don't use their gym memberships are basically subsidizing cheaper memberships for those of us who do. So I guess I should thank them.0
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Pretty sure they consider OHP intimidating too
bingo.That's actually how those gyms want it. People who buy memberships and don't fully use them or go at all. If the cost of your membership determines your desire to work out, then you aren't working out for the right reasons and you're probably going to fail.
It's the only reason Planet Fitness is still in business.
Yep. That's their business model - market to people who don't normally go to gyms...because they don't normally go to gyms...collect $10 a month.
AND they enact policies that are designed to discourage people who are seriously interested in becoming fit. No grunting, no heavy lifting, no deadlifts, no jumping rope, no "intimidating" exercises, no gallon jugs of water, etc.
It's pretty bad.0 -
Your acquaintance was making a joke. She was likely looking for a laugh and some camaraderie, not head-shaking.0
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No, she was not. Do you think you're psychic or something?Your acquaintance was making a joke. She was likely looking for a laugh and some camaraderie, not head-shaking.
Her comment was part of a LONG rant, part of which I quoted earlier. She was talking lengthily about how she never exercises, how she has no interest in becoming fit, and how having a dirt-cheap gym membership fits her well because she hardly ever intends to use it. This most certainly was NOT "making a joke."
Now, I fully understand that this approach works for some people -- people who have no interest in basic physical fitness. It's a foolish approach, though. You don't have to be an extreme athlete to maintain a basic level of fitness. If one has no interest in exercise though, and if one gets a cheap-o gym membership thinking that they'll just use the treadmills now and then, possibly not going at all for long periods of time... that's setting one's self up for failure.0 -
I wouldn't go that far. Some no-frills, small box gyms ("prison-style" gyms, as a friend of mine puts it), choose to develop a loyal customer base. They might upsell people on group boot camp classes and the like. It is true, however, that most gyms survive because many of their members hardly ever show up.This is pretty much every gym's business model, not just Planet Fitness. The number of memberships they can extend/collect dues is wildly high compared to the number of members who show up on any given day. It's a great deal for those of us who do go several times a week.
Planet Fitness is another story, though. They don't just rely on people not showing up. Rather, they specifically try to attract people who will almost never use the equipment -- hence the free pizza, donuts, bagels, and so forth. They also enforce rules that will make more serious gymgoers less likely to sign up -- hence the lunk alarm, the ridiculous dress code, and the "no intimidating exercises" rule. It's pretty bad.
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