My quick rant about my YMCA

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  • manhn1
    manhn1 Posts: 137 Member
    I am currently on bad terms with the YMCA when I last visited a Y (in San Jose) and their YMCA does not provide guest day passes. WTH?!!?

    But I have had "overweight" trainers and some are bad and some are fantastic (there is one cycling instructor whose classes are always full). I have also had "fit" trainers and some are fantastic and some suck badly. And not just the instructors. There are people in my kickbox class who are older than me and weigh a lot more than me, and they would kick my butt.

    I am surprised people base their class instructors on things like appearance. And, please, no more "don't want your accountant to be arrested for tax fraud!" I did not realize being fat was illegal and unethical. The proper comparison is the accountant with credit card debt...except, they may still end up being a very good accountant and give me a ton in tax savings.
  • pglaf
    pglaf Posts: 257 Member
    Well I guess I'm shallow too then because I don't want an overweight instructor teaching my workout classes just like I don't want to take health advice from an overweight nurse or doctor. Sorry but it's pretty hard to feel confident in their abilities when they don't appear fit themselves.
    I'm not saying either that they need to be super thin or totally muscular, not at all.

    I've had fitness instructors who just gave direction without actually doing the workouts themselves and it's far less motivating than someone that is working out with you and getting you to push your limits.
  • jlfred
    jlfred Posts: 65 Member
    . But we all prejudge people in one fashion or another so it's not like it's some wild and crazy idea to want your fitness trainer to be fit, just like I don't want my accountant to be under investigation for tax fraud, or my Dr. to be a hacky coughed chain smoker.

    Yes, we, as a human species, do tend to prejudge. But what prejudgments are made is based entirely on your/our own biases, not some "inante" dislike/preference for a particular type of person. A racist person prejudges someone based on the color of their skin -- but not every person in the world is going to prejudge the abilities of a person of color. So, if you are prejudging someone's level of fitness and ability on their appearance, that's entirely based on your own beliefs -- and just like racism, those beliefs are usually based more on stereotypes and myths than on facts.
  • jlfred
    jlfred Posts: 65 Member
    I've had fitness instructors who just gave direction without actually doing the workouts themselves and it's far less motivating than someone that is working out with you and getting you to push your limits.

    Yeah, me, too. And they suck. But, IME, this has more often been the skinny "fit"-looking instructors. The instructors I have had that are overweight or less "fit" LOOKING have far more often participated in the class, demonstrating the proper form and movement, and kicked everyone else's *kitten* in class.
  • fishgutzy
    fishgutzy Posts: 2,807 Member
    My Y is $56 for family. But that is with an employer discount.
    As for my trainer? The dude is a beast. His day job is weight training coach at a NCAA D1 school. His neck is almost as thick as my quads.
    I have skinny arms and legs for a fat dude of 266 pounds. I told my trainer that my goal is to get my torso proportional to my chicken legs. :)
    Down 45# since last year.
  • richjen
    richjen Posts: 1 Member
    My local YMCA charges $39 per month if you are 29 or under. If you are 30 or older it is $51 per month. This makes no sense to me and is frustrating.
  • Psychgrrl
    Psychgrrl Posts: 3,177 Member
    I pay $55 per month for my 24 Hour Fitness plus about $500 a year for passes to a yoga studio. The classes at the studio are longer, I can always find one I can get to any day I want to practice, I am never chased out by Zumba ladies wanting to get set up for their class and the instructors are better.
  • Packerjohn
    Packerjohn Posts: 4,855 Member
    Did the OP even look around at the Y and see the price list before signing up?

    Doesn't sound like it
  • peleroja
    peleroja Posts: 3,979 Member
    I realize this is kind of a zombie thread, but I just wanted to say that I go to a Y and I chose it because it's a community-centered nonprofit instead of a corporate-owned gym with opaque pricing (you know what I mean...I hate that two people going to the same gym can be paying totally different amounts based on whatever promotion or deal they struck with whoever signed them up...and how sometimes there are signup fees, sometimes not, etc etc etc.) At least at the Y they print their prices openly, don't lock you into a contract, and some of the money I pay monthly is going to causes I support, like the Strong Kids campaign and subsidized memberships for people in my community who are in need.

    My nearest one is a good gym anyway - clean, large facility, everything I need, lots of free drop-in classes, an indoor track, pool, studio and gymnasium, ample equipment, nice staff - and I like the membership, which tends to skew heavily toward the senior end of the population and kids from the nearby "alternative" high school getting PE credit, and both those groups just let me do my thing, unlike when I went to a traditional chain gym, which seemed like a place people always wanted to, um, socialize.

    My husband pays less monthly at his chain gym, but I'm more comfortable supporting my local YMCA, with its charitable programming and transparent fees.
  • enterdanger
    enterdanger Posts: 2,447 Member
    I get mad at our YMCA all the time too. Most of my beef centers around the fact that I can never seem to use the lap pool. On week nights it isn't available except from 8:30-10pm since one of the local middle schools has swim team practice there. Normally, that wouldn't irk me too much except the same middle school has a pool at the school. They just don't like to open the building after 5pm. On weekends, you can't get a lane until 12pm because some group of old dudes reserves the pool like every weekend for themselves. They also don't do a great job updating the online schedules on their website, so some times I show up thinking I can finally swim only to find out I can't.

    We have a family plan with a big corporate discount and pay about $40 a month for a family of 4. Without the corporate discount its about $110 a month for a family of 4. The Y is about 5 miles from our house and has a weird mix of people who go to it. The area it's in is a very wealthy area (that's why it's 5 miles away cause we ain't rich. lol) But there are also people who go to it that live 5 miles in the opposite direction from us in an area that is very poor. They do offer discounted rates for lower incomes.

    We got it mostly so we could get the kids swim lessons and have child care if hubby and I both want to work out. I've yet to be able to get the kids into lessons, but that's mostly my own fault. We've had too much going on during weekends to commit to the schedule. I almost never use my membership since I have a gym in my office building and go there for free. Hubby uses the elliptical like twice a week.

    This is dumb, but I liked planet fatness better then the Y.
  • JoRocka
    JoRocka Posts: 17,525 Member
    50$/month is higher than an average box gym membership- but it's totally within reason. If you were paying 80-150$ a month I might be more inclined to agree with you- but in NJ where I live 30-50 is average for a generic gym. sooooo you're complaining about nothing.

    And are you paying for the trainers? why do you care if you aren't paying them?
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