Can't afford a fancy gym membership? Check out your local YMCA.
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I never knew there was so much difference between Ys in different cities until reading this. I'm truly lucky to have mine.0
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The Y here is about $70/month for an adult membership. We have Fit 4 Less that is $10-$20/month. I have a membership at my local rec centre. I get a discount through my work, so it's about $48/month. But my work reimburses me for fitness related stuff up to $1000/year, so I just submit my receipts. I could go to the cheaper gym, but the rec centre is literally on my way home, so it is super convenient. I'd rather pay a little more and actually go then pay less and not use it at all.0
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For the low income people YMCA has a scholarship thing that will reduce or even totally pay for your membership. This is for single or families. You just have to ask for the application at the front desk and send it in with a few proofs of incomes. I live in NY state not sure if that is everywhere though. Might be worth looking into if you cant afford a gym membership.0
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Yea it's all local economy based. YMCA in puget sound area are $200 joining fee and $98 per month family. The Y near my home is literally a day care center. The schools even drop off kids there to wait for there parents to get off work. I have written upper management as it creates a terrible atmosphere for exercising when there are 20-30 tweens hanging out that don't even want to be there.0
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qwikstreet wrote: »I apologize. I did a quick search and it all depends on the size of your town/city. The smaller the cheaper.
i liked your point though. i live in a fairly megalopolis-type city, and there really seems to be a perception here that if you're 'serious' about your body and your precious self, you'll choose one of the private-corporation brand gyms. but i really like the 'downmarket' option of my city's municipal rec centres.
an annual pass averages out to a little under 35 bucks a month, but even more than the cost i think what draws me is the sheer reality of the people who use their spaces. there's powerlifters and bros and teenagers just starting out, and real competitors here and there. and little old chinese grandmas in slippers and middle-aged middle-class white folks like me, and everyone else in between. it's about where you're comfortable, i suppose.
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I love my YMCA, they have free child care. Other gym charge for child care.0
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qwikstreet wrote: »Over my lifetime I belonged to a lot of gyms. When I was single I had disposable income to go to places like Gold's and use their new equipment and be around a very young and good looking crowd. In hindsight, I was usually waiting for the machines I wanted to use and a lot of the clientele was actually intimidating.
Now as a family man I live on a budget. We joined our local YMCA. My entire family's monthly membership is cheaper than my individual premium gym membership. It's cheaper than what my wife was paying to go to Zumba twice a week somewhere else. Now she can take Zumba and Barra and others for free while the boys and I can hit the gym. Luckily, our YMCA has a very decent cardio, nautilus, and a free weight room. The place is very vacant. No waiting for machines and it is a lot of normal looking people from your very fit to your people trying to get back in shape. (Oh and a lot of senior citizens.)
Too bad ours doesn't have a pool, but oh well.
Check out your local Y!
in my area there are no local YMCA/YWCA or even a gym.we dont even have a rec center or anything like that so its either drive more than 30 miles one way,or figure out how to work out at home/outside.0 -
Closest Y to me will charge normal gym prices, classes are extra.
Gone are the days of the village people's proclamation being true.
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I couldn't get a Y membership for less than 35$ a month. I found a locally owned gym with a student month to month no contract for 25$ and its awesome0
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No YMCA where I live, only a tiny anytime fitness.0
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The Y by me is about $80 and is filled with old and dirty equipment. The only thing it has going for it is the pool.0
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cindy_h_va wrote: »Try swimming. Join a Masters team. The US Masters is a swim team for adults, for any level, age group and fitness goals. Find your local team at www.usms.org. even if you don't know how to swim the coach will teach you. Team dues are usually cheaper than the admission fee to the pool itself, if you go regularly. Plus, you get professional coaching. Masters coaches are certified. Most of them have been or are still competitive swimmers. Much better than getting instructions by some staff from the rec center. Each practice you burn 400-500 calories easily. Swimming with a team also helps with motivation. Much more fun than working out alone. I definitely push myself much more since I joined my team.
In order to practice with the US masters team here you have to have a YMCA membership. It's expensive to pay for both!
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Our family Y membership is 59$ a month and they have 2 hours of daycare included a day which is EXACTLY what I needed. No other gyms came close to that where I am at. It is also pretty empty most days(weightroom) and all the different free classes! Love our Y. I wouldn't be where I am today without that place.0
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I love my Y. It's the second most expensive option in my mid-sized metro area, less than only the giant yuppified full-service place.
The Y has lots of classes (some free, some 1/2 price to members). There are half a dozen or so sites around town, including 3 with pools. Facilities are clean & generally well maintained (rowing machines could use more frequent chain oil). Statewide, reciprocal arrangements let me use other Ys on a temporary basis, as do some nationally.
I can afford the Y. Many can't, but there are scholarships - free, to some. It's also a "Silver Sneakers" participant. These things enable my favorite feature of my Y: Everyone is there . . . fit people, fat people, people with various physical limitations or intellectual challenges, old people, kids and even toddlers/babies, muscle-obsessed grunting bros, hijabi women, triathletes, old guys who only like to hang out & talk big in the jacuzzi, people of many nationalities (I regularly hear Spanish, Korean, and other languages in the locker room), every race. Everyone is friendly & treated well.
I like that my single-person fees (around $60 per month including rental of a permanent locker) let people who couldn't afford a gym get workouts in. And I love being around that diversity - so vibrant. I've been to other gyms locally - not the same, not even close.1 -
I exclusively go to the Y here because it's nicer and has more classes and equipment than any gyms. But its over $75 per month per adult. And kids over 12 are adult-priced, too.
But our Y has a pool, 2 dry saunas, 3 locker rooms, water slide, 2nd level Cardio Floor, 1st Floor Weight Room (lots of windows) and offers Les Mills Body Combat, Body Pump (and more), Insanity Live, Zumba, Aqua Zumba, PiYo, LeBarre, and countless other classes that would cost me hundreds to take at studios per month. I absolutely LOVE ours despite the price because of all of the above.
Double check the fine print of your Health
Insurance. Several cover local Y memberships. And the Y has "Silver Sneakers" classes and programs that are totally free to older adults.0 -
We've been members of ours for years.
It is more expensive than a lot of the gyms but DH gets a 50% discount through work. You also get signicant discounts on a lot of the things our kids have done there: preschool x 2, swim lessons, youth sports, etc.1 -
The Y is generally more expensive than limited service facilities (such as Planet Fitness or a regular lifting gym) but cheaper than a private full service gym. They are opening a Lifetime Fitness in my town, which will cost three times what the Y costs for a family ($300/month versus $100/month).0
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I live in rural PA, and the local Y is one of the best fitness options, and the only option with a pool. DH and I pay $63 monthly for both of us, which includes an optional fee to use facilities at other select suburban Y's in the area. It's a bit less without the option to use other facilities, but I was able to take a deep water exercise class right after work in a different branch.
Since hubby wanted to join specifically to use the pool, it works for us.0 -
I think it's all relative. A single membership at something like a Lifetime is around $150 and I'm sure a family membership at the Y is cheaper than that scenario. But I checked out the Y a few years back and it was a lot nicer than I expected it to be but it wasn't a cheap membership and the hours were limiting.
This is my biggest issue with the Y...the hours they are, or more importantly, aren't open. With a family, it's hard to get there in time during the week, so I could only go weekends and that just seems expensive for only weekends...0
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