Message Boards › Fitness and Exercise
ONUnicorn
Posts: 8Member Member
Posts: 8Member Member
Which Gym should I join?
ONUnicorn
Posts: 8Member Member
Posts: 8Member Member
I'm considering joining a gym. I need to build upper body and core strength, as well as improve cardiovascular endurance. I was a member of LA fitness from 2010-2012, during which time I made progress on those goals and lost about 40 pounds. I canceled my membership partly to save money, and partly because I was going to school at night and working during the day and had access to the university fitness center (not that I had time to use it).
Option A is LA Fitness.
Pros:
1. I'm familiar with it.
2. It has a pool and hot tub, and I LOVE to swim.
Cons:
1. It's expensive.
2. It's about a 20-30 minute drive between it and home or work.
Option B is Planet Fitness
Pros:
1. It's cheap.
2. It's less than 3 miles from my house. So about a 5 minute drive. I pass it going to and from work.
Cons:
1. It doesn't have a pool.
The pool is kind of a big thing for me. When I was a member of LA fitness I'd use it as motivation, a half hour swimming laps was my reward for a half hour lifting weights, and 15 minutes in the hot tub was my reward for swimming laps. At the same time, it seems silly to pay 3 times as much and drive across town when there's a perfectly nice place to work out so close.
I don't know. I don't know which one I'd be more likely to actually use. Does anyone have advice? Which would you pick if it were you?
Option A is LA Fitness.
Pros:
1. I'm familiar with it.
2. It has a pool and hot tub, and I LOVE to swim.
Cons:
1. It's expensive.
2. It's about a 20-30 minute drive between it and home or work.
Option B is Planet Fitness
Pros:
1. It's cheap.
2. It's less than 3 miles from my house. So about a 5 minute drive. I pass it going to and from work.
Cons:
1. It doesn't have a pool.
The pool is kind of a big thing for me. When I was a member of LA fitness I'd use it as motivation, a half hour swimming laps was my reward for a half hour lifting weights, and 15 minutes in the hot tub was my reward for swimming laps. At the same time, it seems silly to pay 3 times as much and drive across town when there's a perfectly nice place to work out so close.
I don't know. I don't know which one I'd be more likely to actually use. Does anyone have advice? Which would you pick if it were you?
Replies
From your post, I get the impression you will be happier going to LA Fitness because of the pool. If you can afford it, I don't think it's silly at all to spend money for a place you'll be happier in while there.
I suspect what would happen with Planet Fitness is that you either wouldn't go or you would dread going.
What's a hydro chair?
PF could be used for the times that you need a quick workout and there isn't time for the commute & swimming isn't part of your plan that day. (I wouldn't say this, but PF is what? Something like $10 a month ?)
LA Fitness could be around when you have more time and want to include swimming (weekends, etc.).
Another option, go with LA Fitness and also build a small, affordable home-gym with dumbbells and resistance bands.
I've always felt that convenience is a huge factor when determining where I train.
Best of Luck!
Though I'm not a huge fan, I figured I'd give PF a go for a month or two to see if I would be more consistent which I have been and consistency is what is important. I go to my other gym now pretty much on Saturday to do my Oly work. I really love that gym, but I might ultimately give it up for the convenience factor and also to be able to dedicate my weekends to cycling.
I guess it really depends on how important the pool is for you vs. convenience. Doing stuff you like is very important to keeping on keeping on...but so is convenience.
We loved it, but it was not at all convenient. It was out of the way in regards to our work commutes and about 30 minutes from the house. Initially, we were fine with it because we were new to fitness and pretty gung ho about it. Ultimately, this meant that an hour gym session was a two hour overall time suck with the commute, and we often felt obligated to stay there longer to make the commute worth it, but that furthered the time suck when you have other *kitten* going on in life. After a few months, we started going less and less because even though it had absolutely everything we wanted, the time suck was just too much. It was $100 per month for the family membership and thankfully on a month to month basis with no contract or commitment.
Generally, you will go most often to the gym that's convenient, that stares you in the face on your commute.
However, if you really will go to the one with the pool MORE, that's the one for you. But you'd have to make a bit more effort.
It's ok, and dare I say smart, to ask for advice which is exactly what the OP did. It's even ok to ask strangers for advice about various things - it's not black and white. If this was a medical decision then that would be a different issue, but it's not.
At least for the one by us, the default tier is multi-location, but you can buy a single location membership for a bit cheaper (had to prod the sales people a bit before they offered that despite the website listing both).
To answer the others here: unless it differs between locations, they don't have a contract, but they do charge a sizeable initial join fee (and I don't recall ever seeing promotional deals in which they waive that - something that some of the other local gyms including the YMCA occasionally do).
To the OP: if you're not broke, I would say the pool sounds like its worth the money to you. You'll have to decide if it's also worth the further commute though.
For me: I'm with those above who vote both (if finances allow). The inconvenience would be a deal breaker (there are only a few things I'm willing to drive that far for) for something I need to cram in before or after work - so PF wins on that. If I loved swimming, I'd possibly join the LA Fitness (or a closer aquatic center) as well for the pool access. (for reference, I belong to an LA Fitness and have never used the pool..it's the closest gym to where I work. Boyfriend chose it because he wanted pool access - he also has never used it).