Cheap Gym Membership – Is It Really Worth It? Part 1
If you’ve read my about page you’ll know that I’m a student. A cheap gym membership is something I’m definitely interested in and thankfully also something I do have access to. If only everyone could get access to student prices we’d all be a lot happier.
Let me introduce you to my “local” gym:
[It may not look much from the outside but this place is decked out to the hilt with some amazing equipment.]
I say local but to be honest living in a city where there are plenty of gyms to choose from some of which are a lot closer to where I live.
Over the years I have tried my fair share of methods of exercising. Some of my favourites do not need a gym of any kind. In fact some of them don’t even require a space greater than a few feet square (I have a great many posts coming up on bodyweight exercises, you’ll just have to wait). So if people can exercise without gyms why do they bother going to them in the first place? I mean it’d save a lot of time hastle and money just working out in your living room.
I feel there are certain aspects of working out that gyms can really help you with.
Motivation: It’s insane the amount of things you can do to get yourself exercising harder. I like to pick someone else in the gym who’s working out pretty hard and then go head to head with them in imaginary competitions…. if only they knew!
Equipment: I have to admit that I simply do not have the space to get myself a home gym. It would be nice and all not having the wait during busy times, but that only usually ends up being a couple of minutes anyway. I’m not big on counting out the exact time I rest or take to do a workset so this is no biggie. While I’m on the topic of equipment there is some you just can’t replace. My favourite exercise with free weights is the deadlift, I just don’t think it’d be quite the same trying to replace the barbell for another piece of equipment or something that was just lying around that was good and heavy.
Motivation: I think this is something worth coming back to. Having a gym membership often kept me working out when perhaps I was having an off day and didn’t feel completely up for it. If you spend a bunch of time there you will inevitably start speaking to people and start making friends. There can be a big social aspect to the gym that makes it worth it.
Weather: I have lived in a couple of hot countries over the past few years, it is awesome and one day I have no doubt I’ll return to living in one. Right now though I live in the UK as much as I would like to work out outside it’s becoming less and less of a possibility by the day. At least in a gym you can be in a warm environment rather than freezing your butt off outside trudging through snow or wind and rain…. I almost feel a Rocky montage coming on.
[Without doubt my favourite film series ever. I think Rocky can be an inspiration regardless of where you are and what you do in life. Here you can see a great representation of the differences between training in the "comfy" gym and the harsh outdoors]
That’s your lot for part 1. In part 2 I’ll discuss some of the benefits of not having a cheap gym membership.
I think depending on what your goals are, you can get a great workout doing body weight exercises outside of a gym. Like you though, I really like the motivation factor of being in a gym. This past year, I started doing more body weight exercises than ever and was amazed at the results that I got. I actually have combined training with weights and some of my favorite body weight exercises and do them both in the gym.
-Kelly
Yeah body weight stuff can really add, either mass, strength or both. Some of the guys that go to my gymnastics class are incredibly strong and say they never lift free weights. What kind of combos do you do?
Steve, you are lucky you’ve got access to a cheap membership. Here where I live, gym fees, compared to the salaries, are huge. But gyms are full.
I train clients at a gym, but have been working out at home (dumbbells + bw stuff) or outside (bars + basketball) for a long time now. In the winter bar training outside will be not too pleasant, but oh well. I’ll gave to pretend I’m Rocky
But Is spend many years and a ton of cash on gym fees.
That sucks your gym prices are so steep, but then if demand is that high that people will still pay then it doesn’t make a lot of sense to charge little and having so many people in the gym that no one can use any equipment.
I’ve seen your bar stuff on your site, a great read dude, can’t wait to try muscle ups again!