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Being January 1st I thoughtg that it would be very important to remind people about how to join a gym. I was listening to some sports radio guy on ESPN this morning and he was telling people:

“If you are thinking about getting in shape, don’t. Don’t go and join a gym or get in shape it’s too much trouble. One of your friends probably convinced you it was a good iea and you don’t need to do that anyway. Keep doing what you are doing”

I was a little offended by the guy until he continued:

“My workouts that take 50 minutes always take 2 hours in January when so many people join a gym. Don’t bother getting in shpae, who wants to feel better about themselves, who wnat to get complements abouot how great they look, who want to look years younger, no just stay at home in front of the TV and eat fried food, someone has to to keep the economy going buying too much bad food.”

What a great rant. Anyway, last year I wrote a series of articles aboout what to look at when you are joining a gym. Here are the links to the articles:

Joining a Health Club - The how and why of joining a gym

Joining a Health Club - The Tour - The guys at the gym put on a little dog and pony whow and it is almost worthless unless you know your priorities and ask the right questions

Choosing a health Club - Distance from Home - Where whould your gym be? Close to home? Close to work?

Health Club Staff - How to know what to look for in the staff at the gym itself. Your membership si paying for the staff you should get your moneys worth.

If you are going out in the next couple of days to join a gym I think that it will really help you make a better decision to read these articles.

Good luck with the gym shopping.

OK now we can talk about one of the main determining factors on whether you will go to the gym now or then or all of the time. You may think motivation will always carry you through but in actual fact if you are only a block away from the gym you will probably have a better chance of making it to the gym on a regular basis.

The closest health club to your house may not be the best one for you but the important thing is to look at your schedule and decide when and where you are going to work out. In the past I have worked out before work, at lunch and in the evening. Decide when in your schedule you would like to fit in your exercise and from there decide if you are going to work out before work? Are you going to go to the health club at lunch? Are you going to go to the gym after work or after dinner? One other time that you may think about a workout is on the weekend. If you are going to be working out during the week closer to your workplace then maybe going to the gym on the weekend is just not that important to you. On the other hand if you have a busy schedule during the week then going to the health club on the weekends may be one of your best options and in that case you will want the gym to be close to home.

I have found in the past that the price that a gym charges is based on how far it is from the downtown core. Here in Calgary I was once able to join a gym in a non residential area for $19 per month and another downtown for $55 per month..apparently a good deal though. You are going to find that if you want to have a buddy or spouse join a health club with you then it will have to be close for both of you and convenient for both of you as partnerships in the gym are really hard to keep.

Health Clubs, How do you decide which one to join?

One of the great mysteries of a fitness plan is how to decide which health club, gym or fitness center is the right one for you. Most people go around and ask people they know which on to join and over the year I have belonged to a half dozen of so health clubs or gyms.

The Decision to join a gym

Congratulations on your decision to join a health club. This is one decision that once you follow through with, and keep up your level of commitment will forever change your life and how you relate to people, food and exercise. There is initially on joining a gym or health club an excitement in the future and a real clarity of purpose. I have never felt the excitement of being in a gym by doing any kind of other exercise.

Health clubs are a business and since you are going to be doing business with a Health Club you should be armed with information and the ability to make a decision based on what is important to you and not what is pitched to your by the health club salesman. I want to be very clear here, the onus is on you to decide what you want and need in a health club and the nice lady or mans job is simply to have you join their club.

What I will do within this series is educate you on what is important to think about and after that you can make the decision yourself, armed with the knowledge that you need to take that health club sales pitch head on and rebut it.

The process of finding a gym

In these next few articles I will help you to create a checklist of what is important when you go out looking for fitness center to join. We will uncover staff and what to look for, membership hours, fitness equipment, health club amenities, classes worth taking or not and of course the price that you should pay and how to decide what is fair.

If you already belong to a gym, fine, this may allow you to reevaluate whether you are at the right place and if you do not belong to a gym you will probably be joining one soon and I hope all the information you will find will help you make an informed decision on what kind of health club is for you.