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“Wow, you’ve gotten fat!” The four words any person dreads to hear.
After sulking around for a few days and convincing yourself you’re not fat, that it’s only water weight or that it’s just the thick sweater – you decide to take matters in your hands and take control of your health. So, you put down your double cheeseburger and you decide to join a gym!
Here are a few things you have to consider before you go pumping that iron and crunching those abs:
Most importantly
Location, location, location. Yes, it’s that important.
In fact, with the gym being just a mile away from your house, chances are you will give up on it sooner than if it were on your way from work or class. The odds are always in favor of those who have it close and nearby. Knowing that, do yourself a favor – find the one closest to you.
Be prepared
Though I’m here to show you how to save money while getting fitter, in this case your own preferences as to how big, bright, newly furnished and well taken care of a gym you want will be the main factor in the equation.
If you want the whole nine yards with a sauna, pool, personal massage studio and a tea room – be ready to dish out some extra coin.
On the other hand, if you are fine with a treadmill and free weights, there are some very financially delightful options to choose from.
We have all see those well-known yet unspoken of community centers somewhere around the neighborhood that we never thought of visiting. They may look old and ugly on the outside, but most of the time you can find everything you need for a fine work out – free of charge on many occasions.
I’d say that stepping over a family of rats and/or cockroaches is a damn good price of admission for a free workout.
When opportunity knocks on the door
We all hate to see a pack of flyers jammed in the mailbox every time we get back home. Unless, of course, you are actually one of them one-out-of-a-thousand proactive people curious enough to read the stack.
There’s a reason why businesses would bother sending you the flyers in the first place. Yes, it’s a cheap way to remind you of their existence, but also, they do that because most of the time they have something to offer. Is the offer always worth it? Maybe not, but it doesn’t hurt to put those investigative skills to good use.
No doubt you must have gotten a flyer from your local gym some time or another and I assume you received a flyer offering some crazy deal giving you a month worth of free membership or some other pretty cool savings. Instead of tossing it in the recycling bin, it would be a good idea to show up and see what they can do for you.
One time not to keep your mouth shut
Negotiating always helps. Don’t simply go with the first offer you get – be curious for at least once in your life. It’s your money that’s at stake here after all!
Sales representatives at gyms will aim to sign you up for the top-of-the-line platinum premium package, which makes as much sense to you as it makes sense to be taking an ice cold bath on the arctic circle. Be wary of them, gym representatives are the most aggressive types of sales people there are, even more-so than used car salesmen.
Just remain calm and logical and keep reminding yourself that you don’t need a membership to all the 1,546 clubs across the country and a lifetime supply of towels. Unless of course you are a multi-millionaire business magnate that makes seventeen flights a week all over the country to check upon your diamond stores – go for it.
Back stage
No good business would spend money on advertising if they already had all the customers they could handle. The same applies to fitness clubs. No one wants to spend thousands on flyers and a whole lot of time to get a hold of people, unless of course they are in need of their business.
The beauty of a fitness club as a business is that it capitalizes on people’s laziness factor. Rarely do you see a gym fully packed. Yet almost any given gym has thousands and thousands of gym memberships sold, leading us to the point…
Commitment is Key
If you know you have problems committing to occasional workouts and you find it is as painful as having your heart carved out with a thick spoon, there’s a solution for that too.
The beauty of big fitness clubs is their flexibility in terms of payment options and the services they offer. For instance, if you know you will not be coming to the gym every day, there are options to pick a work day only membership that will cost you nearly half the price (check what is available with your local gym).
Although, many gyms, especially the smaller ones, will force you sign an annual contract which will keep you locked up with them for an entire year paying the monthly fee initially stated in the contract – so be honest with yourself, because if you find a few weeks after you sign up that working out isn’t for you, you are stuck. Thankfully, almost all gyms allow you to transfer your contract to someone else who thinks they are ready to pump some iron.
Remember, a gym’s favorite customers are the people who sign up and then never come – it’s free money for them!
Your money
Again, it all comes down to what you want. There is no one universal rule for saving money on gym memberships, so at the end of the day it’s what you make of it that matters.
On average, a fitness club membership costs $50 a month. It may be more, it may be less, but it usually evens out to that after taxes and other miscellaneous fees.
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Gym memberships are a waste of money. Unless you are really dedicated or have a personal trainer you will probably end up never going. There is always a reason to avoid going to the gym. Instead of wasting money a gym membership invest in a taebo dvd or better yet get on your laptop go on youtube and find a taebo video that has been uploaded. If you a too lazy to do this then there is really no hope for you. The 50-100 a month you save can be put to better use.
The problem with taebo and all that other at-home stuff is the fact that most people are too lazy to work out at home, especially when there are so many distractions and other things that you would infinitely rather do than work up a sweat.
Plus, the gym has the latest equipment and especially weights. If you want to slim down, an at-home workout routine is all fine and dandy, but if you want to gain muscle and bulk, the gym is the way to go.