Why you should not join a gym

Recently a client mentioned that a friend of hers was considering joining the gym, but was put off by the joining fee and wondering if she'd come regularly. This is pretty common, so it's worth talking about.

Do I need to join the gym?

It depends on your goals. Physical training can change how you look, feel and perform. These things improve because you ask your body to do more than it did before, and your body adapts. But most people are doing nothing. This is why there's so much argument over the One True Perfect Workout - because beginners were doing nothing, this is something, something is more than nothing, so their body adapts. If they just lift heavy weights they will improve their cardiovascular fitness, if they just do Zumba they will improve their strength. 

If you are currently doing nothing, then whatever you do, your looks, health and performance will all improve from poor to okay. Just get your body moving. You don't need a gym membership for this, only willpower. I once went bushwalking with my girlfriend, I burst the buttons on three pairs of pants and looked down and realised I had a 103cm chest and 97cm waist. Four months later after 10,000 steps a day and a heap of pushups and the like, I had a 107cm chest and 83cm waist. No gym membership was used or needed, just willpower. 

But once I'd improved how I looked, felt and performed from poor to okay, to get them to good I needed something more. I needed a gym. If you are happy at having poor looks, health and performance, or if you have strong willpower and can improve to okay on your own, then you should not join a gym. If you need help going from poor to okay, or if you want to take things a step further to get good, then you should join. 

What gyms offer

Every gym offers three things,

• equipment
• atmosphere
• instruction

Equipment is the least important. Many people are impressed by shiny machines, chrome barbells, clean mirrors, bright lights and airconditioning, but the truth is that most people in gyms only use a few pieces of equipment, and they could with smart shopping buy this equipment for around a year's gym membership. But would they use it? Probably not. There's a reason the late-night shopping fitness equipment is all advertised as "folds away for easy storage" - because that's where it'll end up. Remember willpower? 

Atmosphere is important. We can pray or read books or watch movies anywhere, but we like to pray in synagogues, read books in libraries and bookstores, and watch movies in cinemas - it just feels right. Doing it on our own somewhere else, it's harder to do. Same with gyms. Everyone around you is busily sweating, grunting, pounding away on machines and lifting weights, this motivates you to move your arse and do stuff. You may or may not actually get to the gym, but once you get there you'll do something. 

Going at a regular time helps this. You start seeing familiar faces of other regulars and trainers, and say to yourself, "If I go today, I might see Sam, that'll be nice." And if you and Sam become friends then it's "I'd better go, or Sam will ring me up and ask me where I am." If Sam's an experienced gym-goer or competent trainer, then maybe you'll get some instruction, too. 

Instruction is the major cost of running a gym, and so it's the major thing you're paying for in gym membership. Community gyms will typically offer a few sessions to get you started,

• Health consult - they ask you nosy personal questions about your medical history, past and current physical activity, and your goals. Based on this they design a workout routine for you, and -
• Programme Showthrough - show you through the routine so you'll be comfortable doing it on your own. This may not be the One True Perfect Routine, it'll be one the trainer thinks you'll actually do. The best workout is the one you stick to. 
• Technique Check - a couple of weeks after this you'll have had the chance to do the routine a few times, you'll meet with the trainer again, they'll run you through your routine to see if you know what you're doing, and if you do, there may be one or two tweaks to the routine. Then you go off and do it for a month or two.
• Programme Evaluations - after you've done the routine 12-24 times over 1-3 months, you should have seen some results, and be more comfortable in the gym. It'll be time to review your progress, and change your routine. You may want new exercises just for variety, or need a greater challenge, or have changed goals, and so on. These evaluations keep happening every month or three for as long as you're a gym member.

The idea behind these appointments is to encourage the person to keep coming and working productively. The statistics are that if you just sign people up and leave them to it, 6 months later only 25% are still around. If you welcome them and give them a routine, 50% remain. If you do the followup sessions, 75%. Anything higher than that is because of the personality of the trainers, do they just sit behind the desk or are they out there on the gym floor talking to and helping people. 

It's simple human nature that if you meet with me as a trainer today and I give you a routine, if we have an appointment to meet again in a couple of weeks, and if you see me regularly when you come in, you are more likely to come in on your own and do the routine. 

Anyway all that is instruction. Each appointment is 30-60 minutes, so the new gym member gets 1.5-3hr of instruction in their first 2 weeks, and then half an hour or so each month afterwards. The truth is that only 35% of gym members take advantage of this instruction by actually booking and attending the appointments, and of those, only around a third actually follow the routines given, instead doing their own thing. This is part of the reason most gym members don't achieve their goals, they either don't come at all or if they do come are just spinning their wheels. If you join a gym, you are paying for instruction: use it. 

Joining fees

In general I think that joining fees suck and shouldn't exist. Gyms have them because of the 25-75% of people who quit in the first 6 months - after all the administration work of signing them up and staff wages for their first appointments, they want to get something out of them. If you're joining a friend's gym, take the friend along when you're ready to sign up, emphasise that you're only joining this gym because your friend recommended it, and you could go elsewhere - they may waive or reduce the joining fee. However, you can think of the joining fee as paying for those first 3 appointments you have. 

Gyms to avoid

Gyms to avoid are those which have a very restricted range of equipment, commonly it'll be all shiny machines. You can get a restricted range of equipment on your own, you don't need a gym for that. As well, gyms will a poor atmosphere - everyone locked in their own world with their ipods, members and staff ignoring new people, etc. And gyms which offer no or poor instruction, or insist that you take personal training sessions to get any instruction, should likewise be avoided. You wouldn't join a library where you had to pay to learn how to find the books you want. A certain level of instruction is what you pay for. 

Conclusion

Of course, you might be happy with how you look, feel and perform now - so that's great, and you don't need a gym membership. Or maybe you're unhappy but will be too lazy to go regularly, you don't need it, waste of money. Or maybe you'll go regularly, but never use the instruction because you're certain you know everything already - don't join, work out at home. These are all reasons you should not join the gym.

I'm a terrible salesperson, because I just tell the truth. You don't need a gym to have okay looks, health and performance, only to have them all good, or to have them okay if you have poor willpower, which most of us do. In the end achieving your goals is all up to you. But a good gym sure as shit helps you achieve your goals.