Not all gyms are equal. Far from it, actually. Granted, most look the same way, have rows of machines, or as in our case, no machines but rigs, rowers, and other equipment. But that’s only what you see when you step in. To select your future ‘home away from home’, there’s a ton more to consider. Let’s break it down into bite-sized elements.
Advertising is powerful, psychologically based and focus group tested. PR pitches are built to sidetrack you from educating yourself, but to have you wooed by traditional spin or social media advertising. The bigger the gym operation, (especially national chains), the deeper the advertising budget and the more calculated their psychological appeal to get you to join. While joining a gym, in most cases, is better than sitting at home watching TV all day, the questions that really matter revolve around the things you don’t see at first or the answers that you figure out after you signed on the dotted line, committing to a long contractual agreement.
This list of items to check for is long, so we’ll look at the very top five you should think about:
Location
Your immediate answer should be: “Seriously?! Tell me something that’s a little less obvious!”. Your wish is our command. Location matters, especially when you consider your commuting time. The time you spend AT the gym, especially during high-volume attendance, directly translates into you not getting anything done. No one has completed a decent workout by waiting around for the next piece of equipment to come available. Not just that it completely disrupts your workflow, you’re also dropping your heart rate, coming out of the an/aerobic or HIIT zone, your muscles cool down, which exposes you to an increased risk for injury. Then there’s the mental question; waiting around, while you were all fired up and ready to go, is usually a buzz kill. This isn’t too far removed from being on a date, just to realize… Ok..you know where this is going. 😉
Of course, the above applies to high volume gyms, mostly the national chains, who have thousands of anonymous members filing through their doors. They disconnect with their wireless ear buds and then give you the stare-down if you’re taking too long to finish your set, or stay seated, sending a few text messages or snapping selfies, on exactly the piece of equipment you need to continue your personal progress. Most of us give up, walk away, try to find a different way to get our workout in, and then mostly just shuffle back to the locker room. Not just that you didn’t get anything done, now you also wasted your time. The prominent location that’s so close to your house or work is suddenly not working out so well. You’d have been better off going a few miles out of your way, to a gym that’s more personal, less high-volume and has the necessary capacity to allow you to get your workout in! Your gym’s location is important in terms of convenience, but it turns into a complete nightmare when it’s the wrong location.
Staff
Not all staff is created equal. There are so many different fitness certifications on the market, we can’t even list them all without providing you with a dictionary for all the acronyms. Besides the traditional/collegiate certifications, there are Yoga certifications, Zumba certifications, Bodypump, Water Aerobics, CrossFit, Weightlifting, and hundreds of others. That number quickly turns into thousands, when you consider all the smaller “sub-certifications” and then add numerous nutrition certifications to the mix. Unless you’re very well versed in what you are looking for and know exactly 
what you need, the sheer wealth of papers that a trainer can hang on the wall is confusing at best, and dangerous at worst.
Of course, you want your fitness professional to be certified, otherwise, it would be similar to attending a martial arts school, instructed by someone who has never stepped foot inside a martial arts facility. Search the social media profiles of the gyms you’re interested in, watch some YouTube videos about exercise/fitness styles that you find interesting. THEN search for gyms within reasonable distance to you, and either email or call them. Your first sign of ‘problems’ arises when you don’t receive an answer or call-back. We’ve heard this time and again when individuals contact us, and then tell us that they never received a response from anyone else. However, don’t just stop there. Much like when you’re hiring for a job, whether that’s your place of work or a contractor project at your home, quasi-interview the staff of your future gym. Certifications are one thing – personalities, personal interest, and genuine care for you goes a long way. No website profile, social media post or email can give you an impression. Go to each gym that took the time to respond to you, and check them out in person. Get a walk-through of the facilities, meet with a coach and get an impression. Don’t make it a 5-minute meeting, but allocate 1-hour of your time to getting to know the gym. One hour seems too much? Think about that when you sign on the dotted line, and 2 months later you realized your mistake. That hour spent upfront is an hour very well spent. At the same token, if the coach doesn’t have an hour to spend with you, what makes you think that they’re invested and interested in your progress, personally attentive to your needs and that the gym itself is the facility you really need? In a nutshell, what you’re looking for here, are the soft skills that 99% of all gyms don’t pay attention to. The hard-skills, certifications, technical knowledge, etc. are non-negotiable. If a trainer doesn’t have both, you’re not going to be well off in the long run, and will likely be left to your own vices, which usually means that you’re spending money for little-to-no results.
Community
You’re not working out alone. Even though you may feel alone because the trend at big gyms is that athletes have headphones on, zoning everyone else out, you’re not working out alone. They just ignore your existence. All I have to do is flip open my Instagram account and look at some of the posts of fitness couples who attend to big-box/impersonal gyms. Each athlete wears wireless headphones. The bigger, the better. Mind you, these are images of couples. Real life couples. They go home together, live together, are married, but they are wearing headphones, zoning each other out when they work out together. In short, there is no sense of community. None. Each person is out there on their own. This even extends to most of the group classes. Zumba or Bodypump anyone? How often have you heard of, or experienced, camaraderie or group support, where all athletes huddle around, cheering on that one person who struggles to finish? Never. It just doesn’t happen this way. However, the caveat here is simple: If you don’t need or want community interaction, please save yourself the monthly dues and get an online copy of a workout program. It saves time, money and your sanity when you realize that you’re doing it on your own anyways.
However, if you want community because you’ve come to realize that supporting each other in the quest for fitness and self-improvement, which includes accountability, friendships, networking opportunities, etc. then you have to do your homework again. This goes along the same lines of the ‘staff’; if you’re interested in seeing how a community works, ask to get a free pass or pay a one-time fee to join a class. Or, if you don’t feel comfortable, ask to drop in while a class is in session, and watch how it is being instructed, conducted and how the community interacts. If you’re staying until the end, and some of the athletes come up and introduce themselves, you know that there’s a sense of community.
Services
A gym is a business like any other business. Things come at a price. Some gyms offer everything at a flat-rate, such as national chains, which charge anywhere from $30-70/month. These chains work with the intent of high-volume and low price. Not that there is anything wrong with such a business model, it just asks 
for a very specific and self-dedicated athlete to truly take advantage of such offerings. Similarly, at low price points, you’re also left to your own knowledge, workout routines and programming and consistency is solely left up to you. If you are an athlete who can stay the course, remain committed to your own improvement, and if you have your own wireless headphones – you’re good to go! If you’re not, let’s talk services in detail: As with any other business, whether that’s a body shop for car repair, hairdresser, or your own place of employment, every business has operational costs. These costs go beyond just keeping the doors open for business, but being responsible and ethical employers to their staff, keeping equipment free from faults, and the facility spotless. Any number of things can go wrong in that lineup, most often, as we’ve been told, it’s the upkeep/maintenance of the equipment and even more so, the cleanliness of the gym. Who would want to work out, staring at the puddle of sweat that your predecessor left for you? Unless it’s a code-of-conduct style parting gift and you’re enthralled by seeing your glistening reflecting in someone else’s sweat, it would be a reasonable expectation to have a clean facility. The same goes for bathrooms, shower stalls, and the corners of the gym. If there’s an alignment of spider webs and/or dust bunnies, then the only permissible excuse is an over amount of insects swirling around, and the spiders are the task-force. However, that’s just the services that happen behind your back.
What else can or should be included in a gym membership? Under normal circumstances (i.e: national chain gym), no one will correct your erroneous form, exposing you to injury, unless the trainer who hides in his/her office is getting paid for it. No, I’m not talking about booking a full hour of personal training, but even just as much as noticing an athlete’s error in their form should prompt a true professional to correct the athlete. After all, an injured athlete doesn’t help anyone. Not the athlete, not their families, employer and definitely not the gym. Then again, at big-box gyms, the loss of $70/month is just not worth the effort. It’s that pesky idea of high-volume vs. low price-point again. A trainer or coach who is on deck, has the ethical duty to correct athletes when s/he notices an error in their form or a questioning look on their face as in ‘how do I do this?’. Time and again, we are told that this is simply not happening, and in turn, this gives all fitness professionals a bad reputation. Fitness in itself is a simple ideology, correct movement, sustainable and injury free exercising requires the knowledge of a professional and the interest of someone who is truly interested in your progress. That’s true service and it’s service that is difficult to value. Fact is though, you won’t find it at any place that is charging rock-bottom high-volume prices. Please note; if you’re looking for Personal Training, where you pay someone to work with you, the above doesn’t apply. At that point, you have someone who is working with you, for you and is interested in producing results with you. You also won’t find this for $70/month.
Price
Inevitably, when we talk about services, we talk about price. Some services can never truly be priced out, as they are invaluable. This goes back to the soft-skills that a trainer has to have. We can teach all the technical knowledge, but emotional intelligence is an entirely different need. Did you ever look at what you’re getting for your money? It is safe to assume that a $90/hr charge for a specialist to work on your house may cause you some allergic reaction, but you know that this person is a specialist, your needs are taken care of, and you bite the bullet. Mind you, we’re talking $90/hr and barely any job gets done in one hour or less. Let’s look at your health – how much is it worth? Is it worth $70/month at a gym that may serve your needs, but leaves you at your own peril? Or, would you entertain to get a personal trainer? If so, the rates vary between $50/hr to several hundred dollars, or if you’re a celebrity, you’re opening the pocket book for thousands of dollars for a ‘guru’ who gets you in shape. The basic cost of your gym membership is suddenly dwarfed in comparison, but the results may stand for the added expenditure. There’s only one caveat; you’re still working out alone. Granted, you have someone to lead you through your workouts, perhaps even 
customizes the game plan to get you the results you’re looking for, but chances are that this person does not have a crucial element that you need to truly succeed. The necessary levels of nutrition knowledge to get you the results that you want, and to make sure that they’re sustainable for the long haul. Barely any trainers found at large/national gym operations are fitness and nutrition knowledgeable, and if they are, you’re looking at price tags that make your local plumber question whether they’re in the wrong profession. That brings me back to the question of value:
In large/national gym operations, an average of 67% of people enrolled don’t actually ever show up. NPR’s Planet Money recently took a great look at why people pay for gym memberships, but don’t use them. If these people did show up, gyms would have to increase their footprints and consequently, the price tag for even the most basic commercial gyms would be far higher. In effect, gyms are able to drastically discount their rates for the handful of people that come to workout. Let me be clear: the typical range of dues from +/- $50-$150 per month you see at these places is NOT an accurate reflection of the income per active member the gym needs to keep its lights on; it’s that the silent majority of those who don’t show up who subsidize the memberships of those who do. This is the silent effect or fallout from your frustrations with a high-volume & low-price gym, where the bulk of athletes attends in the morning hours or between 4-6 p.m.
Let’s try a novel concept; if you’re paying $70/month for a place you don’t feel like showing up to, because you’re not getting anything done, and personal training would push you into the $500+ mark, yet you still don’t have a sense of community, wouldn’t it stand to reason that $150-$200/month with personal accountability, community involvement, and support and not having to wait around to get anything done, sounds like an interesting and acceptable proposition? Of course, we agree on the fact that not everyone has $200/month to dedicate to their health. Except, when you need to dedicate it to your health, courtesy of your local healthcare provider, then you have no option, but to shell out the money. We believe that it is fundamentally more important to address your nutrition, fitness, health and sense of community involvement before you’re forced to pay thousands because you waited too long to invest in yourself. Besides that, given our pricing structure, we also believe in being a responsible employer and as an organization, a valuable member to our community.
And before I forget, we DO take an hour of our time to introduce ourselves to you. Every “Free Intro” is booked with one of our main coaches, where you’ll get the full information to make an educated decision. From a facility walkthrough to a nutrition and fitness assessment, to a goal setting discussion. In short, from the very get-go, we commit to you. If you’re committed to yourself, you can book your “Free Intro with us here”
