Remember this? Haha.
A Planet Fitness recently opened up in my town and it caused a lot of people I know who had not previously worked out at gyms to join. It’s also hard to argue with their logic—their prices are cheaper than any other gym I know. I’m proud of them for making a step in the direction of a healthy lifestyle, but it got me thinking… why did I hate gyms so much? When I first started out using at-home fitness programs, I kept my old gym membership for a couple of months to fall back on (didn’t want to have to pay that hefty sign up fee again), but after a while I could honestly say I would never be going back so I cancelled and felt a huge weight lifted off my shoulders.
Why though? Well, I’ll share with you…
Here are my 4 top reasons not to go to the gym (and work out at home instead):
1. TIME
When I am leaving work after a long day, the last thing I want to do is deal with driving all the way to the gym (from my work to my gym would have been a good 30 minutes on a good day), lollygagging around on a bunch of different machines for an hour, then driving back home (another 20 minutes), and then finally having a chance to worry about life’s other duties—walking the dog, making dinner, cleaning the kitchen up, getting my stuff ready for the following day, possibly doing more work (I am a teacher, so it’s part of the job), etc. Let’s think about that for a second, 50 minutes of that time was spent DRIVING and another 60 minutes of actually working out (although I usually did between 60-90)—that’s 110 minutes at least! I don’t know about you, but I just don’t have that kind of time most days. Because of the time it took, going to the gym was usually the first thing to get nixed from my to do list if something came up. But now, I do a 30-minute workout in my own living room—that saves me 70 minutes! Are you serious? SEVENTY MINUTES saved! Time is no longer an excuse for me.
2. MONEY
Right now, at my old gym, the current price to join is a $129 enrollment fee, $9.95 monthly rate, and an annual fee of $39.99. They like to grab your attention with that $9.95 monthly rate, but they don’t advertise the other prices. So, if you think about just your first month at this gym (not even counting the annual fee that will come later), you would have to drop $138.95 at once. I’ll bet that will squash the excitement you just had about joining a gym for only $9.95 a month! I can buy an at-home workout program for so much less and use it over and over, without ever having to pay for it again. And I don’t even have to pay for gas for that 50 minutes of driving either!
Another note about money: $9.95 a month IS cheap for a gym membership every month. It’s cheap because you aren’t being provided any services. You pay your fee, you walk in the gym, look at all the machines and have no clue what to do. You can walk around and actually read the directions on the machines, but how many reps do you do? Which machines are the best to use each day? All of these questions can be answered by a personal trainer, which is going to cost you a pretty penny! Using an at-home workout program, you get the benefits of working with a personal trainer without the price tag!
3. FOCUS
When I first started going to the gym, I’d get on the elliptical for about thirty minutes to warm up then start my “rounds” at the weight machines. This is what it was like: “I’m going to get on this machine (10 reps)… ok this machine looks cool (15 reps)… what about this one? (12 reps)…. what am I even doing? (leave gym).” I would “pump iron” for a little while, not focusing on what muscle group I was supposed to be working on or keeping track of any sort of progress then I’d finally wonder “what am I doing with my life?” and leave the gym, probably accomplishing very little. During the year or so that I did this, I made very little progress on my weightloss goals or my healthy lifestyle goals, simply because there wasn’t a focus. Sure, if I had paid someone (personal trainer) to teach me some things, I may have had some focus, but I didn’t have any money for that. Instead, I floated from machine to machine or completed random Pinterest workouts before finally giving up. When I finally did a real workout PROGRAM is when I started to see concrete results. I had an expert telling me what to do every step of the way (instructor on the video), someone motivating me to succeed (Beachbody coach), and a fitness AND nutrition plan all laid out for me. It was great! I felt successful and I also felt like I was accomplishing so much in less time.
4. CROWDS
I hate crowds. Actually, I loathe them. When people get too close to me, I go into automatic “fight or flight” mode. As a teacher, I am lucky to (sort of) get off earlier in the day than most people, and if I managed to actually leave work when I was allowed to, I didn’t have to deal with crowds too much. However, if I stayed at work and got things done or if I stopped by my apartment to let my poor dog out, I got trapped in the post-work gym crowd. Not only would it take me longer to drive to the gym at this hour, but I would get there and all my favorite machines would be in use. OR, even worse, there would be people there who used the gym as a social outing and would sit on the machines (not using them, just sitting on them) and talk to each other. No amount of “teacher looks” could ever get them to realize how rude they were being. Then there was the floor area, where you can spread out and do ab work or stretch… in order to get a spot, you’d have to basically be touching each other (gross).
And then, there’s this problem:
If you’d like to know what it’s like to not have to drive to the gym, pay huge gym or personal training fees, have a focus in your workout, and to not deal with crowds, there are so many options. Contact me and I will set you up with the perfect program for your needs, as well as provide the motivation and support to help you succeed!
