Discussion
I need some advice about joining a gym.
I've managed to reach the age of 43 without ever setting foot in a gymnasium, except for a sweaty "heavy weights" gym in the basement of a YMCA for a few months when I was 19 - certainly nothing that has "equipment".
At 43, and increasingly resembling humpty from playschool (except with slightly more hair) I have decided it's time to get fit. Actually, I decided about a year ago, and have cycled between 5 and 7 miles a day since September last year (even over the winter, which was a challege at times!) and whilst I have lost some weight, I've not excercised my top half much and I think I need to balance things out a bit.
So, joining a gym, how easy / hard can it be?
I'm concerned that paying a large sum up front, then not attending, is something of a stereotype. For this reason, I don't want to set up an annual membership straight away, but would rather start with a monthly thing to see how well I get on with it.
The local council runs some gymnasiums, seem to be a reasonable cost (£39 / month for joint membership, my wife also wants to start going to a gym so it's double the cost for us). Are council run gyms generally full of chavs with lots of time on their hands? Alternatively, gyms based in hotels seem to be reasonable cost, but my fear is that they will have less equipment so it may not be as accessible; alternatively their pools will be tiny so no real swimming possible.
How many times a week does one need to attend? Sadly, as the kids are at home and too young to leave alone, we'd need to take it in turns to go, I was thinking of going a couple of nights a week, and once at the weekend, is that too little to be of any value? I cycle home from the station each night, so I would probably cycle from the station to the gym, then do half an hour or so excercise, then cycle home. Is half an hour two nights a week, and an hour at the weekend going to be worthless?
As the title suggests, we are new to this, and all advice is welcomed!
I've managed to reach the age of 43 without ever setting foot in a gymnasium, except for a sweaty "heavy weights" gym in the basement of a YMCA for a few months when I was 19 - certainly nothing that has "equipment".
At 43, and increasingly resembling humpty from playschool (except with slightly more hair) I have decided it's time to get fit. Actually, I decided about a year ago, and have cycled between 5 and 7 miles a day since September last year (even over the winter, which was a challege at times!) and whilst I have lost some weight, I've not excercised my top half much and I think I need to balance things out a bit.
So, joining a gym, how easy / hard can it be?
I'm concerned that paying a large sum up front, then not attending, is something of a stereotype. For this reason, I don't want to set up an annual membership straight away, but would rather start with a monthly thing to see how well I get on with it.
The local council runs some gymnasiums, seem to be a reasonable cost (£39 / month for joint membership, my wife also wants to start going to a gym so it's double the cost for us). Are council run gyms generally full of chavs with lots of time on their hands? Alternatively, gyms based in hotels seem to be reasonable cost, but my fear is that they will have less equipment so it may not be as accessible; alternatively their pools will be tiny so no real swimming possible.
How many times a week does one need to attend? Sadly, as the kids are at home and too young to leave alone, we'd need to take it in turns to go, I was thinking of going a couple of nights a week, and once at the weekend, is that too little to be of any value? I cycle home from the station each night, so I would probably cycle from the station to the gym, then do half an hour or so excercise, then cycle home. Is half an hour two nights a week, and an hour at the weekend going to be worthless?
As the title suggests, we are new to this, and all advice is welcomed!
Do you have any room for a piece of equipment ie, exercise bike, running machine, cross trainer ?
You can buy a decent running m/c that folds up, add a set of dumbbells and there is a lot you can do at home. I have 2 young kids and it suits me to exercise at home, to go to the gym would realistically be 1.5 - 2 hours so it makes sense for us.
Out if interest:
How much weight have you lost?
What did you start at and what are you trying to get to?
What's your diet like?
How intense is your daily bike ride?
Etc
Like you, I haven't been in a gym for a couple of decades. However, I'd love to get on the bike that often - did 10 miles at the beginning of the week and I'm still paying for it. I can handle the fitness side but my joints are f
ked 
.
Yet, a mostly good diet (aside from the weekends) and bit of home weights (nothing that would get the more committed protagonists particularly excited though) and I'll hit 5 stone lost in the next two or three weeks. It has taken a couple of years, but if I could avoid the beer and do even what you do, I'd have hit my target some time ago.
So, I do wonder a bit whether you need to spend X pounds a month on something you probably won't use that often, or whether you need to concentrate on the other things?
Council gyms - probably not all bad from a general viewpoint. My local one sounds ok if you aren't trying to be full-on body builder type. Cheaper than private sector equivalent and you can do general stuff and then have a good swim. However, on the face of it, I'm not convinced that's the problem TBH.
How much weight have you lost?
What did you start at and what are you trying to get to?
What's your diet like?
How intense is your daily bike ride?
Etc
Like you, I haven't been in a gym for a couple of decades. However, I'd love to get on the bike that often - did 10 miles at the beginning of the week and I'm still paying for it. I can handle the fitness side but my joints are f
ked .Yet, a mostly good diet (aside from the weekends) and bit of home weights (nothing that would get the more committed protagonists particularly excited though) and I'll hit 5 stone lost in the next two or three weeks. It has taken a couple of years, but if I could avoid the beer and do even what you do, I'd have hit my target some time ago.
So, I do wonder a bit whether you need to spend X pounds a month on something you probably won't use that often, or whether you need to concentrate on the other things?
Council gyms - probably not all bad from a general viewpoint. My local one sounds ok if you aren't trying to be full-on body builder type. Cheaper than private sector equivalent and you can do general stuff and then have a good swim. However, on the face of it, I'm not convinced that's the problem TBH.
My wife and I joined Virgin Active on a monthly contract deal: first person is £60/month second person is £40/month, so £50 each really.
This lets you cancel at any stage (as we weren't sure we'd keep it up), and use any of the other similar graded VA gyms in the country. If you want to use another VA gym that is rated higher than yours you can, but you may have to pay a small fee.
The contract includes an induction session where they sit you down and talk to you and ask what you like etc. and then work with you to write up a programme
This can be reviewed every 6 weeks, and they will give you a new program if you like
All the classes are free, access to the pool is free (we pay £10 a month for the kids and they go swimming every week during family swim times)
They have a creche where we can put the boys in, and a club for the older kids, which are brilliant.
The gym itself is pretty friendly, but can get very busy at peek times (the days I go straight after work it's usually packed)
We chose this option over the council gym as they wanted £39.99 a month and then you had to pay for classes on top of that, and they had no facilities for the kids.
This lets you cancel at any stage (as we weren't sure we'd keep it up), and use any of the other similar graded VA gyms in the country. If you want to use another VA gym that is rated higher than yours you can, but you may have to pay a small fee.
The contract includes an induction session where they sit you down and talk to you and ask what you like etc. and then work with you to write up a programme
This can be reviewed every 6 weeks, and they will give you a new program if you like
All the classes are free, access to the pool is free (we pay £10 a month for the kids and they go swimming every week during family swim times)
They have a creche where we can put the boys in, and a club for the older kids, which are brilliant.
The gym itself is pretty friendly, but can get very busy at peek times (the days I go straight after work it's usually packed)
We chose this option over the council gym as they wanted £39.99 a month and then you had to pay for classes on top of that, and they had no facilities for the kids.
I love going to the gym and go most days but have the benefit of time. Going for half an hour three times a week would be of benefit if you were doing fairly intensive weights.
I think in your situation I would be tempted to try and get a couple of good quality exercise bikes (or cycle trainers) and get them set up in front of the TV with the wife when the kids have gone to bed. Try and get in to a pattern of using them together - something like lets watch XYZ program together whilst on the bikes. Once your legs are used to spinning (which they may be anyway after your bike rides) then you can get in to some interval training. The weight will literally drop off you.
Might be a more sustainable approach?
I think in your situation I would be tempted to try and get a couple of good quality exercise bikes (or cycle trainers) and get them set up in front of the TV with the wife when the kids have gone to bed. Try and get in to a pattern of using them together - something like lets watch XYZ program together whilst on the bikes. Once your legs are used to spinning (which they may be anyway after your bike rides) then you can get in to some interval training. The weight will literally drop off you.
Might be a more sustainable approach?
Open Google maps.
Search gyms.
Visit them.
Ask for a tour.
Check prices.
Go for the one that seems to tick most of your boxes.
Negotiate membership deals.
Go 3 times a week for as long as you want to remain fit (for life).
If you stop for as little as 2 months you can lose most/all of your fitness gains.
It's like buying and using anything else. Check out options. Buy it at best price. Use it.
Search gyms.
Visit them.
Ask for a tour.
Check prices.
Go for the one that seems to tick most of your boxes.
Negotiate membership deals.
Go 3 times a week for as long as you want to remain fit (for life).
If you stop for as little as 2 months you can lose most/all of your fitness gains.
It's like buying and using anything else. Check out options. Buy it at best price. Use it.
Thanks for all the advice, will have a more in depth read later.
mattikake said:
Open Google maps.
Search gyms.
Visit them.
Ask for a tour.
Check prices.
Go for the one that seems to tick most of your boxes.
Negotiate membership deals.
Go 3 times a week for as long as you want to remain fit (for life).
If you stop for as little as 2 months you can lose most/all of your fitness gains.
It's like buying and using anything else. Check out options. Buy it at best price. Use it.
The point of asking was not to find out how to buy something, it was, in your terms, to ask what boxes I should think of to have "ticked".Search gyms.
Visit them.
Ask for a tour.
Check prices.
Go for the one that seems to tick most of your boxes.
Negotiate membership deals.
Go 3 times a week for as long as you want to remain fit (for life).
If you stop for as little as 2 months you can lose most/all of your fitness gains.
It's like buying and using anything else. Check out options. Buy it at best price. Use it.
Just check the prices of local places then ask people what the gyms are like is the only way to do it really.
The council owned gyms are ok I'm a member. I can use any in the area + any of the swimming pools. For me it's the best value around here and it just so happens the pools and gyms are in the right location for when I want to use them pool and gym 2 min from work so go at lunch and another gym 2 min from home.
The only problem with them is they all have a different am mount of equipment. Some are great some are a lacking a bit.
The council owned gyms are ok I'm a member. I can use any in the area + any of the swimming pools. For me it's the best value around here and it just so happens the pools and gyms are in the right location for when I want to use them pool and gym 2 min from work so go at lunch and another gym 2 min from home.
The only problem with them is they all have a different am mount of equipment. Some are great some are a lacking a bit.
Odie said:
for me most gyms are far too expensive,
sit-ups, press-ups, core exercises etc is the way to go if you ask me.
I've always wondered how far you could go just training at home... what sort of results have you got from doing body weight exercises at home? (I italicise "at home" because if you did body weight exercises with gymnastics equipment (horse, rings, parallel bars) then it's obvious that with enough effort you will look amazing.)sit-ups, press-ups, core exercises etc is the way to go if you ask me.
^^^
Good advice there (although look at the T&Cs - when I tried the same, it didn't suit my schedule, as the local authority 'double sold' the gym space, so you couldn't use it when a class was on - and they had single sex days in the spa - anyone would think it was the bloody 50s!)... Where I am, the university gym is open to the public and offers much better VFM than the 'branded' gyms!
As for the contract thing (and I'm not in gym sales!
) it's one of those steps in life where YOU have to make the commitment for yourself - if I hadn't made that commitment AND signed for 12 months when I joined, I don't think I'd have kept it up regularly... It was bloody hard work for the first year or two (and I admit there were a couple of occasions where I'd find reasons not to go for a 2-3 weeks) but once it's part of 'what you do', things change - I broke short my first afternoon in the glorious sunshine yesterday (and I LOVE the sun!) because something inside me felt it had to get down the gym and get that feeling of the blood flowing!
Good advice there (although look at the T&Cs - when I tried the same, it didn't suit my schedule, as the local authority 'double sold' the gym space, so you couldn't use it when a class was on - and they had single sex days in the spa - anyone would think it was the bloody 50s!)... Where I am, the university gym is open to the public and offers much better VFM than the 'branded' gyms!
As for the contract thing (and I'm not in gym sales!
) it's one of those steps in life where YOU have to make the commitment for yourself - if I hadn't made that commitment AND signed for 12 months when I joined, I don't think I'd have kept it up regularly... It was bloody hard work for the first year or two (and I admit there were a couple of occasions where I'd find reasons not to go for a 2-3 weeks) but once it's part of 'what you do', things change - I broke short my first afternoon in the glorious sunshine yesterday (and I LOVE the sun!) because something inside me felt it had to get down the gym and get that feeling of the blood flowing!The best shape ive ever been in was when I was doing a 40 minute body weight session everyday. Running and swimming for 40 mins on alternate days too.
I hate the big corporate gyms as it's just an image thing to say you spunk 60 a month on going there. Council gyms are either awesome or rubbish but find a good one and go there. I used to pay 22.50 per month for unlimited use of the 4 local ones. One I used for weights, the other for its pool.
I hate the big corporate gyms as it's just an image thing to say you spunk 60 a month on going there. Council gyms are either awesome or rubbish but find a good one and go there. I used to pay 22.50 per month for unlimited use of the 4 local ones. One I used for weights, the other for its pool.
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