Do we really need a gym?

Right, i am a realist... I say it how it is when it comes to fitness. If a client comes to me for weightloss i have no concerns about telling that person to stop shovelling crisps and burgers into them. The same goes for gyms and health centres alike.

Do we really need to spend that much money on something we can do for free? I have worked in the fitness sector and worked in various chain gyms, local gyms and health centres and they all have on ething in common. They dont care about their members once they have signed you toa contract.

Let me paint you a picture that might sound about right if you have been a member of a gym!

You walk into a gym and usualy faced with the receptionist and i imagine you would say.. "Hi, i'm looking to join a gym" to which you will usually have a reply of something like, "Hi, welcome to our gym, i will pass you to the membership team", more commonly known to you and me as the sales team.

This will be a sharpe dressed, good looking man or a woman with killer heels, short skirt and a face of makeup!

They will go through the usual bumpf of what goals you want to achieve and what sort of prices they are looking at for gym memberships, what sort of contract they would want.

Following the initial meet and greet you will then get a tour of the gym where they will show you around all the fitness equipment, show what classes are available, possibly private areas for ab work and mat work, the lockers and showers and finally the pool, sauna etc should they have one. All this looks amazing to someone walking blind into a gym but let me tell you whats going on...

Sales teams need to sign you up to hit their targets, they aren't interested in your fitness goals or aspirations, trust me, i've worked with sales teams! They need your contract signed so when they hit target they get a huge commision bonus on memberships sold, in the meantime your forking out for a gym membership that was sold to you very cleverly.

So, once you have your membership you will usually get told you are elegible fora free fitness programme by one of the fitness staff! Sounds great right, wrong. You will have an appointment booked with some spotty nosed kid whos done a distance learning course in gym instruction who will go through the same bumpf about fitness goals... sometimes, in fairness to them, they will check your BMI, Body fat etc... forget BMI because its a load of $%&*"!.. anyway, i digress, your fitness instructor will then go on to write your all singing all dancing fitness regime that will usually consist of 10 min treadmill, 10 min bike, 10 min cross trainer, 3 sets of 10 chest machine press, repeat on the shoulder machine press and maybe a few other fixed resistance machines!

Once this is done, off you go into the world of your new gym with a one size fits all fitness programme paying an absolute bomb for the privelige!

oh.. I nearly forgot, dont be fooled by the even bigger con!

If your unsure at the sales team point and say to the sales person you may have a think about it they will almost certainly pull this one out of the bag:

If you sign up today i will cancel the joining fee! Wait, a joining fee? what exactly is that? £25.00 upwards to join a gym, surely if i am commiting to a 12 month contract as a customer i shouldn't have to pay a joining fee? It's another con to get more money out of you! If it was so important how could they manage to cancel it just because your unsure whether to join!! I'll tell you why, because they need your membership for their monthly target!

It is also interesting to note why sales teams are constantly selling memberships and recruiting more members? even the bigest gyms should have a cut off point, say 3000 members for example. If there are constanly recruiting that tells me they can't keep hold of their members right? surely if they recruit 3000 and their gyms live upto the sales pitch, no one would ever leave! So why do they? The last gym i worked in were recruiting 1500 new memebers every month but were also losing 1500 members each month at the same time too due to poor cleaning, no towels, over crowded, poor service from instructors etc etc...

here's the good news! don't waste your hard earned money on a rip off gym! Get your self outdoors, in the fresh air and use your own body to train with and utilize whats around you, park benches, hills, etc etc... What if its raining i hear you ask! Well, all the more reason to get our in it, feel refreshed and your nice hot shower to come home to sounds even more appealing!

Not sure what to do outdoors, no problem.. grab my out door fitness guide now... email me at info@squaddiefit.co.uk for more info and prices, trust me its alot cheaper than even a day pass at your local gym!

More to come on the truth about gyms, im not done with them yet!

stu's army!