Why Gym Memberships Are an Amazing Value

Many people ask themself is a gym membership worth it? If you are able to commit time to the gym it is a great investment for your health and lifestyle!

A word problem:

Sally joins a gym for $60 a month. She goes 3 times a week faithfully and loses fat, gets stronger, and feels amazing. She even sleeps better and feels more confident at work!

All this for $4.28 a pop. ($60 divided by 14 visits in a month like August.)

Let’s assume she actually enjoys being at the gym and goes 4 times a week. That would be $3.33 a visit! Where else can you go for $3.33 an hour, while simultaneous improving yourself, your health, and your future?

Hint: It’s not actually a math problem.

It’s kind of rhetorical, but it has an answer. The answer is, nowhere!

Is a Gym Membership Worth It?

Nowhere else is as economically rewarding as a gym!

I understand the phrase “different strokes for different folks” and I get that not everyone enjoys the gym, but I have never understood why people balk at the price of a gym membership.

It’s $30-$60 a month for an activity many people enjoy. This can take 2-6 hours of your week and put it to good use, while you are surrounded by like-minded people.

For $30-$60. (Don’t pay more; the mega gyms are crap. Oh, and don’t pay less. Planet Fitness is worse crap.)

What else are you going to do with that amount of time that will be as productive, enjoyable, and beneficial to your health? Nothing!

I can’t think of a cheaper hobby! I grew up a horse lover, and can I tell you how much more money I have now that my hobby is at the gym and not the barn? Lots!

What else are you gonna do with that time? Happy hour? $10 drinks? Or worse, shop, like my idle hands do? The safest place my wallet can be is at the gym.

Life is short. Spend it somewhere you enjoy!

More importantly than the economics of it, we have one short life. Spend it somewhere good!

Have you heard theory of the third place? Ray Oldenberg suggested our third place is where we go after work (our second place) and before home (our first place). It is a place we choose to go, where we enjoy the social interaction. More info here.

Gyms are our third place. They are where we want to go, and hang with people who want to be there. They understand our drive, our sticking points, and see us through them. They become our friends and sometimes chosen family.

Join the boxing gym!

I found something interesting today. Interesting in a trippy, time-warpy kind of way. It was a peek into human psychology, and it equally frustrated and amused me, as my mom and sister can attest.

My sister came across these notes tucked in an old brief case of mine. They were from one of two gyms I worked at concurrently many years ago. I can’t be sure of which gym, and I’m definitely not violating any confidentiality issues here.

I wasn’t the manager or owner of this gym, and I can assure you good gym owners love feedback. I’m certainly not complaining about this guy’s wanting a punching bag.

But, here’s this guy’s problem: he is looking for a niche activity in the wrong place. He is looking for a boxing gym in a health club. Yes yes, I know some clubs have heavy bags and speed bags, but if he really wants to box, he should go to a boxing gym.

If he’s a good boxer, he will need better equipment than a multi-use gym facility will provide. He would outgrow the basic heavy bag and still not be happy with this gym set up. Also if he is or aspires to be an accomplished boxer, it will be worth it to him to be around other boxers, people he can sweat with and learn from.

I encourage everybody to join a gym or a group. Whether it’s a regular neighborhood gym or a specialized gym, it will be worth it!

So here’s my advice for this dude with the bee in his…boxers. Join a boxing gym. Just do it! Join a boxing gym!!

It’s worth the money if it’s that important to you. 

It’s worth the money if you’ll get that much enjoyment from it.

What’s the takeaway? Join a gym! Find your niche. It could be a regular fitness gym, a specialized gym, but join somewhere you want to go. Be grateful that you have somewhere to multitask so hard: get healthy, improve yourself, save money and bad calories you’d be wasting elsewhere, and be in good company!

---