Fitness,
exercise, working out, training—the list of what you can call it goes on and
on. But we all know that taking care of
ourselves physically is important.
Depending on your personality and attitude, it might be the thing you
look forward to, the thing that gets you through the day, the thing you dread,
or the thing you don’t get around to doing.
And for some it is entirely free and others it is extremely
expensive.
For me, I am
kind of in the middle of that mess. I go
through phases of loving working out and then others of dreading/avoiding
it. I don’t spend gobs of money on
fitness, but I do spend a little bit. Usually
once I start a good routine, I realize how much I do enjoy it and how good I
feel when I make it a priority. But if I
get out of the habit, then it is hard to find the energy/time/desire/etc. to
get my booty back in shape. I am sure
this is representative of a lot of other people in regards to working out.
Here in AZ,
wintertime is the better time of year to exercise outside (less expensive) due
to reasonable and bearable temperatures that don’t endanger your health (intense
exercise in 115 degrees isn’t usually a good idea, folks!). However, I am very safety-conscious, and
since it gets dark a lot earlier, it was hard for me to find the time to go
during day light when someone could watch my baby and working out indoors just
wasn’t working out for me. So I broke
down and got a gym membership. A few
thoughts on gym memberships:
Gyms can be
extremely pricey and have expensive start-up fees, sneaky cancellation fees,
and tricky salesmen who try to hide the fine print. I think many people can’t afford the regular standard
gyms anymore. But I have noticed a lot
of “no-frills” gyms are starting to pop up in a lot of places. No-frills = more affordable. The no-frills doesn’t necessarily mean there
aren’t perks, but they just might not have the overly-excessive benefits that
some high end gyms have. They might not
have child-care, they might not have every single machine, the locker room
might not have blow-dryers, they might not have racquetball courts—you know
what I mean. So if something is really
important to you, make sure they have it before you sign up.
Two gyms
that fall under the no-frills and affordable category that I have personally
been to are:
I currently
have a membership at Planet Fitness.
They have two membership options, one that costs $10/month, the other
$20/month. You get access to some more
benefits if you have the more expensive membership, which includes unlimited
guest privileges (you can take a friend every time you go—motivation!) and
access to tanning and massage beds. They
do not have child care and their class options are more like brief
instruction.
 |
| Kelly, me at Planet Fitness working out (she came as my guest and to motivate me!) |
I used to be
a member of Gold’s Gym and it had very similar membership plans. They did have a child care center, more
options for classes, and unlimited guest privileges on the more expensive
membership. They did not have tanning
and massage beds.
Both of
these gyms seem to have more and more locations, you should see if there is one
near you if going to a gym is how you get the best results!
Do you know
of any other gyms that are affordable?
Stay tuned,
because I have another post coming up on other options for free
or inexpensive exercise that are not gym-related!
