I do have to agree with some of what the article posted in another thread said...that a lot of gyms concentrate on signing up 10 million people and then basically ignore the people who are already there. I joined LA Fitness once. The experience was very unsatisfactory - I had a 12-month commitment to a place with inadequate parking (I mean NO parking available at all, nada, in the early evening), filthy locker room, and inadequate cardio machines. They had rules but would not enforce their own rules, and no one seemed to care. The guy who signed you up would most likely be transferred to a different facility the very next week. Fast forward...YMCA membership. Their big focus was on the gymnastic and swim teams. At certain times of the day, a horde of screaming adolescent girls would come screaming, some soaking wet, into the locker room. I like kids, but having raised my own, I was in no mood during my "me" time to deal with overexcited kids, splashing and flicking their wet towels all over the place. Then I joined a private gym. There was adequate parking and the place was kept clean, but again, not enough cardio machines, and they scheduled the classes I would most have liked to take during the daytime hours. I guess their thinking is that anyone who wants to take step aerobics is either a housewife or retired. The stuff after work was the high-level stuff. I e-mailed the manager and he had an underling respond. She said she would look into it, but nothing changed. Then Planet Fitness came in across the street. $10 a month for a no-frills membership, and they had a no-sign-up-fee promotion. I defected so fast your head would spin. Suddenly the previous gym's owner cared...he called me on the phone to find out why I left. But it was too late. PF has plenty of parking, is clean, you can quit any time (they advertise "no commitment," and more than enough cardio machines. They don't have classes, but for $46.50 I was not taking any classes anyway, so it's working for me! With all I am saving, I can even take some yoga classes at a private studio if I want to.

So...do you all go to a private gym, a Y, a community center...what???

Many years ago, I belonged to a woman's only gym. It was an awesome gym and was about $25/month. It was clean and had fresh towels. They had lots of good classes, a decent amount of weights, free personal training sessions and plenty of cardio machines. It was smaller than traditional gyms but was never overcrowded.

Then I had a friend who belonged to Ballys and I looked into a Ballys membership. It was an awesome gym, huge and wasn't ever really crowded. Had a pool. My membership was cheap, something like $18/month for 3 years and then $5/month after that and it was a nationwide membership. I also had some free training sessions but purchased some afterwards. My trainer here was awesome.

I then moved to Colorado and the local Ballys was alright but not as nice as the one in California. Although I had gone off and on over the years, when I had my knee injury, I got really serious about going. They then upgraded their Ballys and it was a lot nicer. It did get crowded sometimes in the evening but I either went in the morning or after the 'after work' crowd. When my knee got better, I attended classes as well and liked those a lot.

Then I moved to MD and frankly the Ballys sucked. I went for a while and then held onto my membership for a while. I had thought about doing spinning classes or yoga classes but it just never happened so I cancelled my membership.

I looked into a local 'health center' gym near my house that is really nice but $$$ ($60/month). They have a pool, classes, etc. They have lots of cardio equipment but I kind of found their free weight section to be lacking. I decided it wasn't for me.

Lately, I've been looking into crossfit 'gyms' which aren't your typical gym. You won't find any cardio equipment there. The ones near me aren't very convenient and I can just do their workouts online if I wanted. I have done some. Its nice though to have an expert watch your form though and help work through your individual issues.

Hello!

I Go to a gym called the White River Club. Sounds exclusive, but anyone can join. In fact, if you have 3 or more people from your workplace working out there they give you a discount of $29.99 a month for a year agreement. That includes a pool (small, but efficient), lots of cardio and weight machines, free weights, and several classes to choose from. I will say that the class schedule for me isn't a whole lot better either (hard stuff after work hours, classes I'd like to take early or only once a week) but as a teacher I have summers off so I can go to those classes some of the time. Locker rooms are clean! Staff is helpful and I got 3 free sessions with a trainer for joining. It also offers (for an extra cost) massage therapy, trainers, and nutrition meetings. My husband is also able to join for $20 a month with no commitment since I am already a committed member.

In summary, if I didn't get my corporation discount and if my husband had to pay for a whole ear, this would NOT be a good option due to the shear cost of it all ($108 a month for 2 people with a 2 year commitment). BUT, with the price I pay a month for 2 people ($49.95) and all the perks included, I love my gym and hope to continue going for a very long time!

I have belonged to a few different gyms over the years. Right now I belong to Gold's Gym and it's the best I've found so far. It's HUGE and the amount of equipment and classes offered surpasses any of the other gyms I've been to. The place is always sparkling clean and everyone there is incredibly nice and knowledgeable. It's expensive ($54 per month) but I love going there.

I have a history of belonging to gyms because that is what the diet/fitness industries said I "should" do. I had to do 20 minutes of cardio on a machine 3 or 4 times a week, as this is what I "should" do. I had to embark on a weight training program, as this is "what is done". We've all seen the magazines, and ads on tv, and the shows about fitness.

So, faithfully every year I would join the gym. I was going to get in shape! I was going to have a trainer to help me! I was going to enjoy the stairmaster! I was going to get ripped with weights! So I would go to the gym promotions, check out the facilities at different times, verify the cleanliness of the facility, make an appointment with a recommended trainer and show up as planned. And then the issues started -- cleanliness would slip and complaints to the management got no results. Hoards of kids at inappropriate times would invade the gym -- mostly Saturdays while parents worked out, kids would PLAY amongst the equipment or jump around on the treadmills without the management being concerned. Those lifing HEAVY weights wouldn't replace them, so machines would have huge plates on them that I couldn't budge. Lighter weights were removed from their spaces and couldn't be found, and no one cared. My trainers would either cancel or switch up my appointments because of new clients. And I didn't enjoy the stairmaster! Nor the treadmill. And I hate pushing weights. And I resented paying someone to watch me lift a piece of metal over my head, and even more so when they would answer their cell phones or gossip with other gym goers during my session. And it really, really bugged me that the yoga classes were led by someone with a weekend certification in yoga from the Y, not a trained yogi. And the pilates classes were led by someone with a weekend certification, not a trained Stotts instructor. And I started to question the certification process itself, and why did I think that these trainers knew anything other than what the fitness industry wanted them to know and promote?

Fast forward to the next year, a new gym, and the same scenario.

Now there are those of you out there privileged enough to live in a large community. And you have a wide variety of fitness options and gyms and trainers. But I live in a very small town. I had, this year, exhausted my gym options. AND my finances. There are no more gyms for me to try in my area, and I'm not going to drive to the next town 45 minutes away.

And then a flash of the blindingly obvious hit me! DO I REALLY NEED A GYM??? Seriously! What I was doing was driving to a gym and then simulating climbing stairs. Why not take the stairs at work? Or stay late, and climb up and down the stairs for 20 minutes? Why did I drive to the gym and walk on the treadmill, especially since there is a screen on the treadmill that makes you feel like you are outside? Why not go for a long walk at lunch? Or after work? Or before work? And what DID a trainer offer me, other than a routine that was offered to everyone (I've tried 5 in the past few years. Trust me, if one was out there at my gym who actually tailored a program for my concerns, I'd have found him/her -- and I've posted about this dilemma before!).

So I mentioned this to some friends, and you would have thought that I'd killed someone! WHAAT!!! YOU HAVE to belong to a gym!!! You can't get FIT without a TRAINER!!! My Oxygen magazine has 20 routines this month for a flat belly, and you can't do that without free weights!!!! My Prevention magazine says I should lift weights 3 times a week!!! You have to diet and go to the gym!!! EVERYONE says so!!!

I decided to reject all of that. I decided to move more. I decided to climb stairs. To get panniers for my bike and cycle to the store to get groceries. To mow my own lawn and fire my lawn service. To figure out WHAT I liked to do and then do it!

And exercise started to take on the "100 mile principle" -- you know, where you eat seasonally based on what is locally available. Well, my exercise is seasonal. I can walk in the winter -- it just takes more clothes. But I won't cycle. I can snowshoe in the winter and skate, too, but this sure isn't a natural summer activity. I take long hikes in the fall and go camping, but not in the winter. I swim in the lake, after biking there when it gets warm enough! I canoe and kayak, too. I exercise seasonally. And I save a bundle!!!

And with what I saved, I can go to a private yoga studio for my all-time favorite activity -- HOT YOGA!!! But if I couldn't afford it, I'd find something else to do.

This has been so very, very freeing, and I LOVE my new life. I am not in that box of "20 minutes of this" and "1 day of rest" there, and "push these weights on this schedule". I do what I love to do and say to heck with the fitness industy "rules"!!!

Kira

Kira -- my hat's off to you. You are truly motivated! For myself, I know that if I don't have a nice, warm or nice, cool gym to go to, I will not do cardio in the winter or summer. I have issues that preclude me from being in extremes of heat or cold.

After my husband and my nephew are finished doing some work in our basement, though, I am going to set up his weight bench and dumbells and do my weight training at home. I think I'll be more comfortable, and I'm on my own at the gym anyhow, so might as well be in my own house.

AWESOME!!! I know we all have to find our own paths, and if this path works for you then it is the absolute best path to be on. Because the KEY is finding what works for YOU, NOT what the fitness/fitness magazine SAYS you need to do.



Kira

I should also say that over the years I've built my own home gym which includes my bike (actually I have 2 bikes now, 1 bike, 1 trike). I have lots of kettlebells, swiss ball, bosu ball, some light hand weights, a cabled barbell, elliptical, etc. Lots of exercise DVDs too and then of course the Wii/Wii fit and a tv with lots of tv show/movie DVDs to watch.

I'm lucky enough to have a fully-equipped fitness center at work. There are cardio and weight machines, fitness classes, and locker room / showers. They even provide towels! It's awesome because of the intimate/supportive environment and convenience and it's FREE! I'm there every week day - two days are treadmill running days, and the other three days I take a variety of classes (strength, pilates, yoga, step, etc). It's not convenient for weekends though because of the distance -- I run (outdoors) on weekend mornings and kayak a couple of times a month.

However, I recently wanted to start swimming too, and looked around at community pools. Although a relatively low-cost option, they weren't always convenenient (location and hours of operation), sometimes weren't particularly clean, and could be crowded with swim team practice and other guests. Plus, as outdoor pools, if it was storming (hello - Florida - summer afternoons), then I was out of luck. I found an awesome Costco deal for a 2 year membership to 24-hour fitness for $300! That's cheaper per month than the community pools! So I snapped that up and joined last month. I've been swimming there at least twice per week and have checked out some of their classes too. Belly dancing class is really fun, but I try not to think of what I look like attempting to do it. (shake it baby!) It's nice to have an indoor treadmill back-up plan for weekend running too.

So, my work place fitness center is my primary gym, and 24 hour fitness works well enough for everything else I want. It does sound a little hard core to say that I belong to TWO gyms ...!

One aside: It was comical when I went into sign up at 24hour fitness. They try to upsell you on personal training ("we're here to help you meet your goals") during the initial visit. The first question was: When was the last time you were in a gym? My answer: Uh, this morning? When he realized that I ran 25 miles per week, went to classes 3 times a week, kayaked, hiked mountains, ran half-marathons .... the sales pitch sputtered and died. "Dude, I'm just here for the lap pool!" I'm pretty sure I work out more than he does ....

MBN - That is nice. I forgot that I did that as well at one point where the facility I worked at had a gym and sometimes classes. I used that and it was nice. Then I changed facilities and there is no gym.

Also, I saw the Costco deal last year when it was $199/2 years but we have no 24 hour fitness gyms here. Which reminds me that when I went to college, we had a 24 hour fitness on campus and they gave deals to students so I went there for a while too although student, no car meant lot of walking naturally anyway.

MBN -- you are an inspiration!