A cross-country skier's guide
to choosing and using a gym
Date first posted on eCommunity - 4
July 2009
This topic will extend over several postings.
PART ONE: CHOOSING A GYM
With UK temperatures at record highs this might seem a strange time to
be
thinking of gyms. But summer is not only a good time to be working on
your
pre-season fitness. It's also a good time to pick up a gym membership
bargain.
In many gyms summer is a slack period and special offers are much more
likely
now than at other time of year.
As well as discounted rates for full-year memberships, some gyms offer
short-term memberships in the summer period, typically for six or eight
weeks.
They are targeted at people involved in the education system - staff or
students
- but usually they are available to the wider public.
If you are thinking of joining a gym, keep in the very front of your
mind that
the fitness industry is massively big business. Currently the "value of
the UK
health and fitness clubs market" is said to be about
₤4 billion. Big
business is
seldom squeamish about evaluating its customers in a cold-blooded sort
of way.
So don't be bashful about evaluating your own local gyms in the same
spirit. A
year's membership at any gym will cost several hundred pounds, so it
makes sense
to ensure you will be spending your money wisely.
Ask each of your local gyms for a week's free guest pass. And then go
along to
each of them in turn to train at the times you would normally expect to
train.
This is especially important if your normal training time will be in the
early
evening. Many gyms are fairly quiet up until about six in the evening
and then
frantically busy until about eight-thirty. You want to see - before
committing
yourself to a membership - just HOW busy your gym is.
At this stage your main question is: Is this the kind of place I will
enjoy
spending a lot of time in? (The question is important because you SHOULD
spend a
lot of time in it - several sessions per week.)
If you do take a guest pass, be ready to receive a telephone call a
couple of
weeks later, from a member of sales staff trying to convert you into a
full
member. Rehearse beforehand your response to that call.
PRICE CONSIDERATIONS
Does the price of membership reflect the going rate for your area?
Are there any hidden costs? (For example there may be in-vogue kit such
as
vibration plates ["Power Plate"] , for which there is an extra charge.)
What is the minimum membership period? In many gyms you will be
committed for a
minimum of one year. Some gyms are rigidly inflexible over this. Others
will be
more accommodating and will for example freeze your membership for a few
weeks
if you are ill or injured or out of the country.
Be wary of any gym that seems unwilling to tell you frankly and upfront
just
what its prices are. If the sales people stubbornly refuse to disclose
their
prices over the phone but instead say, "Come in and talk to us about the
package
you need", then you can expect to meet with some very hard selling when
you do
go to visit. By all means go in and see them, but be sure to rehearse in
advance
your getaway speech -"Thanks. I now need to think about it all." And be
ready
for that getaway speech to be met in turn by a "really special offer"
that might
include a couple of free months added on to your first year's
membership. So,
you should have a second-phase getaway speech. Rehearse it in advance.
And leave
your credit card at home.
As mentioned above, some gyms offer a short-term membership in the
summer
period. If you are not sure whether you are ready to commit for a full
year,
this is a very good option.
THINGS TO LOOK FOR IN A GYM
General facilities
Is there ample free parking, even at peak times?
Is there safe bicycle parking?
Is there good security - both for you and for your personal belongings?
Are there any restricted times - at which the gym, or some part of it,
is
reserved for women only, or for children or for a local sports club?
Is the music (and its volume) to your taste?
Are any classes (such circuit training, spinning, boxercise, yoga, etc)
available at the times when you are likely to train? Is there a swimming
pool?
(If the gym does have classes and a pool - but you don't plan to use
them - bear
in mind that you will be paying for them anyway, for they will be
reflected in
the price of your membership. So you might find better value in a more
simple
gym.)
Is the gym clean? Is it well-ventilated with good temperature control?
Is any merchandise or food/drink supplementation offered for sale? If
so, are
the gym staff excessively pushy with it?
Other members
Are kids allowed to use the gym? If so, at what times? And what is the
age-limit?
Is the gym frequented by bodybuilders? Many bodybuilders are gentle
souls
motivated by ideals of human beauty that go back to the time of ancient
Greece.
But others, following a shorter tradition that dates merely from Arnold
Schwarzenegger's bodybuilding heyday, are much less civil. They will
repeatedly
crash the weights and try to persuade the staff to flood the entire gym
with
very loud rock music. Check out what sort frequents your gym - and think
about
whether you can co-exist with them.
Equipment
Is there a good variety of equipment? Cross country skiing uses all your
main
muscle groups and also calls for good cardiovascular fitness; so the
keen XC
skier needs a very wide range of kit. Make sure that there is a choice
of cardio
machines (treadmills, bicycles, cross-trainers, steppers, arm cycles,
rowing
machines). You'll also need fixed-plane resistance machines targeting
all the
main muscle groups (leg press, leg curl and extension, chest press,
shoulder
press, lat pulldown, abdominal curl). And if you are already an
experienced gym
user you will also appreciate a good selection of free weights. Other
very
useful items are cable-machines, as well as matted areas on which you
can use
Swiss balls and medicine balls.
As well as the variety of equipment, make sure that there is a
sufficient amount
of it, especially at peak hours. You will not want to have to queue to
get on to
a machine. And, once you are on the machine, you will not want to feel
pressured
to get off it just because someone else is waiting.
Try to ascertain whether the equipment is well looked after. How much
kit is
"out of order" at any one time? How quickly is such broken kit repaired?
As for
the equipment that is in service, are there any minor faults, such as
malfunctioning TV monitors, ripped seats on machines, missing pedal
straps on
bicycles? Do you get the impression that anybody is trying to sort these
problems? Don't be shy about asking other gym users for their views
about the
standard of maintenance.
Staff
Are the staff friendly, qualified, knowledgeable, helpful? Make sure
they are
REALLY helpful. Some superficially friendly staff are merely being
incentivised
for saying hello. Many gyms have computer systems that record the number
of
staff "interactions" with members, and it is a sad fact that the staff
can use
them in a token sort of way, and may therefore be reluctant to get
involved in
interactions that involve anything more than saying hello. Tell the
staff that
you are thinking about a cross-country skiing holiday and ask for some
advice
about how to train. If they don't have a clue - be worried. If they
don't have a
clue but immediately suggest you sign up for a course of personal
training at a
cost of several hundred quid - be deeply worried.
Are inductions given by qualified staff? Was your own induction simply a
tour
round the machines during which you were shown basic operation
procedures - like
how to switch on a treadmill and make it go faster? Or was the induction
enriched by some guidance as to how hard and how often you should train
on the
treadmill (and on a good selection of other kit)?
Are 1-to-1 sessions included in the cost of your membership (to help you
design
a training programme and then review it)?
Is any "testing" offered (body-fat monitoring, etc.)? Some gyms do this
free of
charge. Others, notably those that are moving towards a "wellness"
approach
(rather than a "fitness" one) may offer a range of health and fitness
tests for
which they will charge premium rates.
In summary, treat a gym membership as a very important purchase, and
make your
decisions only after a lot of thought.
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