When you find yourself in a new place and you are desperately looking for the best fitness centers and “gyms near me”, here are some helpful tips. This article helps you get the most benefits out of your new gym membership.
Most Popular Gyms Near Me
There are some major fitness chains around the country, and this may be your first starting point. There is LA Fitness, Gold’s Gym, 24-hour Fitness, and you can get some great deals at these places. However, there are many locally owned fitness centers in your area, so be sure to look around.
- See Also: Top 10 Weightlifting Gloves
Tips to Finding the Best Gyms Near Me
You’ve decided you want (or need) to get work out more and get fit. You’re thinking about joining a local fitness club, but you’ve heard too many bad stories. There are people who join a gym, go one or two times, and stop going back. You’re not really sure which type of fitness center to join: a low-cost chain, a more expensive, exclusive fitness center, or a club that caters to only women or men.
Buying and maintaining a gym membership can be pretty complicated, but if you follow these 10 tips, you’ll save money and be on your way to greater fitness.
1. Make a list of your specific fitness needs and wants. Will you be comfortable working out in a large club with both men and women? Will you need access to more than one club? Are you looking for one-on-one personal training services? How often do you think you’ll work out each month? Do you think you’ll be able to keep up your fitness regimen? How much can you afford to pay for a membership each month?
2. Once know what you want, visit health clubs that meet your needs. Search online to find “gyms near me.” Look mat gym reviews and find a good fitness center near me. Get a free pass for each club (at least a one-week’s pass) and workout at each club as often as possible during the free periods.
3. Don’t sign up for a membership at any of the fitness clubs while you still have your free passes. You’ll be under a lot of pressure from salespeople and gym managers, and they will tell you that you need to sign up today in order to get discount pricing. Don’t be tempted. Gyms and fitness centers offer discount pricing all the time.
4. When you’ve picked a fitness center, go back and speak with a salesperson about membership choices. Don’t feel pressured to sign a long-term contract at any health club. Remember that long-term contracts are really installment loans with high interest payments. If you don’t think that you’re going to keep up your workouts, don’t even think about signing one of these contracts. Gather all of the written information about each type of membership, then go home and review it at your leisure. Don’t feel pressured to sign up for any membership at the club.
5. When you’re speaking with the fitness club salesperson, ask all of the questions you want. Don’t feel rushed or pressured. Never forget that any contract you sign supersedes any promises a salesperson gives you. Even if the salesperson writes it into the contract, it probably isn’t legally enforceable. The contract is king. Read it carefully before signing or you will regret it.
6. Compare the costs of each membership type, and remember that you should make the ultimate decision based on your own needs, not on short-term discounts that may sound like you’re saving money, but will end up costing you more money in the end. It feels good to save money, but you will feel even better from working out.
7. Make sure you totally understand the cancellation policies and requirements of each membership type. Many long-term health club contracts are almost impossible to cancel without a hefty fee. A month-to-month contract may be a better solution especially when you are just starting off.
8. Probably not a good idea to sign up for automatic payments via credit card. That’s because you may find it difficult to stop your credit card payments if or when you no longer want a membership, and you may find it difficult to get payments cancelled and stopped.
9. Keep records of all your payments in case there are any disputes with your fitness club.
10. If you do cancel you gym membership, make sure you get the cancellation in writing from your fitness club.
By following these 10 tips, you will certainly set yourself up for fitness success. Hope this helps in your search for gyms near me.
- See also: Top Tips to Start Your Exercise Program
Going to the Gym has it’s Benefits
For most people, it simply isn’t practical to get gym equipment for their home. The equipment is expensive, and you probably don’t have anywhere to put it, and it’s certainly impractical to buy and store the wide variety of machines that are necessary for a properly balanced workout.
Well, that’s why most people choose to join a gym. For either a per-visit fee or a monthly subscription fee, you get to share the equipment with other people, paying a fraction of the price of what it’s worth. You also get to access to exercise in a more luxurious air conditioned environment. There are qualified trainers on hand so you can get the most out of the equipment and your membership, and most importantly make sure you don’t hurt yourself.
However, gyms also have a bit of a reputation for being scammers: the big chains are very sales-driven, trying to sign people up for far more expensive monthly memberships than they need, and relying on people’s guilt about not going to the gym to stop them from cancelling the expensive commitment.
For this reason, you really need to know what you’re getting into before you join a gym. Of course, avoid offers that seem too good to be true. It is always worth it to pay the visitor fee to go in and just try out a gym first before you commit. If there is no way to pay to visit, you’re dealing with shady types and should probably just go to another gym. Many places will offer a free pass for the day as well.
All gyms will generally often cheaper and more expensive levels of membership, so it is also important to know what they offer. Generally, the higher membership levels offer more one-to-one training from qualified gym instructors. However, it is worth considering whether you will really use this and whether it’s worth paying for, as when it comes down to it, there is little a gym trainer could tell you one-to-one that you couldn’t just as easily learn from books or the Internet.
- See also: Top Benefits of Pilates Fitness Program
[amazon bestseller=”yoga products”]