Should You Sign Gym Contracts?

Contracts

At some point in time most people have thought about taking control of their lives, eating healthy and getting into shape…problem is most people never do it, at least not for more than a few months.  Part of the business model for a gym is that they want you to sign contracts and get locked into fees for a year or more.  They know the vast majority of people who sign up will not come to the gym after a short period of time, in fact, they are counting on you not showing up.  If everyone who has a gym membership regularly went to the gym, it would be so crowded you couldn’t even get in.

Another problem with contracts are people get injuries, change jobs requiring them to move or have other unforeseen situations pop up.  If you become injured, requiring several months of rehabilitation, you still have to pay your gym fees even if you aren’t using it.  In cases like these it would be like taking $30 and flushing it down the toilet each month.  I don’t know about you but I wouldn’t do that.  I’m all for paying for a product I use, but not for one I am not able to use.  If someone loses their job (which happens all the time in our economy), you don’t want to be stuck having to be responsible for these membership fees either, as you will need all the money you can get.

Price

Most gym membership fees aren’t that high per month, so people don’t think anything about throwing away $30-50.  This is part of the problem.  People don’t think anything of it so they just keep paying the fees when they aren’t even going to the gym.  Not to mention, if you think long term, even at $30 a month, that’s $360 per year (not including the gas money spent driving there and back and the time wasted).  Even if you are consistently using the gym, multiply that $360 by multiple years and it become very clear that it’s much cheaper (and saves a lot of time) to simply purchase equipment for your home (after researching what equipment is best – which I do for you).

Comfort

Having to drive to a gym and workout on equipment many other people are using isn’t really that appealing to me.  Some people don’t clean the equipment off after they are finished, or simply wipe it down with a sweat filled towel (think about all of the random people you see everyday, do you really want to roll around in their sweat?).  Most people don’t even clean their homes very well, I highly doubt they care about random equipment at the gym.  In the privacy of your own home, you never have to wait to use your equipment and you know exactly who has used it and if it’s clean.

Motivation

This is the one I commonly hear from people.  They say things like “I need to go to the gym to be motivated”.  If that is your thought process, you are never going to make it anyway.  These people want to show off in front of others, or spend their time socializing.  Your motivation for working out should be to become healthy and improve your quality of life.  It’s okay to have other short term goals (like losing 30lbs) but those goals simply lead to your larger one.

If your motivation is to get healthy, you will never quit working out because it’s a goal you always have to work towards.  People who only set goals of losing 30lbs (or whatever it may be) will quit working out once they reach their goal.  I can’t count the number of people I have seen who are constantly jumping between being out of shape and getting back into shape.  They will repeat this process for years because they have the wrong mindset.  They meet the short-term goals they set for themselves, then quit and get fat again.

Final Thoughts

Gym contracts are a scam most people don’t even know they are falling for.  They don’t think about the future and are simply under what’s called a buyer’s high.  They have a short moment where they feel motivated and nothing can stop them, so they purchase something then never use it again or regret having purchased it.  There is a lot of home gym equipment out there, and for the reasons above, I would recommend buying some of it and getting started.  You don’t even need any equipment starting out, just do some push ups, squats and crunches and see if you are going to stick with it, if so, simply get yourself some dumbbells and add to your home gym as you go.

About the only good thing about a gym is that they will likely have some personal trainers on hand.  If you don’t know anything about how to exercise properly it is a good idea to hire one and learn the basics.  A couple of things to keep in mind are that some organizations hand out personal training licenses without any training, all they have to do is pass a test.  You should find out what license your local personal trainer has and research what is required to earn that license.  You also don’t need a personal trainer for a long period of time.  After 3-6 months you should know enough to be able to do things on your own.  You can always rehire him/her down the line if you need new programs or ideas.