I found and joined a cold, heartless gym conglomerate.
It fits my personality.
I sadly had to move away from my beloved Better Body Fitness a couple of weeks ago and find a gym near my new house. The closest gym is Gold’s Gym on Forest Drive, which happened to have everything I was looking for in a gym.
Such as:
- Elliptical machine
That’s the criteria I walked into Gold’s Gym with. It’s not the only criteria I had as I did/do care about price, location, etc., but at the end of the day, my only non-negotiable requirement was an elliptical machine. Ironically though, I’ve only been on it once in about a half dozen visits so far.
I’ve found a new toy at my new gym. Her name is StairMaster. This twisted machine is simple — no gimmicks, no learning curve — just climb stairs until your thighs are burning and you can’t move anymore.
I don’t remember ever sweating so much. Currently, I’m on level 8 out of 20 and can do about 20 minutes on the machine, climbing just over 85 floors. It”ll be quite a while before I do any new workout pledges on this thing.
First Impressions of Gold’s Gym
As I said: cold and heartless.
Joining Gold’s Gym is a lot like sitting down and negotiating a deal at a used car lot — it’s high pressure and the first dollar figures presented to you, um, don’t really matter a whole lot. They originally wanted me to pay $249 as an “initial investment” (what exactly is that?) and $59.95 a month. After telling both the salesman, assistant manager, and then the manager that I didn’t want to pay more than $39.95 with no “initial investment,” I got my way.
My contract is $39.95 a month for a term of 24 months.
While the staff at Gold’s Gym is friendly enough, they are running a business with outrageous profit margins. If you’re considering joining, just know that and know that the prices they quote you are a rough draft.
I don’t mind Gold’s being cold and heartless. I don’t mind being just a number. I don’t mind not being recognize or spoken to by other members – it fits my personality. I’m not at the gym to socialize — I’m there to improve my life. I leave my wife and baby when I go to the gym every night, so the sooner I can reach the brink of physical and mental collapse and get back home the better.
Gold’s Gym offers the tools to do that and that was enough to sign me up.
{ 28 comments… read them below or add one }
Good post – its important to negotiate if you are thinking of joining a gym. I brought my mom with me when I joined, and she’s a good negotiator. I signed up with 24 Hour Fitness for 25 Bucks a month, no initiation fees, and no contract.
I always do the elliptical, but I have tried the stairmaster. I can’t last more than 5 minutes on that thing! But I may give it another try.
Welcome to the collective. We have good staff at ours, so even though it is a cold, heartless conglomerate, the staff is always warm and enthusiastic. Prices are a bit different here but that’s a geographical difference. Utahns are horribly cheap so the prices are set lower.
LOL. That would be my number one criteria as well – thankfully I own my own elliptical, though nothing fancy and electronic with interesting levels to try. Nope, just a simple manual, tension set elliptical. All I can change is the tension, and the speed of course by my own attempts at speed. :)
I thought about joining a gym – but I am cheap. So, instead I rely on my exercise ball, a yoga mat, two 5-pound weights and elliptical. :) I’d LOVE to have a bike…. but again, I’m too cheap.
Re: Counting calories. I see from the pics you took of yourself that you have an iPhone. Download the Lose It! app. It’s free and, I found, an easy way to count calories (plus calories burned while exercising). Help me drop 20 lbs. (from 187 to 167-ish).
I don’t have an iPhone anymore — G1 :)
How the heck can you do the stairmaster? I hope to one day be just like you. Right now, I think I would have a heart attack! So glad you found a gym!
I think that’s a good deal. I’ve had only 1 experience with a gym membership and it wasn’t even mine. Contract thing gets me. Was impossible to get out of even by moving!
Anywho, when’d you cross over to the g1? Couple weeks for me and not sure yet if I prefer it over my tiny candy bar nokia…
A few months ago. I like the G1, but it’s not very portable nor does it have a good battery life. I’m not really impacted greatly by those two deficits, fortunately.
Yeah, I called them and they gave me some of those numbers…and then the length of the contract. With my budget, no way. I did end up going to the YMCA, and with my ‘less than optimum’ level of income, I got a *serious* break on the cost of the gym. And no contract.
Ive gone several times, and I love them. Personal TVs in all the cardio equipment..and classes. I love classes. Plus, its the YMCA downtown, so only 5-10 min away from me. Nice.
Good luck on the gym Tyler. This should get the scale moving for you again so long as you watch what you eat.
I have lost 104 pounds myself since Jan. 23rd.
First, I have to say that I’m really glad you found a gym that suits your needs. And it’s probably pretty cool that you’re liking the stairstepper, since there are less people who want to be on that beast of a machine.
And I love your attitude about the gym. So many people go there to chat. I don’t. I’m there to work. I have my headphones on, and they still talk to me. Funny.
I’d have to say, though, that I love the g1. It does have pretty bad battery life (like a day or less!), but I really enjoy the actual keyboard, and the free apps.
Oh yeah, and when are you going to sart counting your Calories again?
This Saturday, actually. You caught me.
Have they seen your blog? Do they know who you are? They should pay you to come to their gym.
They haven’t and they don’t. I’m not a celebrity. As I tell either people, while I’m not going to “sing my own praises” so to speak, if you’d love to contact the corporate office, media outlets, etc., I love doing the interviews and appreciate the attention.
Your postings are such an inspiration to me. Keep it simple and get busy. I love it. I’m only a week in. I’m shooting to see what can happen in over a years time 09/09/09 – 10/10/10.
Thanks for your example.
Shelli
http://www.shellibelly.com
Nice blog, Shelli. I’ll make sure to keep checking in!
Hey Shelli – Tyler IS an incredible inspiration.. I am on a similar mission with you.. and also started a blog a little while back… come on over and say hi sometime! Good luck to you too!!
http://www.attitudeoverpounds.blogspot.com
Cassi
Stairmasters should be called The Epic Butt and Thigh Machine. I remember the first time I ever went on one I spent 10 minutes and stopped and thought “this isn’t so bad” and then fell off cuz my legs were jello. They are absolutely fantastic. They can replace squats for toning (but not range of muscle) and if you can do an hour at anything over level 10 you’ll basically never be out of breath on uphill hikes ever again.
They should be. I feel new muscles in my thighs.
It’s intense after only a week on it.
*range of movement. Dur…
Buns of Steel, man, that’s awesome. Now just balance that out with a little upper body strength, and you’ll be worthy of that Gold’s tee-shirt!
And kudos to you. The Gold’s Gym here in Fort Laud is hardcore iron. I’m not even tough enough to drive past it. Yet.
And talk about small world: My first job out of school was at WALD in Walterboro. I also lived in St. George for a while. Have family in Holly Hill.
Will! I choked on my diet pepsi! “I’m not even tough enough to drive past it. ” I’m still laughing at that
You’re not tough enough WIll, I already know this. Oh. I used to live in Cottageville, about 5 minutes outside of Walterboro.
Good job on the gym negotiations and excellent work on yourself. You are an inspiration to me.
And your comments are motivation for me!
glad everything seemed to have worked out with Gold’s! I used to belong there when I lived in VA. It was nice because I had a friend that went with me. Now I have my gym in my apartment complex, but no friend to go with and there are no classes. Tear.
Can’t wait to hear your fun stories of the stairmaster!!
My biggest reason for joining Gold’s was -it’s the closest gym to my house (a huge factor) and I can go to any Gold’s in the country. So I can go exercise when traveling virtually in any city.
Tyler,
You da man!
I’m also a Forest Dr. Gold’s Gym member and I agree that the Stairmaster is great. But they only have two and one seems to be broken a lot lately. I’m hoping when they finish the new building that they’ll have more.
I joined to recover from a leg injury and have made steady progress in that regard, but I’m also encouraged by your success at weight loss. That comes a little harder when you get older (mid 50′s) so keep it off once you get it off!
Keep it up!
George