Ladies and Gentlemen, Choose Your Fitness Club

Congratulations!

You made the decision to become a bodybuilder.  You’ve researched various exercises, purchased your food, created your diet and training plans, and you’re pretty much ready to grip some weights and start grunting.

So where are you going to workout?  Were you seduced by the chiseled abs and flawless bodies on some TV commercial for an over priced and under-engineered home gym apparatus, on sale for just four easy payments of $89.99?  Are you busy setting up your old duct tape adorned Weider weight bench and brown plastic free weights?  Or are you ready to pull out all the stops and visit your local fitness club or gym to inquire about a membership?

While the beginning bodybuilder might experience some minimal gains through the use of a home gym, whether utilizing a fancy all-in-one exercise machine or simple free weights, the home gym environment is less than conducive to the goals likely set out in their training plan.  The benefits of maintaining a home workout area, such as convenience and a casual atmosphere, are far outweighed by its drawbacks, i.e. a lack of competent supervision (safety concerns), a lack of comprehensive equipment, and the lack of social contact within a bodybuilding context.  Many fitness professionals would agree that this applies to general fitness training as well as dedicated bodybuilding.

If you managed to avoid the impulse marketed flex-o machines and decided to join a gym, there are a few things you should consider before donning your spandex and sweatbands.

For the most part there are many choices when it comes to places to workout; most cities have several fitness clubs or gyms at your disposal.  If you live in a small town your options may be limited, but for interests sake it may be useful to understand the differences between a fitness club and a gym.

Generally speaking a fitness club is simply a marketing term used to label a more commercial workout venue.  Typically a fitness club will offer basic exercise apparatus’, cardio machines, isometric resistance training machines and even basic free weights.   In addition, most fitness clubs offer other amenities such as spas, sauna’s and tanning facilities, in house nutrition or supplement vendors, child care facilities, and various aerobic and even martial arts classes.  While some may continue to refer to this type of facility as a “gym”, they are typically known as fitness clubs.

Alternately, a gym will offer much more specialized facilities and is usually known as a business which caters to “hardcore” bodybuilders.  Quite often these facilities will be smaller and more intimate in their layout and equipment.  They may offer less equipment for cardiovascular exercise and aerobic activity and more facilities and equipment for resistance training, such as a large array of free weight dumbbells, iron plates, Olympic benches and bars and various racks and training aids.

There used to be a distinct difference between these two types of venues and one might have said the easiest way to tell the two apart was to determine which one was cleaner.  Traditional gyms were notorious for being dirty, in disrepair and offering little in the way of customer service related amenities.  They were quite utilitarian in nature and owners were prone to cultivate an elitist or clique engendered environment.  In contrast, most fitness clubs were stereotyped as pastel colored, yuppie havens for socializing and pampering the body.  They offered little in the way of real opportunities for gaining a heightened level of fitness or the chiseled physique of the models on their flyers.

These days it’s much more difficult to make money with those kinds of attitudes and gym owners are seeing the benefits of aligning their businesses with more customer focused ideals.  It may actually be difficult to determine if your chosen workout facility is more like a gym or a fitness club, as many such business are now catering to a customer base of general health interested fitness enthusiasts as well as hardcore bodybuilders, combining the core elements of both worlds and creating a facility that is constructed for optimal training no matter what your goals.

Once you’ve found a ‘gym’ that suits your personal needs and fulfills the requirements of your training plan, you will likely be cornered in a small room by some front desk attendant who will pressure you into signing a contract for their most expensive and frivolous membership package.  Some may find the opulence of a top tier membership to be exactly what they’re looking for, though others will rarely use more than the core amenities of their gym, and it should be noted that most gyms will offer their more expensive services on a use-by-use basis, even if they aren’t included in the membership package you choose.

Many fitness clubs will structure their memberships to provide access to various gym facilities based on the customer’s goals, and as such inquiring about a membership may take you through some of the steps you went through to create your personal training plan.  For the most part, you will encounter tiered memberships from basic to full access that are priced anywhere between $30 per month to $70 or $80 per month and up.  Gym membership pricing varies from location to location, city to city and state to state, but generally speaking you will find most contracts that satisfy your training plan will cost approximately $40 to $50 per month.

Once you determine which level of access will best suit your needs, you will be hit with the contract terms of your membership.  Standard membership terms will commit you to a full year contract, giving you access to all of the amenities offered by that particular membership level.  It’s important to read your contract fully before agreeing to the term with your signature.  Look for clauses which commit you to additional services for additional monies, i.e. administration fees, key or card access fees and even towel services fees (some gyms offer “free” towel services but recover the sundry costs of that service through hidden membership fees), and pay attention to cancellation policies.

As is general a rule, most gym memberships will commit you financially to a year long term with no option for cancellation.  Payment of your membership is not related to your attendance (or non-attendance as the case may be) and you will be responsible to make payments whether you follow your training plan or not.  Readers in Canada should note that these types of policies are supported by law and broken commitments are often met with small claims lawsuits for the outstanding amount of the contract.  While you should be aware of and understand the repercussions of these clauses, it is common for gyms to let people out of their contracts for various reasons, i.e. unsatisfactory service, inability to maintain payment, changes in life circumstances and other situations.  Though likely these issues will be dealt with on an individual basis and not based on any procedure or regulation.

At the time of inquiring about a membership, you will likely be taken on a tour of the gym’s facilities.  Take advantage of this opportunity to become familiar with everything they offer.  Take note of the size and layout of their weight training area and envision yourself using the various pieces of equipment.  Be aware that your training plan may need to be adapted to fit what is available.  Also look at their cardio facilities and any aerobic classes that may be available (while you may not be interested in these facilities personally, they will give you an idea of the gyms popularity and level of customer service).

If you haven’t yet decided if this gym is right for you, be sure to check out the change room facilities for cleaning schedule sheets (a log, usually posted on the door, detailing the frequency of cleaning) to make sure they’re cleaned regularly.  Better gyms will often have semi-private shower stalls and large numbers of oversized lockers.  Don’t be fooled into signing based on fancy saunas or hot tubs when the basic amenities are not accounted for.

Now that you’re ready to go hunting for the right gym lets talk a bit about proper gym etiquette.  Firstly, what is gym etiquette?  It might be defined as the interactions and behaviors of gym patrons, employees and owners.  Essentially we’re talking about the old motto; ‘do unto others as you would have them do unto you’.  While gym etiquette is highly important to your bodybuilding success, there are far too many individual issues to be discussed in one article.  Below are some hot points to consider.

One of the biggest pet peeves and most dangerous situations in any gym is coming to a piece of equipment to find that the last member left it loaded with weight.  This wouldn’t apply to cable or isometric machines (generally speaking), but applies to free weight benches, racks and dumbbells.  Most gyms have posted policies regarding the returning of weight to their assigned locations after use and this is for good reason.  Do not be the presumptuous and arrogant wanna-be who leaves his benches soaked with sweat and loaded to the hilt with weight.  Be courteous and clean; if you use it, wipe it down and put it away when you’re done with it.

Once you’ve gotten used to the social environment of your gym, you’ll find that many people enjoy conversation at the gym as much as they enjoy working out.  This is often an enjoyable and advantageous perk of your bodybuilding career, but be aware that some people choose not to socialize at the gym.  You may encounter people who wish to be left to their workout and avoid conversation, and at the other end of this is the person who seems to do nothing but talk.  Which ever type of gym patron you are, be aware of other people in the gym; don’t be offended by the person who seems to avoid conversation with you, don’t block equipment while chatting with your friends and be patient with the people around you who may want to participate in casual conversation if you do not.

One of the most valuable commodities in your gym will no doubt be benches.  No matter how many benches your fitness club adds to their free weight space, there will never be enough for every patron.  For this reason, be aware of other people looking to use a bench, and if you don’t really need it for the exercise you’re doing, give up your bench to someone who does, but be sure to wipe it down before relinquishing it to another patron.

Other issues such as towels, water bottles, cell phones, clean and dry shoes, noise and even using multiple pieces of equipment at once are important and deserve consideration, but in the interest of brevity, suffice it to say that common courtesy and manners will always get you by.

Alright, you know the what, the where, the when and the how (and how not); the who is unmistakable and the why is defined by you.  So take your desire, your passion and your training plan in hand, and take that first step on the path to becoming a bodybuilder. 

Work hard, play nice and lift heavy!