10 Tips for Choosing a New Health Club
If you are new to an area it can be difficult to get into a normal routine especially if your normal routine used to involve exercising daily at your old gym. When you decide its time to hit they gym again (basically after the soreness of the move wears off), there are several factors that you need to consider. Mainly you want to make it as easy as possible for you to get back on a healthy track. So you should look for convenience and access to the equipment that you need. Here are 10 great tips for choosing a new gym:
- Location, location location. It’s always important to consider how quickly you can get to they gym. Normally I would recommend looking at a gym that is really close to either your home or to your work addresses. The best choice for you depends on when you plan on going to the gym (early in the morning – home, during the day – work, at night – either).
- Size of membership. When you checkout the gym be sure to ask them about the number of members they have and the times of day that are generally the slowest and busiest. One thing that is very frustrating is not being able to get on the equipment you need for extended periods, interrupting an otherwise good workout.
- Classes offered. It’s also good to see what classes they offer at the gym and what the normal levels of participation are for each class you are interested in attending. So do they have spinning classes, yoga classes, aerobic classes, etc? This is especially important if you are looking for some social interaction as well as getting fit or staying healthy.
- Monitoring equipment. It’s a good idea to see if they offer any monitoring equipment to keep track of the number of calories that you are burning and/or just recording your workout routine. One example is the FitLinxx system that has become very profitable. You can see more about it here: http://www.fitlinxx.com.
- Free weights. If you are interested in resistance training then you will want to check out the gym’s free weight selection. Actually, the number of free weights and the condition of them will actually tell you a lot about a gym. You can see if it is older (all metal free weights) or newer with rubber covered free weights, newer benches, etc.
- Staff. Take the opportunity to learn the names of the people that run the front desk as well as a few of the trainers at the gym. If you spend a little bit of time with people on staff at the gym you can quickly tell how much they care about their jobs as well as whether or not the gym is customer focused which can be the difference between coming regularly or not at all.
- Security. You will want to make sure that they gym has adequate security to protect your privacy and also to make sure that your belongings are safe. This includes police or security patrols outside helping you get to your vehicle and keeping the vehicle safe.
- Supplements. It’s a lot handier if the supplements that you normally use our actually stocked by the gym you are attending. If they are not, you might want to talk to a fitness counselor to find alternatives that you can then buy from them. Supplements are usually not about the brand but about what will make a difference in your overall health level.
- Friends. The ideal scenario is to find out where your friends, neighbors, or co-workers are working out. If you can get into a group of people that work out together you will find it much more likely that you will both get more out of each trip to the gym but also ensure that you actually go in the first place. It’s a lot harder to skip when other people are counting on you to be there.
- Cleanliness. They say cleanliness is next to godliness… Okay, well in the case of a gym the cleaning crew can make all the difference in the world. How does the gym smell? How about the smell in the locker rooms? Even though you aren’t there too much, it’s great to know that all the equipment and facilities are kept clean (don’t be tricked by a new club, make sure they are cleaning well because even a brand new club can get rancid quickly).







