Joining the Gym..

West

West

West

Soldato
Joined
22 Dec 2004
Posts
9,173
Location
Rugeley, Staffs
I'm sick of being huge, and i'm reviving my effort to become a Police Officer.

My target is to loose around 3-5st, (I'm into the 22 Stone range now - And I need to get back below the 18st Mark - At 6'3 it will look a lot better than it does atm!) in combination of trying to do at least 30 minutes of activity after a shift to going to the Gym on my days off for a couple of hours

Tell me folks.. are you a member of a Gym? if so.. how often do you go and what does it cost you?
 
I've just joined a 24 gym in Manchester. It only costs £15.99 a month, which is significantly cheaper than the competition I was looking at.

I currently go 3 times a week, but I guess I should go more as currently trying to drop a shedload of weight just like yourself.
 
Ascendancy said:
I've just joined a 24 gym in Manchester. It only costs £15.99 a month, which is significantly cheaper than the competition I was looking at.

I currently go 3 times a week, but I guess I should go more as currently trying to drop a shedload of weight just like yourself.
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Sorry off topic, but I didn't realise 24 hour gyms existed in the UK because of Health and Safety? How does it work, are there any staff at silly o'clock?
 
I'm paying about £20 on a joint membership at the moment and tend to go three times a week plus either skipping or running on another day for the fun of it. I'd suggest that getting into the habit of going to the gym is an important parts of it, if it seems almost harder for you to miss going then you're probably doing something right.
 
West said:
That's great just what I'd need, especially that I can just go when ever I feel like, theres one of those quite local in Wolvo. Will give it a look!
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Quite a few of my mates use the Wolvo one and I've not heard any complaints about it, so its definitely worth a look.
I use Eclipse kick boxing and fitness centre in town which is nicely equipped and comes in at £20 a month, I'd probably use puregym if it wasn't a bus ride away which I don't really fancy having to do every time I want to use the gym which is 5-6 times a week.
 
I haven't been myself so can't really comment but when I saw it in the paper and again on the site just it looks like 99% cardio equipment. Which is great if that's what you want especially to start with, but if you get into you will be very restricted there.
 
Member of a gym here in Prague and go 4 or 5 times per week. Costs me ~£15 per month for unlimited use of the gym.
 
member of uni gym £45/year
Member of local council gym (theres a lack of enough free weights or any olympic bars) ~£19 a month (~£25-30 for adults I think)

Go about 6 or 7 times a week to a combination of the two.
 
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DoggyX said:
Whats it like for free weight equipment? The only feedback I've had is off one of the lads from work (who mainly goes for cardio) and he quit and switched to Bannatyne's claiming the machines were crap and broke.
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I don't think there's many free weights to be honest. I'm not up to scratch with the names of a lot of the stuff yet, but there's definately a few bars, a load of weight plates, loads of dumbells, some rack thing that people seem to be squatting and doing bench presses in.

There's also a smith machine and a load of the usual weight machines you generally find in gym-type places.
 
fadetoblack said:
why join a gym.? Start walking, jogging, using a bike going to a pool? How many people end up paying for a gym membership and they dont use it?
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It depends on your goals, if it is just to get a bit fitter then you may not need to go to a gym but if you are aiming to build muscle then a gym certainly provides you with more options. Also because you are paying for it you may be more inclined to go so that you aren't simply wasting the money.
 
semi-pro waster said:
It depends on your goals, if it is just to get a bit fitter then you may not need to go to a gym but if you are aiming to build muscle then a gym certainly provides you with more options. Also because you are paying for it you may be more inclined to go so that you aren't simply wasting the money.
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how many people sign up for the gym in jan and go for 2 weeks max and never go again? Get some basic weights from fleabay start training with them if you like it and stick to it then join the gym.
 
What he said ^^^

Being in an environment surrounded by like minded & experienced people/professionals can only be a good thing.
 
fadetoblack said:
how many people sign up for the gym in jan and go for 2 weeks max and never go again? Get some basic weights from fleabay start training with them if you like it and stick to it then join the gym.
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Quite a number of people and I always try to remember that, they're the ones who subsidise me for the rest of the year.

However flippancy aside I'm not sure why buying your own set of weights, even relatively cheap ones, to see if you enjoy/will stick with it would be better than using a gym. If you're unsure then by all means use a pay as you go system for the first few times but at any point you can just stop going and not be left with a set of weights to clutter up the place - your outlay is limited to the few sessions you've been to and in general the equipment should be better.

If you've got the space and cash then buying your own weights is fine but personally I quite enjoy going to the gym for the banter while I'm there, sure it can be annoying having to wait for equipment sometimes but knowing that other people will offer help or even just share in the pain means that I'm more likely to go along. That's not to say everyone will find the same of course but it is something I like about the gym.
 
fadetoblack said:
how many people sign up for the gym in jan and go for 2 weeks max and never go again? Get some basic weights from fleabay start training with them if you like it and stick to it then join the gym.
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Thats the exact reason those of us who are into fitness and maybe decide to start training at home can get bargin 2nd hand weights :p as has been said payg sessions to see if you will stick to it are a much better idea
 
For me the uni gym was always quite an intimidating place when I didn't know what I was doing, eventually I just bought my own weights for summer (140kg Oly Bar, Rack etc) for around £500. That's a huge investment and you can get better and cheaper sets. I would have bought some slightly different gear had I known then what I do now but it did allow me to learn all the main lifts and gain some proficiency in them.

Now when I'm at Uni I love going to the gym and enjoy the fact that if I need a spot there's always someone around etc, etc. But training alone is awesome too because it means I can throw my weights around like the Hulk and bathe in lung-damaging quantities of chalk.

Without buying weights first I doubt I'd of really stuck with lifting. Now I can't do without it. :)
 
Joined the gym in early Dec last year, I'm diabetic so trying to loose weight and get fit, lost 15lbs sofar and a lot fitter, dropped a lot of the tablets I used to take. Cost me £416.00 for fourteens months, inc swimming pool sauna etc, nice club in Plymouth.
 
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