Do you want to join a gym so that you can get yourself into better shape? It shouldn’t be too hard at all for you to find one in your area.
There are more than 100,000 gyms and fitness clubs scattered throughout the country at this time. As a result, you should have a handful of options for you to consider.
Prior to choosing a gym, though, you’re going to want to weigh your options so that you can pick out the gym that’s going to help you achieve optimal health. The best local gym is going to be different for almost everyone. It’s all going to depend on what you’re looking for from it.
Today, we’re going to walk you through some of the steps that you should take when choosing a gym. It should hopefully make it simpler for you to narrow down your options to just one.
Check out our complete guide to choosing a gym below.
Begin by Seeing Which Gyms Operate in Your Area
If it’s been a long time since you’ve seen the inside of a gym or, worse, if you haven’t ever been to a gym before, you might not know which gyms currently operate in your area. So when you’re first on the hunt for one, you should look to change that by conducting a general search for gyms.
Google “gyms near me” and check out all the different gyms that pop up. As we mentioned earlier, there are tens of thousands of gyms all across the country right now, so you should be able to track down at least a few in your area.
Write down the names of these gyms as well as the websites for them. You’ll be able to do more research on them later as you strive to trim your list of gyms down to the one that you like the most.
Take a Look at Where the Gyms in Your Area Are Located
You might be super excited to start working out at a gym right now. But guess what? After you’ve been a part of a gym for more than a few weeks, you’re going to start to find plenty of excuses to skip going to the gym.
If your gym isn’t in an ideal location, that’s going to give you a really easy excuse to skip going to it when you’re scheduled to. It’s why you need to find the perfect training location for yourself.
Your gym shouldn’t be situated in a place that’s going to make it challenging for you to get to it. If it is, you’re going to use that as an excuse when you don’t want to go to it. Look for gyms that are only five or ten minutes from your home, if possible.
Figure Out Which Types of Gyms Are Available to You
When you’re in the market for a gym, you’re quickly going to discover that there are all kinds of different types of gyms out there. It’s going to be imperative for you to find a gym that’s going to allow you to get the best possible workouts in.
For most people, a so-called big box gym is going to do the trick. Big box gyms are usually chains that have the same kinds of equipment in each of their locations.
But it’s worth noting that big box gyms are far from your only options. You might also want to consider going with, say, a bodybuilding gym if that’s more your speed.
Or, you might want to think about signing up for a:
- Boutique gym
- CrossFit gym
- Group fitness gym
- Personal training gym
The gym options are virtually endless. As long as you’re willing to put in the time and effort, you should be able to locate the right type of gym for your specific needs before too long.
Learn About the Hours Offered at Your Local Gyms
When choosing a gym, a lot of people forget to consider which hours they want a gym to offer. Then, they’re surprised when they show up at a gym for the first time to work out only to realize that it’s not open.
In a perfect world, every gym would be open 24/7/365 so that you could get a workout in whenever you want. But of course, most gyms don’t operate in this way. They’re not always open super early in the morning or super late at night.
If you suspect that you’re going to need to go to your gym very early or very late, you’ll want to pay extra close attention to your local gym hours. It’ll help you avoid signing up for a gym that you’re not ever going to be able to use.
See What Kind of Equipment Is Used in Gyms
Before you get all excited about a gym and decide to sign up for a membership at it, you should always take a tour of it. During this tour, you should make it a point to take a good, long look at the kind of equipment that is offered by the gym.
Ideally, you want all of this equipment to be up-to-date. There is no excuse for a gym not to have state-of-the-art equipment in it in this day and age.
You also want all of this equipment to be stuff that you’re going to be able to use to accomplish your goals. You’re going to have a tough time getting jacked at a gym if they don’t have something as simple as free weights available to you.
Don’t be shy about asking a gym to walk you through all of the equipment that they have. They should be more than happy to explain what sets their equipment apart from the equipment found in other local gyms.
Find Out Which Gyms Extend Personal Training Services
As we alluded to earlier, there are some personal trainers that have set up their own gyms for people to use. If you’re interested in working with a personal trainer at all times, you might want to look into joining one of these gyms.
But if you’re only going to use a personal trainer every now and then, it might be worth finding another gym that can cater to your personal training needs whenever you want. Many gyms can hook you up with personal trainers as necessary when you want to work out with them.
You just need to search for gyms that can extend personal training services to their members. You also want to find gyms that aren’t going to charge people an arm and a leg for these services.
Look at the Different Supplements That Are Sold in Gyms
Most gyms are going to be able to supply their members with the supplements that they need to get themselves into the best shape of their lives. But each individual gym is going to take a slightly different approach to setting members up with supplements.
If you’re planning on using supplements while putting in work in the gym, you should feast your eyes on which supplements different gyms have to offer. You’ll be able to tell a lot about a gym based on the supplements that they supply in-house.
Gyms with SARMs for sale are usually going to be your best bet if you’re trying to add muscle to your frame. You’ll know that you’re in good hands when they start providing you with the supplements that you need to reach your goals in the gym.
Consider the Membership Costs Associated With Gyms
The average gym is typically going to charge members somewhere between $20 and $50 per month. But not all gyms are going to have the same exact membership fees.
In fact, it’s not out of the ordinary for some specialty gyms to charge way over $50 or even $100 per month. And there’s a big difference between dropping $20 and more than $100 on a monthly basis when it comes to your budget.
It would be a good idea for you to shop around to see what different gyms in your area are going to cost you. It would also be a good idea to see how the memberships at different gyms work.
Some gyms will let you cancel your membership at any time if you don’t want to go to them anymore. Others will lock you in for a yearly membership and refuse to help you get out of it if the time ever comes.
Whatever you do, don’t get suckered into signing up for a gym without considering the costs associated with doing it first. You could very well come to regret your decision down the line when you’re paying a whole lot of money to a gym every month and not even using it to its full potential.
Read the Reviews People Have Left for Gyms Near You
Once you reach this point in your search for a gym, you should be just about ready to sign on the dotted line and become a member at one of them. But before you do, do yourself a favor and read through some of the reviews that people have left for the gyms in your area.
If a gym is really going to be the right choice for you, you’re going to find that it’ll have almost nothing but positive reviews from its current and past members. This will let you know that you can sign up for this gym without a care in the world.
But if you discover that a gym has nothing but negative reviews from its current and past members, that’s going to be a much different story. It’s going to indicate that you should think twice about signing up for this gym.
Of all the steps that we’ve listed here, this one might just be the most important as far as choosing a gym is concerned. The last thing you want to do is sign up for a gym that has racked up its fair share of negative reviews from angry customers over time.
Think About Taking Several Gyms Up on Their Trial Membership Offers
Because there are so many gyms in most areas nowadays, the gym scene has become very competitive. Gyms are always trying to one-up each other in an effort to pad their membership numbers.
One way that they’ll do this is by offering free trial memberships to those who might be interested in them. You can use this to your advantage before choosing a gym.
You can sign up for free trial memberships at several different gyms and see what each of them brings to the table. Within just a few workouts, you should be able to tell whether or not a gym is going to be right for you.
If you love everything about a gym at the end of your trial membership, you can continue going to it by becoming a full-fledged member. But if it’s not your cup of tea, you can stop going to it when your trial membership ends and never look back.
This is an excellent way to land on the gym that you like the best in your area. You won’t have any doubts once you’ve put a few gyms to the test.
Working Out at a Gym Might Be Hard, But Choosing a Gym Doesn’t Have to Be
Getting into the gym and whipping yourself into shape isn’t necessarily going to be easy. It’s going to require a lot of hard work and dedication on your part.
But choosing a gym, on the other hand, can be easy if you know how to go about doing it. Just follow along with the steps listed here and you should be able to find your dream gym in no time at all.
Want to get more tips on going to the gym and improving your physical fitness? Find them by reading some of the other articles that we’ve posted on our informative blog.