How to choose a gym: 5 rules so as not to quit exercising

What should you pay attention to before purchasing a fitness membership? What factors can be decisive when visiting a fitness club? Answered by the director of the sports and fitness department at the Atlantic Pools chain in St. Petersburg.

Finding the perfect gym is like looking for a needle in a haystack. This is often why many people put off going to fitness - to avoid an unpleasant experience and not throw money away. We have prepared useful tips to help you make the right choice.

How to understand that a coach is not a professional? 8 signs you're paying the wrong person

Why don't fitness trainers sometimes look like cover athletes?

Introduction

In previous articles, we have already talked about the fact that the most common questions are: how to create a training program, how to adjust your diet and when to expect results. But we have not yet touched upon the topic of building a training process based on the presence or absence of the necessary equipment. And the equipment in each particular case can vary greatly.

Let's start, perhaps, with a small lyrical digression. It must be done based on the considerations that the option of going to a fitness club is not the only possible one, since many who want to join heavy sports are looking for opportunities based on their current financial and social situation. Here, we mean that in one form or another, more or less equipped classrooms can be found in various educational institutions (schools, lyceums, institutes, etc.), in dormitories at these educational institutions, in holiday homes, all kinds of camps, sanatoriums, health institutions and even in the fresh air.

In addition, there is also a category of people who, again, due to their financial capabilities, can afford to equip a small training room at home. Such people, as a rule, no longer wonder how to choose a fitness club. Such a home gym can be equipped with either one bench for bench press with a pair of dumbbells, or a very serious list of equipment from strength and cardio equipment, barbells, dumbbells and other equipment, the presence of which can only be dictated by the size of your wallet and, accordingly, lack of desire or opportunity visit a sports club.

Based on the information above, we will divide potential followers of iron sports into two categories - those who can afford to buy a subscription and, accordingly, are wondering how to choose the right fitness club, and those who, for one reason or another, cannot afford it ( or doesn’t want to) and doesn’t burden himself with relevant questions.

Each category can also be divided into levels of material wealth. Those who can afford to buy a membership will choose one of three club segments: luxury, standard and economy. Those who cannot afford to buy a subscription, as a rule, are also divided into three categories - those who have at their disposal a full set of necessary equipment, those who work with what they have, and those who have nothing but desires. You can see the schedule of those interested below, and we will describe what to do in each particular case below. At this stage, your task is to determine which segment you are in and, with the help of this article, understand what your next steps will be.

To understand what is happening, let me explain that the category “wishers” is indicated in gray, since these are people puzzled by intention, but not burdened by action. And quite often, not everyone who intends to moves into the active category. The blue color indicates the category of active individuals who not only want, but have definitely decided to act. In both categories, green means “full stuffing”, and as a result, the most comfortable conditions in choosing equipment for training. The yellow color in the first category indicates quite decent conditions for training in the gym, where there is a full set of equipment, it is no longer so expensive and not in such quantities, there is no longer a swimming pool with a spa, as well as storage rooms, towels for clients and others excesses. The yellow color in the second category means a self-assembled sports club or hall, in the organization of which the entire dormitory, cadet corps, or medical sanatorium took part. The red color of the first category indicates a strictly basic set of the most necessary equipment, which may not even be enough for everyone. The red color of the second category characterizes you as a person who does not want (or does not have the opportunity) to visit a fitness club and at the same time does not have any equipment at hand. But even this option is not hopeless, as Baron Munchausen might have put it.

Defining goals and finding motivation

Oddly enough, you should start not with finding a hall, but with preliminary preparation.
Thoughts about starting to train have probably crossed your mind before, but for some reason you never signed up. This is what we need to deal with. First, you must define your goals and find a good incentive. Why do you need all this? Do you want to gain weight or, conversely, lose weight by turning fat into strong muscles? In any case, it is important to understand that results will not come until you really want to change. Motivation will help you not to give up in difficult moments, which will certainly happen. It can be anything: the desire to please a girl, the appearance of six-pack abs for summer, or getting rid of extra pounds that prevent you from fitting into your favorite suit.

If you decide to start training simply because a healthy lifestyle is now in fashion, then, unfortunately, you are unlikely to last long. Remember: you must be pushed forward by something that you sincerely want.

Construction of the training process

In order to choose the right fitness club or home gym with the best, sufficient or critical equipment, you need to select certain criteria so that we have the right to make certain value judgments.

As already mentioned in our article “First Visit to the Gym,” any beginner starting physical exercise and puzzled by the construction of the training process has as his task to work out the whole body during the workout. Such a program, as you already know, is called “full body” - in other words, “whole body”. And its meaning, as we have already described, is to work out all muscle groups in one workout, and also to be able to change exercises during three workouts a week. Based on this idea, the goal is formed - to provide yourself with a set of equipment sufficient to perform exercises for each muscle group. Since a clearly formed goal is already half the result, now we know exactly how to evaluate the equipment of a fitness club or home gym, subject to the presence or absence of the opportunity to implement it.

Studying nutrition theory

Nutrition is a very important point for a person who exposes his body to physical activity. And it will be better if you learn the theoretical basics before visiting the gym.

Our body is in a state of energy balance when the energy expended on physical activity is equal to that received from food. To tip the scales in one direction or another, you need to either consume less or spend more. Since we are going to increase our activity through training, we need to adjust our diet and start eating right.

Training in the best possible conditions

When wondering how to choose a luxury fitness club, you must understand that you need to focus on the availability of a large number of professional exercise equipment and a wide range of additional services, which is a matter of course for an establishment of this level. Here we will not split hairs and say right away that in such conditions you can engage in absolutely any type of active activity, regardless of your level of training, since the availability of a wide selection of both basic and auxiliary equipment in conjunction with professional trainers will help you in your decision tasks of any complexity.

Since performing basic full-body exercises requires a fairly small amount of equipment, you will definitely find everything you need at a luxury club. There will be block and lever and cable exercise machines, in some places even electronically controlled, a free weights area with a row of dumbbells from 0.5 to almost 100 kg, and this is not to mention all kinds of treadmills and exercise bikes with their many variations.

We will not stay here for a long time, since everything is extremely clear and extremely comfortable with the conditions of the classes, and it makes sense to visit a club of this level, unless in order to confirm your status, or for example, the status of your parents, which, in general , is not at all a prerequisite.

Well, if with a fitness club everything is more or less clear, since they are all created according to approximately the same template, then organizing a conditionally home gym is usually a vinaigrette of various multi-stations with exercise machines from completely different manufacturers and cardio equipment not so much for professional, but for home use. However, this in no way detracts from the semantic and power load that is attached to them.

In the case of the best equipment of such a hall, it will be necessary to acquire, first of all, free weights - these are dumbbells and bars with weights. Moreover, it is desirable that this be a dumbbell row, for quickly changing weights, for example, from 5 to 25 kg, in steps of 2 kg (5, 7, 9, 11...), barbells, it is desirable that among them there are Olympic 2.2 m long and 20 kg weight, as well as 1.5 m long and 10 kg weight and curved EZ bars, preferably the same length (1.5 m) and weight (about 10 kg) for performing biceps exercises and triceps. A bench press, squat racks or frame, an adjustable incline bench, a multifunctional station, of which there are a great many on sale now, and, if possible, a treadmill or exercise bike. If in your dormitory, for example, at a university, there is a hall with the above set of equipment, which is accompanied by a locker room, shower, ventilation, good lighting, music and perhaps even a TV under the ceiling, such a hall can be considered more than comfortable for bodybuilding.

Study the coaching staff

A trainer is always an example for a client. The person who motivates, supports, and energizes. Therefore, the coaching staff is also very important when choosing a gym. It’s just difficult to distinguish a good instructor from a bad one, especially for a beginner. As statistics show, almost every second person works without the appropriate skills, and the chances of bumping into an unprofessional are high.

Expert advice:

Pay attention to work experience and the availability of an appropriate certificate. Many companies rank their employees based on their length of service, education, and athletic achievements. Let this be an additional hint for you in choosing a club and then a coach.

Photo: istockphoto.com

Training in conditions of sufficient equipment

Often, those who are wondering how to choose a fitness club are interested in the middle class, since it is the most in demand and is most widely represented on the market. This is a kind of golden mean between expensive memberships with overpayment for eliteness and budget clubs to the core, where you have to stand in line to get a bench press. Standard class clubs are equipped with a full range of both basic and auxiliary equipment. Quite rarely, in addition to the gym and fitness areas, they come with a swimming pool with a massage room and spa treatments, but it is absolutely certain that such a club has all the necessary strength and cardio equipment on which you can build the entire training process. Here you will have affordable subscriptions, comfortable locker rooms with showers, treadmills with exercise bikes, the same block and lever exercise machines with a free weights area and a full set of barbells and a row of dumbbells. The difference between the “luxury” and “standard” classes may often not be visible at all, since it lies mainly in the design and decoration of the club, the availability of additional services and more comfortable conditions for training, but in terms of technical equipment, with regard to exercise equipment, these two classes go neck and neck, since “luxury” does not reinvent the wheel, that is, it does not offer exercise equipment that you could not find in standard class clubs. Luxury clubs provide the same exercise equipment at your service, only from more expensive manufacturers, which increases both the status of the club and the price of the subscription.

As we have already indicated above, a training room, the equipment of which could be called sufficient, often has such a basic set of hardware as a multistation, in one modification or another, on which you can perform up to 10 different exercises for all muscle groups, at least one a barbell for a barbell, and most likely it will not be an Olympic one (with a smooth cup with a diameter of 50 mm), but will be an amateur one (with a diameter of 30 mm and a screw-on nut). Dumbbell row, as a rule, the most popular weights are 5 kg, 10 kg, 15 kg and possibly 20 kg. The presence of other weights in the dumbbell row depends on each private institution, as well as the presence of the dumbbell row itself, to replace which they usually purchase a couple of sets of collapsible dumbbells with a set of weights. Also, such a gym must have at least one squat rack and at least one bench press bench. Most likely, there will be no cardio equipment in such a room, except for a jump rope, but it is also possible that there will be a treadmill or an exercise bike in the simplest modifications, that is, not the more expensive electric ones, but in a mechanical version driven by the user himself. Working out in such a gym with a large number of people will, to put it mildly, not be very comfortable, including due to rather primitive locker rooms, lack of showers and poor ventilation, but from the point of view of the availability of equipment for working out all muscle groups, such a gym can be considered quite satisfactory.

What is fitness?

This is a set of exercises aimed at maintaining physical fitness.

Its advantages include the following points:

• Help in losing weight and burning fat
• Improved skin appearance
• Rejuvenation of the body
• Boosting immunity
• Slender and fit figure

For fitness to bring tangible benefits, you need to visit the best fitness rooms in Moscow or in any other city, no matter where you live.

Only under the supervision of an experienced instructor can you achieve brilliant results and not harm your own health.

Training in critical conditions

Once again, looking into your wallet and thinking about how to choose a fitness club, oddly enough, you will come across clubs of this level that you can go to with a subscription. Most often, these are sports institutions of domestic formation and quite Soviet equipment, on the basis of all kinds of sports schools, sports complexes, and so on. Created during the union, which have existed to this day, but have fallen into disrepair due to lack of funding, these sports clubs provide an opportunity for everyone, as a rule, to join the old school of fitness and bodybuilding for a minimal fee.

The equipment in such halls is often hand-welded and riveted from bolts and nuts, with cables purchased from a nearby hardware store. The dumbbell row in this case will present approximately the same picture, where the step of the scales will be different, each pair of dumbbells will be individually assembled from improvised pieces of pipes and metal. Cardio equipment can easily be represented by domestic copies of “Sport” roller treadmills and “Health” magnetic exercise bikes. In some places, such establishments can look quite decent, but sometimes you can find peeling walls, rusty exercise equipment and flickering lamps, which, coupled with the suffocating smell of the basement, will create the atmosphere of a horror film. Sometimes, when there is no fish and no bleach, you don’t have to choose. In this case, just pay attention to the functionality of the existing equipment to make sure it is completely safe and only then purchase a subscription.

Now let’s imagine that for one reason or another, you want to study on your own. We know for sure that you will not go to the fitness club, so you will have two options. The first is that to perform the vast majority of exercises, for all parts of the body, you will only need collapsible dumbbells. Either you buy them, or find them and requisition them from friends. And the more weight that can be adjusted, the better for you. Dumbbells are perhaps the most necessary element of the training process, since they can be used to perform exercises for all muscle groups.

The second scenario is that to perform, again, a fairly large arsenal of exercises, you will need TRX loops. You can find information about what they are, what they are for and how to use them in the list of articles “Accessories” in the “Hardware” section in the “Instructor” catalogue. I won’t go on and on, and I’ll just say that the ideal option in this case would be to purchase both dumbbells and loops. In both cases, even in conditions of almost complete lack of equipment for training, keep in mind that with both dumbbells and straps you can easily build a training process with exercises for all muscle groups.

Criterion 3. Reviews

The effect of word of mouth has not been canceled, so quite often people visit those fitness clubs whose names are familiar to them. Many people I know go to them, so they automatically become good.

However, the most popular clubs most often do not meet even half of the sanitary requirements and standards, or the atmosphere of the gym will not be to your liking.

In the age of information technology, every person has the opportunity to look at the official website or page of the establishment, where you can read reviews about a particular fitness center written by real people, and the presence of negative reviews should not be considered a negative characteristic.

The opinions of people who have visited this club can only guide you in a certain direction, but you still make the decision yourself.

In addition, most responsible managers post photos of the fitness center on their websites, thanks to which you can get acquainted with the furnishings of the room, the number of exercise equipment, and the general atmosphere.

This is also of great importance, because for a productive workout you cannot feel constant discomfort from the unpleasant color of the walls or too closely spaced equipment.

Plan your investment ahead

When you're weighing up the costs of a potential gym, keep in mind that in the long run it may be better to sign up for more expensive training. Cheap clubs often have "dead souls": members who have stopped going because the fee they paid was so low that they don't even take the time to cancel their membership. They believe that having invested such an amount, sooner or later they will return there. But you can force yourself to go there by paying a little more. Then you will feel sorry for wasting money if you show up at the gym less than once a week.

Find a good mix of exercise equipment

Look around the room and note whether all the exercise equipment in the room is from the same company or from different suppliers. One company may make good treadmills, but it probably won't be the best at making all other types of equipment. If you see exercise equipment in the gym that belongs to the same brand, it means that the owner made a good deal, and not that he wants his clients to exercise on the best equipment. Also ask when the equipment was purchased and when it is scheduled to be updated.

Reasons to visit the gym

• Thanks to classes, you will be able to diversify your life and make it more eventful, forgetting about the eternal route - work-home
• You will meet new people, expand your social circle and find friends with similar interests.
• Some visitors find their other half in the halls, so why not try it?
• Classes motivate and help change your life for the better
• Scientists have proven that fitness training relieves depression and distracts from worries
• With their help, you can increase your self-esteem and turn your desired image into reality.

Any workout in the fitness room is beneficial not only for the body, but also for the soul, so why not take advantage of it?

Check the equipment for cleanliness

Gyms are breeding grounds for bacteria, so keeping them clean requires a lot more than just janitors mopping the floors at night. According to the Clinical Journal of Sports Medicine, in the gyms surveyed, rhinovirus (the causative agent of the common cold) was detected on 63% of all surfaces with which we come into contact with our hands. A cleaning crew must come daily, but staff must also wipe down the exercise equipment throughout the day. When you visit a gym, see if the gym has a strict policy of wiping down all equipment (especially barbells) after use. If not, look for other options, or come stocked with hand sanitizer.

The right fitness room: what it should be like

In each of these establishments there are three zones that must be equipped according to all the rules.

Cardio zone - it is visited by people who want to get rid of excess weight. Here you can strengthen the cardiac system and find special exercise equipment for this purpose.

Block exercise machines - this area is usually visited by those who want to tone their body and pump up all muscle groups.

Power zone – here are dumbbells and barbells that help develop physical strength and increase muscle mass.

Financial planning

Start-up costs:

Operating costs:

Sales volume plan:

An idea of ​​the potential revenue of an enterprise will be given by calculating its profitability. To obtain the most accurate result, it is necessary to reflect in the business plan reasonable data on the planned sales volume and the planned cost of fitness services.

Based on an area of ​​400 m², a maximum of 550 people will be able to study there, with a correctly drawn up attendance schedule. It is worth considering that the number of subscriptions sold usually exceeds the maximum number of clients. Practice shows that approximately 15% of season ticket holders do not attend a sports club at all, or rarely appear in it.

Portrait of the target audience

In the past, the main segment of the target market was represented by young people 25-30 years old. It was mainly a female audience.

Today, the demographic profile of gym clientele looks different:

Moreover, 70% of clients belong to the age category from 20 to 50 years.

Taking into account these data, as well as the chosen business concept and format of the establishment, we define our target audience as the main contingent of residential areas with an income not exceeding the average and medium-low income level.