Yesterday my wife and I signed up for gym memberships! Who hoo! You may not know how amazing that is, or how difficult it was to finally pull that trigger. If you know us, you'l know that for the last 12-18 months we have made some pretty severe changes in our eating habits. We knew that the gym would be something we would have to incorporate in there some day, that day was yesterday.
I've never had to use a gym before, when I was younger I was so active that I was always fit, without the need to walk into a gym. Realizing that we NEEDED a gym pass in order to continue our weight loss was hard enough, then you have to pick the gym right?
We narrowed it down to two choices, Golds Gym or Planet Fitness. They were about equal as far as price and features, so we went to take a tour of each gym. First was Gold's and I'll tell ya from the point of a fat guy who has never felt welcome in a gym, I still didn't feel welcome. We went up to the counter and asked about their packages, the gal at the front desk was mostly helpful, even though she answered what seemed to be a personal phone call and was gone for several minutes. After she was done explaining, we asked about personal training. That was a mistake. This ridiculously ripped dude overheard our question and paddled over to where we were standing. He looked over the shoulder of the girl behind the counter to see where we were at in the signup process. He started giving us his sales speech, "the prices are normally $50 per session, but if you act today I can take that down to $35 per session". I was instantly not impressed by his used car salesman pitch. I have been a used car salesman, and he was the guy that I worked my hardest to not be like. Not to mention, $35 per session, twice a week for two of us is $560 per month. Who can afford that? It was obvious that we were not going to be doing any of that. Feeling defeated, we left. When someone comes into a gym who has obviously never used a gym regularly, why intimidate them? It's hard enough for someone to pull together enough courage to walk through the front door.
After we were done at Gold's we decided to go to Planet Fitness, who had advertised on their website "unlimited fitness training" which I took to be personal training, which sounds awesome right?! Immediately upon walking into PF I felt at home, it felt so much more welcoming. Maybe it was their choice of colors, purple could have done the trick. Maybe it was the pleasant gal that took us on the tour? Either way, it felt good to the both of us so we asked to be signed up. While filling out the paperwork, we asked about having the monthly fee auto drafted from our savings account, which is where all my wife's paychecks get deposited. The girl had to get special approval, three separate times. Then when it came to taking the first month's dues we pulled out cash, and the gal got really quiet and uncomfortable. Once again she leaves the table to get approval from her manager, who came over with her this time. When they both came back to the table, I felt like I was at a car dealership buying a used car and the "closer" was coming over to see what he could do to close the deal. "We can make an exception for you" and "well if they told you that". I didn't come here to get criticized, so we left, once again feeling defeated.
No wonder people who have never been to the gym don't go! Do you ever wonder why so many people sign up for gym memberships and use them once but don't come back? It's hard to admit that you "need help" and walk in those doors. Surrounded by pretty people, fit and toned. Let's make them feel welcome by intimidating the hell out of them!
I said at the top of this post that we got memberships, and we did. We were determined to get memberships. Determined to make permanent changes in our lives. So, we went to another PF location and gave that girl the easiest two sales of her life. We have worked out daily schedules to make it easier for each of us to get to the gym. The gym is the last piece to the puzzle for me. I look forward to my transformation over the next year or so.
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