Interesting article. I have certainly noticed that pretty much everyone has something plugged in their ears at the gyms nowadays. It used to be you might meet people at the gym back in the 90’s or so but not so much anymore unless you see someone in one of the classes.
PEAK 8 Exercise I don’t need a gym
When I used to work out, my preference was to be left alone, so I’d walk around with something or other in my ear even if it wasn’t on. I’d get more done if I wasn’t chatting.
There was a local club that was a fixture here in Columbia for decades but it finally closed down. The parking was terrible, small lot and nowhere to expand. Gold’s moved in down the street to a much larger area with decent parking. It is a place to pump iron and find your car windows smashed.
In the area where I live, there seems to be a gym on every block, all open 24 hours a day.
Folks used to kid themselves that having a membership meant they were half way to being in shape.
When budgets get tight, folks quit kidding themselves and quit paying for memberships they don’t use.
The gym is for working out and looking at hot chicks. That’s it.
I went to the gym here in Manhattan tonight, and it was jam-packed. They have plenty of members.
As for talking, it’s not so bad once you get to know some of the regulars.
I’d go to LA Fitness more often if they hadn’t banned FoxNews & replaced it w/ Bravo, CNN, and MSNBC. Now, instead of working out, I feel like I’m undergoing some sort of indoctrination experiment when I’m there.
Or maybe it’s because gym memberships are like cell phone contracts. Can’t get out of them and they charge you a cancellation fee if you do.
Racket.
My Golds Gym is one of the best bargains around for less than $20 a month.
I wish my YMCA would limit membership...we pay regular price for a family membership...but the place is too crowded, there are children in the workout room, and parking is a pain.
I wish there were a premium place near me...but there isn’t. Or if the Y just cut people off instead of making it a free for all...
Recently I've been intrigued with a "new" place called Koko (in N. Texas)... they have some kind of fob or "key" that you can plug into the various machines and it will record your progress and tell you what exercises to do, depending on what goal you have pre-determined... apparently you can get the necessary work completed in 30 min. sessions instead of 60 min.+
It is probably not cheap, but time vs. money is what it comes down to for me.
There. Fixed.
The obvious culprit is that more people simply don’t have the expendable income for gym memberships that they did in previous years.
In addition, I suspect that such home workout programs as Power 90 and P90X have contributed to this, keeping those who previously had gym memberships working out at home.
For the price of a year’s membership I was able to buy a bench and enough free weights to never need a gym again; the road is my treadmill and I do pull-ups on a roof beam. I no longer have to drive or wait or worry about my locker getting broken into to work out. Haven’t missed the gym once since I made the change.