To Join or Not to Join a Gym? Many are Decided Against. Here's Why!

by Bill Katovsky

Gyms are a funny place. Depending on time of day and year, health clubs are either percolating with souped-up testosterone or quieter than a Christian Science reading room. Because of the “New Year, New You” mantra annually drummed into our post-holiday egg-nogged noggin' , most gyms depend on January as their membership dues-paying cash cow. Owners know from years of experience that most new members will soon regularly stop coming in for workouts, so they try to lock in as many early memberships possible,

To keep that revenue pipeline healthy, health clubs typically offer three membership options: 1.) initiation fee, monthly contract and a monthly fee that's automatically debited to your credit card or bank account; 2.) initiation fee and annual contract paid in full or spread out over time; and 3.) pay-per-visit, often in the form of a multi-visit pass.

But here's the financial kicker: even if you've stopped going to the gym though you signed up month-to-month or annually, your membership dues will most likely continue to appear on your monthly credit card statement.

Lesson number one: ask questions and read the fine print of any health club membership agreement so you fully understand the contractual obligations. Even that “free” monthly or weekly trial can be misleading if you are required to hand over your credit card or bank information. You might still get billed when the trial period is over. Canceling can turn into a time-consuming headache.

Many clubs heavily rely on high-pressure sales tactics. In exchange for what appears like a great deal, that fit-looking sales consultant will often pressure you to sign up right there on the spot. By all means, don't bite. Take the contract home. Scrutinize it carefully. Try checking out the competition. Visiting a new club for the first time is not unlike stepping onto an used-car lot. Try to avoid feeling intimidated if you are a newbie. Feel free to negotiate membership terms; you might be able to receive tremendous savings.

Yet the best health-club membership option for many is pay-per-visit. That's the conclusion drawn from a three-year study of fitness clubs conducted by University of California at Berkeley's economics professor Stefano Della Vigna. After carefully reviewing the records of nearly 8,000 gym memberships in the Boston area, the academic data cruncher discovered that “gym users on monthly plans pay 70 percent more than those pay-as-you-go plans based on usage.”

Vigna published his findings in The American Economic Review (June, 2006) --hardly the kind of sweat-stained periodical you find stashed in the reading bin by the stationary bikes. Since consumer behavior is not always based on rational decision-making, new gym members often fail to take into account declining interest in working out. “Gym members who choose a contract with a flat monthly fee of over $70 attend on average 4.3 times per month,” explained Vigna. “They pay a price per expected visit of more than $17, even though they could pay $10 per visit using a 10-visit pass. On average, these users forgo savings of $600 during their membership.”

The study produced another interesting set of results reflecting consumer habits. “Members who choose a monthly contract are 17 percent more likely to stay enrolled beyond one year than users committing for a year. This is surprising because monthly members pay higher fees for the option to cancel each month.”

Seeking to explain this statistical anomaly, Vigna theorized that “overconfidence about future self-control” is the reason. In other words, those signing up for an annual membership might have set unrealistic fitness goals for themselves, and when they fail to reach these benchmarks, they become less motivated and more likely to quit than month-to-month users.

Vigna found that monthly users are reluctant to quit even if they stop working out. On average, just over two entire months elapse between the last club visit and contract termination for monthly members. Which means a monthly user can be expected to lose two hundred dollars or more before finally deciding to throwing in the membership towel.

Meanwhile, despite the recession and cutbacks in corporate-funded memberships for employees, the health club industry is going strong. About 17,000 clubs are now operating in the U.S., with memberships topping 32 million, nearly double the number from 20 years ago. But that mega-membership number is misleading. Mark Lipanski, a personal trainer in Menlo Park, California, told the San Francisco Chronicle in 2009 that “about 12 percent to 15 percent of Americans own gym memberships, and of those, 40 percent actually use them. Within that group, less than half work out regularly and vigorously.”

Okay, but all this discussion begs the larger question: are gyms, in fact, the best place to get back in shape? On Christmas Day, 2009, New York Times Health blog addressed this very topic. Here's a brief sampling of readers' comment taken from the lively online forum. Surprisingly, the ayes were greatly outnumbered by the nays. Perhaps anti-gym advocates are simply more vocal.

--“I have two awesome trainers. They are canine, and, doggone, they are very motivational. Our gym is the neighborhood.”

--“I'm one of those people who have joined gyms, gone a few times, and then dropped out. Even a discounted membership is not a good deal if you don't use it.”

--“Best deal on the best gym in New York. No scams. Open all hours. Myriad places to work out. Clear air.. Fascinating clientele. Pets welcome! Year-round program. And here's the amazing part: It's free. We know it as Central Park.”

--“If you are just getting back into working out regularly, try to get a short term membership like 3-months, a punch card or make sure that you can cancel a membership when you want. I've walked away from gyms without those conditions”.

-- “During the first few months you can understand a lot more about the gym than you can during the free 1-2 week trial period. Do you like the instructors? Are they helpful to newcomers? Do you feel comfortable in the classes or in the weights and cardio area? If you don't feel at home in a gym it will be harder to go.”
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--“If you are making a New Year's resolution and you have never set foot in a gym, invest some money into paying for a trainer who can show you what to do and who can make sure that you don't look stupid or ignorant about what to do in the gym and how to do it the right way (without hurting yourself). Showing up in a gym without a clue about what to do next and how to do it is a pretty effective way to get yourself demotivated from ever showing up in a gym again.”

-- “Invest your money in equipment for your home, if you don't have space, run outside or do video tapes. You waste a tremendous amount of time packing a bag, then getting to the gym, and then back home. Plus it's really expensive. You can get into great shape exercising 45 minutes a day at home.”

--“At varying times over the last 20 years I've had a membership.7 different gyms in 3 different states. Every time I cancelled my contract within the agreements they would still continue to send me bills/direct deposit. Buy a book, a bench and a couple of dumbbells because today's “membership sale” will just be a cancellation nightmare in the future.”

--“Music killed the gym for me. The place was near, affordable and I liked it until the high volume pounding beat drove me out. One day I was doing bench presses and looked up to see MORE speakers. Not even ear plugs or an iPod could stop the torture. There are wonderful non-commercial resources on the web for doing things at home without expensive equipment. I'll never go back…”

--“A motivated individual can avoid the gym scam and keep healthy at home without needing weights and equipment. and save some cash for proper nutrition. A beginner workout can include 10 calf raises. 10 squats, 10 lunges, 10 situps, 10 pushups. Each workout level increase by 10 each. All must be done within an hour; you can pick your own rest/rep/sets. When you can do 50x of each within an hour you can label yourself as fit. 100x and well, you'll look good naked.”

--“All of my life I've received negative comments about my abdominal muscles. I'm not much of a gym person, but after my 3rd child was born, I decided to do something about it, and started going to the gym three times a week. I rode an exercise bike for 20 minutes, then used the abdominal weight machine. I started at the 40-pound setting. 3 years later, I am now at the 130-pound setting. My advice - look for a gym with a wide range of members. At my gym (the local Y), the members come in all sizes, shapes, and ages, from off-duty firefighters lifting hundreds of pounds, to obese elderly ladies taking a water aerobics class. The broader the membership, the less out-of-place you'll feel.”

Ironically, the most damning indictment against health clubs on the Times' blog came from Brooklyn personal trainer Tomas Anthony, founder of Everyday Athlete, and whose clients include business executives, professional writers, artists, musicians, celebrity, and even school kids. “I don't like gyms. It's funny because I train people for a living but I left the mainstream fitness/gym industry years ago because of the cynical and in my opinion, dishonest way they are run. From the most expensive membership driven gyms to the cheapest franchises, the biggest myths in fitness are sold to you the second you walk in their doors.”

The first myth, according to Anthony, who has a degree in English from Oberlin College, is that technology and fitness are synonymous . “Listen, I am a real geek but technology is not the answer to most people's health and fitness goals. The idea that you need the latest equipment (treadmills, steppers, etc.) is part of the slick marketing plan that the clubs and the mainstream fitness industry has developed to make you believe this: You need a gym membership and access to the latest equipment to get fit. The fact is you don't.”

Anthony believes that gyms and health clubs have little interest in getting people fit in a lasting way since it would essentially put them out of business. “The fact is that most clubs' goal is to oversell their membership by 1000 percent. This simply means that don't want their members to show up regularly because if just 10 percent of their membership ever showed up at the same time they would be in violation of their capacity restrictions as regulated by the fire department and others and would have to close their doors.”

Another myth in the fitness playbook that he thinks need puncturing is that “you need something outside of what you already have to become fit: a diet, a product, a method.” He cites infomercial fitness king Tony Horton, founder and direct-marketing hawker of P90X. “His genius is not his product but rather the fact that he's managed to take every current theme in fitness --circuit training, yoga, boxing, martial arts, core training--and sell it back to you in a sexy, 'reality TV' style product. But that's where its virtues end. The essential problem with P90X is this: Becoming fit is not a 90-day process. Most people will simply end up hurting themselves. Truly becoming fit takes years. Yup. I said it. Years.”

There's a great deal of truth in what this outspoken New York-based trainer is saying. Getting in great shape is not something you can hope to achieve overnight. It takes a steady, long-term, and balanced approach that should incorporates all facets of one's lifestyle, including diet, work, relationships, stress management, and regular exercise. Yet we live in a consumerist-oriented society in which we're constantly being bombarded by sales pitches promising instant weight-loss results with this new low-calorie food or that special diet, or a lean, muscular physique is no more difficult to acquire and bring home than going to the store and purchasing a flat-screen high-definition television.

Bottom line for those pointing their bodies and wallet to the club's front door : a gym membership won't make you fit within 30 or 60 days of joining. So adjust your expectations accordingly. If you are the type of person who likes following a routine in a social setting, then the gym might offer you the ideal motivating environment. Just make sure to avoid the muffins and bottled fruit juice that are usually for sale by the front desk.

As for me, I am perfectly content working out at home and useng the outdoors for my cycling and biking. It's a club of one. Just me. No membership dues required. No cancellation fee either.

Bill Katovsky is a two-time Hawaii Ironman finisher and founder of Tri-Athlete magzine. An author of several books on fitness, including his new "Return To Fitness."He is also the co-author with endurance athlete Brian Boyle who suffered a horrible car accident; he lost 60 percent of his blood, and was placed in a medically induced coma for two months. When he woke up, Brian couldn't talk or walk. Everyone thought he'd be a vegetable and permanently confined to a wheelcahir for the rest of his life. But they underestimated the fierce will to live of this former All-Maryland high school swimmer and weight-lifter. "Iron Heart: The True Story of How I Came Back from the Dead " is a newly published memoir of the several-year ordeal that took Brian from Intensive Care to the Hawaii Ironman where he finished under 15 hours. http://www.amazon.com/Iron-Heart-True-Story-Came/dp/1602397716/ref=tmm_hrd_title_0