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Choosing a Gym

Here's an obvious bit of advice that, oddly enough, takes many people by surprise: The more specific your fitness goals, the easier it will be for you to pick a gym that suits your needs. In other words, are you just there to pump iron or are you interested in taking aerobics classes, yoga, swimming, boxing, or playing basketball? Is taking a sauna a big plus or a big ho-hum? Remember, if your gym has these amenities and you choose not to use them, then you're likely subsidizing someone else's use of them.

As long as we're on the obvious front: Check to make sure the gym you join has hours that work for you. We know one gym in Brooklyn that sits over a synagogue and hence must close on the Sabbath as well as whenever there's a Jewish holiday. "Closed for the Ninth of Av? Never heard of that one!"

"Gosh," you may be saying, "I just want to find a gym and get in shape, not select a four-year college." Don't worry. In the pages that follow, we'll help you figure out what you should look for in an institution of higher fitness, factoring in everything from your legal rights to your creature comforts.

Neatness – or at Least Cleanliness – Counts!
Surveying a gym is a bit like looking for a home, only different. Instead of looking for closet space and listening for street noise, you'll want to focus on the general cleanliness of the gym area and locker rooms as well as the quality of the equipment. When you enter a new gym for inspection, don your white gloves and prepare to judge!

Look for the following in the gym area:

• Take a good look at the general condition of the equipment. For example, are the cables that you'll find on many pieces of gym equipment in good repair or are they frayed?
• Check out the equipment's manufacturer. If it's Bodymaster, Cybex, Maxicam, or Nautilus, that's a good sign. Stu's, Herb's, or Skip's should send up a warning signal. Other reputable companies to look for are Hammer, Icarian, TK Star, and Paramount.

• Is the upholstery covering the equipment worn and/or torn? If the equipment looks like the inside of a honky-tonk, you may consider your alternatives.

• Check out the dumbbells – the handheld weights you'll soon become familiar with. Are they the plated variety, which hold up well, or the hexagonal type that tend to bend and rust?

Now get yourself into the locker room and evaluate the following:

• Is the locker room clean?

• Are the lockers large enough to accommodate your gear? We've been to gyms where fitting your clothes into a skinny locker is like squeezing a thick English muffin into a narrow-slotted toaster. In winter, when you'll be toting even more clothes, this toaster phenomenon gets worse. So buyer beware.

• Are there lockers for rent? Renting a locker allows you to leave stuff at the gym like a weight belt, shampoo, deodorant, or hair dryer – a lifesaver if you'll be heading for the office or the movies after your workout.
• Are the stalls in the bathroom clean? Or is the place like the restroom at a rest stop on the interstate? Is there toilet paper in the stall?

• Ditto for the shower stalls. A nice, hot, relaxing shower after a workout is supremely satisfying, unless the space is a moldy mess reserved for jungle explorers and cattle rustlers. Also, it's not a bad idea to check the water pressure. A dribbling showerhead just doesn't get it done.

• How about the upkeep of the steam room, sauna, and whirlpool? Again, these are excellent features – provided they're fit for human enjoyment.

Do You Have X, Y, and Z?
Gyms are a bit like restaurants: The basic product is the same, but the pomp and circumstance surrounding the workout/meal varies widely. To some, the only factors that concern them when selecting a gym are 1) do they have enough equipment? and 2) is the price right? Everything else is window dressing.

Consider a musclehead gym we know in Brooklyn called The Fifth Avenue Gym that's so austere and grungy it's almost cool. Inside, large, animated men with biceps the size of cantaloupes hoist prodigious amounts of freeweights like NFL linemen tossing back spare ribs. The grunting and groaning is so intense you'd almost think you were listening to natural childbirth. Shampoo and conditioner in the shower stalls? Get real! Patrons are lucky there's water in the water fountain. Nevertheless, the gym has nine million pounds of freeweights and the annual membership is about the cost of dinner for nine at McDonald's. For some, that's just what the doctor ordered.

On the other hand, if you prefer a prettier setting, or if the sight of a spider in the bathroom sends you scurrying for a vaccination, you may want to consider a classier establishment.

Let's look at the amenities you may want to consider, realizing ahead of time that the more you get, the more you'll pay!

Ambience
Although you rarely hear the word ambience used to describe a gym, each establishment has its own feel, character, and mood. How do you feel when you enter a club? Are you comfortable there or do you feel like racing out like a prisoner pardoned from jail? It's probably a good practice to trust your initial impression, because very often your gut-level feeling is what will determine whether you stick with the place or not.

After working out in her neighborhood gym for many years, Deidre decided to join a gym that was closer to her job. Deidre appreciates the finer things in life, but cares little if her gym has soft hankies in the ladies' room. However, the new club she joined had old, run-down equipment, a decrepit locker room, and played awful music really loud! Even for a tough gym-rat like her, the squalid scene detracted from the quality of her workouts. Before too long she was back in her bare-bones gym, which suddenly seemed much more pristine.

Know this: Very few gyms will let you tour their facility on your own. Usually, you'll be chaperoned by a salesperson whose job it is to get you to join. Keep this in mind and don't let them rush you through a suspect area of the gym. In addition, don't let them hurry you into signing a contract on the spot if you're on the fence about whether to join or not. The salesperson will tell you that the club is running a "special" sale, but more often than not this select opportunity happens as frequently as a full moon – like every month! In other words, if you're not ready to buy, we assure you there will be another promotional deal sooner rather than later.

Curiously (or not), the same gym has a different feel depending on when you visit. Why? Gym regulars cycle through in predictable shifts: There's the pre-work crowd, the midmorning and afternoon lull set, the post-work rush, and the late-night revelers. That's why it's best to check out the gym you're examining at the hour you'll be working out. There's no sense in looking at a mellow, half-empty gym at noon if you're going to be rubbing elbows during peak evening hours with dozens of other patrons jockeying for the equipment.

If the place is too trendy or too low rent, too loud or eerily silent for your tastes, or if the price is right but the neighborhood is wrong, remember that you've got options. Make sure you check out one of the other 14,000-plus gyms out there. You're no doubt bound to find one that feels right for you.

Bond or Bust
Here's a situation you may not have considered: On Monday you go to the gym to work your chest and back; on Wednesday you're back to do arms and shoulders when you learn that the gym is going belly up. Out of business. Gone. Goodbye.

If the gym you join is bonded, you're guaranteed at least a partial refund. A bond is a contract between the state and the gym that provides that should the facility go out of business before the consumer's membership expires, the member will have some financial recourse. Roughly half of the states in the country require that a fitness center carry a bond of at least $50,000. If a bond is required in your state, the gym must have proof that it has one should you ask. Again, if a bonded gym bites the dust, this doesn't mean you'll get a full refund, but it's insurance that you'll get at least some money back. If your gym is not bonded, there's not much you can do.

You might think that calling your state's chamber of commerce or Better Business Bureau to see if your gym has a bond might seem like overkill, but gyms go out of business all the time, and sometimes under shady circumstances. Deidre once worked as a massage therapist at a health club that one day just closed its doors as suddenly as a three-card monte dealer folds his cardboard table. Even worse, in the days preceding this unannounced event, the owners offered tremendous deals on multiyear memberships. Obviously, these guys were trying to rake in as much cash as possible before closing up shop. (The only recourse any member had was to break in and hock the furniture. Try selling a used leg extension machine on the street – it's not a pretty sight.)

Your Escape Clause
You've got another good reason to read your gym contract carefully before you sign. Most states provide some sort of "buyer's remorse" clause in the contract that gives you anywhere from 24 to 72 hours to cancel your membership without being penalized. Similarly, there may be a clause in the contract to cover you if you move out of the area or are injured before your contract runs out. Some gyms allow members to "freeze" their memberships for certain periods – after having a baby, after being injured, in order to take a long vacation, and so on. And often if you move a significant distance from your gym (usually 25 miles), you'll be entitled to a prorated refund.

We realize you didn't buy this book to read about contracts, but know this: You can often have riders added to your contract. Remember that smiling salespeople often have more flexibility in what they can offer than they let on. You might be able to negotiate a family membership deal or a group discount if you recruit new members. If the gym doesn't offer discounts, you may be able to add another month on your membership or have a personal training session tossed in the mix. Remember, if you don't ask, you'll never know what accommodations you may be able to obtain.

For example, if you regularly travel out of town for weeks or months at a time, you can probably have the contract amended to account for this. Alternatively, your club might be affiliated with a national chain or organization (IHRSA, the International Health, Racquet and Sportsclub Association is the largest and most reputable) that allows you to work out at another gym while you're on the road – usually free or at a discounted rate.

Just How Much Is This Going to Cost?
Pick a number between $99 and $9,999 and you've narrowed the price of joining a gym. In other words, the cost of a health club membership can vary widely, even within the same gym, because there are peak and off-peak memberships, month-to-month or annual contracts, and several options in between.

What's this about a month-to-month contract, you ask? Well, most clubs offer them, and they have several advantages over an annual contract:

• You won't have to lay out a lot of cash when you join.

• If you're not comfortable with the gym, just finish out the month, and you won't feel a financial pinch.

• Ditto if you move, travel a lot, get injured, or are abducted by aliens.

But there's always another side of the coin, isn't there? Here are some of the disadvantages of having a month-to-month contract:

• If you continue to work out, it will end up costing you more at the end of the year.

• There's usually an "initiation fee" associated with month-to-month memberships that is often waived or nonexistent with annuals.

Give Me Exercise or Give Me Death
Okay, we said we were done talking about your gym contract, but there are a few more things we think you should know. Here's an incident that illustrates a bogus practice employed by a gym in Brooklyn. This particular club allows you to pay on a monthly basis by automatically deducting the fee from your checking account. However, when a patron we know wanted to quit, she had to mail a certified letter. Then the gym could charge her another monthly fee until 30 days after it received the letter. In short, they made getting out of the contract as easy as settling a debt with the Mafia. Familiarize yourself with the club's policy on cancellations in order to protect yourself. Many of them require 30 to 60 days' written notice.

As a consumer, you have rights when you purchase a membership from a health club. (Remember that the contract not only spells out your commitment to the gym, but it also protects you against fraudulent acts by the owners.) In fact, most states have specific statutes that spell out consumers' rights when it comes to health clubs.

That said, we don't mean to imply that every gym – or even most gyms – is out to rook you. Far from it. Most gyms are legitimate businesses that make a profit by providing good service. But, as in all things, when it comes to signing on the dotted line and handing over a check – buyer beware!

Now that you've had a chance to evaluate the idea of making a gym a part of your life, let's take a look at another viable option: creating a home gym that works for you.

Evaluating the Trainers
Trainers present yet another one of those good news/bad news deals. The well-trained, knowledgeable, concerned fitness expert is an invaluable asset in the gym. They can help motivate you, offer advice on everything from nutrition to stretching, and they'll help guide you through your workout. If you've got the will – and sometimes even if you don't – a good trainer has the way. The bad news, however, is that the staff at many fitness centers isn't always well-trained, informed, or concerned.

Depending on a trainer's qualifications, reputation, and demand, expect to pay anywhere from $25 to $100 an hour for a training session. (Introductory sessions are often available to new members.) Some trainers will trim the price if you work with a partner.

Keep in mind that anyone who walks and talks can call himself a "personal trainer," "exercise physiologist," or "fitness instructor." Scary as it sounds, in most states you need a license to cut hair, but not to be a personal trainer.

The better establishments will be staffed with trainers with graduate degrees in exercise physiology, biomechanics, or other health sciences. In others, the instructors may have no laurels to rest on other than their beefy pectoral muscles. In-house certifications offered by some of the big national chains are as tough to pass as basket weaving. Essentially, their requirements are minimal, and the certification is just a way to let the gym tell folks that its staff is certified.

It's a good idea to check with the salespeople about the staff's qualifications. There are scores of alphabet-soup certifications out there. The most respected is the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM), though other organizations, such as The National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA) and The American Council on Exercise (ACE) also have certification programs. Don't be impressed just because a trainer is "certified." Clubs often have their own certifications – usually just a gimmick to pump up the appearance of the staff's credentials. If you do opt to work with a trainer, even for a few sessions to help you get started, make sure that your trainer is not only qualified but insured as well. While we sincerely hope it never happens, if you are injured due to a trainer's neglect you'll want your trainer to have liability insurance.