Five Things To Look For When Joining A Gym

If you attend a gym regularly, you might be wondering what it is that people could possibly need to know about joining a gym.

You walk through the doors, pay your money, get changed and then workout.
This might be exactly what you do as a regular attendee of the gym, but what if you've never been to a gym before? What if you have no idea about gym etiquette or how exactly you should be working out?

If you're considering joining a gym but don't know exactly what it is that you should be looking for, take a look through these five points before you make your decision from the gyms in your area.

1. Make sure it's clean: if you walk into a gym to see what it's like and it's dirty and grubby, turn on your heels.
Remember, gyms are likely to smell sweaty due to all of the people that are working out, but there's no need for the place not to be clean.

2. Look at their staff: walk into any of the gyms in your area and you should be able to see a number of staff in the main exercising area, helping people workout and generally just seeing if everyone is managing OK.

If you don't see anyone, you might want to think about not going to that gym - the staff are the people who are going to help you workout at first and so you don't want to find it difficult to get hold of someone.

3. Ask about their additional facilities: most large gyms will offer a lot more than your standard exercise equipment and whether you think you're looking for extra facilities or not, it's always worthwhile asking to see what they have available.
Swimming pools, saunas, Jacuzzis, exercise classes and creches are all additional facilities that many gyms offer, at least one of which could sway your decision between which gym you choose.

4. Location and distance from work and home: it's always important that you consider how far the gym is located from your work or home, as if you're planning on exercising after work, you're going to be much more inclined to head to a gym that's either close to your work or better still, on your way home, than if it required for you to drive 30 minutes in the opposite direction to your home.
You might attend for a few sessions whilst you're particularly motivated at first, but once this initial motivation has gone, you're likely to attend less and less as it's adding additional time onto your journey home.

5. Cost: one of the most important factors, what you have to remember about the cost of gym membership is that generally speaking, it shouldn't be the most prominent point that you consider when thinking about the different gyms that are available.
Of course, if your monthly budget is 50 pounds and the gyms you're looking at are asking for 100 pounds a month, price is going to have to play a major role. If there are several gyms within your budget, however, don't simply choose the cheapest one, choose the one that's got the most suitable facilities for you.

For more information about joining a gym, Bupa have teamed up with Fitness First http://www.bupa.co.uk/members/asp/members_offers/health/fitness_first/