When most people buy a gym membership, they think only about the monthly fee, how much it costs per visit, and if the number of pieces of equipment makes up for the expense. Yet this process only assesses about 20% of a membership’s true value. The rest is intangible and hidden. However, should this true value become known and understood, it would significantly change people’s perceptions of gym memberships and the return on investment.
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Built in Accountability
One of the biggest downfalls about at-home workouts is that no one is watching you. No one cares if you stop going after a few sessions or if you drop off the radar for three weeks and never return to that level you’ve set up for yourself. But with a membership, there’s an investment of sorts, and whether you’re aware of it or not, there’s a calculated value of social presence.
This all works on a multitude of levels. It’s a financial investment; letting money go to waste on a membership is more disappointing than letting one room go unused in your home. Many studios and gyms also record attendance, and some trainers will ask patrons if they have been out for some time.
For those who are not self-starters, most people, having structured external forces makes a huge difference. For example, Austin SoCo fitness memberships offer classes with scheduled times and community aspects, making it that much more reliable to attend regularly to meet others and have others meet you.
Access to Professionals
Sure, free exercise videos abound online, but when’s the last time you had someone trained to help watch your form, answer questions on the spot and adjust your program based on what they note during your time working out?
Most memberships include at least some driving factor for instruction, whether through classes, required introductory workouts or staff demonstration possibilities. The problem is that many people don’t often take advantage because they assume instruction is an added expense or they’re shy about asking for assistance.
However, soreness after bad form only becomes more expensive to treat after membership fees go out the window. Getting expert assistance on form can easily direct someone to complete exercises correctly to achieve their goals without wasting their time doing things that won’t help them reach their desired end state.
Community Connection
Working out at home can feel isolating and boring. There’s no one there to support you or make you feel like the things you’re struggling through are struggles for others, too. Therefore, the community aspect, especially when working from home, creates one of the most undervalued aspects of gym memberships.
You see regular people there more than once. You learn their faces. You engage in small talk that eventually becomes larger-than-life requests to partner on exercises or attend classes together. Suddenly you’re making memories with Dan and Jenna from your Tuesday morning mixed cardio class, and you’re more inclined to attend because Sarah wants to know if you’ve been to the cardio dance class yet and Tom can’t wait to share his progress on that one move he’s been trying to master. The community dynamic vastly overshadows any treadmill playlist compiled in privacy at home.
For those who work from home or otherwise maintain minimal social interaction in their daily lives, this outside-of-the-home community becomes incredibly powerful for maintaining dynamic existence beyond solely surviving during the day with work responsibilities. It’s nice to see familiar faces, low stakes social interactions go a long way in promoting overall mental wellbeing.
The Freedom of Progression
Here’s where most people waste their first few months, or years, of their membership: by doing random workouts with no plan. Some people find a 30-day plan online (that they never stick with). Some go in every day and do the same motions because they’re familiar with them and don’t find an organized structure to their approach comfortable, yet. But without structure, progress fails.
Good memberships come with programming, whether that’s classes scheduled in a specific order meant to build skills over time, training sessions set up with goals approached by experts, or coaches who are willing to map out ideal progressions over time. The workouts become periodized through structure and guidance, offering clients exercises they’ll appreciate over time instead of simply killed time since the treadmill was free and looked enticing at the moment.
There’s a distinct difference between accomplishing what needs to be accomplished from initial construction to achieving goals and just “getting in a workout.” One means gaining strength over time; the other means maintaining physical presence without purpose before fatigue sets in.
Mental Health Betterment
Exercise helps lower stress, anxiety and mood, all well-documented factors these days, but when’s the last time you’ve gotten so tired of at-home cardio that it’s made you feel better? Probably never. Without an external trigger keeping you accountable and intending separation from life happening elsewhere in the home, it’s easier to give up an at-home workout than it is to stay at a membership once you’ve traveled there through traffic or public transit-only equipped options without distractions like television or bed calling your name from down the hall.
A membership creates structure; it’s designated in time and place so that people recognize separation from this part of life from everything else going on outside of the workout realm as well as inside as one’s potential sanctuary for work or relaxations efforts within the atmosphere. Thus, endorphins increase success for exercise when people surround themselves with others doing just this after entering through a determined effort within an established culture rather than pausing Netflix midway through an episode with visible shadows distracting attention away from the goal.
Equipment Access
Even if you buy exercise equipment for your home, chances are limited, you’ll have a few pieces; a membership offers access to thousands of pieces, from treadmills to stationary bikes to free weights to resistance machines to apparatuses made for specific endeavors, variety is the spice of life as it’s much more challenging to get bored when different things are at your disposal instead of basic comforts within one home, resistance bands get stale after three days; various options at a gym have varying appeal every minute of every day.
Boredom is one of the biggest reasons people stop working out in general; varied availability squashes plateaued perceptions that nothing feels good anymore after consistent selections are made day after day.
Final Thoughts.
The monthly fee for any membership is easy enough to calculate upon signing up initially; actual value includes accountability, professionalism, community aspects, structure, mental health relief and variety, not easily assessed at face value of operating an extended involvement responsibility.
However, when taking everything into consideration, and initially challenging perceptions associated with value, it’s easy for anyone to see how valuable a consistent membership operates beyond merely getting equipment access and using it for $59/month (or whatever fee is determined).
Most people who maintain memberships long-term aren’t sustaining interest because they love equipment access, they love access they gain beyond typical means through all these added elements that make consistent exercise possible and sustainable over time.