Why You Should Cancel Your Gym Membership

I’ve been one of those people that has a gym membership, goes 2-3 times per week, does 20 minutes on the cross trainer, maybe has a go on the weights machines, does a bit of stretching and then leaves after 2 hours. For a long time I didn’t really know why I was doing those specific exercises (no one really explained that to me when I joined the gym), but my goal was to lose a bit of weight and increase my fitness. Surely this was going to get me there, right?

Well, as it turns out…not necessarily.

Without considering my current fitness level and strength, as well as my activity outside of the gym, how hard I was pushing myself during my sessions and of course, my nutrition… how was I meant to get any results?

I see it time and time again. People turning up several times a week to the gym, without a plan and without any idea of what they need to be doing. They do a few reps of one thing, moving on to a 30 minute slog on the stair master (which really is a slog…I do actually admire anyone who can spend more than 5 minutes on those things!), and after years of trying, they never really make any progress. Or if they do, it’s not as much progress as they deserve to be making after committing all those hours to ‘exercise’.

Have you ever thought that you could save yourself weeks, months and years of time and money wasted on the gym, by following a structured PLAN? Or even investing in a trainer to help you put this together?

You may think you’re choosing the most time and cost efficient option by paying for your monthly gym membership and turning up at least once a week to do a bit of this and that. But in all honesty, it’s pretty damn hard to see decent results without having some sort of plan to follow.

Also, unless you’re consistently pushing yourself week on week in a structured manner, it’s really bloody hard to see real progress. (Look out for another email coming soon about progressive overload and how to incorporate this into your training).

Basically, I just want people to understand that just because you ‘go’ to the gym, doesn’t mean you’re making progress. Turning up isn’t the most important thing here (although it’s a start, of course).

I just don’t understand why people are happy to pay £20 a month for a gym membership for years and years, without seeing results, yet they won’t invest in a professional to help them get to where they want to be in a fraction of the time.

By the way, this isn’t me saying you HAVE to get a Personal Trainer. Of course you don’t. But some sort of coaching programme or even a consultation with a trainer you trust could set you on the right track.

If you feel like you slog away every week, you work as hard as you can but you still don’t ever get to where you want to be, then you NEED a plan. You need to decide on what you want to achieve (writing down your short, mid and long term goals is always a great starting point), and you need to decide on a way of getting there.

Workouts shouldn’t be random. They should have some sort of structure and you should have some sort of idea of how to measure your progress each week.

Without a plan, it can be too easy to get sucked into ‘the gym just doesn’t work for me’ mindset.

It does work. It will work. You just need to find a way of making it work for you.

Don’t waste time and money unnecessarily. Invest in a programme or even a trainer. If you find a good one, I guarantee you’ll get where you want to be must faster and you’ll learn so much invaluable information of how to train effectively for the rest of your life.

If you’re looking for help with your nutrition and training, I’d love to chat anytime to help put you on the right track. You can get in touch with me here and you can subscribe to my weekly emails here, which is where you’ll get my FREE recipe e-book, coaching tips and general fitness articles delivered directly to your inbox.