I love how fancy my gym feels. I feel like I’m getting “treated” to my gym time every time I go. I also don’t feel gross using the machines and the locker rooms like I have at other gyms. It’s 2 minutes away from work which means I always go after work, but it’s about 45 minutes from my house which stinks on days off and weekends.

Hate burpees. I can run and run and run but by my fifth burpee I am ready to call it a day. I loved my gym (Lifetime Fitness) but it wasn’t close enough to my house so I canceled a few months ago. Proximity is key. Even with having every amenity possible, I prefer to step right outside and run or just use the gym in my community. It works for me and is close and cheaper!

Funny about Henry hating pizza…. my 18 month old hates pasta, which I think is crazy! Every other toddler I know will eat it when they wont eat anything else!

Caitlin, you definitely should try crossfit….I am way (WAY) older than you and don’t feel intimidated. To be fair, I do get a bit anxious each time I go, but the greatest thing about it, is you just have to show up. Someone else does that thinking/planning and leaves the “doing” to you. Supportive environment too.

Sounds like an awesome gym! I love, too, the sense of community at ours. The only thing I wish ours had was a pool! There’s a small one for some swim group classes, but what I wouldn’t give to swim laps!!

Friendly staff is a must for me at a good gym. In some places they just look at you like a cash machine unless you’re a bulked up man. I really value it when I can ask the staff stupid questions about using the equipment and not feel like they’ll brush me off and roll their eyes at me when I walk away.

We cancelled our membership after our son was born. We hadn’t been using it recently and it was too expensive to upgrade for childcare. So, I use our gym at work during lunch. It’s really nice we have that. It has a few treadmills, ellipticals, weight machines, bikes, yoga balls, a DVD player so you can do a workout DVD and there’s classes at lunch and some in the evenings. It’s convenient (which is the only way I’ll workout these days). Oh and there’s a locker room and showers.

I actually think location is my #1 priority. Love going to a gym that’s close!! I go to a CrossFit box — the best one ever!!! — and a local rec center which is super cheap. I actually bought a Black Friday membership there because I wanted to do a rowing challenge.

By the way, I think you should try the CrossFit club!! Not because I’m addicted, haha, but because I think you’d love it! I never really enjoyed strength training or anything along those lines because I just found it so boring. But in CrossFit, it’s kind of like you’re always racing. With cheerleaders!! Haha. Of course the first few months are usually pretty miserable….. You shouldn’t be scared. I am a huge pansy and super slow at learning new skills, but now I love it and have accomplished so many things I would never have on my own. 🙂

And, I’m already scheming some sort of childcare swap with the other members when I have kids someday. 🙂 Your gym is a REALLY good deal… I’m in Denver so comparing it to that. We’ve moved around a bit, but have never found anything close to under $100 — especially with a pool. I want an indoor track! So cool.

I DO do Crossfit, and I can tell you that what you did today was harder than almost any Crossfit workout you’ll ever do.
CF workout are 3-4 movements MAX. None of this squat-lunge-pushup-run-plank-mt. climber-burpee stuff. That is really demoralizing because you’re exhausted and running around like a chicken with your head cut off!
CF works a limited number of movements so you can “chip away” at them. Like, “Ok, 21 pushups, now 10 squats, and 20 box jumps” and 3 rounds of that. It breaks it up for you so it’s not so overwhelming.

It appears that whomever “created” that workout did not actually think about it. They just threw some movements and reps on a page with very little thought.
But good news: If you can do that and not die…you can DEFINITELY do Crossfit!

My parents go to our local Y (two miles away) and if their membership cards get used so many times per month we get a discount on some insurance thing. Or rather it’s a reimbursement on our membership? Idk. It’s $45 per adult, and child care is $1.50 per hour per child. Some of the classes are free, and others I think you have to pay for, particularly if they’re like through the community and not specifically the Y. No hot tub that I’ve seen, or outdoor pool, (slide and kids’ zero-entry pool separate from bigger pool, though!) but there is an addition going on that’s going to add more track space and I think more gym space and maybe make the indoor training/weight room bigger. Apparently the Y has more people than space at times.
My dad has made so many friends from running and hanging out at the Y. He doesn’t always know their names, but he talks to people frequently enough that he’ll recognize them outside of the Y and chat. I don’t go very often, and now that Mom’s work schedule is so busy, she’s not there much either, but Dad is there at least once a day for different workouts.

I really like my fitness center. It’s run by a local hospital and most of the people are there to really and truly workout. It sounds a lot like your place actually. We have a lot of the same ammenities. We don’t have a permanent Barre class yet, but we have all the Les Mills classes you could ever want as well as a variety of yoga, spin, dance and other fitness classes, something for everyone. I like the pool. We have an outdoor and four indoor plus the spa (hot) tub. It never feels like a meat market and there are people of all ages doing their workout thing. I love it and always feel so inspired by the other members.

The most important to me is definitely proximity to home. If I can’t drive there in less than 10 min, then I won’t go. Followed up things like good classes at times that fit my schedule (because I’m on a class kick this last year), lots of good-condition equipment so there’s no wait, and a reasonable cost. My current gym fits all but the third- the cardio and weight stuff isn’t quite as nice or as abundant as my previous two gyms, but the class types and schedule are way better for me, and it’s fairly cheap.

I love my University gym. It is just across my lab and I still get student discount even though I am 29 and on 4th year of PhD. It comes to 15 Euros a month and it is brand new and very clean and bright. It is pretty small too, but there are a lot of classes offered. The bummer is that I am commuter and that I can not use it on weekends. And also that everybody is younger than me 🙂