Gyms are ruining physical health.

[Deleted]

I am big into health, both mental and physical. I always tell my student to never give up their physical activities in order to "do better". I've gotten into numerous discussions with parents who want to pull their kids from teams in order to improve their grades. I think this is where a disparity in health awareness begins, the idea that they are separate. You can study on your own at home without having to go to a specific place, but physical health is being locked into a certain place.

I have a gym membership (a bloody expensive one) that I rarely use these days. What I have noticed however, from friends and colleagues, is that the idea of getting "fit" is linked directly to the gym. Most people feel that to get into "shape" they have to go to "professionals" at the gym to do so. Coming up to Christmas I had colleagues hoping their partner would gift them a membership to a gym so that they could lose some weight.

The pressure people, especially women, experience to lose weight in modern society is crazy. But locking your idea of being able to lose weight into a building is quite redundant. Most people drive to the gym to run in place or lift weights that cost a fraction of a gym membership.

Do you think there's an unhealthy association of physical well being and the physical place that is the gym?

Edit: To summarize, I think that people are deluding themselves into thinking that if they don't go to the gym they can't get into "shape".

[Deleted]

You might be right. This thread would benefit from some ideas: i have a friend who lifts 2.5-liter-bottles of water instead of dumbbells, fe

[semaphore]

Doesn't really seem that way to me. I feel more like people are putting in money investment to motivate themselves to use services they paid for, except that never works.

Then again I'm lazy and broke and never want to go to the gym so my experiences are probably pretty unreprsentative.

[Letmesleep]

You certainly don't need to hit the gym in order to exercise. Most things can be done at home with your own body weight, and just about everyone can go for a run. The gym offers community which is encouraging and motivating for some people. Seeing others focused on the same goal helps them stay on track, and sometimes offers them something to shoot for. Maybe they'll see someone whose body impresses them and inspires them to kick it up a notch. Most people find it hard to find the will to work out alone; the gym offers unspoken support for those who struggle to self motivate.

[Drungan]

You got a point, however we all have to start a place .... idealy we all should start and eat more healthy, walk/run/lift more etc. on a daily basis, some do that by themself while others need motivation, going to a Gym for the first time can be a scary thing esp. if you got way to many kg. on the bones, but once you start, and hopefully see some results ( takes longer then most think ) you get more motivated to work on other parts of you're overall healthcare, that being taking the bike to the gym / work ....taking a run in the evenings, using the stairs at work etc.
ofc you could do this without the gym but i do belive it is for some people a way to start, else it just seems to be just to big a task.

[Jakexe]

Gym clubs are a waste of money but most of my friends who are into working out have a membership even when they don't need one so I fully agree. I use to have one but the effort and costs to even attend was too much. Better off just buying a home gym to bulk up muscles and go for walks/runs for cardio.

[Cthulhu 2020]

I run around the area where I live. I tried the whole treadmill/stair stepper/bike machine. It discouraged me from doing my daily exercise to go all the way to the gym to sit in place and pretend to be going somewhere. That's why I stopped going to the gym for cardio. I go there a couple of times a week to lift weights but someday I want my own home gym system. I find it much more fun to jog around the local areas and see things.

I can see why some people go to the gym in certain areas where the weather isn't nice year round, or there's lots of crime and whatnot, but most people don't need to go to the gym to sit on a bike.

[Deleted]

Maybe they'll see someone whose body impresses them and inspires them to kick it up a notch.

Whenever I go to the gym and I see the 'gorilla men/people' as I like to call them, I get seriously irritated, because of the stereotype it provokes of people using al kind of 'baked air' to pump into their muscles. Not really a good inspiration xD

Anyway, I go to the gym because I only pay 15€/month so its a much healtier way to spend 15€ then on mmo-subscriptions
Also I work out because I like to look fit. Being skinny/muscly(don't know the english word) makes me feel good ^^

[Deleted]

Well, yes and no. It's quite a complicated issue.

On the one hand you're right. People are hyped into believing that they need expensive gadgets, professional trainers fad diets just to get a bit healthier and shift weight (or put on weight for that matter). Gyms are totally guilty of impressing on people that their machines are the best, quickest and easiest way of ditching the flab. I also believe that gyms have a responsibility to look after everyone that goes to their gym whether they pay for a personal trainer or not. I've seen some shocking things that would certainly result in injury and gym staff looking on without a care in the world. Also, groups of mainly men that will turn up and do Biceps and Chest 3x a week. They should be subtley pointed in the right direction.

On the other, for some, they simply lack the motivation to commit to a regular programme or regime of getting fit. There's the lucky few of us that actively make an effort to get fit wherever we are, with whatever we've got. The majority though have too many pull-factors that stop them going, or simply, they decide to get fit on a fleeting whim, and lack the staying power. The very act of being IN a gym has a motivational effect on people to actually make the most of the equipment they've got whilst they're there.

On the whole though, there's generally just too much misinformation out there getting in the way of people truly educating themselves about the best and safest ways to get fit. If I'm honest, as much as I dislike massive chain commercial gyms full of machines and runners I find the myriad of "Men's health" type magazines even more repulsive and insulting.

I've been lucky enough to have access to space and money enough to create my home gym - but you're unlikely to bulk up without a gym. There's so many exercises you simply cannot re-create without the right equipment and for better or worse - gym's provide those pieces of equipment. It's just all the other junk they come with that makes them partly-evil.

[Jalfrezi]

Possibly. But I think it's more related to what they did at a younger age. Luckily in my school days (6-18), I played rugby in the winter, cricket and track in the summer, 4 times a week for 2-3 hours each session. Of which very very little was in the school gym, we used to use the school field for running drills, as well as hit the roads for running/jogging.

A gym is a comfortable place, where when someone gets tired they can stop, have a sit down, get a drink, go hang out in the sauna, its got all the luxuries, and doesnt force you to push yourself. In my latter days at school where sport was taken more serious, fitness was more of a priority than improving our skills. When out on cross country runs, we run till we were exhausted, then run back.

People are deluded by a gym, but its also the luxuries of a gym. Why run outside in the cold? when you can go to a gym and stop when you can't be arsed anymore and have a nice shower or sauna.

[Grym]

While I agree if you want to lose weight, you don't really need a gym membership, however:

1) After paying for a membership, you are more likely to go as you have paid for it (motivation)
2) Seeing other people working out together as well makes you more motivated (motivation)
3) some weather are not fit for certain activities, gym you can go pretty much any time (practical)
4) you are more likely to bring a friend along with you to the gym then round you place lifting water bottles (motivation)
5) gym membership often comes with classes and other benefits, such as free booking for sport halls and swimming pool and such (benefits) (I myself book badminton court rather often and I already make my money back on that with the amount of badminton I play, even if I don't use the gym)
6) lifting weights at home might work, but in the gym specific machines are made to build certain area, and is much safer then lifting weight yourself different for different area, as wel as much easier to tone specific area (knowledge)

All in all while I agree is not needed, but I certain see the benefits for using a gym membership.

[Letmesleep]

Whenever I go to the gym and I see the 'gorilla men/people' as I like to call them, I get seriously irritated, because of the stereotype it provokes of people using al kind of 'baked air' to pump into their muscles. Not really a good inspiration xD

There are definitely some people around who are too big for their own good. At a certain point it just starts to look bad, I agree.

[mittacc]

I don't know if this is cheap or not compared to yours but my gym-membership costs about 150euros a year, maybe a teen offer or something? Doubt you can buy much equipment with much variety for that amount of money :P

[Ryve]

I'm inclined to agree with you. My room is littered with my exercise equipment, which sees use almost every morning because there's no expensive membership bills, travel time, or using grotty communal showers.

[Deleted]

I don't know if this is cheap or not compared to yours but my gym-membership costs about 150euros a year, maybe a teen offer or something? Doubt you can buy much equipment with much variety for that amount of money :P

I find most gyms don't actually need a lot of equipment. They seem to cater to the uneducated masses when they spend a fortune and ruin half a gym with useful smith-machines, bicep-machines and all manner of other junk.

Here's what you need in a gym:

Squat Racks & barbells with bumperweights
Bench Press,
Pullup Bars,
Gymnas Rings,
Sprint lane,
Boxes (box jumps)
vertical ropes,
Tractor tyres,
Sledgehammers,
Skipping ropes,
Medicine Balls,
Kettlebells.
A prowler.

That'll do. That's literally everything you need to get big, fit, fast, strong, lean, whatever. Fuck this, I'm going to go get a bank loan and open a proper gym.

[Letmesleep]

That'll do. That's literally everything you need to get big, fit, fast, strong, lean, whatever. Fuck this, I'm going to go get a bank loan and open a proper gym.

There's some sweet money to be made as a personal trainer. I currently train with mine for free, but he makes more money running his private gym than he did training a professional baseball team.

[Deleted]

Whenever I go to the gym and I see the 'gorilla men/people' as I like to call them, I get seriously irritated, because of the stereotype it provokes of people using al kind of 'baked air' to pump into their muscles. Not really a good inspiration xD

Anyway, I go to the gym because I only pay 15€/month so its a much healtier way to spend 15€ then on mmo-subscriptions
Also I work out because I like to look fit. Being skinny/muscly(don't know the english word) makes me feel good ^^

Wow, that is incredibly cheap O.o I pay 35€.

[Deleted]

There are definitely some people around who are too big for their own good. At a certain point it just starts to look bad, I agree.

Well they can look however they goddamn please, but can they stop grunting and squeeking when they have to lift their 100kg weights ?
Whenever I meet somebody who doesn't believe we are related to ape's (never happened in my life tough) I'll take him to my gym/zoo

[MagicMert]

I think of the gym as a safehouse of sorts a place I know that if I am exercising I wont have hurtful words hurled at me from all corners of the street as most of the people there are also just as insecure about their body's. When I tried going for a run or jog the amount of shit I got from people just made me quit then and there did it twice started at 5/6 AM would jog for 2 hours then go home, I thought with it being so early in the morning there would be no one to laugh and snigger at me boy was I wrong it came mainly from the health fanatics I noticed the ones who were also out for a run at that time it was so disheartening I just stopped after 2 days.

I have been slacking a lot recently and put on a ton of weight and being a student I don't have the money to keep my gym membership I fear I am just going to spiral more and more out of control with my weight until I get a stable job. When I was at my local gym people were nice helpful and it was just all around a better atmosphere. I could try exercising from home (I do small free weights whilst watching telly often) but I never get any cardio and quite honestly that is all I care about I find it hard to jog on the spot without moving or at least have the simulation of moving like on a treadmill.

[Deleted]

Wow, that is incredibly cheap O.o I pay 35€.

http://justfit.be/
no personal training tough, why would I want that?