How to Choose a Health Club – 12 Things to Know

Health clubs, gyms, and fitness centers come many shapes and sizes. Ranging from simple workout spaces with fitness machines, to high tech, fully functional beauty and spa. To make sure you get your moneys worth, and you get your needs met as much as possible, take these steps into account.

Type of Health Club

Normally there are 2 types of work out facilities, but house different names.

 

• A Gym is usually just an exercise facility with work out machines and trainers. Typically these are used by body builders. They would have showers, lockers and usually a pool and jacuzzi. These gyms can come in many sizes ranging from very large and fully functional to simple with weight machines, trainers, showers and lockers.
• Health Club or Fitness Center. These also come in different sizes but are more likely to be fully functional all the way around. Fully high tech exercise equipment, exercise classrooms, exercise classes of different types (Aerobics, Yoga, Jazzercise, different dance styles in aerobic format, exercise ball, belly dancing, Taebo, kick boxing), large swimming pool, jacuzzi, sauna, steam room, spa treatments, fat burning and slimming treatments, hair salon, beauty treatments, a healthy snack bar, specialized trainers, lockers, showers, and large areas for dressing rooms.

 

Not all health clubs will have all of these facilities, which is pretty much where price comes into the picture. The fancier and more optional the club the more expensive the membership.

Location

In order to save time, money and get the most out of your selection, consider a health club near either your home or your office, depending on your personal choice of workout time and time saving needs. Take into account the following;

 

• Your busiest days of the week
• Traffic
• Daily and weekly time constraints
• Extra curricular activities
• Kids activities
• Your child’s school location (if working out before or after your drop your child to school), and cost of gas if you’re driving.

Fitness Trainers

 

If you are looking into having a fitness trainer then I suggest you briefly interview the trainers when you visit the facilities you are thinking of joining. Look for the following qualifications:

 

• How long they have been in the field?
• Where did they previously work?
• What is their area of expertise?
• Mention to them your specific needs and pay close attention to how they answer you and if they give you any suggestions on how to begin your quest for fitness.
• Look for an up beat, positive, fun personality.Trainers that house these personal traits are often more convincing, more motivating, and can keep your workout as fun and positive as possible. They will also motivate you when / if you feel like giving up, and can get you over the hurdle when you first start.
• When you interview the trainer with a small chat, give them a little test without them knowing it. For example: if you are someone who’s main focus is on losing belly fat, then do some research online first. Learn the most effective exercises today and learn the ones that experts say don’t really give the most beneficial fat burn. When you talk to the trainers tell them you are wanting to lose belly fat and what exercises would they recommend. See if they give you the old exercises or the most recent ones. Trainers, like doctors have to keep up with the ever changing information in the field of exercise and fat burning.
• When you visit the briansclub cm  facilities watch the trainers with clients that are over weight or struggling. See if the trainer is just simply counting out the number of exercises, or are they paying attention and correcting the persons posture, and are they giving the person motivational chat. You are looking for trainers that give more than just counting down the number of reps. They should correct posture and give motivational chit chat here and there.
• A good trainer wants and needs to see his pupils persevere and succeed. This is the type of trainer you want. Not just someone going through the motions til the end of the day.

Equipment

 

When you visit the facilities look at the equipment and assess on the following;

 

• Is the equipment up to date, clean and in working condition?
• Are they solid on the ground or do they wobble?
• How many of each type of machine is available? How many tread mills are there? How many bicep machines are there? How many stair masters are there? This is important because you don’t want to have to wait too long in a line to use the machine you need.
• Before you begin visiting the different facilities, get an idea of what body parts you will be wanting to work on so that you can scope out how many machines are available for that particular body part, at each facility you visit.
• Check the spacing between each of the machines. Make sure they are properly spaced for safety reasons, leaving enough room for people to safely move around them without disturbing your work out. You should not have to stop in between sets to let people pass by.
• Take note of any broken down machines. How many are broken? If a few are broken this tells you that the repair service might be slow, as usually 2-3 machines don’t break down at the same time, so there could be a delay in the fixing of the equipment for whatever reasons. Don’t be afraid to ask the management how long it takes them to repair any broken equipment.