It’s important to weigh out every purchase you make. When it comes to money, I like to have the total amount I am paying next to a list of what I’m getting. Here is a full list of the benefits of having a gym membership.
What It Means To Make an Investment in Your Health
It is hard to explain all of the benefits that you get from working out. Exercise is regular maintenance on the body. It’s the same as changing the oil on your vehicle. If you don’t do it, things go horribly wrong. If you do, then it keeps running good for years to come.
The amount of money spent on the curative side of things – you know, the “something broke” side – as opposed to the maintenance side, is huge.
Ever heard the saying “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure”? It completely applies here.
You may think “Oh, I can’t afford that gym membership every month.” But if you look at it in the long run, you’re going to be able to DO more in life and make much more money because you went to the gym on a regular basis.
Money spent on the gym literally comes back to you.
Savings in Medical
Aside from the additional money that you will be able to make from being healthier, more energetic and active, you’ll save some too.
I personally (whether it is good or not) just went over 7 years without seeing a doctor. I just didn’t have anything wrong with me, but since it had been some time, I recently got a full panel of blood tests done, urinalysis, physical and all sorts of things checked out. I passed everything with flying colors.
My mantra has always been that exercise prevents and cures most diseases.
Heck, take a look at the amount of damage that happens to an old person when they fall. Just imagine if they’d been doing agility drills with me and stepping up and down and up and down day in and day out. Do you really think they would’ve fallen in the first place? And if they did fall, do you think they would experience the same level of devastation from it? No.
I can’t count the number of hospital trips that didn’t happen because I trained someone. I know it is up there.
If you like that you are able to bend over and tie your shoes, hop out of bed, jog across the parking lot or pick up your kids or grandkids off the ground, then exercise and do whatever you can to keep that level of mobility and action. Otherwise, it is on its way out.
Exercise Helps Your Immune System
Every time you exercise, you damage your muscle tissue. Then your body has to work overtime to repair everything you broke.
Working your immune system day in and day out trains in your body’s ability to heal itself. It is your immune system that responds, and then your body can jump on anything it comes across.
I bring this up because this means less sick days, less time spent in doctors offices giving money to them, less money spent on pills and medications. I guarantee your boss will feel better about giving you a raise if you aren’t out all the time being sick.
And talking about employment, ask your company if they have a reimbursement plan for gym memberships or any incentives to stay healthy. If they don’t, suggest to them that they should start one and that you’ll be the first to sign up. Get everyone together and write a petition. Your company and your employees will win from that one.
Exercise vs Cancer
The statistics are mind blowing. Those who exercise have a lower risk of cancer vs those who don’t.
Even for those who fully got through cancer treatments and have been cured – the best way to keep it away is to exercise.
Now, the amount that your risk is lowered varies based on what kind of cancer, but there is, hands down, a difference in all of the ones that I have studied.
When you read it, you kind of just want to hurry up and finish it and get to the gym. It is that shocking.
How much money in gym membership fees would you pay to not get cancer?
Learning New Movements
In my experience, I have seen elderly people who learn new movements just get along better in life. It may be that they are also learning new information, seeing new places, etc., but the difference between that person and your average “I’m going to sit on the couch and watch TV” person is significant.
When you apply yourself and learn new things, you’ll do well. You have to keep pushing the limits of your coordination, balance, agility and accuracy if you want to train your neurological system. This is the stuff that is linked to your brain.
If you think I’m wrong, just put a brain activity measuring cap on, write a few words on a paper and see how much your skull looks like fireworks are going off. Then try to spell your name with your big toe in the sand and you’ll see a tiny flicker. This is because your brain gets activated on your fine motor skills to a much higher degree with your hand than your foot. You’ve trained that in over the years. If you stop training, stop writing, stop doing anything, your brain gets quieter and quieter.
The point I am trying to make is that your brain is connected to your body. Your brain becomes more active the more you try to do things with your body.
Don’t want to be a dull old man or dull old lady? Keep stressing your body and learning new things.
The gym is a perfect place to learn new movements.
Another Benefit of the Gym: An Investment in Your Education
Going to the gym helps you learn basic things like how to spot someone on the bench press. You’ll learn the proper way to work a treadmill, how to handle dumbbells, proper attire for the gym – both for functionality and safety – and a ton of other little details.
This is information that is good for you to know, but also pass it on to your kids. It is every parent’s job to teach their kids information that will better their survival. And while I’m talking about it: Set a good example for your kids.
Healthy and active parents tend to have healthy and active kids. So, your gym membership is now improving your kids’ survival.
Networking
I can’t talk about this subject enough. Opportunities rarely come in the form of emails. Opportunities arise when you meet people.
As a fitness trainer, I tend to spend pretty much all day talking to people. I get to know my clients and they ask me if I know such and such a type of person with certain skills. I refer people all the time.
In fact, the next time you’re looking for connections, talk to a personal trainer and see if they know someone. You’d be surprised.
Aside from being a personal trainer, I’m a connector. But it doesn’t have to happen through me. Just going to the gym and talking to people (assuming it isn’t a big chain where no one talks to each other) will cause things to happen.
It is funny when people start to communicate. They do it at bars all the time, but those attract certain people and not many of them are focused on building their future at that point in time. The gym environment is an environment where you are building for the future, and it comes across in the types of people you meet and what you talk about.
People have landed great jobs, found their future spouse, nabbed a great lawyer, gotten discounts on LASIK eye surgery, deals on cars, etc.
It is literally stupid not to be part of a gym in your community for this reason alone. People used to talk to each other decades and centuries ago. Now we have a generation that thinks socializing is done on a computer.
Wrong.
Intangible Benefits of a Gym Membership
Just try being around people who want to improve themselves. Sometimes we have a home and/or work environment that is decadent. The people are negative and there isn’t a lot of positive talk, creativity or lightness in the air. Sometimes it is the last place someone would say “You know, I just want to get healthy so my kids will follow my example!” Ha!
Do this for you. Especially if you are a mom! Moms are the best type of people on the planet. They aren’t ever off the clock. They’ve always got stuff to do.
Please, do this for yourself. Take one hour out of every day where you just do your own thing. It keeps you from getting burned out or overwhelmed. Lots of moms want to get their bodies back after having those kids, too. Make it work.
The gym is often used as a form of therapy. Look at the statistics on how exercise helps fight depression. It is real. No drug company wants you to know that you can be happier if you just go to the gym.
Social Time Without the Buzz
This is a good place to meet up with friends. Sometimes you’ve got a busy life and all sorts of other obligations. It is a place where you can team up with a buddy and achieve your goals together.
It is a group activity. But in this environment you’re not drinking alcohol or just sitting around a dinner table munching on food. You’re doing something productive!
At the end of the workout, you high-five each other and go on and tackle the next project.
Our current “approved” social trends revolve around eating and drinking. Screw that. Make your own.
Your Kids
Once your kids get old enough to start working out, it can be a place for them to run around and use up that excess energy.
I won’t go into a whole parenting thing here, but kids need to be kids. A kid with a lot of unspent energy will find something to do with it. You can guide them or leave it to chance.
Let them go crazy at a gymnastics class for kids. They’ll love you for it.
You Might Already Be Paying for a Gym Membership
Now, you might already be paying for stuff that you don’t know about.
Does your apartment or community have a gym?
Do you have city parks that are free to go and visit?
Is there a freaking sidewalk somewhere for you to walk or run on?
You’ve either paid the rent or taxes that fund those facilities so please don’t waste your own money. Get the most out of them and get your money back.
This isn’t some sales pitch to get money out of your pocket, it is a sales pitch to get your butt moving. Do it in the gym or do it in the park or do it in your home. But do it.
Conclusion
Fitness trainers aren’t some set of demi-gods that are above your average man. We feel pain. Sometimes we don’t want to exercise. We get tired. We get lazy and we also break our diets.
Haha, but I would never admit that to my clients! Unless they had photos…
The point is that I have to push myself to do just what I’m pushing you to do. It is way easier when you are in the groove vs not being in the groove. It’s also easier to stay out of the groove when you’re not in the groove.
So get yourself to the gym regularly (or just run around the block) and get to the point where you feel weird if you don’t get moving. Then just try to stay more in the groove than out.
Whether you’re paying a to go to a private gym, paying a personal fitness trainer, paying the YMCA or if you’re just running around your city park for free, any and all time spent doing it will come back to you tenfold, either in money saved, ability to make more money or just an increased level of survival for you and your family.
I can’t talk this subject up enough.
In fact, I’m probably downplaying it.