5 ms·

I wish gyms were less expensive, and had places, even a table perhaps, that kids and tweens could use. It would make exercise more accessible for me and my life

I wish gyms were less expensive, and had places, even a table perhaps, that kids and tweens could use. It would make exercise more accessible for me and my lifestyle. In university, I had an indoor track I could use, it was fantastic and had plenty of room for families and people exercising.

steve_adams_86 4y ago
This should be in every city. The only way I could reliably exercise when my kids were babies was by running them in a stroller. Apart from the mental health aspect (lack of agency, no time or space to yourself), you can’t always subject your kids to the weather of the day or they’re uncooperative to the point that the run isn’t feasible. Not to mention the multitude of reasons people can’t run, from disabilities to simply having no safe place to run with a stroller. Smooth sidewalks with space are kind of a luxury. With a lifestyle and/or restrictions like that, no wonder people get out of shape. We can’t rely on our communities having space and accommodation for kids and so, well, without a family network we’re on our own.
- sterlind 4y ago
  even with disabilities, you can usually exercise. I can't run or really walk, but my upper body's gotten strong from pushing my chair. I've found my health is better (physical and mental) in walkable cities than in suburbs, even though I'm not walking.
xwdv 4y ago
You don’t need a gym, those are just excuses. You can do a lot right at home, and more frequently as you don’t need to go all the way to the gym every time.
- data_maan 4y ago
  I had a friend during the peak of the pandemic who complaint he couldn't exercise because all the gyms were closed. It never occurred to him to get a cheap workout app and get active at home. Even after I told him about this option he rather kept complaining. People are amazingly stupid sometimes...
- nordsieck 4y ago
  > You don’t need a gym, those are just excuses. Sort of. Physical fitness for good health has 2 components: aerobic fitness and strength. You can improve your aerobic fitness and your upper body strength at home (rings and/or handstand pushups are enough for all but the most advanced strength athletes). Core/lower body strength is another matter entirely. People tend to quickly progress to 1x body weight squats and deadlifts. And someone who is more advanced will probably be in the 2x-3.5x range. Without access to serious weight, lower body training is usually pretty ineffective, strength wise.
  - coldtea 4y ago
    >Without access to serious weight, lower body training is usually pretty ineffective, strength wise. Doesn't matter, 1x or even less is still 100% enough for life expectancy and general health.
  - literalAardvark 4y ago
    For staving off disease you just need decent fitness, not 3x bw. You can absolutely get to 2x bw squats from home with nothing but a chair as gear.
    - angrais 4y ago
      How can you get 2x bw squats at home? What are you squatting? Your fridge and oven?
      - nordsieck 4y ago
        > How can you get 2x bw squats at home? You can't. I assume your parent was confused about notation. You can get 1x body weight squats (that is to say your actual body + 1x your body weight as additional load) by doing one legged squats off of a chair.
        literalAardvark 4y ago
        Your interpretation is correct. I don't understand where I'm wrong about the 2x bw though? My thesis is that disregarding upper body gains, which can be compensated by other exercises, single leg squats will get you to 1x + 1x bw, which is 2x, with almost no gear at all. You can also reasonably easily add about 2x15kg in dumbbells which is almost another 0,7x or so, making home training quite powerful.
hnuser847 4y ago
The big corporate gyms are dirt cheap and typically have onsite daycare for a small fee. My wife and I pay $55 a month for a family membership at LA fitness, and daycare is $5 per visit or $15 extra per month. No indoor track, though.
hgomersall 4y ago
No, we need cities and towns that are designed around active transport. Exercise should not be a "thing you do", it should just be part of life. If you want to "do exercise" it needs to be in addition to the normal every day base level of exercise everyone gets for free. That said, you don't need to wait to be given those opportunities. Look for every opportunity for unnecessary expenditure of energy - you'll find there are plenty.
- homeland221 4y ago
  Basically Singapore. Unfortunately that country can't be model in any western countries due Chinese inherent concept of devine right to rule (mandate from heaven). The system depends on people believing in a single party in overwhelming majority (>65%) and mandatory voting. Western countries depends on majority of voters being lazy and bot involved and let a small subset of vocal minority to control the government with small margin of winning votes (~55% out of say 60% voters turnout). For a city to be designed around active lifestyle, you need strong and consistent government with good resources to implement. Even some Nordic countries that are well ran compare to say a messy western country like USA, still can't implement the active lifestyle properly and consistently across more than a single election.
  - ryder9 4y ago
- ravel-bar-foo 4y ago
  This. When I lived in Europe I was getting 60+ minutes of walking every day just between work and home and lunch and work. In Korea, I get 40+ minutes to and from subway stations. Family in the US will tell me they went for a really good 30 minute walk, and the thought I'm too polite to express is "How is 30 minutes of walking special enough to tell me about?"
fma 4y ago
Planet Fitness is like $10 a month and usually 24/7. I'm sure someone will criticize planet fitness because it doesn't have x,y,z...but I don't think you can get better value for an average person.
- heavyset_go 4y ago
  It's not 24/7 outside of cities.
- dxuh 4y ago
  More likely people might criticize that Planet Fitness does not exist in every country. Or it might not be close enough to everyone. Where I live the cheapest gym membership is 24€/mo and that gym is shady as hell (really bad reviews everywhere).

steve_adams_86 4y ago

This should be in every city. The only way I could reliably exercise when my kids were babies was by running them in a stroller. Apart from the mental health aspect (lack of agency, no time or space to yourself), you can’t always subject your kids to the weather of the day or they’re uncooperative to the point that the run isn’t feasible. Not to mention the multitude of reasons people can’t run, from disabilities to simply having no safe place to run with a stroller. Smooth sidewalks with space are kind of a luxury. With a lifestyle and/or restrictions like that, no wonder people get out of shape. We can’t rely on our communities having space and accommodation for kids and so, well, without a family network we’re on our own.

sterlind 4y ago
even with disabilities, you can usually exercise. I can't run or really walk, but my upper body's gotten strong from pushing my chair. I've found my health is better (physical and mental) in walkable cities than in suburbs, even though I'm not walking.

xwdv 4y ago

You don’t need a gym, those are just excuses. You can do a lot right at home, and more frequently as you don’t need to go all the way to the gym every time.

data_maan 4y ago
I had a friend during the peak of the pandemic who complaint he couldn't exercise because all the gyms were closed. It never occurred to him to get a cheap workout app and get active at home. Even after I told him about this option he rather kept complaining. People are amazingly stupid sometimes...
nordsieck 4y ago
> You don’t need a gym, those are just excuses. Sort of. Physical fitness for good health has 2 components: aerobic fitness and strength. You can improve your aerobic fitness and your upper body strength at home (rings and/or handstand pushups are enough for all but the most advanced strength athletes). Core/lower body strength is another matter entirely. People tend to quickly progress to 1x body weight squats and deadlifts. And someone who is more advanced will probably be in the 2x-3.5x range. Without access to serious weight, lower body training is usually pretty ineffective, strength wise.
- coldtea 4y ago
  >Without access to serious weight, lower body training is usually pretty ineffective, strength wise. Doesn't matter, 1x or even less is still 100% enough for life expectancy and general health.
- literalAardvark 4y ago
  For staving off disease you just need decent fitness, not 3x bw. You can absolutely get to 2x bw squats from home with nothing but a chair as gear.
  - angrais 4y ago
    How can you get 2x bw squats at home? What are you squatting? Your fridge and oven?
    - nordsieck 4y ago
      > How can you get 2x bw squats at home? You can't. I assume your parent was confused about notation. You can get 1x body weight squats (that is to say your actual body + 1x your body weight as additional load) by doing one legged squats off of a chair.
      - literalAardvark 4y ago
        Your interpretation is correct. I don't understand where I'm wrong about the 2x bw though? My thesis is that disregarding upper body gains, which can be compensated by other exercises, single leg squats will get you to 1x + 1x bw, which is 2x, with almost no gear at all. You can also reasonably easily add about 2x15kg in dumbbells which is almost another 0,7x or so, making home training quite powerful.

hnuser847 4y ago

The big corporate gyms are dirt cheap and typically have onsite daycare for a small fee. My wife and I pay $55 a month for a family membership at LA fitness, and daycare is $5 per visit or $15 extra per month. No indoor track, though.

hgomersall 4y ago

No, we need cities and towns that are designed around active transport. Exercise should not be a "thing you do", it should just be part of life. If you want to "do exercise" it needs to be in addition to the normal every day base level of exercise everyone gets for free. That said, you don't need to wait to be given those opportunities. Look for every opportunity for unnecessary expenditure of energy - you'll find there are plenty.

homeland221 4y ago
Basically Singapore. Unfortunately that country can't be model in any western countries due Chinese inherent concept of devine right to rule (mandate from heaven). The system depends on people believing in a single party in overwhelming majority (>65%) and mandatory voting. Western countries depends on majority of voters being lazy and bot involved and let a small subset of vocal minority to control the government with small margin of winning votes (~55% out of say 60% voters turnout). For a city to be designed around active lifestyle, you need strong and consistent government with good resources to implement. Even some Nordic countries that are well ran compare to say a messy western country like USA, still can't implement the active lifestyle properly and consistently across more than a single election.
- ryder9 4y ago
ravel-bar-foo 4y ago
This. When I lived in Europe I was getting 60+ minutes of walking every day just between work and home and lunch and work. In Korea, I get 40+ minutes to and from subway stations. Family in the US will tell me they went for a really good 30 minute walk, and the thought I'm too polite to express is "How is 30 minutes of walking special enough to tell me about?"

fma 4y ago

Planet Fitness is like $10 a month and usually 24/7. I'm sure someone will criticize planet fitness because it doesn't have x,y,z...but I don't think you can get better value for an average person.

heavyset_go 4y ago
It's not 24/7 outside of cities.
dxuh 4y ago
More likely people might criticize that Planet Fitness does not exist in every country. Or it might not be close enough to everyone. Where I live the cheapest gym membership is 24€/mo and that gym is shady as hell (really bad reviews everywhere).