5 ms·

I think those theories are missing the main point. Going to the gym is not fun, because gyms have a crappy user experience. So let's say you join a gym, but do

by GBKS 15y ago

I think those theories are missing the main point. Going to the gym is not fun, because gyms have a crappy user experience. So let's say you join a gym, but don't know very much about working out. You walk into a room with hundreds of machines, and are expected to know how to structure a work-out, how each machine works, be familiar with all the muscle groups and exercises, and also really care about planning out and recording every exercise you do to track your progress on the gyms website. It's the biggest turn-off. Why can't a gym hold your hand and treat you like somebody who wants to start working out but doesn't know anything yet? "Express tracks" are a good start, where 10 machines are set up in a row, and if you do 3 sets on each one, you have a good work-out session. That's easy to understand and do. And maybe later, once people have created their habits, they are more likely to learn the finer details. But expecting every new member to care about putting a ton of effort into learning everything about working out is a killer.

ggchappell 15y ago
I very much agree. Your idea sounds great. However, I can guess why it isn't common. What you suggest would be labor-intensive, and thus expensive. Some people don't want to pay for the hand-holding. So the gym would have to offer multiple plans: cheap do-it-yourself and expensive hand-holding. My guess is that this has been tried, and the number of customers for the high-end plan is not enough to justify offering it. Alas.
kemayo 15y ago
For what it's worth, when I joined my gym they gave a free personal trainer session, and said trainer walked me through some things. (It was obviously an attempt to upsell me, by showing what a personal trainer would keep on doing for me, but it was still a helpful newbie service.) Also, all the machines have little informative placards on them explaining which muscles they work and how to use them. I think they're also laid out in a way such that by going from one end to the other they'll give you a fairly decent all-over workout.
- dredmorbius 15y ago
  I've very, very rarely seen an intro session that wasn't an upsell. The one moderate exception was at a managed on-site gym at a workplace when I first started out. I got a training program that I followed with some success for the next nine months, losing 50# of bodyfat and gaining 12# of muscle in the process (verified by hydrostatic testing). Today I'd have done a rather different route, but, hey, it worked. That of course is the novice's advantage: virtually any crap program is better than sitting on your ass. The question is: what is going to work best. For most otherwise healthy people these days I'd say a 5x5 strength program with 2-3x weekly HIIT cardio sessions (Tabata anything after a month or two).
brandall10 15y ago
Hmm, with the exception of the tiny mom and pop gyms just about every gym I've been to over the years has pushed an initial free personal trainer session with the hope you sign up for more. Working out is, well, work. If you're out of shape it's not fun and if you don't have the motivation to get in shape it's not going to work. To be perfectly honest, I think that's what a good (read: effective) trainer does more than anything else - instill motivation. There's plenty of info on how to work out, and barring that, you can quickly observe how people use the equipment and their form. You can watch trainers instructing others. It's really not that hard. I started at 13 years old, years before the world wide web existed, and basically learned everything I needed from a subscription to a couple muscle mags. Aside from that, the only people I learned from initially were other friends my age that were also beginning to work out because we certainly didn't have the $$ for trainers. I went from 90 lbs. to 130 lbs. in that first year. Basically I was just really sick of of being 90 lbs. That's it. I'd almost equate it with coding, expecting some hand holding will get you only so far. The internal motivation will have to be there sooner or later or it won't stick. Nowadays I don't do it nearly as much, but I can't take more than 3 or so days off because I begin to feel like crap, and I'm addicted to not feeling like crap.
- sliverstorm 15y ago
  Working out is, well, work. If you're out of shape it's not fun and if you don't have the motivation to get in shape it's not going to work. Amen. It has little to do with user experience. Even when I was in shape and going regularly, there were days it was hard to get myself there- you are constantly, slowly adding weight, so it is always hard. Driving out of a deep squat is always the hardest part for me. I find it just requires so much more willpower than a press or the like.
  - Evgeny 15y ago
    Driving out of a deep squat is always the hardest part for me. I find it just requires so much more willpower than a press or the like. It probably also requires recruiting more muscles at the same time and coordinating them all, and more effort to keep your balance (recruiting even more small muscles), which adds to the complexity of the exercise.
jdietrich 15y ago
>Why can't a gym hold your hand and treat you like somebody who wants to start working out but doesn't know anything yet? I don't know about the US, but almost all gyms in the UK do exactly that - as part of your induction, a personal trainer assesses your fitness, discusses your goals and designs a workout program for you. It's a big business win as it's an excellent opportunity to upsell to a personal coaching program, but it doesn't seem to have any impact on people actually using the gym.
dalke 15y ago
Of the five or so non-college gyms I've been in, my favorite had mandatory sessions with a trainer every six weeks. We worked on a new set of exercises, and the change helps keep things interesting. They also didn't believe in treadmills, cycles, or any exercises which required batteries, nor did they have any upsales. Plus, they played great Motown music. I miss that gym! It was a bit more expensive, but definitely worth it. Carl and Sandra's, in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
OpenAmazing 15y ago
There is no reason for the gym to make it fun. As the article points out, the gym wants you to come once (not have fun) and then not come back - but continue to pay the monthly membership fee. If the gym was fun, and every member came in regularly, the gym would go out of business. Their goal is to make the gym seem like something you should have a membership for (lots of high-tech looking machines and posters about health and attractive staff), but actually not fun enough for you to come more than a few times a month. This is why there is a rise in the small group-focused workout clubs (that emphasize fun).
impendia 15y ago
A lot of gyms have classes you can take. Yoga, pilates, martial arts, spinning, kickboxing, various sports, the list goes on and on. I can never bring myself to just "go to the gym" for the reasons you suggest. But give me something organized, and I'm hooked.
rubashov 15y ago
> wants to start working out but doesn't know anything yet? What's there to really know? The average person just looking to be healthy doesn't need a gym or any instruction. Buy a $3 jump rope. Jump over it 4,000 times every couple days. Do some pushups, pullups, and situps on the other days. 20 minutes (at most) and done. "The Gym" as used by most people is a way to create the illusion of effort. "Hey, I'm spending six hours a week there and using big expensive machines, so I must be getting something done." It's just a waste for most people, who'd be better served by a jump rope in their driveway. I use a gym because I lift and have no space, but if I had a garage I'd set up my own power-rack. All the machines at "the gym" are idiotic. You only need a barbell, a bench, and a rack.
- dredmorbius 15y ago
  There's a few points of this I'd disagree with. The principles are pretty simple, but it's not so much as "get a jump rope and jump 4000x a day". The basic parameters I'd tell someone: - Cover the bases. Do strength training. Do cardio. Do flexibility, motor control, and p/rehab (flexibility, soft-tissue work). You can still cover most of this in 20-90 minutes/day (45-60 is preferable, less is OK in a tight spot). - Do strength first, then cardio. It has to do with glycogen availability and training stimulus, look it up. - Make sure your strength program is whole-body, whether you do that in 1 day or as a split. Your basic muscle groups are legs, glutes, back, chest, arms, and abs. Your basic movements are squats, lunges, deadlifts, rows & chins (back/biceps), presses (chest/triceps), and twists/bends (core/abs). These can be done with freeweights (preferred), machines, bands, cables, or bodyweight, though you'll get best results with freeweights if available and you can use them. - Emphasize compound movements over isolation, for strength. - Understand that intensity matters for cardio. You'll do much better getting an intense 4-minute workout (Google "Tabata intervals") than plodding lazily on a treadmill for 40 minutes. No, Tabatas aren't easy. If you want to lose weight, eat less. If you want to gain weight, eat more. Eat real, whole, unprocessed foods, not too much, mostly plants. Eliminate harmful noxious stuff (processed carbs, trans fats). Get an appropriate balance of carbs, proteins, and fats (40/30/30 or 30/40/30 are good starting points). If you're concerned with body weight, toss BMI out the window (it's completely bogus), and understand the basics of BMR and your estimated daily expenditure. Agree on bar, bench, and rack. Though the bench is optional -- you can press off the floor. I'd add (or ensure the rack had) a chinning bar. And plates might also be useful ;-)
dredmorbius 15y ago
What's changed over, say, 20 years ago, is that there's a wealth of experience available online. Well, 20 years ago, there was a wealth of experience, but it was in books, and you had to do a lot more work to find people to talk to about what did or didn't work. Why doesn't a gym hold your hand? Because there's no percentage in it for them (or at least that's the naive calculus). There are exceptions, but they're rare and hard to find. A gym wants you to either 1) sign up and not go (free money) or 2) sign up and go and sign up for a bunch of additional services (personal training, massage) and products (supplements), which have rediculous markups. What they don't want you to do is become knowledgeable yourself on what works to accomplish your goals. But ... you can do this. For a couple of nutshell basics: Beginners' Health & Fitness Guide: http://liamrosen.com/fitness.html http://liamrosen.com/fitness.html Hierarchy of Fat Loss: http://alwyncosgrove.com/2010/01/hierarchy-of-fat-loss/ http://alwyncosgrove.com/2010/01/hierarchy-of-fat-loss/ Everything You Know About Fitness is a Lie: http://www.mensjournal.com/everything-you-know-about-fitness-is-a-lie/print/ http://www.mensjournal.com/everything-you-know-about-fitness... For a great beginner's book, The New Rules of Lifting (Schuler and Cosgrove) distills a lot of good knowledge, and Starting Strength (Rippetoe and Kilgore) has one of the most brutally effective novice strength programs bar none. It helps to understand basic physiological response to stimulus: - If you eat more food than you need, you'll gain weight. Whether that's fat or muscle depends on: - If you overload your muscles periodically (more weight or reps than they're used to), and provide sufficient rest/recovery and fuel, you'll build muscle. How you lift (sets, reps, rest) focuses the adaptation (strength, size, endurance) somewhat. What lifts you do affect what muscles get developed (curls do nothing for your glutes). - Doing cardio of varying modalities (2-bit word for "types") will maintain/increase your abilities here. Tabata intervals, hill sprints, and HIIT training are great for short, intense work. Doing periodic (1-2x weekly) longer-duration stuff will help your endurance system training (mostly making your body more efficient and effective at burning fat for long periods of time). Which is not the same as losing weight. - If you're interested in skill-specific activities (skiing, gymnastics, juggling, whatever), do that. Training is highly activity-specific in this regard, though cardio in one are translates well to other areas. Your specific motor skills may not. There are a few other bits: you need rest and recovery. You can't target fat loss. Too much cardio is catabolic (wastes muscle mass), though most weekend warriors don't need to worry about this. Men and women in their 30s onward are losing muscle mass at the rate of about 1/2# per year, unless they're strength training. And benefits of exercise (strength and cardio) accrue throughout life, even to those in their 100s. It's something you've got to do regularly, 1-2x weekly if you want to maintain, more often (3-5x weekly) if you plan on progressing. That's it in a nutshell.

by GBKS 15y ago

ggchappell 15y ago

I very much agree. Your idea sounds great. However, I can guess why it isn't common. What you suggest would be labor-intensive, and thus expensive. Some people don't want to pay for the hand-holding. So the gym would have to offer multiple plans: cheap do-it-yourself and expensive hand-holding. My guess is that this has been tried, and the number of customers for the high-end plan is not enough to justify offering it. Alas.

kemayo 15y ago

For what it's worth, when I joined my gym they gave a free personal trainer session, and said trainer walked me through some things. (It was obviously an attempt to upsell me, by showing what a personal trainer would keep on doing for me, but it was still a helpful newbie service.) Also, all the machines have little informative placards on them explaining which muscles they work and how to use them. I think they're also laid out in a way such that by going from one end to the other they'll give you a fairly decent all-over workout.

dredmorbius 15y ago
I've very, very rarely seen an intro session that wasn't an upsell. The one moderate exception was at a managed on-site gym at a workplace when I first started out. I got a training program that I followed with some success for the next nine months, losing 50# of bodyfat and gaining 12# of muscle in the process (verified by hydrostatic testing). Today I'd have done a rather different route, but, hey, it worked. That of course is the novice's advantage: virtually any crap program is better than sitting on your ass. The question is: what is going to work best. For most otherwise healthy people these days I'd say a 5x5 strength program with 2-3x weekly HIIT cardio sessions (Tabata anything after a month or two).

brandall10 15y ago

Hmm, with the exception of the tiny mom and pop gyms just about every gym I've been to over the years has pushed an initial free personal trainer session with the hope you sign up for more. Working out is, well, work. If you're out of shape it's not fun and if you don't have the motivation to get in shape it's not going to work. To be perfectly honest, I think that's what a good (read: effective) trainer does more than anything else - instill motivation. There's plenty of info on how to work out, and barring that, you can quickly observe how people use the equipment and their form. You can watch trainers instructing others. It's really not that hard. I started at 13 years old, years before the world wide web existed, and basically learned everything I needed from a subscription to a couple muscle mags. Aside from that, the only people I learned from initially were other friends my age that were also beginning to work out because we certainly didn't have the $$ for trainers. I went from 90 lbs. to 130 lbs. in that first year. Basically I was just really sick of of being 90 lbs. That's it. I'd almost equate it with coding, expecting some hand holding will get you only so far. The internal motivation will have to be there sooner or later or it won't stick. Nowadays I don't do it nearly as much, but I can't take more than 3 or so days off because I begin to feel like crap, and I'm addicted to not feeling like crap.

sliverstorm 15y ago
Working out is, well, work. If you're out of shape it's not fun and if you don't have the motivation to get in shape it's not going to work. Amen. It has little to do with user experience. Even when I was in shape and going regularly, there were days it was hard to get myself there- you are constantly, slowly adding weight, so it is always hard. Driving out of a deep squat is always the hardest part for me. I find it just requires so much more willpower than a press or the like.
- Evgeny 15y ago
  Driving out of a deep squat is always the hardest part for me. I find it just requires so much more willpower than a press or the like. It probably also requires recruiting more muscles at the same time and coordinating them all, and more effort to keep your balance (recruiting even more small muscles), which adds to the complexity of the exercise.

jdietrich 15y ago

>Why can't a gym hold your hand and treat you like somebody who wants to start working out but doesn't know anything yet? I don't know about the US, but almost all gyms in the UK do exactly that - as part of your induction, a personal trainer assesses your fitness, discusses your goals and designs a workout program for you. It's a big business win as it's an excellent opportunity to upsell to a personal coaching program, but it doesn't seem to have any impact on people actually using the gym.

dalke 15y ago

Of the five or so non-college gyms I've been in, my favorite had mandatory sessions with a trainer every six weeks. We worked on a new set of exercises, and the change helps keep things interesting. They also didn't believe in treadmills, cycles, or any exercises which required batteries, nor did they have any upsales. Plus, they played great Motown music. I miss that gym! It was a bit more expensive, but definitely worth it. Carl and Sandra's, in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

OpenAmazing 15y ago

There is no reason for the gym to make it fun. As the article points out, the gym wants you to come once (not have fun) and then not come back - but continue to pay the monthly membership fee. If the gym was fun, and every member came in regularly, the gym would go out of business. Their goal is to make the gym seem like something you should have a membership for (lots of high-tech looking machines and posters about health and attractive staff), but actually not fun enough for you to come more than a few times a month. This is why there is a rise in the small group-focused workout clubs (that emphasize fun).

impendia 15y ago

A lot of gyms have classes you can take. Yoga, pilates, martial arts, spinning, kickboxing, various sports, the list goes on and on. I can never bring myself to just "go to the gym" for the reasons you suggest. But give me something organized, and I'm hooked.

rubashov 15y ago

> wants to start working out but doesn't know anything yet? What's there to really know? The average person just looking to be healthy doesn't need a gym or any instruction. Buy a $3 jump rope. Jump over it 4,000 times every couple days. Do some pushups, pullups, and situps on the other days. 20 minutes (at most) and done. "The Gym" as used by most people is a way to create the illusion of effort. "Hey, I'm spending six hours a week there and using big expensive machines, so I must be getting something done." It's just a waste for most people, who'd be better served by a jump rope in their driveway. I use a gym because I lift and have no space, but if I had a garage I'd set up my own power-rack. All the machines at "the gym" are idiotic. You only need a barbell, a bench, and a rack.

dredmorbius 15y ago
There's a few points of this I'd disagree with. The principles are pretty simple, but it's not so much as "get a jump rope and jump 4000x a day". The basic parameters I'd tell someone: - Cover the bases. Do strength training. Do cardio. Do flexibility, motor control, and p/rehab (flexibility, soft-tissue work). You can still cover most of this in 20-90 minutes/day (45-60 is preferable, less is OK in a tight spot). - Do strength first, then cardio. It has to do with glycogen availability and training stimulus, look it up. - Make sure your strength program is whole-body, whether you do that in 1 day or as a split. Your basic muscle groups are legs, glutes, back, chest, arms, and abs. Your basic movements are squats, lunges, deadlifts, rows & chins (back/biceps), presses (chest/triceps), and twists/bends (core/abs). These can be done with freeweights (preferred), machines, bands, cables, or bodyweight, though you'll get best results with freeweights if available and you can use them. - Emphasize compound movements over isolation, for strength. - Understand that intensity matters for cardio. You'll do much better getting an intense 4-minute workout (Google "Tabata intervals") than plodding lazily on a treadmill for 40 minutes. No, Tabatas aren't easy. If you want to lose weight, eat less. If you want to gain weight, eat more. Eat real, whole, unprocessed foods, not too much, mostly plants. Eliminate harmful noxious stuff (processed carbs, trans fats). Get an appropriate balance of carbs, proteins, and fats (40/30/30 or 30/40/30 are good starting points). If you're concerned with body weight, toss BMI out the window (it's completely bogus), and understand the basics of BMR and your estimated daily expenditure. Agree on bar, bench, and rack. Though the bench is optional -- you can press off the floor. I'd add (or ensure the rack had) a chinning bar. And plates might also be useful ;-)

dredmorbius 15y ago

What's changed over, say, 20 years ago, is that there's a wealth of experience available online. Well, 20 years ago, there was a wealth of experience, but it was in books, and you had to do a lot more work to find people to talk to about what did or didn't work. Why doesn't a gym hold your hand? Because there's no percentage in it for them (or at least that's the naive calculus). There are exceptions, but they're rare and hard to find. A gym wants you to either 1) sign up and not go (free money) or 2) sign up and go and sign up for a bunch of additional services (personal training, massage) and products (supplements), which have rediculous markups. What they don't want you to do is become knowledgeable yourself on what works to accomplish your goals. But ... you can do this. For a couple of nutshell basics: Beginners' Health & Fitness Guide: http://liamrosen.com/fitness.html http://liamrosen.com/fitness.html Hierarchy of Fat Loss: http://alwyncosgrove.com/2010/01/hierarchy-of-fat-loss/ http://alwyncosgrove.com/2010/01/hierarchy-of-fat-loss/ Everything You Know About Fitness is a Lie: http://www.mensjournal.com/everything-you-know-about-fitness-is-a-lie/print/ http://www.mensjournal.com/everything-you-know-about-fitness... For a great beginner's book, The New Rules of Lifting (Schuler and Cosgrove) distills a lot of good knowledge, and Starting Strength (Rippetoe and Kilgore) has one of the most brutally effective novice strength programs bar none. It helps to understand basic physiological response to stimulus: - If you eat more food than you need, you'll gain weight. Whether that's fat or muscle depends on: - If you overload your muscles periodically (more weight or reps than they're used to), and provide sufficient rest/recovery and fuel, you'll build muscle. How you lift (sets, reps, rest) focuses the adaptation (strength, size, endurance) somewhat. What lifts you do affect what muscles get developed (curls do nothing for your glutes). - Doing cardio of varying modalities (2-bit word for "types") will maintain/increase your abilities here. Tabata intervals, hill sprints, and HIIT training are great for short, intense work. Doing periodic (1-2x weekly) longer-duration stuff will help your endurance system training (mostly making your body more efficient and effective at burning fat for long periods of time). Which is not the same as losing weight. - If you're interested in skill-specific activities (skiing, gymnastics, juggling, whatever), do that. Training is highly activity-specific in this regard, though cardio in one are translates well to other areas. Your specific motor skills may not. There are a few other bits: you need rest and recovery. You can't target fat loss. Too much cardio is catabolic (wastes muscle mass), though most weekend warriors don't need to worry about this. Men and women in their 30s onward are losing muscle mass at the rate of about 1/2# per year, unless they're strength training. And benefits of exercise (strength and cardio) accrue throughout life, even to those in their 100s. It's something you've got to do regularly, 1-2x weekly if you want to maintain, more often (3-5x weekly) if you plan on progressing. That's it in a nutshell.