Not giving up on your New Years Health and Fitness resolutions – Part 3 – Is your Gym up to standard

Your exercise environment will have a huge bearing on whether you are going to stick to your gym programme. Running and cycling are incredibly popular forms of exercise, especially in the countryside surrounding Chichester, and this is because it is such a beautiful area. The same cannot be said for many health clubs.

The first things to consider when choosing a gym are the obvious: Is it clean and well maintained? Are there paper towels and cleaning fluid available in the gym to clean up after yourself? Does the staff keep on top of the cleaning? The last thing you want to be doing is sharing sweat with strangers on various bits of machinery that you find in the gym. Cleanliness is probably more important than the general appearance of the gym. Some of the best gyms I have worked in have been generally functional in their appearance, but they have always been clean. You may find that a brand new, plush looking gym is a letdown on cleanliness.

There is a saying “form over function” – when I first moved down to Chichester, I was looking for a place to work and did the rounds to all the local health clubs. The one that stood out the most was the one that on face value seemed the best. It had high ceilings and lots of natural light, was clean and had relatively new equipment. However, a more detailed inspection made it clear that this was not a great place to exercise. The vast majority of the floor space was dedicated to CV equipment and then most of the space that was left was filled with fixed access machines. There was barely any space to actually move as you should, rather than feeling like a hamster on a wheel! All it took was 3 people in the remaining space and it became impossible to do anything resembling a good workout. This was a 5000sq ft gym with about 300 sq ft allocated to real training. In a gym like this, sticking to your programme in January is going to be impossible, especially if you have any desire to get anywhere with your training.

Another thing to remember is that most health clubs need to sell about 10 times more memberships than their facilities can handle. With a 30-50% increase in usage in January, it does make it a difficult to effectively follow a decent workout routine without compromising. Overcrowding aside, most larger health clubs are designed to cram in as many people as possible and not generally designed to provide the most effective and pleasant exercise experience.

The best way to choose an appropriate exercise environment is to research and review your gyms before joining and check them out at peak times. Do they suit your training style, are they over subscribed and are they a clean and a pleasant environment to be in? Maybe look at the more boutique style gyms that focus more on space and movement rather than equipment and numbers – yes this would be Core Results in Chichester! Also look at alternative options like outdoor or indoor bootcamps and exercise, dance or gymnastic classes.

We welcome you to come and check out our gym at Core Results and discuss with us how we can assist you in achieving your health and fitness goals https://coreresults.co.uk/find-us/