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How Gyms Make Money (2015)

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Re: How Gyms Make Money (2015)

#211

Post by jl2718 »

nomilk wrote: post #69

A friend asked me what gym I’m going to now days, I was delighted to inform him it’s a globally available 24/7 gym and I never have to wait for equipment. It’s 2 square meters in “the park”. 120 bodyweight squats, lunges, and calf raises, 150 push ups and 200 sit ups, 3km run, and 10 minutes stretching. Challenging, requires zero thought or planning (other than wearing a warm top on cold days) and costs $0/month.

Pull-ups. All the pull-up bars have been removed from public spaces. They all used to have long rows of them from the 50s and 60s, some with iron gymnastics rings, sit-up anchors, parallel bars, etc.

Re: How Gyms Make Money (2015)

#212

Post by hollerith »

brabel wrote: post #170
opportune wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pulling movements in general are pretty hard to do with just calisthenics. Anywhere in that big park, is there a nice sturdy pole or post? If so, you can get an elastic band set, usually very inexpensive and portable, and use that to do rows (and face pulls, if you want). I would also try to incorporate pull-ups (some parks have pull up bars, or you can install one at home) to work your lats. This might be tricky if…

Where I live, they have outdoors gyms at almost every park. I thought that would be common everywhere??!

What country?

Re: How Gyms Make Money (2015)

#213

Post by bmicraft »

grecy wrote: post #121
Larrikin wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I personally don't understand the people who wouldn't want to take a 30 minute shower. So long as the water stays hot and you have the time, it's one of the more relaxing things you can do at home. Baths use way more water, and if you don't live somewhere like Japan, they aren't deep and cool off quickly without a bath warmer. Its also kind of gross to sit in a bath without already showering and getting clean before…

> I personally don't understand the people who wouldn't want to take a 30 minute shower. Are you aware that clean water is a finite resource that we're almost certain to run out of? [1] does that not bother you all? Even mighty British Columbia with all the rivers, lakes, mountains and snowfall is under drought conditions, right now in winter! https://www.theworldcounts.com/challenges/planet-earth/state...

> Are you aware that clean water is a finite resource

It kinda is, when you're drawing it from a spring that will lead to the ocean one way or the other.

Re: How Gyms Make Money (2015)

#214

Post by bmicraft »

cko wrote: post #190
grudg3 wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would you shower before exercising and not after?

I showered to also wash my hair. Can't work out looking all messy, what would others think?

Bad hair in the gym is a no-go but being at least some amount of sweaty all day isn't?

Re: How Gyms Make Money (2015)

#216

Post by TheCryptoBro »

danpalmer wrote: post #147
klipt wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guess the most economically efficient model would be for gyms to charge per use with surge pricing. 4-5am? $2. 5-6pm? $10!

I've seen gyms/pools offer reduced price off-peak only memberships.

My gym charges cancellation fees for not attending any group class you might have signed up for. It's kinda motivating to get yourself up there but sometimes you just don't sign up because you are not sure if you will feel motivated enough to go in that day. Either way, they make money.

Re: How Gyms Make Money (2015)

#217

Post by JohnFen »

wisty wrote: post #110
talldatethrow wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The worst customer is similar to you, but doing it at peak times, while also taking up resources of staff somehow (even if just chatting them up). Doing it at 430am is their second favorite customer other than someone that doesn't come at all.

Just look at the signs in the gym to see what they hate. Leaving equipment out, and messing up the toilets (apparently someone spits gum in the urinals?) is what annoys the staff at the gym I go to.

> (apparently someone spits gum in the urinals?)

Former janitor here: people do this all the time, everywhere. On the scale of terrible things people do in the restrooms, this one is pretty mild -- but don't do it. Have a thought for the person who cleans up your mess.

Re: How Gyms Make Money (2015)

#218

Post by ravenstine »

kevinmchugh wrote: post #24
ravenstine wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mega-gyms are pretty terrible. I've never been to a 24 Hour Fitness, LA Fitness, or Gold's Gym that wasn't a sea of equipment hoggers, broken machines, random dirty towels, occupied lockers, and screens with CNN or daytime TV on. What's even more strange is how willing people are to pay hundreds or thousands of dollars for an Equinox membership. The rationale is that paying that much upfront keeps you motivated to ma…

I assume part of the attraction of an equinox is that everyone else there is paying hundreds of dollars per month for a gym membership

Yeah, that's probably the unsaid motivation. I just haven't seen it actually turn out that way with the small sample size I've people I've known who signed up for Equinox.

The other thing about Equinox, and expensive gyms in general, is that a gym's price and amount of equipment doesn't closely correlate with fitness success. You can't outrun a poor diet, genetics explains the vast majority of a person's physique even if they get their body fat down to <13%, and only maybe 6 different exercises will work out all the major muscle groups. Setting aside the dirtiness or crowdedness of certain gyms, every extra dollar you spend at the gym is a diminishing return. As a regular guy, I simply can't justify paying that much for Equinox no matter how hot and motivated those gym goers will be because I already have the motivation to work out twice a weak at a cheap ass (yet clean and uncrowded) gym that's closer to me anyway.

Re: How Gyms Make Money (2015)

#219

Post by ravenstine »

tkgally wrote: post #123
ravenstine wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mega-gyms are pretty terrible. I've never been to a 24 Hour Fitness, LA Fitness, or Gold's Gym that wasn't a sea of equipment hoggers, broken machines, random dirty towels, occupied lockers, and screens with CNN or daytime TV on. What's even more strange is how willing people are to pay hundreds or thousands of dollars for an Equinox membership. The rationale is that paying that much upfront keeps you motivated to ma…

> I've never been to a 24 Hour Fitness, LA Fitness, or Gold's Gym that wasn't a sea of equipment hoggers, broken machines, random dirty towels, occupied lockers, and screens with CNN or daytime TV on. I was a member of Gold’s Gym in Japan for more than a decade and worked out at many different branches, and other than occasional equipment hoggers none of that applied. The gyms were all clean and well maintained. I al…

> Another mega gym I used a few times in Southern California was pretty awful, though. I still remember the dirt under all of the machines and the caked dried sweat covering the handles of the ellipticals.

That must be the 24 Hour Fitness on Ocean Park Blvd in Santa Monica.

Re: How Gyms Make Money (2015)

#220

Post by euroderf »

turbonaut wrote: post #133
todd8 wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In grad school, many years ago, I would plug the drain and let the tub fill while I showered. I would pull the plug and let the tub drain once the water had cooled. This way my bathroom would warm up a bit. I suppose this might have saved a few cents.

These days you can get passive ‘waste water heat recovery’ systems that sit beneath a bath or shower tray - warming your inbound cold water with your outflow, so you use less new hot water (or have to heat it less).

I'd be curious to know how these systems manage with dissolved soap, partially dissolved skin cells, hair, etc.
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