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How Gyms Make Money (2015)

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Re: How Gyms Make Money (2015)

#221

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How so?

More hair means more product, more lathering, and significantly more rinsing. When my hair is short, I can wash it in a few seconds. With my hair below my shoulders, it can take more time to clean than an entire shower took with short hair.

Yeah, but the GP post was talking about body hair, which kind of puzzled me.

Maybe they were (implicitly) talking about shaving their body hair? I dunno - confusing.

Re: How Gyms Make Money (2015)

#222
post #206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

450 lb deadlifts and 250 lb bench press seems like a lot though. Surely general metabolic health and long health span doesn’t require that kind of weight, does it? I’m thinking with a lot of weight on the bar, there’s probably some point where the chance of injury outweighs the potential long term benefits.

It's decent but nothing crazy. I think most men could achieve it within 4-6 years. Generally, you can build muscle until age 40 without TRT at which point sarcopenia sets in and you lose on average 10% of muscle mass per decade. Thus it's better to have a reserve. When you look at causes of death for old people, there is case after case of falling -> broken hip -> catch something and die in the hospital. Having a goo…

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Re: How Gyms Make Money (2015)

#223
post #190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

Fortunately my workouts were short and of the anaerobic nature so I didn't really break into a sweat.

Re: How Gyms Make Money (2015)

#224
post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just recently dealt with this. Gym would not respond to emails asking for cancellation form, nor pick up the phone during office hours. Then stood by their cancellation policy of 30 days despite the weeks of messages left. 30 days from time of signing the form. Shady business.

Had you tried going in physically and demanding a form?

That worked - once I managed to catch them in the office.

It took more than one try to catch them during office hours. The problem of course is that their office hours numbered just 12 hours a week, and smack in the middle of the workday! 10:30 - 1:30, M-Th

Re: How Gyms Make Money (2015)

#225
post #25

I've been a gym rat for almost 20 years now, and I'm probably the worst customer for gyms. I only workout at 24*7 gyms and being an early bird I get there at 430 and I have pretty much the whole gym for myself. I am there 6 days a week and I always shower at the gym. Further, I use the corporate discounts available to join the memberships. With all that, it comes down to approx. $50 a month for membership and I used…

How do you make friends at the gym? I've been going for years and the only gym friends I have are those from outside the gym that learn that I go to the gym.

Go sit in the sauna or steam room if your gym has one, that’s where I make a lot of friends (or acquaintances really).

Re: How Gyms Make Money (2015)

#226
post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Probably about 6 cents. Assuming a 30 minute shower with a 2.5 gpm flow rate and 110F average temperature. Maybe less if they have a more efficient water heater than resistive electric at ~11 cents per kwh.

To make light of the comment: what the hell does someone need to take a 30m shower for?

second this, it looks insane I can barely endure 3 minutes shower and my average is 40-50 seconds especially when it is -13 C outside

Re: How Gyms Make Money (2015)

#227

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah the signup can be rough. I remember they insist on offering you a “free session” with a trainer—it’s a trap, one must adamantly decline it, insist on just wanting a basic subscription. They’ll want to ask you lots of questions to “try to understand your goals”, one must insist on just a basic subscription. It’s quite obnoxious :P but, that’s the only time one interacts with sales staff or even trainers. After th…

What's the trap exactly? Some upsell I presume? The gym I go to (part of a national chain where I live) also do it, but it sounds well meant. There's only one subscription anyway (a yearly one) and no extra (unless you want to buy a towel or something).

In my experiences with two major gyms, rather than local ones, I was met with extremely aggressive upselling. I was looking for a simple gym subscription, but was bombarded with pitches for additional services like special programs and weight loss plans, despite repeatedly stating that I only wanted gym access.

What's more, on at least one occasion, I visited with a day pass trial, only to be told that trying the gym out didn't make sense and that I should just sign up immediately. This kind of pressure, especially when I was there to test the facilities, felt quite deceptive and left a negative impression.

Re: How Gyms Make Money (2015)

#228
post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Probably about 6 cents. Assuming a 30 minute shower with a 2.5 gpm flow rate and 110F average temperature. Maybe less if they have a more efficient water heater than resistive electric at ~11 cents per kwh.

To make light of the comment: what the hell does someone need to take a 30m shower for?

Shiiiiiitttttt! 30 minutes is a quick shower to me. Idk but I typically budget about an hour for a shower, then 20 to 30 to get ready. I figure most at the gym are just rinsing though.

Re: How Gyms Make Money (2015)

#229
post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think a significant number of people at least enter into the agreement thinking it's a feature. Roughly: - Going to the gym sucks, and I don't want to go - I should force myself to go to the gym anyway - Gyms are expensive, and hard to cancel - The pain and shame of canceling, combined with ongoing cost, will be a motivator for me to actually go to the gym In short, I think a lot of people erroneously believe that…

I don't think I've heard of anyone thinking gyms being hard to cancel being a good thing

I agree with rebeccaskinner: People think that way in their heart of hearts, but it's a bit shamey to admit that they see themselves as so weak, so nobody adnmits it openly.

(But, hey, as the old Swedish saying goes: "Efter sig själv dömer man andra" -- ~"Your judgement of others is based on using yourself as a measure", so whatever you ascribe to others is a reflection of yourself. Freud may have invented the label "Projection", but Swedish folk wisdom had him beat to the concept by Idunno how many centuries.)

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