I know most people in the weightlifting world hate Planet Fitness. Clunk Alarms, no free weights, to may treadmills, etc.
Maybe my local one is the exception the the rule?
My insurance lets me have free Planet Fitness membership. So I went to check it out. Joined up. Worked out. Been going for about 6 weeks now.
I go in around 11 am and stay until about 12:30 pm. I work out w free weights, then machines to really exhaust everything, then cardio for last 30 minutes.
They have plenty of freeweights, lots of machines, in addition to lots of usual treadmills, stairmasters, etc.
But I love it. Never had anyone at all from staff even look at me strange. The front desk guy is huge. I asked about the clunk alarm, he said it’s for show and not even turned on. And he said he has worked there for a year and hasn’t ever had to ask anyone to leave for any reason.
And for me, during weekdays that I go, it’s mostly yoga moms, so the weights are all freed up for me.
I have fully stocked home gym too, squat rack, etc. But I like the vibe of a gym, and my home gym is now for bad weather or weekends.
Because even tho Planet Fitness has been fine for me during the weekday, I’m not gonna go during the weekends. I’m sure that everything that is supposed to be annoying about the place comes true on weekends or peak times. lol
Now would I pay for Planet Fitness? I guess so, since it’s so inexpensive and I’ve been there now. But because of it’s rep, I wouldn’t have even stepped foot in there if it hadn’t been for the fact that I get free membership.
You must log in or # to comment.
The best gym is the one that gets used.
My insurance lets me have free Planet Fitness membership.
I want to remark on how very forward-looking your health insurance plan must be, because I’ve heard of ones which will contribute a discount for a gym membership, but never one which outright provides a membership. That’s awesome!
Yeah, it’s nice. I retired from public service (elementary school teacher) at 50 last year. And my pension insurance plan has free gym membership for Planet Fitness, YMCA, and a place called VASA fitness. So I signed up for all three. I’m assuming for the insurance people, if the people they are insuring are more healthy, then they save money. lol
It does sound nice, but my freaking insurance is like $600 bucks a month. The insurance is just taken right out of my pension check, so I roll with it since I don’t have to do anything. But since I pay so much, I try to take every freaking free thing they offer.
The Planet Fitness is only 1/2 a mile from my house tho, so I just walk there.
The Planet Fitness is only 1/2 a mile from my house tho, so I just walk there.
Hot dang, just when it couldn’t get any better haha
The best use I found for PF was for circuit training, when the ones I went to were new. Eventually though, the aerobic aspect of that and my asthma ran head-first into the fact that these places started to smell like every other gym. That’s basically when I had to cancel, and started buying/setting-up my own free-weights, machines(rowing and elliptical), and matted surfaces for my daughter to train her gymnastics on, as well as protect the floors from the weights.
At work, I use a kneeling/backless chair, weight-vest, and dumbbells at my desk. I’m looking for an under-desk pedal setup, but it has to be cheap and near-silent, and I may get one of the bajillion stand-up balance trainers for the office as-well.
Okay, so back when I first cancelled PF, I also had a family membership to an indoor climbing gym(individual membership close to the same price… and the crowd when it was empty enough to not trigger my asthma a collection of individuals I have no business mingling with), but let that go when my family lost interest and I took-on barge-work(fittest I felt in the last two decades, until certain days back-to-back-to-back made it clear I had been dabbling in a much-younger-man’s game) for a time.
Today, as you might have gathered, my work-for-income is less physical than at any point in my life previously, and my oldest three are graduating high-school, losing their access to all sorts of gym-access options and discounts, so I’m kinda panicking about options to keep us all fit, or in my obese case, alive. Without workouts, I’m afraid their diet habits will worsen(already worse than my own…), and from there … there’s some areas of life where one prefers to be lonely with certain concerns.
Yeah, I get that. I honestly wouldn’t even go to an outside gym if I didn’t get it for free, because my home gym has evertything. But I found out I push myself harder when I am at a real gym and in the inside gym.
I feel ya on the physical labor front. Last summer, I decided to moonlight with the school’s janitorial crew during my teaching break. Figured, “how hard can it really be?” Oh man…I was wrong. Between the deep cleaning, operating heavy machinery, and maintaining the outdoor grounds, I thought I was going to either die or end up permanently disabled.
No joke, it took nearly six months for my lower back and knees to stop screaming at me. That shit is definitely a young person’s game!
On a related note, my girlfriend’s 13-year-old son is a total string bean who’s suddenly got the workout bug. I’m planning to bring him to the gym with me, but we’ll stick to light weights for now since he’s still young. He’s also talking about joining the track team, so I’ll run with him to get him ready. Hopefully, he catches the fitness bug and makes it a lifelong habit.
Where I’m at, PF offers free membership to High-Schoolers over the summer. I seem to recall my kids told me there wasn’t really any verification done, so as long as whatever kid is old enough to use the equipment per PF policy, he might be able sign-up even as a middle-schooler. Then again, he’s probably in or going-in to HS already, but I figured this could be useful to you.
I’ll look into the details, thanks
