Joining Gold's Gym

I joined Gold's Gym. *collective groan* I know, they're the evil empire of 'health clubs.' Numerous friends of mine have regaled me with horror stories about their abusive, money sucking business model and their meat market layout. About the fight you ultimately have to go through to cancel your membership early, and the clause that states if you're 25 miles (or some ridiculous distance) from a club you can't. Seriously, who's going going to drive 30-45 minutes to workout?

I don't really care about that stuff at this point. The bottom line for me when joining a gym was the cost benefit analysis based on the classes the gym offers. The Gold's is within walking distance of my home and work (supremely convenient), and offers a ton of classes. Every hour, on the hour, there seem to be at least two to choose from. From yoga, to strength training, to spinning, and the best part is the instructors are generally pretty good. I used to go to Bikram Yoga, and at a minimum cost of $10 per class my monthly $39.99 at Gold's is a much better deal. Granted, I'm not getting the Bikram experience, which is fantastic in my opinion, but I am getting access to reasonably new equipment and a far greater variety of classes. If I'm absolutely craving Bikram, I can do a drop-in.

I went in thinking I was going to low-ball them, negotiate like a pro. Twist the screws. Hit 'em where it counts... I ended up taking the package deal they have set up with my employer. I didn't even know it existed until I went in. It wasn't bad, a bit more than I wanted to pay, but it's only a year commitment, and I'll probably be around the area for at least that, so it's worth it. Plus, Lis gets a referral bonus of $50 in gift cards to spend on their massively overpriced gear and smoothies. I also brought up the fact that she never received her other referral bonuses from the roomies she recruited, so those should be in the mail too. Pretty sweet deal - of course that's how they engineer it.

There's already been one annoyance - no complementary towels. Seriously? That's just nasty. I know they have paper towel dispensers throughout the gym, but no towel stack to grab from? I come to find out you can add large towels onto your membership, for a nominal fee, of course. Still, for $40 a month I can bring my own. And, it's been cold and rainy the past three days and I've still fit in three treadmill runs rather than skipping out. I guess that means it's working. I'm also looking forward to hitting a class or two this weekend. I think for my reasons for joining a gym, and the added bonus of being able to workout with Lis on a more regular basis, it was a good decision. We'll see how it plays out.