What does your gym membership cost?

janie1234

janie1234

Cathlete
Just curious. I just took a tour of a really neat gym. Very clean, and state of the art for Napa California anyway but the enrollment fee is $200 and monthly fee is $72 a month. That seems high. This of course does not include all the kids fees which for my son to come is an additional registration fee of $125 and $56 a month. For my daughter I would have to pay a $30 a month fee. So monthly I'd pay $158 and to start I'd pay $483 and of course you are sucked into a year contract at $158 a month. I pretty much work out at home with Cathe, running, and cross fit, but with school out and the rain and cold weather I'm starting to slack a bit on what I would usually do. I know that this season of cold, rain, and winter vaction will pass but man I'm starting to feel the pudge and withdrawal symptoms from not getting as much of a weekly workout as I'm used to.
 
YIKES, that is HIGH. There is a wellness center in my area at a similar cost, maybe a bit less, and I would really love to do it, especially for the pool, but I just cannot justify the cost!

I'm sorry you are having trouble finding time to workout these days, hope you figure it out!
 
Our gym membership for DH and I costs $40/month. It's a community rec center that has no initiation fees, classes, cardio equipment, and weights. It's not state of the art, but it fits our needs perfectly.
 
My gym membership was $50 for the month of December and now each month after it's going to cost me $20/month. Not too shabby.

This gym is one of the cheapest in town. I'm not sure why though as they have everything other gyms have. The equipment is new. They have free weights, machines, a track, daycare, etc. They even have little TV's by the treadmills and ellipticals. :p
 
I belong to Fitness World in SD, and my membership for me and my two daughters is $35 a month. They also provide child care too. I have another membership w/24 hour fitness for $5 a month. I've had this membership for 20 years or more. I don't why I cancel it but $5 a month you can't beat it, plus it's nationwide so I can go to any gym in the US.
 
Club Fitness is $26 a month with 2nd family member 1/2 price. Day care is free and so are classes except spinning. With sales there is no enrollment fee. Also you can pay less if you go MWF or TuThSat. There is no pool.
Joan
 
Yikes! That sounds VERY high. The 72/month isn't too bad, although it is on the high side, most NYSC on the east coast cost about that or a little more, but the extra 80/month or so for the kids is just wrong. And I can't believe they are really trying to get a $200 sign up fee. A lot of places claim to have a high sign up, but there always seems to be some deal going on to waive it or reduce it. And for those prices I would expect it to be a month to month contract.

Is there another gym to check out?
 
Enrollment fees drive me crazy. I have put off joining a couple of gyms due to the enrollment fees. It just seems like a moneymaker to me.

Janie I guess you have to factor in the area, and I'm sure Napa, CA's rates would be higher than other areas. I live in N.J., and around here gym memberships can run between $50 - $60. per month. There is one all women's gym I am currently looking into in my area. I can get a membership for as low as $42. per month, but they want a $99. enrollment fee, plus 36 month contract, which I refuse to do. They are offering a 3 month trial for $99. so I'm going to go ahead and sign up for that.

Also around here, "Retro-Fitness" gyms are becoming popular. They offer membership at $20. per month, guaranteed for life never to go up in premium. However, they don't offer classes. They have the latest cardio equipment and free-weights, etc., but no classes. That place would have been ideal for me, except classes are what I'm interested in.

Good luck with your search. Hope you find something affordable, or if you go with the one you mentioned, I hope you like it, and find it worth the money :)
 
Here in Ann Arbor, MI, the average gym costs about $500 a year, including our new YMCA. Which is why I don't have a gym membership. For the same money I can buy STS, Chalean Xtreme, the Valor squat racks and a bosu trainer. Sorry, but I'm sticking with home.

That gym sounds like an absolute rip off to me. I wouldn't pay those fees. There are alternative ways to keep kids entertained, believe me, here in grey and snowy MI, it can be a challenge!

Clare
 
PSC Radnor

Hello,

I belong to the Philadelphia Sports Club in Radnor. There was no initiation fee. I pay $70 per month. I like this gym a lot. I think the building could be bigger though. They should expand and add more equipment too. However, the employees and trainers are very nice. The equipment is in great shape and they consistently invest in new equipment. The class instructors or wonderful and very helpful. The trainers are very professional. Finally, it has a nice atmosphere.

My former gym had an instant "bad energy" feel. It was such a meat market. No so at PSC -people are respectful and polite there.

Make sure you are comfortable no matter where you go. PSC costs twice as much as my old gym, but it is worth every penny. I am willing to pay more for the comfotable, and professional environment.
 
I belong to Lifetime Fitness here in the Twin Cities, and I pay $64.00 a month for a single membership. It's much more for a family membership. I don't know what the enrollment fees are, but I do know Lifetime keeps running specials that reduce or eliminate the enrollment fee for new members. This monthly fee gets me into almost all of its facilities, with a few very chi-chi exceptions. Free towels and lockers, although you can't rent lockers and keep your stuff there. Most amenities.

I only go for their pools; the facility near my home has the best array of pool facilities available outside of the University environment. If I didn't believe so much in water training I'd quit. But I do so I won't.

A-Jock
 
Mine has gone up to about $110 per month, but it's worth it to me because I can walk to it in about 1 minute, no exaggeration. I've belonged to it for about 15 years and I'm so spoiled by how close it is, that if I had to walk any further I'd be less motivated to workout. It happens to be a lovely facility, but even if it weren't, I'd belong to it for the proximity! Can you tell how lazy I am??

Seriously, though, even when I was unemployed and could barely pay for rent and food, I never gave up my membership. It's a very high priority on my expense list.
 
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I pay $10.00 a month for the new Planet Fitness in town. There was a $40.00 initiation fee. There are no classes...it is a no frills gym but new equipment and plenty to workout with.
 
I just joined my local Fitworks about a month ago. I waited until there was a special I liked tbefore I went in! The enrollment fee was only $1 (as opposed to $139). The monthly fee I initially signed up for was $19/month. That is for only three days/week. That is enough for me but the days were listed out for you. They didn't seem real happy letting you change days if something came up (like ummm...Christmas!). I changed to full-time and that is only $27/month. I used to belong to my local "Y" but "unjoined" because it is just too expensive (for me). They also charged extra for classes where Fitworks doesn't. It works for me. I figure cost depends on where you live. I can't imaging paying over $50/month for a gym membership but I can't imagine a club around where I live charging that much for a single membership.

Carrie
 
My DH purchased my gym membership for me a few years ago. At the time he put $200 down for a 2 year contract and the monthly dues were about $35 per month. Since then the monthly dues have crept up to a bit over $40 per month but that's still not bad IMO. I haven't paid dues in 3 years though as I have been working for the gym and therefore getting my membership for free. My contract was frozen though so when I eventually leave my job I will still have to see out the remainder of my contract.
 
The gym with which I used to have a membership was, like, $56 per month. It's huge, fabulous, has a pool, a rock climbing wall, but no upstairs bathroom (where the weight room is). A big drawback for Ms. Active Bladder. The draw for me was that it was/is open 24 hours (unbelievable) and is near my work place. You can't use a lot of the facility after a certain hour but all the weights and cardio are always available. When I was getting off work at 2:30am it was a big lure. Membership was month-to-month so you could quit at any time. But they pi**ed off everyone when they closed for a 3-week renovation but still expected their standard monthly fee. It wasn't fair so I, and many others, got mad and quit in protest. Then I got a treadmill and weights and started working out at home.

In the end, If I could have a serious gym at home (a big space with great lighting, an aerobic floor, a multi-station gym with cables, etc., my treadmill, and room to really move) I'd never join a gym. The space could be had in my house IF I could afford to join the two front bedrooms but then the things I use those rooms for now would need to be moved elsewhere. The only elsewhere in my house is the third floor which, if I had the $, could be an awesome finished space. {{{sigh}}}

Gyms offer a lot most of us can't get at home but there's nothing like not needing to leave the house to do whatever workout you'd like to do... I imagine...
 
All I need is a treadmill and I would give up my gym membership in a heartbeat. Access to a TM is the only reason I joined to begin with!
 
Nspire $5 what the heck I sometimes spend more on coffee!!!! Nancy $110 must be super fancy with gold plated equipment?! Thanks everyone for all the feed back. This is all very good to know. I thought it was high too but in Napa there are only 3 of what I consider "gyms" to even join. I want acess to classes and a treadmill, some weight machines, I like to use a sauna, . . . and yes child care is important. The reason they were justifying the $200 registration fee is because of the gym which is very new is also considered a medical facility and is actually owned by a hospital. All the machines are very new and I have to say that this is by far the cleanest gym I have every been to and I've been to a lot of gyms in my lifetime. I posted something a while back when I started looking about a gym I was checking out and in the womens locker room there was a very large woman naked without a stitch of clothing on in the hot tub with a bath sponge washing herself, so yes the cleanliness of a gym is also very important. I think what I'll do is just say hey when your registration fee drops give me a call and I'll come and sign up. I'm not that desperate to join and a lot of times my Cathe DVD's are way more challenging than any class I've ever taken in a gym. Again thanks everyone!!
 
I agree that the cost depends largly on the area..

It also depends largly on the type of gym.. I've had a $99/year, a $300/year and a $1500/year memberships.. they were all very different.

The cheapest one was a meathouse filled with high school boys.

The middle one was local smalle-town gym and the members spent a lot of time socializing and sleeping on the leg press..

The last one was an Exuinox and the people were all very serious about training. There was also a lot of members (so it could be crouded almost as much as the 1st option).

These are just my examples Ive found of course.
You really have to look at the location and the members that go (and how many-- I can't deal with crowded gyms, which is ultimatly why I started a home gym).

It also depends largly on how you like to train.

A CURVES for women will have basic circut machines and light dumbells.. not likely to find a squat rack, pullup bar or db over 20lbs (well, at least not around here).

A more hardcore gym will have squat racks, less machines and likely grunting gym-goers and few females.. if its real hardcore you might even find a box of chalk in there :)

Ive found that gyms either offer the option to pay up front (and save a few), or pay what you can then spread it out monthly.

Depending on what you're looking for and where you're located, Id almost say that those prices/packages you mentioned seem a little complicated (and high)..

Id see what other options there are that would also suit your needs.
 
Last year I canceled a $40/month Gold's Gym membership for a $14.95/mo membership at a small club franchise called Fitness 19. It is no frills-no classes and its no bigger than 5000 sq ft-but it does have lots of cardio equipment for its size, all new Lifefitness weights, well equipped free weight area and its very clean.
I like that the members are mainly middle age suburbanites and NO meatheads. For me, nothing I needed was lost by saving $25/mo on fees.:)
 
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