Week 50: Open Gym

With it being the season of New Year’s resolutions, this week I explored different ways to use a “big box gym” or your local gym to your advantage.

I struggle a bit with big gyms like Gold’s Gym’s or Planet Fitness. I feel like I get there, feel lost, don’t know what to do, and end up on a treadmill.

The key: go in with a plan! Plan the workout that you are going to execute ahead of time so that when you walk in, you know what you are headed to do.

I recently joined our big local gym: GB3 so that I could use the pool this winter for Ironman training.

Pros:

• I’m on a month to month membership which will be nice if I want to pause it during the summer while we are training in open water more often.

• It’s impersonal. I go in, don’t talk to anyone, do my workout, and leave.

• It’s cheap.

Cons:

• It’s impersonal. I don’t feel connected to the space, the people, or the community.

• It’s intimidating. I’ve run 7 marathons, 1 ultra, I’m training for an Ironman, I’ve been to a million different gyms/fitness studios, and I STILL FEEL INTIMIDATED when I walk into GB3.

• There’s a bunch of people walking around like it’s a fashion show, which I don’t really understand.

If you aren’t sure where to start, a good place is Pinterest. I’m still old-school and read magazines and Runner’s World and my Yoga magazine always have good strength workouts in them. Sometimes I’ll tear them out and take them with me to the gym.

If you have a plan, you’ll know what you are heading in there to do. You could even try a Tabata workout!