Why I Just Quit My Gym

Alright, after going totally dark in my last post, here's another one about fitness.

Well, not really. I'm airing my grievances about gyms, and why I just quit Anytime Fitness.

After an orthopedist removed the calcium deposits from my shoulder last year, I decided to start lifting again. I would go to Anytime Fitness in the morning, and would work as hard as I could to regain all the upper body strength that I had lost. There was just one problem:

The gym had one barbell, and one rack to use it on.

One fucking barbell, for an entire gym. If you want to do squats, deadlifts, a barbell bench press, bent-over rows, or literally ANYTHING that required a barbell, there was a line.

One day, a group of five friends decided to come into the gym and workout together. They decided to do bench presses, and bent over rows. I watched as these five inconsiderate shits hogged the only barbell in the gym for over an hour. I asked one of the trainers about it, and he said he was mad too, because he wanted his client to be able to squat, but couldn't. There were no official employees on duty (the trainer was a subcontractor himself), but he promised he'd let management know about it when they came in.

That problem was never solved, so I decided to go to another Anytime Fitness gym that was in the next town over. Unlike all the other Anytime Fitness gyms I attended, this one had multiple racks and bars. I was happy, especially after I started the 5x5 program. I could do my exercises without waiting for other people to be done with theirs, and I didn't have to feel like a dick for hogging the gym's only barbell. Every single Anytime Fitness facility I used in the Southeast Michigan area (and I've used a lot of them) had a single rack and barbell except for this one.

I went to that gym a little over a week ago and saw a sign declaring it permanently closed. So, I hauled myself over to another Anytime Fitness in a different town to ask why it had closed.

Anytime Fitness wouldn't renew the owner's contract, because they, "weren't doing things the way Anytime Fitness wants them to."

I explained that that was the entire reason why I was going to that gym in the first place.

I finished my workout at the other gym. Fortunately, it was a quiet time of day for them, so I was able to use their single barbell without feeling like an asshole for hogging the thing.

This isn't a problem that's unique to Anytime Fitness. I've noticed that many of the newer gyms have the same problem. I saw it at Planet Fitness (from here on out, it will simply be referred to as "Planet Shitness", because their gyms suck), I saw it at Snap Fitness, and just about every one of the newer gym franchises out there. You can get on a bunch of machines where you can select your weight and lift, but if you want free weights, you're shit out of luck.

Most fitness experts will tell you that machines are pretty worthless compared to free weights, but the machines are what bring in the "casual gym goer". They're the 80% (give or take) of people with a membership that stop going three months after they signed a twelve-month contract. They're also the types that will attend Planet Shitness to get free pizza.

Why does anybody think a gym that gives out pizza gives a fuck about your health?

Those people don't really have a strong desire to be stronger, faster, and better than they were before, so they don't take the time to learn how to do the kinds of exercises you do with free weights. Machines make things easy for them.

Without casual gym goers, there wouldn't be a lot of gyms, let alone gym franchises. So that's who the new gyms are pandering to.

Anyway, my town still has a couple of old-school gyms, including the first one I joined. I went back to that one. It used to be a World Gym, but now they call themselves "Iron City". The gym isn't a franchise, so I can't attend another gym just like it somewhere else; however, it's got plenty of free weights, racks, benches, and barbells so there's no worries about lack of access to the equipment. They also serve protein shakes, have a day care with limited hours, and a room for group classes.

The people are also there to work out. With the exception of the older members, the people in that gym are there to become stronger. I haven't met a casual gym goer in there yet.

The gym isn't perfect, though. They're not open 24 hours, I can only attend their single gym, and they insist on blasting the classic rock station.

Bohemian Rhapsody is a great song, but good luck working out to it.

For those that are wondering why I don't just work out at home at my tiny workout room, I do, but there's limits for what I can do there. I can't work out in the early morning hours because it's right above Laurel's bedroom, and I can't do anything that requires me to lift anything over my head because of a low ceiling. I do what I can there, but I'm still going to need a gym for certain exercises.