Which Woking Gym is for me? - Selecting the right gym for you life hack! (Part 1)

Which Woking Gym is for me? - Selecting the right gym for you life hack! (Part 1)

When I first moved to Woking from London this was the question I was faced with. In fact it it’s a question I ask every time I move to a new location. In this particular case it was Woking and I could have spent some time deciding. This will make your life easier and then your choice will come more naturally.

Which Gym is not the first question you need to ask yourself, ”why am I doing it?” or “what do I want from it?” (definiteness of purpose - Napoleon Hill) These questions could be considered the same thing or they could be considered seperate depending on how you look at it. But basically whats the real reason I am going to inflict the pain and suffering on myself that comes along with working out and what do I want to the end of it.

Nobody really joins a gym just for the sake of joining a gym so there is something driving you to do it. What I am suggesting is really get to the heart of the choice and you will have greater chance of succeeding with your fitness journey.

Search yourself a bit and then be realistic as new years resolutions don’t tend to last. By this I don’t mean you can't aim high but if you’re thinking -“I weigh 150kg and I’m going to lose 10kg a week for the next 5 weeks” - it might be a stretch. Probably better to aim to lose the 50kg by making a start and building up over a period of months. How you lose the weight is the important bit as going to a gym does not necessarily equal weight lose. You normally need to work quiet hard with a regular routine and really look at your nutrition.

You may decided that you want to start doing obstacle races and be good at them. This would also help you lose weight, gain fitness and get stronger but some gyms may not provide what you need.

I personally decided when I moved to Woking that I wanted to increase my energy levels so I could play with my daughter more around work and was pretty driven to do this. Therefore I need to find a place that provided me with activities to do this. A client of my wants to lose weight and get stronger so he can feel more mobil and enjoy activities like Skiing and Sailing. Originally he went to a Leisure Centre Gym but worked out this could provide him with the attention that he need so he went down the route of training in a Studio gym with a personal trainer. He has been training with me for two and half year and loves it. He was sceptical about personal training and wasn’t sure the Beat Box studio was the right place for him. However he was driven internally to do it and took the plunge and loves every minute before and after the session haha.

You can go to the gym, BJJ and pilates try them out then decide that don't like this and that so it makes the decision even easier. Its always a good idea to test drive a car.

Then determine the types of training you like and you need but remember these may not always be the same thing.

Personally I love the functional HIT (High Intensity Training) type circuits but really struggle with cardio machines (BORING!) to help booster my cardio vascular system. Which lead me to choose a gym that doesn’t have much of those and instead I choose to start training for half marathons and obstacle races.

Not everyone is born to be fitness junkie but everyone has a starting level that will get them going and you need find this. Now of course this may change but your need to have an idea about whether its a life style choice, for health or a physical/sporting goal that you want to achieve.

Once you have answered these questions all the rest of the decisions become a lot easier. If you don’t have an intrinsic reason as to why you are joining a gym or attempting a fitness regime statistically you are going to struggle to go regular enough to get results and then you will not stay. Big commercial gyms know this a bank on it. Part of this is the Halo Effect or more specifically a “Health Halo Effect” which refers to the feeling that people get when they join a gym and feel like that have started there fitness journey, then duck off to the cafe and buy a donut but haven't actually done anything yet.

Test driving a few place and different type of training is always a good idea to discover what you think you like and will stick with but also you might find something you didn’t think you would like but gets you great results.

After you have came up with this ever so important answer then the following questions will become more important. Most people want to improve their fitness to some extent and be lean, strong and healthy. I can honestly say this because I have made this mistake of not answer these questions and spending my hard earn cash. I have join a gym with all gear and the posters but the best training I have ever done was in a little gym at the Mullaloo Surf Club in the northern suburbs of Perth and in a studio in the Woking town centre called Beatbox. Another mistake people make is I have joined the gym so now I am well underway into my fitness life style so I can spoil myself with chocolate as I am burning more calories already.

To be continued….