Top Ten Reasons to Join a Gym
Jan 16 '06 (Updated Jan 21 '06)
The Bottom Line If you are able to join a gym, I would thoroughly recommend it (and I was a confirmed sceptic for years!).
Top Ten Reasons to Join a Gym
I know, I know – it’s too time-consuming, it costs too much. I’ve said it for years, but finally relented – and guess what? It isn’t all that hard to fit in (okay so I don’t have kids, I admit that may be a big problem for others!), and as for the cost – well, if you view a trip to the gym as a replacement to going out for a meal and going to the cinema occasionally, does it really cost so much? At any rate, the health benefits are definitely worth it. (You need to improve your diet too, but just trying to add protein and fibre to your diet while cutting fat is a very simple way to improve your diet – and energy, fat-burning ability, muscle-building capability, etc. I’ll be reviewing a couple of diet books soon – but really, you shouldn’t need a diet book to improve your diet.) This is of course aimed at people who are able to go to a gym – I’m don’t want to discourage anyone who for health, financial, or other reasons is simply not able to at the moment.
Reason 1
You haven’t got the energy to exercise – hey guess what? Exercising actually gives you energy! There’s nothing more exhausting than spending a day sitting around eating high-fat snacks… believe me, I’ve done it!
Reason 2
It makes you feel better – the last couple of times I’ve been I really didn’t feel like it, but once I started exercising, I felt much better. You also get a real feeling of accomplishment when you reach / beat a personal goal.
Reason 3
Exercising reduces your cholesterol – well that’s not entirely true. It actually increases your HDL, which is your good cholesterol – which is linked to protecting you against heart disease. It also lowers your LDL (bad cholesterol) and triglycerides (which is a good thing!) (This is if you do cardio exercise – i.e. exercise that raised your heart rate (approx 90% of your peak heart rate – the machines at the gym will have settings to find the heart rate you should be aiming for though so don’t worry about working it out for yourself.)
Reason 4
You build muscle – which is even more important than it sounds. We’re not all going to have biceps like Arnie, But that doesn’t matter, because we don’t need to. What we need is to increase lean muscle mass - which helps support your frame (abdominal muscle is particularly important for this), and the more muscle you have, the more fat you burn - even when you’re not exercising. That’s right, by having more muscle, you burn more calories per day without any extra effort.
Reason 5
You feel better about yourself – as you exercise your figure will improve and so will your body image. I’ve also found that it helps me to improve my posture, which has been a big problem for me for years. Muscle aches and pains are also decreasing rapidly.
Reason 6
It helps your immune system – exercising aids your body’s natural defences against cold and flu viruses among other things.
Reason 7
Helps you believe that you can make a difference to the way that you look and feel – until you start, you don’t really believe it’s possible (at least, I was sceptical).
Reason 8
You can keep a track of your progress easily by seeing how long /what pace / what level you can sustain on different machines. It really gives you such a good feeling to see that you’ve made strides in the right direction. (Okay I know that’s a bit of repetition of what I said in 2, but it was worth saying again.
Reason 9
You work muscles you never knew existed – that might not be something you enjoy at first :-D, but after a while you’ll appreciate it.
Reason 10
You won’t think ”Oh no I’m a Sumo Wrestler” or ”Aaaauuuurrrrggghhh!!!!! I’m a Beached Whale” as you look in the bathroom mirror.
Related Links
Reebok "Body Trec" Elliptical Trainer
The New York City Ballet Workout DVD
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