This Is How Gyms Trick You Into Buying Memberships You’ll Never Use

When it comes to exercising and staying fit, there is a lot of conflicting information.

Cardio in the morning or in the afternoon? Intermittent fasting or lots of mini meals throughout the day? Machines vs free weights vs calisthenics?

What is the correct routine?

However, the one thing that conventional wisdom seems to agree on is that if you want to get in shape, the best place to start is by joining a gym.

Gyms offer classes, trainers, and a host of equipment to help you reach your body’s full potential.

That’s great… if you really go, that is.

I’d be willing to bet that you can name at least one person in your life (possibly yourself) who got a gym membership and didn’t use it. Sure, you probably started out going multiple days in a row, but then work got too busy and you had to skip it. Then you get sick and jump a few more times. Before you know it, months go by and you’ve skipped far more times than you’ve left.

Unfortunately, during all that time that your waistline stays the same, your bank account is getting thinner and thinner from all the monthly fees.

Imagine a restaurant or department store that is almost completely empty of customers. It’s every business owner’s nightmare, unless you own a gym.

It’s pretty much the only business in the world where it’s a good day when hardly anyone shows up.

For example, him manager of a Planet Fitness location in Manhattan reported which has a maximum capacity of about 300 people…but about 6,000 members!

This is a big part of the reason gyms like Planet Fitness are able to offer cheap membership rates, sometimes as low as $10.

If all those members really showed up diligently, gym costs would skyrocket between having to rent more space and wear and tear on equipment.

gyms need people not showing up for profit.

Still, they have to find a way to get you in the door and sign you up. That’s where they use clever consumer psychology tricks.

One of these tricks is to create a very attractive design. Compared to the classic warehouse-style gyms of yesteryear where we first saw guys like Arnold Schwarzenegger pump up, modern gyms are more like hotels or bars.

They have fancy and comfortable lounges (often more than one), juice bars, snack shops, gift shops, and all sorts of other amenities that have absolutely nothing to do with exercise.

All of this helps to attract the casual fitness enthusiast, the kind of customer who think they will be there every day, but almost certainly not.

Once they have that customer in the door, it’s time for the money maker: the annual contract.

While people tend to hate being locked into something (like cell phone contracts), gym memberships are an example of what behavioral economists call “pre-commitment.” In fact, we tend to prefer being locked into a gym membership, because we start imagining the newest, fittest version of ourselves a few months later. We also think that the money will be a financial incentive that will force us to maintain our regular routines.

Unfortunately that rarely happens and the gym keeps your money because those contracts are easy to get but incredibly hard to cancel.

However, contracts end at some point, so gyms have one last trick to keep you coming back: more amenities.

fitness planet, for example, has rows of massage chairs and also hosts various social events and gatherings for members. They also have pizza nights and weekly bagel breakfasts, which are, oddly enough, the busiest days for the gym.

The idea is that people will have fond memories of these events and sign up for another year (possibly thinking “THIS year, I’m really going to exercise!”).

At the other end of the spectrum are gyms that are really aimed at serious athletes and fitness fanatics.

precision athlete is another Manhattan gym not too far from the Planet Fitness location we discussed earlier. It only has about 150 members, but they all show up. You may even get kicked out for not coming in often enough, or have your membership application rejected if you don’t seem committed enough.

There are no fancy amenities, no music, no mirrors. This is not a place where your membership is subsidized by bums who paid up and never came. So what is the real cost of a gym where everyone works out? At Precision Athlete, he started around $500/month (and that was in 2014).

Now, we’re not saying that going to the gym is for suckers or that gyms are evil scammers for your money. There are a lot of people who go to gyms like Planet Fitness and have no problem being regular and getting great results.

It only requires a level of discipline that: according to the number of dropouts and absences in most gyms – most people just don’t have.

You’re better off saving your money and investing it in some basic home fitness equipment, like some free weights, an exercise mat, a pull-up bar, and possibly a cardio machine (if you have the space).

You can probably get most of those things for less than a year’s fees at a gym (especially if you know about Craigslist).

Alternatively, you can also just go for a walk/run or join a local recreational sports league for cardio and do your strength training with bodyweight calisthenics.

Exercising at home also has the benefit of saving you travel time, which can often hamper your motivation to hit the gym.

Also, you can wear whatever you want without judging. Do you want to sweat playing your favorite playlist in your underwear at midnight?

Go for it!

Finally, if your biggest concern about not going to a gym is the lack of structure provided by a trainer, you couldn’t have been born at a better time in history.

Between YouTube, Instagram and Facebook, there are uncountable free training you can follow along with.

You can also join online fitness communities for other like-minded people to help encourage you along the way.