Is joining a gym a good idea?

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I've been thinking that next year I would join a gym near me. Partly because I want to learn how to swim properly and get fit and partly because it would give me something to do.
Gym memberships can be expensive though so I was wondering if it was worth it.

If you want to lose weight I'd say yeah.

You can't go to a public pool?

Joining a gym is a fine idea, but their little PR service salesmen or whatever they are are little wolves. I go to a free-community gym, but I toyed with the idea of joining 24 Hour Fitness a couple of years ago. I didn't even go inside the gym when one of their salesmen leaped out the door and began to divulge membership plans onto me. I went inside and he began to offer me all sorts of crazy membership plans like a 44 month commitment with a two year option. It was a little overwhelming for me and I was just looking for something relatively cheap and affordable. I was in the Army Reserve at the time and I was balking at making a commitment longer than 6 months, but the shorter-term commitments were much more expensive than the multi-year deals. Gym membership salespeople are right up there with Jehovas Witnesses as far as being annoying and pressurized.

A personal trainer or just swim lessons will probably help you with swimming. I don't pay money for a fancy gym because I'm not big on Nautilus. I pretty much only use free-weights and I run outside, so I don't need all kinds of fancy machines. I'd just as soon save my money.

I found a gym for 10 bucks a month and I can feel it helping my self esteem and depression already. I feel with a more muscular body helps more people look my way and this can be a good thing.

Be careful with signing papers, once you do you are committed and responsible for paying that monthly bill for however long you agree to, even if you stop going to gym anymore for whatever reason, they'll put collectors on you if you don't pay. I had signed for a year of Taekwondo and after going for a few months my job situation changed and I wasn't able to make it to the gym anymore, but they still wanted my money, I never sent it though they kept sending me bills.

But if you can afford the monthly payments and can get there regularly to use it, it won't hurt.

I joined a no-frills fitness center near my apartment (no pool & no showers) & I absolutely love it! My health insurance actually pays for part of the membership fee (people who are fit get sick less often.) I go about 6 times a week.

Now that the weather is nice out, I just go to lift weights - then I go walking. I love having a place to go that's separate from my home (I didn't do so well trying to exercise at home - always found a reason to put it off.) Having a place to go makes it a special event.

Be sure to check with your health insurance provider to see if they will reimburse some of your gym fees. My membership works out to about a dollar a day, with the insurance rebate.

Best of luck!! !

I get all the workout I need at home. The only things I use other than my own body are a couple of weights for working the shoulders.

I joined a gym once. I didn't like it at all. They complained that I was wearing the wrong clothes, the exercise class was painful and difficult, I felt self-conscious in the body assessment... Wouldn't recommend it. If I didn't know how to swim and wanted to learn, I'd just take lessons.

What I can highly recommend is a Nia class. You can pay one class at a time, or for several classes at once. It is SOOOO not like gym. It is about ENJOYING movement, about doing movements that feel good and about learning your body's own way. You improve agility, balance, co-ordination, strength and suppleness in a class with others but at your own pace. Highly fit people and totally unfit people, super-supple and practically crippled, all can exercise together without feeling judged.

It includes elements of yoga, martial arts, dancing, and all sorts of other movement forms. The philosophy behind it is a good metaphor for body & mind and how they work together, IMO.

You can do it allk at home too.

Details at http://www.nianow.com

Hmmmm yeah I might just stick with swimming and do the rest at home. It's cheaper.
I tried swimming lessons once and I hated it. I was amongst 6 year-olds and I was treated like a baby.

Oh... I can relate. I am a good dancer, but a pretty terrible dance student. I learn very slowly and I can't keep up with sequences. I went to a hip-hop class once and I felt like a mountain troll crossed with Jaja Binks. The others kept up just fine.

I really like being a member at a fitness center that is open 24 hours. Most gyms close at around 10 pm which isn't very late, and there is usually a bunch of people around to make it even worse.

Being motivated to work out is more important than being a member of a gym. What worked for me was working on a goal which was to pass a military fitness test.

I'm a member of a gym. I had a gym at work at a previous job and joined that, and when that job ended I joined one privately. I started losing weight at the time I joined the gym at work, and feel I need the gym membership to keep up my fitness if only because I prefer to do the group exercise classes at the gym and even if I'm doing them myself I prefer to do it there than make some effort to do it at home.

Gyms are not that friendly places though, at least in London, and I don't speak to that many people there.