Photo: BananaStock
From a reader named Laura Brown:
I recently joined a gym in a low-income part of Baltimore. For $10 a month, a person has unlimited access to the equipment — including treadmills that have individual televisions with about 20 different channels. For $19.99 a month, they have unlimited access as well as unlimited guest privileges. I’ve only been to the gym twice since I signed up, but both times (in the evening), the gym has been almost to capacity. However, despite the fact that it is almost impossible to find an open treadmill, many patrons don’t seem to be there to workout — most of them are obese, and the majority of the treadmills seem to run on the minimum speed settings — .5 mph — not fast enough for anyone to even break a sweat. I was pondering this yesterday during my jog, and it occurred to me that it is entirely possible that many of these people are using a gym membership (and the subsequent treadmill-television access) as a substitute for cable.
Worth a raised brow for sure, and maybe a chuckle, but living in New York, my first response was: $10 for a gym membership?
and 
. You can also watch it on 
I certainly can understand the economic benefit of only paying $10 per month for cable service; and getting some exercise, no matter how minimally, at the same time. I also wondered, is this a good economic argument for joining a gym in a “low-income” part of town as compared to the pricier alternative near my McMansion? LOL Thanks for allowing me to ponder that question.
Yeah seriously $10? It’s not just New York… In Charlottesville Virginia the LEAST expensive option is the gym run by the city parks and rec. $37/mo. The big name gym chain in town, ACAC, costs so much they don’t even put the price on their website. If you have to ask about the price you can’t afford it.
My membership is $35/month in a small city. I use the treadmills as a replacement for cable, but my deal with myself is that I have to be sort-of speed walking (heart rate under 120) or speed walking (over 120). I dislike jogging/running but it feels like that’s a fast enough pace for me to justify using one of the more popular finite resources there. In my case, watching tv is incentive to participate in an exercise I wouldn’t normally do. Now I just need a way to translate that into core exercises….
For my Uni gym membership in Glasgow, I pay £40 annually for full unlimited service (the equivalent of $65.57). I find it hard to believe that I’ll ever find a comparable price anywhere outside of academia.
I do this for Monday night football
If an “obese ” person is carrying around an extra 100 pounds, he is getting as much exercise with the treadmill set on “Stroll” and you skinny guys are running a four minute mile.
It is interesting to note that Curves- a women’s gym chain that promotes fitness without breaking a sweat- has very slow circuits and does not push the members to hurt themselves. (I don’t go there any more, because the company donates to anti-choice organizations. Don’t eat Domino’s Pizza either.)
And then there is Tai Chi,
Any what about the secondary market for guest passes? Get a bunch of people to pay you 5 bucks a month to come as your guest.
I bet they are using it for cable! Similarly, my city has Ozone Alert days. When the ozone reaches a high level (usually on the hottest days of the summer) the city asks people to delay mowing their lawns, turn up their thermostat a few degrees, and ride the bus to work. To encourage bus riding, there is no fair on Ozone days. I used to ride the bus everyday to work EXCEPT on Ozone days. This was because on Ozone days homeless people who were trying to stay cool took most of the seats. Not wanting to fight for a seat or endure the smell, I always opted to drive on Ozone days.
Or maybe the gym is designed to get you to not use the equipment: http://goo.gl/RnnS8