Fitness First, Glasgow

...work in the health and Fitness industry for 9 years and in that time I joined a lot of people up to various gyms. However there were times when as a sales person, I hated my job because I felt like people were often getting ripped off and not getting the best deals available. In light of that (and the fact I know it still happens today) I have put together a comprehensive guide to getting the most out of your gym membership, how to get the best deals ...
...clever fee designed by the fitness industry as a whole to get more money out of you. Sorry!
3) Join the gym 3 DAYS FROM THE END OF THE MONTH. The sales staff are desperate to hit their targets and will give you all sorts of reductions (many will put you onto a reduced corporate rate to get the sale even if you don't work for a large corporate company! I've even known some to put people onto an Off-peak membership but give them full use of ... more

I used to work in the health and Fitness industry for 9 years and in that time I joined a lot of people up to various gyms. However there were times when as a sales person, I hated my job because I felt like people were often getting ripped off and not getting the best deals available. In light of that (and the fact I know it still happens today) I have put together a comprehensive guide to getting the most out of your gym membership, how to get the best deals and how to make sure you get the support you need.
(Apologies to whoever read my first review on this topic, there is an element of repetition but I have gone into more detail in this review)

GET THE BEST JOINING DEALS

As a general rule, the best months to join the gym are January and February as they often put great offers on (buy one membership get one free/£0 joining fee etc. However as a little tip, December is often a good time to join also because it is the quiestest month for gyms and they are desperate to get people to join. There won't neccesarily be offers in place, but if you are a good negotiater, you will pretty much get whatever membership you want because nobody wants to join before christmas(Follow my guide below to negotiate the best deal).

In the summer months, gyms often put an offer on which is a week or a months trial. This is a great idea if you want to check the gym out for a while before going for the dreaded 12 month contract!!!! (A week trial is normally £10, but you can ask for a free 3 day trial from the sales staff, so I would go for that!)

BEATING THE SALESMAN

When you go to look around the gym, the sales staff will have to show you around. This involves sitting down first and going through something called a "needs analysis" or "pre qualifying". They sit down and you have a chat about why you came into the gym, what you want to achieve, what you like doing in the gym, how important it is to achieve your goals. All of these questions are cleverly arranged so that you completely buy into joining the gym, because if the sales person is good at there job, you should find that you have no "barriers to joining the gym". Just be aware that the sales person isn't really that bothered about your goals at all (maybe thats a bit cynical because I did) but in essence they are trying to find out what pushes your buttons and will thus, play to your weaknesses! This sounds horrible but thats the reality of their job. After this question time, they will show you around the gym....this is called the "tour". Their job at this point is to make you say "YES" to everything and will ask a number of leading questions like........

Do you like what you've seen today?
Can you see yourself training here?
If you like what you've seen, can you see yourself joining?
etc etc you get the idea......

The shallow psychology behind this is to get you into the pattern of saying "YES", as when you get asked to join at the end, you subcontiously will want to continue that pattern and say yes to joining. (unbelievable but absolutely true!)

Once you've been shown around, you are at the business end of the deal (the bit where you are supposed to join). This is where they will go through all the prices. Be aware of sales people writing some prices larger (actually writing the price in a larger font) than other and putting circles around them. This is a psychological cue to pick that membership. A cheap Derren Brown esk trick, that unfortunately works on many people.

Below are a few hints and tips to help you get the best out of your gym membership................

1) suggest you're really keen to join TODAY but you don't want to pay the joining fee. FF sales staff are not targetted on joining fees so will waver this completely if they think you will join that day.
2) You will always have to pay the admin fee, this is a clever fee designed by the fitness industry as a whole to get more money out of you. Sorry!
3) Join the gym 3 DAYS FROM THE END OF THE MONTH. The sales staff are desperate to hit their targets and will give you all sorts of reductions (many will put you onto a reduced corporate rate to get the sale even if you don't work for a large corporate company! I've even known some to put people onto an Off-peak membership but give them full use of the gym (This does flag-up at reception but the reception team will not quiz it because it happens all the time!)
4) Ask the sales team for free passes, they will hand them out like confetti if they think they'll get a sale out of it
5) Just before you join, ask for free passes and sunbeds. The sales person WILL throw these in if they think it will get them the sale.
6) THE BIG ONE ....getting out of your contract within your first 12 months. Anyone that has tried this will have found its air tight. However, here's the small print you didn't read.
a) You have a 30 day money back guarantee so if you're not happy about the gym, you can exercise this clause. This is never mentioned by the sales people but is in operation.
b) You can quit if you say your moving house and the place your moving to DOES NOT have a fitness first within a 5 MILE radius. Its in the contract so make use of it.
c) If you suffer injury and cannot train you can legally terminate you membership provided you have a doctors note.........good time to be friends with someone in the NHS or medical student.

Some gyms do offer smaller contract lengths but they are not very cost effective, nearly all gyms work off of 12 month contracts. To cancel the contract at the end of 12 months you should just put it in writing in the last month (i.e month 11 if you want to quit after a year). Check that your direct debit has been cancelled. The gym should do this, but on countless occassions I've seen them forget, so do it yourself if needs be. (just be aware, if you cancel your direct debit BEFORE your 12 month contract is up, you WILL get debt collectors chasing you!

7) if you work for a big company, you can get a FREE MEMBERSHIP at FF if you negotiate a deal with the sales staff to Promote FF within your company. This is a farce because usually you only need to get 7+ people to join which generally occurs out of luck more than your own efforts! You can also apply for a reduced corporate rate if 5+ people from your own company are willing to join.

Some other tips:

If you are looking to join a gym, make sure you visit on a monday or tuesday at about 6pm. This is the busiest time for gyms and will give a fair reflection of how busy it will get (remember the sales person will never say it gets busy.....instead they usually say "it's popular" a sneaky way to make it look a positive rather than a negative)

If you like classes, ask them about waiting lists. Most classes can only take about 25/30 people depending on the size of the gym. popular classes like spinning and yoga often get full and if this is what you like doing, CHECK YOU CAN GET ON THE CLASS before you join.

Check for hidden costs. These usually take the format of Classes costing extra, extra for towel hire and extra to put your clothes in a locker! Always worth asking just to be sure, you don't want any nasty suprises!

If you are being shown around, ask a member of the gym their opinion rather than any of the gym staff (no matter who they are). All gym staff members are geared up in sales, so they will always try to sell it to you positively whereas a member will give a fair appraisal.

The gym is there to support you with your training. Make sure that you a) have an induction where they will show you how to use all the equipment. b) they have to provide to you free of charge a programme of exercise, but trust me the follow ups on your programme can be awful at some gyms. My advise it to book in a regular slot on a monthly basis to have your programme reviewed. YOU DO NOT HAVE TO PAY FOR THIS, but watch out for the gym trying to sell you personal training programms. These are great if you need the extra help, but not necessary if your experienced in your training methods. Personal training also costs anywhere from £25/60 depending on the experience of the trainer, quite expensive when you can get a regular gym trainer to fix you a programme for free!

I hope some of this helps, I love keeping fit but hate getting ripped off, I hope this saves you all some money.

PS: It comes as no suprise to read about levels of customer service going down once you've joined. FF are well known for this as they are a top heavy organisation (basically they concentrate more on getting new customers in rather than keeping the ones they've got happy! The proof of this is they're one of the only companies in the industry who do not employ something called a retention manager (someone who looks after the current members to keep them happy).

Good Luck 

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