Top 5 tips when joining a gym

 When joining a gym in Bristol there are a few things to consider – like the distance from your house, or the range of classes on offer. You also need to remember to buy the right gear and to eat an hour in advance before a workout. With so much to deliberate, what are the top 5 things to remember when joining a gym?

1.    Proximity
There is no point in joining a gym if you cannot get to it! Always join a gym that is on your bus route or your route home from work. That way you never have an excuse not to go. If your gym is less than an hour away from your house why not try power walking or jogging to the gym in order to warm up?

The 4-week Report

Well week 4 is up and I am feeling great!!!! I altered my diet for the first 3 weeks without any training and then over the past week have begun to train along with healthy eating. I must admit, getting back into training has been hard, I am aching from head to toe but it’s that satisfying ache; one where you know it is making a difference. I am almost back to where I started with my weights although my fitness levels are taking a while to return to normal.

The Before Photos

Tom Horton - Fitness Manager
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Shaun Langson - Personal Trainer
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Christmas Flab Challenge

4th Jan 2010 until the 14th Feb 2010

theclub staff will prove that it is possible to change their bodies in just 6 weeks, using just a gym membership and the facilities it has to offer.

You have got to be kidding!!!! ‘5 weeks!!’ The words muttered as I view my new torso staring back at me in the mirror. I have to repeat it to believe it. This is the amount of time it has taken to go from fairly fit to flabby over the run into Christmas and the Christmas period. A period of 5 weeks where I have totally stopped training, and allowed myself no boundaries to what crosses my lips.

I have dipped into every tin of sweets, accepted every biscuit and even reduced my water intake, replacing it with things such as coke/sugary juice and tea/coffee. I have ballooned from 15stone to 16’3 and gone from a waist 34 comfortable to 36snug fitting!!! And my energy levels are at an all time low. Now this may seem extreme, however if 90% of the people using the gym were to write down and document their daily/weekly habits of eating/drinking and working out and keep track of how they felt and performed, then it would be no surprise that it would make for some alarming reading not to different from that above.

However I have decided to change it all, and to show those people who think it is not possible to change yourself in 6 weeks like all the adverts say. Also to quash all the readily available excuses ‘I don’t have time’’ I cant make it up to the gym’ ‘I work to much’ I have recruited some of my work colleagues to join in, as I am aware that I work in a gym so it is easier for me. As for them, Al Morgan is the head chef at theclub doing shift work, unsociable hours, 6 days a week etc etc and Graham Clark is the operations manager at theclub doing 9-5 6 days a week, more normal office hours. So we have a varied scale of hours worked etc. myself I do hours tailored generally around my clients availability which may be 6am to 10pm so it is completely sporadic. But having these varied shift patterns allows us to get a better understanding of the time people have available over the week.

We are going to monitor our entire food intake, document weight and measurements, our before and after photos and also keeping a diary of how we feel, energy levels, mood etc. the rules are simple, we are only allowed to use the facilities on offer at theclub, pool, gym etc etc and only offer the advice and programming of the gym staff. We each have different needs and goals so we will each be getting assessed and given a program from a separate gym team member then following their lead all the way.

So role on the 4Th jan. Please feel free to post your comments.

Tom Horton
Fitness manager