“If you live in the States, you have to join a gym.”
Roger Rees, Actor
Advantages & Disadvantages of Joining a Gym
Many people consider joining a gym right now.
If you are one of those people, you should ask yourself whether joining a gym makes sense for you or not.
In the following, I provide you with all the pros and cons of joining a gym so you get a better impression of whether going to the gym makes sense for you or not.
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Contents
Advantages of Joining a Gym
- Overall fitness improvements
- Joining a gym can benefit your health
- You get stronger
- Going to the gym can boost your confidence
- Easier to attract girls
- You can get assistance of an expert
- You can socialize by joining gym classes
- Hitting the gym may increase your overall energy level
- Working out can make you happy
- Can improve your level of discipline
- Joining the gym can reduce your overall stress level
- Going to the gym often also results in healthier diets
- Crucial if you want to lose weight
- Working out may improve the look of your skin
Overall fitness improvements
One big advantage of hitting the gym is that your overall fitness level will improve quite fast.
If you go to the gym on a regular basis, you will soon realize positive effects and many people will get quite motivated after the see this initial success and will continue to work even harder to improve further.
Joining a gym can benefit your health
If you go to the gym in a moderate manner, chances are that you will also be able to improve your overall health level.
However, make sure not to take it too far since too much of it can do more harm than good to your body.
You get stronger
Through going to the gym, you will also be able to significantly increase your physical strengths.
Especially if you live in an area that is known to be rather unsafe, hitting the gym may be a great way to become stronger so that you will be able to defend yourself whenever it becomes necessary to do so.
Going to the gym can boost your confidence
Many people also hit the gym since they suffer from rather low levels of confidence and urgently need a confidence boost.
In fact, if you go to the gym on a regular basis, chances are that you will be able to make your body look better.
In turn, you will also be more confident among other people and also when it comes to finding a partner.
Easier to attract girls
It has been shown in many studies that girls are really attracted to muscular guys and therefore, if you have problems with attracting girls, you may want to join a gym in order to improve your physical appearance.
You will notice pretty soon that girls will become more attracted to you over time.
However, don’t take it too far since many girls are also turned off by men who are too muscular and spend too much time in the gym.
You can get assistance of an expert
Another upside of gym memberships is that they often also include the support of experts in case you need it.
For instance, if you want to try a new training method, you may need the assistance of an experienced coach who can assist you so that you can do this new training method in a much more efficient manner.
You can socialize by joining gym classes
Going to the gym is also a great way to socialize since you will always meet like-minded people who want to improve themselves on a regular basis.
Socializing will even be easier in case you join gym classes since you will get in touch with many new people on a regular basis.
Hitting the gym may increase your overall energy level
If you go to the gym on a regular basis, you will also soon realize that you will be full of energy when you wake up in the morning.
High levels of energy are crucial to achieving our goals in life and therefore, joining a gym can not only help you to improve your fitness, but also to increase the chances to achieve what you want in life.
Working out can make you happy
Many studies have shown that by working out on a regular basis, people will also feel happier compared to a state where they just lie on the couch and play video games or watch TV all day long.
Hence, if you are currently rather unhappy with your life and don’t even know why, working out more often may also help you in this regard.
Can improve your level of discipline
Hitting the gym on a regular basis and working out can be hard.
However, if you learn to do so, your overall level of discipline may greatly increase as well, which is also quite important to achieve your goals in life since consistency is a huge factor for success.
Joining the gym can reduce your overall stress level
People also feel stressed quite often in our current state of the world.
Many of us work in demanding corporate jobs for long hours and we often also suffer from plenty of stress in our daily lives.
In order to reduce our overall stress level, hitting the gym may be a great way to do so since physical exercise is known to reduce stress levels in an efficient manner.
Going to the gym often also results in healthier diets
Many people who go to the gym often are quite aware of their diet and consume healthier food on average.
Hence, if you currently struggle with your diet and want to make it healthier in the long run, you may also want to join the gym since you will meet many like-minded people who can give you valuable tips to improve your nutrition.
Crucial if you want to lose weight
Obesity is also another big issue in our society right now.
Many people suffer from serious overweight and if you are one of those people who urgently need to lose weight, hitting the gym can also greatly help you in this regard since you can burn plenty of calories in a rather short period of time.
Working out may improve the look of your skin
Since working out also implies plenty of physical movement, going to the gym can also significantly improve the overall look of your skin.
Thus, if you currently suffer from skin problems, just try hitting the gym more often and you may be surprised how good your skin can actually look like.
Disadvantages of Going to the Gym
- Many people don’t like going to the gym
- Can feel like a rather artificial environment
- May do more harm than good if workouts are not done properly
- Some people take it too far
- Hitting the gym may not be possible in rather remote areas
- Gym memberships can be costly
- Bodybuilders often have quite unhealthy diets
- Injuries are a problem
- May not be suitable for shy people
- Some people get gym-addicted
Many people don’t like going to the gym
Apart from the many advantages of joining a gym, there are also some issues related to it.
One disadvantage of hitting the gym is that many people simply do not like it at all.
Many people associate the gym with high levels of exhaustion and may also have had bad experiences in the past.
Hence, those people may simply no longer want to go to the gym.
Can feel like a rather artificial environment
Compared to playing sports, the gym may also feel a little bit like an isolated and artificial environment.
Many people are happier to play team sports on a court or another outdoor environment rather than to feel sort of caged in a gym.
May do more harm than good if workouts are not done properly
Another downside of hitting the gym is that many people actually do not know what they are doing.
If you lift heavy weights but don’t have sufficient knowledge of it, chances are that you will do more harm than good for your body.
The same is true for many other gym machines and you should get yourself a trainer in order to avoid serious damage to your health.
Some people take it too far
While hitting the gym in a moderate manner can be beneficial for us in many different ways, some people take it way too far.
For instance, excessive bodybuilding can be quite harmful to our health and if you work out too much, chances are that your body will not thank you for that in the long run.
Hitting the gym may not be possible in rather remote areas
In some remote regions of our planet, gyms may simply not be popular and also not in place at all.
Hence, if you live in a region where it is hard to find a gym to work out, you should rather go for different exercising opportunities instead.
Gym memberships can be costly
Another problem of joining a gym is that it can be quite costly.
While there are some cheap alternatives out there, many gyms are quite pricy, especially if you want to have the support of a personal trainer who can help you from time to time.
Hence, make sure that you are ready to invest some money before deciding to join a gym.
Bodybuilders often have quite unhealthy diets
Professional bodybuilders often also eat in a rather unhealthy manner.
Their diets are centered around proteins and therefore, they may suffer from a lack of important vitamins and minerals.
Some bodybuilders even use steroids in order to further boost the appearance of their body, which is also quite harmful to their health in the long run.
Injuries are a problem
Especially if you are quite inexperienced yet, injuries can also become a serious problem.
For instance, if you go to the gym and lift too heavy weights, your body may not be ready for it and you may even suffer from serious health issues like ruptures.
Hence, make sure that you adjust your workout to your current fitness level in order to avoid serious injuries in the gym.
May not be suitable for shy people
Shy people may also have a hard time going to the gym.
Many shy people also suffer from a lack of confidence and they may feel quite bad seeing all those muscular bodybuilders lifting heavy weights while they are barely able to lift light weights.
Hence, for shy people with low levels of confidence, the gym may not be the best place and if you are one of those people, you may be happier with other sports instead.
Some people get gym-addicted
There are even people out there who literally get addicted to going to the gym.
Once those people see their muscles grow, they want to push it further and are often never satisfied with how they currently look like.
Thus, hitting the gym may become the priority in life for those people, which is often not a good thing since this can lead to social isolation and to several other issues in the long run.
Top 10 Joining a Gym Pros & Cons – Summary List
| Joining a Gym Pros | Joining a Gym Cons |
|---|---|
| Joining a gym can improve your fitness | Gym memberships can be costly |
| Can improve your overall health level | Gyms can feel quite artificial |
| Going to the gym can boost your confidence | Can eat quite a lot of time |
| You can find like-minded people | Some people take it too far |
| Can often also lead to healthier diets | Can do more harm than good |
| Can help you to attract a partner | Can lead to the use of steroids |
| You will be better able to defend yourself | May not be possible in remote areas |
| Support of a fitness expert | Potential injuries |
| Good if you want to lose weight | Gym addictions |
| Hitting the gym can lower stress levels | May not be suitable for shy people |
Should You Join A Gym?
From the previous discussion, we can conclude that there are many pros and cons of joining a gym.
You have to evaluate all those advantages and disadvantages of hitting the gym by yourself in order to figure out whether going to the gym is for you or not.
In case you come to the conclusion that the gym is not the right location to spend your leisure, you might go for other sports like soccer, baseball, basketball, hockey, tennis, surfing or American football instead.
Sources
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/health-fitness/body/10-things-no-one-tells-join-gym2/
http://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/skills/listening/upper-intermediate-b2/joining-a-gym
https://www.besthealthmag.ca/best-you/fitness/beginners-joining-a-gym/
About the author
My name is Andreas and my mission is to educate people of all ages about our environmental problems and how everyone can make a contribution to mitigate these issues.
As I went to university and got my Master’s degree in Economics, I did plenty of research in the field of Development Economics.
After finishing university, I traveled around the world. From this time on, I wanted to make a contribution to ensure a livable future for the next generations in every part of our beautiful planet.
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