Judgement Free Zone

Though most of the items from my most recent To Do list have gone untouched, there is one item that I have checked off: joining a gym.

When I discovered that there was a Planet Fitness within easy walking distance of my apartment, I stopped having an excuse not to join. So, I took myself down there one Sunday in March, signed up, and have been attending regularly for about a month and a half.

I've been pretty pleased with the experience. Planet Fitness is almost exactly what I need in a gym. The facility includes somewhere around 150 elliptical, step, treadmill, and weight machines, all available to their membership 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Even at their busiest (with an easy 80-90 people in the building), I can walk in and find more than one open elliptical to use for as long as I like without bothering anyone.

Another aspect that I enjoy is the Red Light Circuit. There's a room in the back with ten weight machines (which cover all the major muscle groups in the body) and ten step stations set up in an alternating loop. On the wall they have a set of lights that periodically switch from red to green and back again. You can choose any open station in the circuit to start. When the light turns green you start (either doing 12 reps on a machine or a minute of step depending on where you started). When the light turns red, you clean up, move to the next station, and prep til the next green light. The entire circuit takes 30 minutes and doing the step stations in between each weight machine ensures that you keep your heart rate at a fat burning level throughout the loop.

The one downside to the room is (despite being set aside specifically for the above purpose) there are people who will come in and sit on one machine for ten minutes even though there's 50 other machines in the building they could be using for that. It's kind of annoying to be progressing through the circuit like you're supposed to and to find your next station occupied by the same guy who's been there for the past five green lights.

Ultimately, I can take the annoyance for the price.

Planet Fitness is best known for its $10 a month, no commitment membership, but they also offer something called the Black Card membership. It's about $20 a month and requires a 12 month commitment, but definitely has its perks which include free tanning (which I will never use), free use of the massage chairs (which I use on almost every visit), and the ability to bring a friend for free any day (which my room mate uses on a regular basis).

Perhaps most importantly is the fact that my Black Card allows me to use Planet Fitness locations other than my home club up to ten times a month for free. So, while I'm at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas this summer for camp (have I mentioned that yet?) I can bus the five minutes to the nearby Planet Fitness... If I ever get the free time and energy to do so.

Overall, the membership has been a good investment. I'm healthier, I'm stronger, I feel better, and Planet Fitness' jarring purple and yellow color scheme is starting to grow on me.