Everyone thinks you must use a gym to complete the right amount of exercise for the week. The public perception is the bigger and nicer a gym is, the better results you will get. This is certainly not true, and we could argue that there are as many bad things with a gym as there are good. Most people don’t realize that a gym is a made-up idea created by humans as a needed place. As we don’t discredit that there are different strokes for different folks and that the gym can be a great place for exercise, it’s merely only a bonus rather than a necessity. All the gym should ever be is a mind and body reset to what you must do throughout the week of correct movement.
Gyms are a great place for social activity and can provide new and fresh exercise ideas and motivation to keep yourself accountable. However, gyms do have their faults. We can walk into a gym and correct most of the people who are doing an exercise wrong if not every person. Gyms that have their high-tech machines only were created to make things easier in a bad way, which often does not translate into everyday movement. As we think doing these machines is better than doing nothing, machines should only be an accessory to movement rather than a main movement from week to week. Machines also need to be diversified into body functional movements, or you will have body mechanic problems in the future. We have always criticized gyms for putting more money into the aesthetics of the gym rather than the professional usage of a gym.
Too many people get hurt in a gym people of the little tweaks no one tells them to do. Keeping your head and your feet straight, sitting correctly on the machine, having even grips, correct breathing, and so much more are the things no one looks at when they are using exercise machines. People become way too focused on the objectivity of their program of how many sets and reps they can do rather than keeping the correct mindset on how to do things. This is always a hard habit for us to break when people come from a gym mindset and their perception of exercise.
The gym has become so much of a culture and, in some cases, a cult that we have lost its perspective of what it’s supposed to be. Gyms weren’t created to have their own dress code of overpriced fitness brands to shame people. Ironically, most of these kinds of people are there for attention rather than personal fitness advancement anyway. Gyms were created for everyone to go to and not feel judged.
As we have our criticism of Planet Fitness, we love their idea of non exclusively. We always find it funny the “pro gym” people who like to knock on Planet Fitness. We run these gym people through one of our workouts, and they quickly realize there is nothing hardcore about them. Fitness is for everyone, and we all have different goals. There is no public competition in fitness and health. We love that fitness and gyms have finally evolved from the 1980s Gold Gym scene of gyms are only used for meatheads.
Much research shows that people who put all their effort into one or two hours a day, seven days a week, do not necessarily have great health results due to the lack of activity they do throughout the week. How you sit, stand, and move throughout the day will trump every bit of how much weight you lift or how hard you go in the gym. Ergonomics of everyday movement is a missed topic that is not recognized in the public eye in exercise. We always say we would rather you get 10,000 steps a day than 0 steps a day. But we would rather you get 5,000 perfect steps a day rather than 20,000 wrong-moving steps daily.
Exercise snacking has gained much momentum over the years, as it should. Walking up the steps a couple of times a day at your workplace, doing various squats throughout the day with a wash basket in your hand, parking very far away at a grocery store, and more are concepts that will add up in a positive manner in exercise over time. We overlook small amounts of correct movement in the brainwashing idea of exercise intensity.
There is zero empirical evidence that intense exercise prolongs life. We do not knock the idea of intense exercise; it is hard work, and we love it. However, not enough people consider the idea of longevity of living, and they should. The small changes you make in posture, movement, balance, and more will all increase positively over the years to help with aging. Your goal is always to feel good and even better as you age.
The idea that the gym is the mecca of exercise couldn’t be any more wrong of an idea. Covid should have taught us, if anything, that gyms are not a necessity but rather a place of bonus and play. Many people realize that they can do many exercises from their own homes that are just as, if not more effective than, the gym. Gyms take time to drive to, which most of us do not have. Gyms also can be intimidating and defeating if you do not know what and how to do various exercises. We love to work with people outside as that has more health benefits, fewer germs, and more results than a gym.
We created our business by teaching people that they do not need to go to a gym seven days a week for maximum results. A neat fact about us is that most of our extreme weight loss clients do not go to a gym. Instead, they came to us one or twice a week and implemented the idea of small exercises throughout the week. Everyone who works with us finds us more effective because of fewer distractions. Countless people have told us that our exercise methods make them feel better because they realize they don’t have to go to the gym.
If you are a gym person, this article was not meant to offend you but rather to think outside the box. Our exercise methods still help gym people show that a lot of exercises is done incorrectly. We do not hate gyms, but we do not like the idea gyms have in the public eye as the mecca of exercise. Gyms can be great places that have helped countless people in their health, but they have a long way to go regarding professional growth.
But the fact is, most people do not like gyms, and we want to tell those people that you do not need them for exercise or your health. Gyms are a great place, depending on your goals, such as powerlifting, sports, bodybuilding, and more. But even if that is your goal, finding exercise and correct movement outside the gym is more important than in the gym.
