Gyms with the “basic concept” usually do not provide standard guidance, resulting in inefficient, sometimes outright dangerous workouts and often irritation. But well, that’s what you pay for. With the emergence and increasing prevalence of the “basic concept” in gyms, the responsibility of choosing the right gym increases. The amount of the subscription fee should not be the decisive factor in many cases, although it often still is.
Basic concept
I’ve been there a few times now, and I can already say that things go better at Old’s Kool Gym than at Basic Fit because at Old’s Kool Gym, you actually get the attention you need, which I haven’t seen at Basic-Fit
Ruud de Wit
This was a comment from yesterday submitted by a reader who switched from Basic Fit to Old’s Kool Gym in Lelystad. I’ve never been there, but I can exactly understand what he means.
“Back in the day”, it was almost standard that upon entering a gym, you were assigned a fitness instructor who helped you get started. He or she:
- assessed your goals,
- showed you the different possibilities within the gym,
- often created a fitness schedule for you (or selected from a set of standard schedules based on your goals),
- guided you through your initial workouts,
- continued to walk around the gym afterward, checking where instructions or other help was needed.
I always found it a waste to have to pay higher subscription fees for such a fitness instructor since I never made use of it. I believed that I had surpassed their knowledge long ago. Later, I completed the fitness instructor training myself. This didn’t change my earlier opinion much. So, I initially saw the emergence of gyms with the “basic concept” as a positive development.
Admittedly, my overestimation of the fitness instructor’s value was more about me than about the (training for) fitness instructor. Not everyone dives deep into research texts and spends countless hours per week learning about nutrition and training. Not everyone trained in a hardcore bodybuilding gym where “the big guys” gladly taught newer members the tricks of the trade, so they often picked up much more than the average fitness instructor could explain.
The fitness instructor has broad knowledge and often does not specialize specifically in muscle building, whereas I only see the need for it increasing. Even if you don’t necessarily have “bodybuilding” as a goal because you associate it with images of mass monsters, it’s the principles of bodybuilding that would offer the fastest desired results for most of the people I see training (both men and women!). From my personal perspective, I saw little value in the (average!) fitness instructor.
With the Basic concept, the standard guidance of the fitness instructor has been replaced in many places by lower subscription fees with the possibility of hiring a personal trainer. No explanation of a schedule is provided as standard, let alone instructions per exercise. “That’s the strength training area, and there you can do cardio. Good luck.”
The disappearance of the fitness instructor
Now that many gyms have switched to this concept, the value of the fitness instructor becomes truly apparent.
New members without experience in a gym are virtually left to their own devices. This results in exercises being performed dangerously or ineffectively. Now I realize that in those old hardcore gyms, we taught guys to run, while often the fitness instructor had already ensured they could walk.
An additional problem is that social and sporting control (how to train and how to behave) becomes increasingly difficult due to the large number of people in the gym. With the drastic reduction in subscription fees, many gyms need to attract larger numbers of members. In many cases, the crowding in these gyms is the most common complaint. I myself train at Basic Fit in Purmerend, formerly Health City. The old guard there felt overwhelmed by an invasion of new members, which instantly changed the existing atmosphere in the gym.
Having so many members makes it harder to address behavior or help each other. If there are an average of 30 people in the gym, you often get to know each other and address each other faster than when an average of 100 people are training simultaneously. The willingness to help also rapidly decreases when those guys who you would normally help now annoy you because they keep getting in your way in the overcrowded gym. The fact that they sometimes obviously have no idea what they’re doing is annoying when it disrupts your training (which you naturally consider highly professional). Especially if it’s a much higher priority for you than for other members who decide to do something once in a blue moon.
I have sometimes made the comparison that it feels like the Dutch national team has to train on a field where the F-juniors of F.C. Polderboys also have to train.
Own stinginess own responsibility?
And why should I help you? If you drown in a pool because you jump into the deep end but didn’t want to pay for swimming lessons……
And that’s precisely the right example. Even though it’s your own fault, I can’t stand by and watch you drown and end up jumping in after you. So also in the gym, I sometimes can’t restrain myself and just have to provide corrective information when I see someone posing a danger to themselves, but especially to others.
For example, guys doing standing shoulder presses on an unstable mat with a barbell weighing 30 kilos, with their back just 20 cm away from a balcony where people walk 4 meters below. This is in a crowded gym where you often get hit by someone else during your movement. I can already see that barbell flying down and landing on someone’s head. You can see such a guy visibly startle when you point out this risk to him, showing that he simply hadn’t thought about it. But why do I have to do that? Where is the staff?
Simple. The staff works for a franchise, a chain with a headquarters where everything is decided. Involvement in their own branch is much smaller than when they had control over the “own gym”. Fitness instructors have been dismissed or replaced by Personal Trainers who must try to find as many customers as possible to provide personal guidance. However, the other members do not fall under their responsibility.
If it’s not the staff’s fault, can you blame the franchise? I don’t think so. They make a commercial choice that is only made possible by you as a customer. The fact that a gym charges low prices and accepts you as a member doesn’t automatically mean that gym is suitable for you.
Who is affected by the lack of knowledge, guidance & supervision?
OK, so there’s some annoyance for people like me, and there may be some danger to bystanders. The biggest consequence, of course, consists of:
- Less results from your training
- Greater chance of injuries.
Again: Who cares? If you don’t want to pay for it, you just have to accept this risk. For many people, this risk will be worth the low subscription price. For example, because they’re fine with only training once every two weeks on average and don’t want to make the most out of it. For that one time every two weeks, they want to pay as little as possible. If that leads to not getting the most out of that one training, I’ll be the last one to mourn.
The same applies, to a slightly lesser extent, to the chance of injuries. Enthusiastic athletes are frustrated by injuries because they hinder the practice of their sport. Due to recovery time, they may have to miss training sessions. If this happens to someone who doesn’t train so seriously, they will be much less bothered by it. Of course, it’s different if an injury is so severe that it also hinders you in the rest of your daily life.
But even then, I still think: “Nobody forced you to start training without knowing what you’re doing”.
An exception to this is children. I see too many young children entering gyms where there is no supervision at all. In my opinion, it’s the parents’ task to select a gym with guidance. This will probably also save a lot of complaints. Unfortunately, young boys are a recurring group that is often complained about.
No excuse for ignorance
Perhaps I sound a bit harsh, even though I won’t let that swimmer drown. This tough stance is partly caused by the thought that there is no excuse for ignorance anymore. On sites like this one, there is an enormous amount of information available, from instructional videos for exercises to comprehensive reviews on nutrition and training principles. Even if you don’t have a trainer, that doesn’t mean you don’t know how to perform an exercise.
I’m always surprised at how big the difference often is between the time people invest in training on the one hand and informing themselves about training and nutrition on the other hand. If that ratio were better, many would achieve considerably more results in the same amount of time they already spend in the gym. The fact that you’re on this blog and reading this probably means you understand how important this information is.
Previously, ignorance could be attributed to limited access to information. Nowadays, it means limited motivation to get informed, and if you’re not motivated, you shouldn’t complain if results don’t come.
Make a realistic choice based on your goals and experience
In the end, it comes down to making a good assessment of what you want and what you know.
If you want to achieve serious results in the gym but know nothing about training and nutrition, then sign up at a gym that offers guidance. In practice, this doesn’t necessarily cost (much) more than a basic gym.
If you want to achieve serious results in the gym and already have a solid background, then a basic gym is probably suitable because you no longer need the guidance of the fitness instructor who helps the “newbies” get started.
