When I was about to knock out the next person doing muscle-ups (in the only squat rack at the gym) with a barbell, it was clear: Basic-Fit, I’m out!
For the record, this was last night and I’m not entirely cooled down yet. So my language may be somewhat less nuanced.
Survival Guide for Training in Basic-Fit
Basic-Fit Purmerend is an example of a beautiful commercial concept: “Attract as many people to the gym with low prices until they are packed like sardines in a can. Don’t provide them with guidance because they can hire personal trainers for that (who used to be employees of the gym and provided free guidance). Don’t bother when people have no clue what they’re doing and cause dangerous situations.”
Regarding complaints: Don’t bother responding to emails unless they’re about registrations. If someone decides to leave due to crowding, no problem. After all, what’s a better reason to see customers leave than because your place is already full?”
Your old familiar gym where most people knew each other, there was a level of social control, and therefore gym etiquette didn’t need to be plastered on every wall only to be ignored by everyone like at the big fitness chains, is gone. Instead, you have to hope to be able to train amidst the chaos, not to be knocked over while standing with a heavy barbell on your neck, or that the only squat rack in the gym is being used by circus performers doing everything in the squat rack except squatting, deadlifting, or other exercises it’s meant for.
The staff isn’t to blame much. Someone decides above their heads that five times as many members need to be attracted while the instructors are fired. They’re not happy about it either. Would you feel compelled to constantly address all those people on their behavior?
Survival Guide for Basic-Fit in Purmerend
- Step into the gym without a schedule and be flexible. Simply see what’s available for the muscle group(s) you want to train and get to work with that. Are you coming in cold and is the squat rack free? Skip warm-up and use it immediately. It might have been the only chance of the evening.
- Hear no evil, See no evil. Close your eyes and ears to the nonsense you see around you.
- Keep smiling. Try not to get worked up if you can’t finish your workout despite all your flexibility.
- Accept that training is not as serious for many as it is for you.
- Train as much as possible in the morning and during the day to avoid rush hours.
- Meditate for an hour before training to clear your mind and be less easily annoyed.
Okay, the last one is exaggerated (good for cortisol though), but you get my point: Training in Basic-Fit (Purmerend) requires a certain mental attitude if you want to train seriously without getting annoyed to death. This often applies to gym chains in general. Basic Fit received the most complaints last year at Klacht.nl, but Fit for Free, for example, can also hold its own [1,2]. Although most of these complaints were about incorrect debits, I recognize many of my own complaints in readers’ responses on sites like this.
It should also be noted that you can’t lump all Basic-Fits together. My personal experience only concerns Basic-Fit Purmerend. Undoubtedly, there are branches of Basic-Fit where there’s still a square meter of free space to train and a good atmosphere to do so.
Please Be Patient
I’m not a pro bodybuilder, I don’t even compete in competitions. Yet bodybuilding is serious stuff for me. I’ve been training for almost 14 years according to the principles of bodybuilding in terms of intensity, training frequency, and nutrition. Going to the gym then feels almost like “just another day at the office”. Except that when you arrive at your office, you can’t work because a few interns are playing tennis with your keyboard and monitor.
“Sorry, Mr. Hiddink, you’ll have to wait until you and the Dutch national team can get on the field because some seniors are still doing their morning gymnastics.”
At least that’s how it feels when you can’t do your thing in the gym because someone who just decided to train for the first time this week is occupying “your” machine. Not alone, of course, because alone he wouldn’t come to train. He obviously comes to “train” with four friends. You know, chatting a bit, WhatsApping a bit, looking at the girls a bit, and oh yeah, doing a set in between.
“Dude, it’s January!”
Okay, maybe I’m more annoyed by it this time because it’s January and the gym is therefore filled with people who need New Year’s resolutions to get off the couch. At least 90% of them will be gone within a month. Shouldn’t I just be patient and wait until they’re satisfied with a month of training and sit at home for the rest of the year?
Basic-Fit Struggles
If only I were mainly annoyed by the “January influx”, but that’s not the case. I’ve experienced that annual “good intentions invasion” often enough to know that it’s temporary. What bothers me the most for a few years now is the rise of calisthenics or street fitness. Personally, I think Street Fitness is a better name because as far as I’m concerned, it should be limited to the street.
Aside from the fact that many wrongly think they’ll get the physique of a Hannibal King that way, the disturbing factor is that the normal dynamic within a gym is disrupted. It’s customary to do an exercise with three or four sets and move on so that someone else can work on it. If a machine is occupied, you can inquire which set someone is on and decide to wait or do something else in the meantime. However, people doing calisthenics tend to claim machines that can be pulled up on for half an hour or longer. Sometimes their entire training consists of exercises on one machine. So if you want to do just one exercise on that machine, tough luck.
As was also the experience of one of our readers at Basic-Fit Aalsmeer:
Basic Fit Aalsmeer is a fine gym in itself. Enough machines and dumbbells. But it’s basic, no guidance, no training or nutrition schedule, no sauna or sunbed. I never do group classes. The staff is friendly. The only problem with gyms like Basic Fit and Fit for Free is that they never stop recruiting members. Therefore, it’s too crowded on some days. Because of the low price, a lot of riffraff and youngsters come in a group who claim a machine for half an hour because they all have to go after each other.
Or about the branch in Schiedam:
About half a year ago, this property was taken over by Basic Fit. Same machines, same staff, only different prices and therefore… different visitors.
The gym is terribly busy around the evening hours. The first time I came after my six-month injury, I was very surprised by the popularity of Basic Fit. The TV commercials have done a good job, at least. I now try to go as late as possible so that not all dumbbells and machines are occupied. Apart from the crowds, it’s fine. Too bad about the change of company but nothing to be done about it.
The straw that broke the camel’s back for me yesterday and made me decide to cancel my subscription to Basic-Fit immediately was that for the third time in a row, I couldn’t do shrugs with enough resistance. The only place where I can lay a barbell with 200+ kilos in the correct starting and ending position is the squat rack. When I asked how many sets the guys still had who were doing muscle-ups at that moment, I got the answer: “Another ten sets.” For both of them. Maybe because it was late, maybe because I was tired, maybe because I was just fed up, my guidelines from my survival guide were gone. Keeping smiling, that didn’t exactly work. I expressed my discontent in a way that I’m not particularly proud of afterwards. When you start shouting, hear the audience already chanting “Jerry, Jerry” in your head, and have to resist the urge to smack someone with a barbell out of the gym, you’ve already lost some self-control and are about to lose the rest of it. Even if you’ve always trained clean and natural, the moment you stand there aggressively shouting, pumped up by the training and with pulsating veins on your forehead, you’re obviously asking to be accused of roid rage (“There’s another pumped-up steroid user”).
Anyway, the annoyances, whether held in or not, frustration and/or anger cost me too much energy and time. Even if I have to drive past Basic-Fit from now on to train on the other side of town in a real gym, I still have time and energy left! So Basic-Fit, I’m out! Just like Tatjana apparently.
Your Tips Are Welcome!
The average reader, of course, has much better self-control than I do, is much smarter, and has a calmness about them like the Buddha himself. How do you survive a busy gym? Adapt or unsubscribe? Or are you one of those lucky souls who has never experienced the whole concept of a crowded gym? I’d love to hear it!
References
- klacht.nl/?s=Basic+Fit
- klacht.nl/?s=fit+for+free
