3 Expensive Gym Habits That Burn A Hole In Your Wallet

 

 

Like some kind of new-fangled technology, our bodies are costing us more now than ever to nurture and maintain. Thanks to the greater awareness of health and fitness issues in recent years, an increasing number of Malaysians are now flogging gyms and fitness centres with hopes to lose fat, look fab, or simply just to stay fit and healthy.

However, gym memberships often come with a hefty price tag and many of us end up paying for extra services we do not fully utilise.

For instance, depending on where you live and your penchant for amenities, gym memberships can cost up to RM200 per month. Initiation fees, incremental price hikes, and extra charges to take up personal training sessions may jack up your annual outlay to well over RM2,500 to RM3,000.

Regular and consistent visits to the gym can boost your fitness and confidence levels, but there are some habits that may unnecessarily jack up the cost of staying fit.

Here are three pesky gym habits that always makes staying fit expensive and how you can beat them:

1) Signing up on impulse

Popular fitness trends like CrossFit, Yoga and Muay Thai can be enticing to the exercise novice who is just testing out the waters. Indeed, experimenting with different types of fitness programme is key to finding out what works best for you.

Enjoyment is after all, the best predictor of exercise longevity and adherence. However, being overly optimistic about your willpower to work out don’t just cause your efforts to backfire, it could burn a hole in your wallet in the long run.

For example, sheer curiosity may have led to your signing up for a one-year package at a CrossFit gym. They don’t come for cheap – membership packages at a CrossFit gym in Malaysia can set you back some RM200 per month (and often more).

Sure, signing up for a new fitness programme may seem like a wonderful and exhilarating idea in the beginning. But what if two months later, you discover that the high-intensity and notoriously gruelling fitness programme may not be for you after all?

What’s likely to ensue is you might soon find yourself with a growing barrage of excuses to skip gym while continuing to pay for a membership you aren’t utilising.

2) Putting too much on your plate

 

So you’ve mastered the basics of pole dancing. While you enjoy the sport and have every intention to keep doing it, you would also like to start incorporating Yoga and Pilates into your regular fitness routine.

The problem? You will likely need to pay for separate gym memberships to access the different types of specialised classes and amenities.

Pole dancing classes at a studio can cost up to RM60 per session. Meanwhile, monthly fees at a Yoga or Pilates studio in Malaysia typically range from RM120 – RM200 per month, and often come with a limited number of classes.

While many commercial gyms or chain health clubs do offer a variety of such classes, they often lack a personal touch and communal spirit innate in smaller studio gyms. Working out in a small-group setting can increase levels of comfort and engagement, and enhance the exercise experience, especially if you are new to it.

It is for this reason that many dedicated gym goers are now turning to these studios and boutique gyms.

For those who are willing and able to fork out the extra, you can create and customise your own fitness routine using different types of fitness regimes to best suit your goals. Love CrossFit? Why not complement it with Yoga? Meanwhile, indoor-cycling enthusiasts may up their physique game with weight training.

Variety’s great. However, blithely piling up your fitness palate with a variety of different gym memberships simply for experimentation’s sake will more likely yield an expensive bill rather than an impressive figure.

3) Being inconsistent with your workout

The lack of time or a lengthy commute often make up the amalgam of excuses on why people slack off exercise. Unfortunately, for those of us living in the city, especially one as busy as Kuala Lumpur, such struggles are often too real.

Navigating through standstill traffic, especially during peak hours is not only stressful and off-putting, it is physically and mentally draining and can deter the fitness newbie from going to the gym.

As any fitness professional worth their salt would tell you, inconsistency is the mother of all failures. Regularly shirking on your gym routine can hamper overall progress and prevent you from making any substantial fitness gains (isn’t that the main reason why you signed up in the first place?).

The worst part is you end up wasting your hard-earned money on a gym membership you do not have time for.

Gym woes, be gone

For those unacquainted with physical activity, taking the first step is always the hardest. They are also the most prone to getting derailed or becoming disheartened when they encounter stumbling blocks along the way.

Boredom, having no time and not enjoying a particular type of activity make up the top reasons why people end up ditching their fitness routines.

Having access to multiple types of gyms, studios and fitness facilities at multiple locations with just a single low monthly fee without a commitment seems like the ideal solution for these very people!

The good news is, you can now make that happen with KFit, a new fitness sharing platform that grants subscribers access to over 200 participating fitness providers in the city so you will have little trouble finding one that is nearest to your workplace, your home, or even after a meeting in town. This will also benefit those who have to travel frequently for work.

At a monthly subscription fee of RM99, KFit users are able to have their pick of a variety of fitness programmes, including Yoga, CrossFit, Pilates, cycling, Zumba, kickboxing, bodybuilding, pole dancing or whatever tickles their fancy. Is it any wonder why it has been dubbed the “Uber of exercise?”

We have special promotion for KFit too so you can try it out for even less! RM60 less to be exact! Just enter this code: IMON60 when you’re signing up!

The offer is not just financially viable, it lets the fitness newbie experience a variety of workout programmes and get a feel of different environments before finding their favourites.

The best part of the “gym hopping” experience is, it allows you to mingle with different cliques and communities and find one you belong with.

Like an elaborate buffet filled with so many choices and a monthly subscription rate that is just a fraction of what most commercial gyms offer plus no yearly commitment, KFit lets the fitness enthusiast, especially those who are new to the journey, have their cake and eat it too (Just be sure to work it off afterwards…).