Why Going to the Gym is a Waste of Your Money
I’m changing my tune for one simple reason
“I’ve been in a gym(Jim) before. He seemed like a nice guy.”
This is courtesy of my friend (a.k.a. the Pun Master. You know who you are).
All jokes aside, “going to the gym” has been established as the number one way to smash your fat loss or muscle growth goals. Since the days of Arnold, Dorian Yates, and Ronnie Coleman, the gym has been where amateur bodybuilders and common folk alike build their “temples.”
Society knows that if you go to the gym on a regular basis, then you are focused on your health, disciplined in what you do with your body, and you work hard for physical results.
This would be great, except for one thing: It’s a gigantic f*cking lie.
Now let me be clear: The above statement is actually true
If you focus on your health, remain disciplined in what you do with your body, and work hard, you WILL get physical results. In fact, if all of that is happening, and you eat right, you should be seeing tremendous results.
But absolutely ZERO of that has to involve a gymnasium. (Plus, people that go to the gym are not always the healthiest. For proof, check out the guy at your gym with an extended belly bouncing 150 pounds off his chest.)
For some people, the gym is seen in a negative light:
Ugh, have to go to the gym so I can work out…my gym is closed for the day, guess I can’t work out…the gym is too crowded, all of the bros are hogging the benches I need…
I say the world is your gym!
I’ve had a change of heart recently
I used to be one of those guys who thought the gym was the crack spot, the only legitimate place to build muscle and shed body fat. Every time someone would ask me, “How much do you bench?”, it would vindicate the fact that I lifted weights. Every time I would end a good lift session, I would look in the mirror at LA Fitness and confirm the fact that I was doing it right.
It made me stronger. I can’t deny that. But going to the gym isn’t the only way.
For the past few weeks, I’ve been exploring calisthenics. Surprisingly, a quick YouTube search of the word gives you hundreds — if not thousands — of men and women looking incredibly shredded from bodyweight movements and working out in nature.
What? Seriously? A few push-ups here, a handful of pull-ups there, and you look like this?
At first this sounded insane. All I ever knew about weightlifting was about progressive overload; raising the reps, weight, or intensity of a workout to “progressively overload” your muscles. The more you fatigue your muscles, the more it will grow back in preparation for the next workout.
But I never thought that you could progressively overload with only your bodyweight. I mean sure, you can up your reps or decrease your rest time, but after a week or two you’re repping pull-ups for sets of 20, which is getting into endurance training, not strength training.
What if you spread your hands out even further and then did pull-ups?
Pow! Progressive Overload right there!
Calisthenics are essentially “Gymnastic exercises to achieve bodily fitness and grace of movement”
Coming from the Greek origins of kallos (beauty) and sthenos (strength), it is more applicable to the real world than normal strength training in my opinion because it involves only your body.
You can bench 225 pounds? Great! Try doing a single one-armed push-up.
Squat 400? That’s amazing! Do 5 pistol squats. Or dunk a basketball.
Yes, traditional weightlifting, no matter if it’s bodybuilding, power lifting, or physique training, will definitely get you stronger. So can being outside, doing practical movements. And you can do it for a lot less.
My LA Fitness membership costs $27 per month. For the entire year, that’s over $300. For the same amount of money, I can purchase a set of gymnastics rings, a jump rope, a pair of parallel bars, and even a pull-up bar, and still have dolla bills left over. That’s only for one year of membership. I’ve been going to LA Fitness for over 3 years.
As of this past Monday, I quit LA Fitness…but I’m continuing my strength gains. It’s counter-intuitive in society’s eyes because did I even lift if I didn’t take a post-gym swelfie? Trust me, these last two weeks have proven to me that you can get as much, if not more, of a fatigue at a jungle gym than at a real gym.
Plus, you get more Vitamin D from the sun. Can’t beat that.
Your “gym” isn’t the reason for your progress. YOU ARE.
Screw spending your hard-earned money on a place you go three, maybe four times a week. Movement is the key; whether you move in the gym, or move outdoors, your body will never be able to tell the difference.
Your body is one amazing machine. It can do anything you set it to achieve. Even if it’s gain muscle AND lose fat by doing calisthenics, HIIT, eating a plant-based diet, and walking a bunch (like I’m doing right now).
Our bodies were made for nature. Get outside dammit!
Sincerely,
Jake “The Vaga-Bod”
Ditch the script and come along with me!
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