The Gym(s)

This week has been a challenging one as far as my workouts are concerned.  I had a pretty good day at AnyTime Fitness last week, and decided that in the best of all worlds, I'd have a workout buddy, and decided to recruit Cay.  So we signed her up for a free 14 day membership... and then were told that it would be $20 for the member's key into the building.  No, I couldn't let her in.

So... so much for free.  We were both less than pleased with the turn of events (the woman there explained to us that if we didn't have $20 for the key that day, why would they think we'd get the $50 a month for membership?)  Well, that just about guaranteed that there would be no membership money forthcoming, because "free, no obligation" was printed pretty clearly in black and white. Having to pay a (refundable) fee because they want you to pay a membership pretty much pissed us both off.

So Cay and I left AnyTime and headed for the gym at her school, which has some machines I actually like better than those at AnyTime, but is short a few machines I'd really like to use.  The school was pretty chill about me working out there, they played some really great music (which saved the battery on my phone) and they had multiple small rooms and few people using the equipment.  It's a win/win, although I feel slightly guilty working out there without paying, because they don't get money from my insurance company (like other gyms do) and basically they're just being nice.

Now today I was doing some online stuff with my insurance company, and they have a program where you can earn points which are redeemable for different health related items (like pedometers, heart rate monitors, independent living devices, and recreational stuff like movie tickets and gift cards... and there's even a discount at The Biggest Loser Resort!).  Anyway, one of the ways to earn points is with workouts at partner gyms, and I figure that's a piece of cake, so I found out there was ONE partner gym here in Santa Fe, and it wasn't AnyTime Fitness... it's Curves.

So today I got to see what Curves is all about.  Now there seems to be a lot more equipment in Curves than there was when they first opened years ago, although it's still a 30 minute circuit, it seems pretty well balanced.  I'm still skeptical about the whole thing... 30 minutes doesn't seem like much of a workout, but if it's fun...and it looks to be, they even have Zumba combined with circuit at set times) it can't hurt, and if I earn points... ((shrug)) it's better than sitting home.

Ultimately I think I'll be working out at all three gyms at different times.  I'll get the best of all three that way, which may reduce some of my "I hate this gym" feeling I've been getting lately because none of these gyms measure up to the Presbyterian Healthplex to me... or to Defined Fitness.

Most of the classes I want to take that I used to take at different gyms (and the Y) in Albuquerque are only available with class fees I frankly can't afford here in Santa Fe.  That means Nia, Tai Chi Chih, and belly dance are pretty much out of the question, except on DVDs at home.

I've also located a warm water therapy and exercise pool... at the community college... and am thinking of looking into going there.  Thing is, I'm also thinking of going back for another degree (maybe in Spanish language) and that'll not only get me a foreign language education, but I'll be able to take fitness classes both in the pool and in the college's gym.  Honestly, I'm not sure at this point which I am thinking of enrolling for: the language education or the use of the warm water pool.