If you are trying to stretch your dollars, the last thing you probably have on your mind is joining a gym. Although it may sound counterintuitive, this is one of the best things you can do to invest in your health. If you’re worried about gym fees, think about how much more expensive medical bills can be down the line.
Shop for High Quality, Low Price Gyms
Still, before we discuss exactly why going to a gym can help you turn your life around for the better; let’s clear a common misconception that all good gyms are expensive.
While, of course, there are many expensive, high-quality gyms, this is not true for all gyms. All you have to do is shop around a little to realize how this is an urban myth. When you check out a resource like Fitness 19, you will be surprised to discover that you can join hundreds of excellent fitness clubs almost anywhere in the US at an affordable rate. Moreover, you can get access to all the fitness equipment you need and have a choice of more than 20 top fitness classes.
Why Joining a Gym Is an Investment
It may seem like a stretch to compare a gym membership to an investment, but upon closer inspection you’ll quickly realize that it’s actually a perfectly reasonable analogy.
When you invest your money in the financial markets, you believe that if you put in some of your own money into a stock or mutual fund, you will be able to leverage your money. If your investment is successful, you will get a handsome dividend. Over time, through a process of reinvesting your profits, you will be able to create a fortune as your money makes more money.
The same thing happens when you decide to invest in a gym. However, instead of investing money, you’ll be investing your time and sweat equity to follow through on a diet and fitness plan. If you are diligent about working out regularly and following a proven routine you will begin to notice a marked improvement in your health and vitality. Over time, you will be able to reinvest this new level of well-being into increasing your level of fitness. Your fortune, in this particular case, will be a sculpted physique, vibrant health and energy, and feeling like a million dollars.
3 Classes of Dividends
Staying with our analogy here, what kind of benefits can you get from joining a gym and becoming enthusiastic about health and fitness?
Essentially, you will get three different types of benefits: physical benefits, attitudinal benefits, and lifestyle benefits.
Physical Benefits
When you follow a healthy meal plan and exercise regularly, you will reap the following benefits:
According to the Mayo Clinic, exercise provides the following 7 benefits:
- It controls weight, helping you maintain the perfect body weight for your height and bone structure.
- It combats serious illnesses, including cardiovascular diseases, strokes, mood disorders, arthritis, and diabetes.
- It improves mood, stimulating feel-good brain chemicals like serotonin and dopamine.
- It boosts energy, increasing strength and endurance.
- It promotes better sleep, improving the production of sleep-regulating hormones like melatonin.
- It peps up your sex life, transforming your sex appeal and enhancing your levels of sexual arousal.
- It increases your fun, allowing you to do something physically active with other like-minded people.
Attitudinal Benefits
You’ve heard the phrase that your attitude determines your altitude. Your attitude, in turn, is a result of your belief systems, opinions, and feelings about things. Positive beliefs, opinions, and feelings create a winning attitude toward life. In business or sports, success is often attributed to a person’s winning attitude rather than just their success alone.
When you work out, you are automatically improving your attitude toward yourself, other people, and life in general. It takes will-power to progressively increase how much weight you lift or how long you run on a treadmill. Without realizing it, you will be thinking about achieving goals and building up proof that you have what it takes to set goals, follow a plan of action, and achieve results.
Lifestyle Benefits
The fitness you develop in the gym and the mindset you develop from consistent training has the power to change your life.
The benefits of health and fitness and a winning attitude aren’t just confined to what happens in the gym, it improves everything outside the gym, too.
Arnold Schwarzenegger attributes his phenomenal success as a poor Austrian immigrant to the United States to becoming a champion bodybuilder, movie star, and governor to what he learned in the gym. He said, “What we face may look insurmountable. But I learned something from all those years of training and competing. I learned something from all those sets and reps when I didn’t think I could lift another ounce of weight. What I learned is that we are always stronger than we know.”
Dwayne Johnson, the professional wrestler who become a famous movie star, who is affectionately called “the Rock” by his fans, considers his 4 am workouts the anchor to all his remarkable successes.
So think of joining a gym as a chance to acquire the health, fitness, discipline, temperament and winning attitude necessary to achieve the life of your dreams.
