Is it good to exercise in the gym?

This thing is never absolutely good or bad. It is essentially a multiple-choice question of "whether it meets the needs." If you get it right, you will get a good value for money, but if you get it wrong, you will just waste money and find fault. To put it bluntly, the gym is a high-end fitness toolbox. The fixed equipment, free weight area, aerobic equipment, and even group class teachers and personal training resources are all tools prepared for you. If you really have precise fitness needs, such as wanting to increase muscle and strength, want to systematically adjust movement patterns, or even just lack an atmosphere that can urge you to move, then it is really useful.

A fellow fitness enthusiast I met two years ago, who worked in back-end development, was diagnosed with high blood lipids at the age of 27. His rounded shoulders and hunched back were so severe that it hurt his neck when he looked up at the ceiling. He first practiced squats at home with a blogger. After squatting for half a month, his knees hurt so much that he even trembled when walking down the stairs. Later, he got a card for the gym downstairs in the company, and first found a certified private teacher for two years. After a few months of basic exercises, I spent an hour and a half every day after get off work, doing shoulder and back exercises with fixed equipment, squatting in the free zone, and adding 20 minutes on the elliptical machine. In less than half a year, my body fat dropped from 28 to 16, and my old problem of shoulder and neck pain has not happened again. Last year, I competed in a local amateur fitness competition and won the third place in the group. You said that for him, the gym is certainly a good thing.

But on the other hand, there are quite a few people around me who cheat on themselves at the gym. The girl in the department next to me was fooled by a gym salesperson at the subway entrance last year. She bought an annual pass worth more than 2,000 yuan and bought a dozen private training classes. As a result, she had to take three subway stops and walk 15 minutes to the gym from where she lives. When the cold winter wind blew, she was already tired after get off work and couldn't muster the energy to do it. She had swiped the card seven times in the whole year and had 11 private classes left. Some time ago, she heard that the owner of the gym ran away with money. She didn't even bother to join the rights protection group, saying that she would treat the money as lost. There is also the kind of person who has social anxiety and just wants to dance Pamela comfortably at home. She is forced to go to the gym by her friends. When she goes in, she sees that everyone is sweating profusely from training. She is standing next to the equipment area and is helpless. She is embarrassed to hold a dumbbell. It is embarrassing to go to the gym for several days. For her, the gym is not as useful as the walking trail in the community downstairs.

In fact, it is not unreasonable for everyone to complain that "there are many pitfalls in gyms". The threshold of the industry is indeed low now. Some personal trainers do not even have a serious qualification certificate, and they dare to teach others moves even though they practice poorly. Some gyms only make money and run away after only two months of opening. These are real problems. If you step on them once, your impression of the gym will fall to the bottom. If you really want to ask me whether it is worth it, I usually advise people not to rush to apply for an annual card, but to find one that is close to your home. Buy a ten-time card and try it out for half a month. If you can really adapt to the environment and there is a real need, then renew. It is better than paying money in a hurry and throwing the card at home to gather dust, right?