Bizarrely, just after my last post I was contacted by the gym I’d decided was to be my partner in crime here in my new hometown. I mentioned in that ‘losing my exercise mojo‘ post that I’d done some research and the gym in question had some Zumba and Pump classes (my faves!) – and I loved that they were super active on Facebook. (Social media savvy will win me over any time!)

One of the membership officers asked me to come in and I assumed I’d be shown around and given the hard sell, so we made the appointment for the very next day.

Phew! I was relieved. My lack-of-exercise-mojo was to be a thing of the past. The layer – it feels like I’ve developed over the past two months – would soon melt away and (like I said in the last post) all would be well in the world.

But… (bloody buts!). The gym person in question was quite late for our appointment. It gave me time to sit in the busy gym and contemplate life. And stuff. Well… to look around and study the timetable in detail.

I liked that the gym was HUGE! Huger than huge. And it was busy. Shockingly so, given the size and busy-ness of my previous gym. I liked that the members were ALL shapes and sizes. And ages.

My new hometown is renowned for its aging population. A lot of people retire here. (In fact I have never seen so many electric buggy things in my entire life!) The classes at the gym obviously cater for their clients. Some older, larger ladies arrived while I waited, foam noodles in hand, obviously heading to the pool for some exercise.

But… as I studied the timetable I noticed something I’d previously overlooked. Perhaps I’d looked at an old one, I don’t know but… the gym only had ONE Zumba class each week. On a Saturday. ONE!!! It had a million ‘Pump’ classes and it had several aqua Zumba classes and all of the other usual Les Mills suspects. But ONE Zumba class.

I was feeling a bit bored and emotional* by that stage so apologised to the person on the desk and left. The time alloted to my entire appointment had come and gone. I wasn’t (however) too worried about that (given that I’m not working and have nothing BUT free time), I just explained that I’d had a chance to study the timetable and realise they didn’t have the classes I was after. I did get some follow-up contact from the membership officer and he was very apologetic for my wait. I explained it was fine, but I was going to shop around a bit.

I’ve contacted another gym (twice!!!) and am waiting to hear back – they are WAY less responsive than my first choice and have a crappy website. The gym itself I assume to be much smaller with fewer classes. But they offer 3 Zumba classes and 3 or 4 Pump classes each week.

I’d like to attend a Zumba class there tomorrow (Monday here in Oz) so am thinking I’ll just rock up at the start time and ask if I can try it… rather than wait for them to respond to my queries (cos apathy may well overtake guilt and I’ll put it off again)!

It’s making me wonder if social-media savvy should / shouldn’t be a priority when searching out a gym.  Your thoughts?

* I will explain source of emotion on my Facebook page. (Too complicated to add to this post!)