Exercise mojo update… and chippies!

Sunday, November 11, 2012 Permalink

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!)

7 Comments
  • Char
    November 11, 2012

    It definitely sounds like it’s not really the gym for you. You need to be where you can Zumba to your heart’s content and not just have it meted out in weekly doses. As for the membership officer being late – inexcusable! I hate when people keep me waiting. My time is just as valuable as theirs and in this case he’s wanting to sell you something so he should be there. Rant over.

    • Debbish
      November 12, 2012

      The membership guy called and Facebooked to apologise for his lateness (someone else had called in sick). It was more the lack of Zumba (or any other dance) classes that bothered me and one a week just offers no flexibility!

  • J
    November 12, 2012

    “It’s making me wonder if social-media savvy should / shouldn’t be a priority when searching out a gym.” Nice to have but beyond easing initial information gathering it’s not really what’s important about the gym is it? You wouldn’t rate a plumber by the quality of his/her twitter account?

    • Debbish
      November 12, 2012

      Hee hee J – I do sometimes decide to go with one company over another if they’re on Facebook or active on social media – though I think that’s more about the responsiveness of the company in question. I like that I can tweet with our telephone carriers or public transport carriers etc.

      But… the gym debacle got even worse. I planned to go to a Zumba class this morning but called JUST to make sure they’d let me do a free class and see what it was like. According to their ‘crappy’ website (which had no gym opening times and very minimal info) the same instructor took all 3 Zumba classes. I figured if I hated them it could be problematic. So… I rang and chatted to someone (didn’t mention I’d sent two email queries via their site) and discovered that they cancelled all of their Zumba classes some time ago. So their website was WAY out of date…

      PS. They had NO dance classes at all, so now I’m trying to find another option.

      Deb

  • Miz
    November 12, 2012

    yes yes pass pass
    we neeeed our ZUMBA.

    and I feel your pain.
    the gyms where we will be living are dismal.

    • Debbish
      November 12, 2012

      Oh dear…. Well, I haven’t joined a gym, but I did go to a Zumba class today – so that’s something!

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