How to Get a Cheap Gym Membership

A lot of people sometimes get discouraged when it comes time to sign up for a gym membership. Some don't want to bind themselves up with a long contract, and others don't want to deal with a high sign-up fee. If money is the issue, here's some tips on getting a cheap gym membership.

Instructions

Difficulty: Easy

1. Ask a friend or family member that works at the gym, they will definitely know how to get a cheap membership.
2. If you don't know anybody that works at a gym, get a free trial to a gym by asking a friend or family member who is already enrolled at a gym. Usually a person who is a gym member can get some free one-week passes to give away to people they know. The only negative part of this is that if you use it you have to sit through an introduction meeting with a staff member where they tell you about all the plans and show you around the gym. This can be useful information, but also very boring if it's not the first time you get a gym membership. Listen to all the plans they offer and chose the one that fits your budget.
3. OK, here's the best tip I can give you, it always works for me. Go to the gym you want to sign up for, but go late at night when there's not that many managers there. Ask for what offers they have and after they tell you the prices, look like you think it's a little too much. Sometimes that's all it takes, but if not, say that you got a similar offer from one of their competitors but that they waived the sign-up fee or at least that it was significantly lower than what you were just offered. But also say that you'd rather go to this gym for whatever reason you can come up with (i.e. friend works out there, closer to home/school/work etc.). After this, you'll probably hear them say something along the lines of: "I'll tell you what I can do, we just signed up a company today with memberships for all of their employees and I'll put your name on there with them and that way we can waive the sign-up fee. How's that?" And there you go, you just saved some money on your new gym membership.

Tips & Warnings

• It's best to do this during the fall and winter when most people don't sign up for memberships, because that's when gym's need all the members they can get.
• Be smooth about it, if you don't get a counter offer, go to another gym with the same tactic.
• Don't sign up for a long contract just to save money if you know you're not going to use it consistently, you'll just hate yourself later.