Cheap Gyms
Pre-covid, pre-divorce, pre-twins, I was paying circa £500 per month for a couples gym membership at a ‘premium’ club. Tennis was thrown in, and a few personal training sessions for good measure. I know, I hide it well.
Mid-covid, I cancelled the membership and changed my habits. I hit the roads, pretty much running every day and started doing YouTube dumbbell workouts.
Post-covid, the kids were a little older, so I decided to rejoin a gym as I wanted to increase my weight training. Starting life post-divorce is interesting - some call it adult life 2.0. I could either spend lavishly to show the world I was ‘okay’, or I could take some pain and downgrade my life. I took the latter, stoic route.
I joined a ‘cheap gym’ for £19.99 per month. It was open 24 hours a day and had all the gear. A few things were stripped down, of course. No Aesop shower gel, how would I survive?
What I found in this cheap gym was a wonder. I bumped into old friends I’d not seen for years, people I knew from various stages of my life. Life inside the ‘cheap gym’ was vibrant and a little edgy. For years, I poo-pooed cheap gyms and wanted to avoid them at all costs (no pun intended). I then had a thought whilst there one day that the good these cheap gyms do is off the charts. Cheap gyms do more for people's mental health and all-round health than anything I can think of.
As one of my heroes, Charlie Munger (RIP), said about McDonald’s:
They take people and give them a first job, which enables them to get a second job. They do a very good job of educating troubled young people to be good citizens, and they're probably more successful than charter schools.
Yes, McDonald's sells arguably the greatest-tasting burgers in the world, but it also is a huge stepping stone to great things. From small seeds, great oaks grow.
I see cheap gyms providing something similar. It propels people forward with their physical fitness, which is a big domino to everything else in their lives. I call it the three health’s: mental, physical, and financial – all important but very much interlinked.
Cheap gyms provide an affordable way for many people to start the long journey to life mastery, which, as we know, has no destination; it’s a continual pursuit.
I also noticed many people in the gym were listening to podcasts and audiobooks, which are another great resource for those who are motivated to learn. So, you could work out for close to nothing and be educated for free in your ears. The ultimate habit stack. From small seeds, great oaks grow.
I take my hat off to cheap gyms for the good they do and tip my hat to McDonalds for the good they’ve done.
As Rory Sutherland said, “Marketing people go very deeply into the surface of things.”
This article is an example of that. Seek the deeper meaning of things, which are often hiding in plain sight on the surface.
p.s. I do advise financial advisers who are still building a practice to join the most expensive gym they can, as this is often where they can attract ‘ideal clients’. Fish where the fish are plenty. If you’re based in London, you should consider joining Third Space.
