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Comment by echelon_musk | Hacker News Reader

Why?

you do not need a gym to work out so it is just a waste of money. I used to have membership at Bally’s when I was single but that was for meeting girls, not for working out. I don’t understand people paying money to go to gyms these days for the purposes of working out

Not that I've ever belonged to one but I understand people wanting access to various equipment or even a swimming pool.

Personally, I prefer to walk/hike but I understand that isn't enough for everyone.

I am not “buying” this… if craigslist or facebook marketplace you can buy any equipment you desire dirt cheap (from new year’s resolutions done unfullfilled). pool has always been vacant or filled with senior citizen classes etc when I used to go and I doubt this has changed. I do not have any numbers to back this up but my gut feel tells me less than 10% of people that have gym memberships go to the gym more than once per week

I live in Tokyo, most people live in tiny spaces and can't just have a bunch of dirt cheap weightlifting equipment lying around their homes simply because there isn't space for that.

A lot of people don't have room for larger exercise equipment in their houses--if they have a house. Heck, I just had some reconstruction/reconfiguration done after a fire and I'm figuring out where to now put my rowing machine and I have a decent-sized house.

That many/most people don't really utilize their gym memberships is a separate issue from some people getting value out of them. You seemed to be arguing that gym memberships in general are stupid for anyone.

I apologize if my comments made you think I implied stupid, most definitely do not think that. I do however think you absolutely do not need gym membership to work out and I do believe that vast majority of gym memberships are waste of money. in my personal “circle” no one that works out regularly does so at the gym.

Well I couldn't do my workouts without a gym of some sort. Hard to find hundreds of pounds of resistance attached to cables I can align with muscles I want to work, just lying around the house (though now I transitioned to a home gym with a Beyond Power Voltra, and now that is lying around my house! But as I mentioned in the other comment, living spaces in Tokyo are small, so I paid a lot to get the most space-efficient setup I could come up with, and even with this I still envy some of the specialized equipment available at good commercial gyms).

It really depends on what kind of workouts you're talking about and what your constraints are outside the gym. Though I acknowledge many people are just on autopilot, get gym memberships they won't really use effectively, and waste their time and money.

Such a weird take. I should deadlift 400 pounds in my apartment? And where do I put the barbell and weights when I am done destroying my floor and freaking my neighbors out?

(and don't say just do an alternative; there is none at those weights and I enjoy it)

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