Why I cancelled my Gym Membership

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I want to get fit. I want to get healthy. I want to loose weight. I want to build up some muscle. I want to do all of that, and yet I still cancelled my gym membership. Why? Because I don't like the gym.

I've never liked working out. PE at school was always my worst subject, and the thought of doing exercise for fun didn't even cross my mind. Yes I dance, and I love to dance, but to me that doesn't seem like exercising. I can dance for hours and enjoy every minute. Ask me to spend 10 minutes on a treadmill and I'll be bored out of my mind after the first 30 seconds!

Part of my reason for joining the gym in the first place was because I was travelling a really long distance home from work every day, in ridiculous amounts of traffic and it would take me an hour and a half on average to do it. I could drive to the gym, work out for 45 minutes, and then drive home and only be home about 15-20 mins later than if I'd headed straight home from work.

If I was to go to the gym now though I'd have to really convince myself to do it. If there was even the slightest excuse as to why I couldn't go, I'd take it. I've even used finishing work late (as in 10 minutes late) as a reason why I couldn't go. I wouldn't have gone for another hour anyway, but that was irrelevant.

I tried to combat my hatred for the gym by doing classes, but the timings of them weren't great and I could never get booked on any of them. I started doing kettle bells on a Friday night which I did quite enjoy, but one half hour class each week doesn't justify paying a full gym membership.

Whilst I still want to loose weight and become more healthy and more toned, the gym just isn't working for me. And as my boyfriend keeps telling me, everything I need to do to get the body I want I can do at home or outside. I don't need the fancy gym equipment to manage it.

So this is why I've cancelled my gym membership. It isn't for me. I've tried it, it was ok, and yes I may go back to it eventually. But for now I've taken up running outside and find that much more fun than spending half an hour in the darkness of the gym. I get fresh air, I do some cardio, I get to explore my local area. And I've found that my local community centre offers a kettle bells class too for a fraction of the cost of my gym membership. Win-win!

My First Kettlebells Experience

I've been a member of my current gym for almost a year now. Part of the reason I chose this gym over some of the others was because it offered a range of classes in with the monthly membership cost. Up until last week, guess how many I'd attended? Yep, none.

I don't know what it is but the thought of turning up and being the new girl in a class terrified me. I was worried I was going to turn up and not know what I was doing, make a massive mistake or look ridiculous. So I continued with my little cardio routine with the occasional weights thrown in, not really making any progress.

After a fairly unhealthy March, I decided that in April I would give myself 30 days to turn my fitness regime back around. I've been going for a run before work, signed up to a new dance class, bought myself some ankle weights and a foam roller, and I finally took the plunge and signed up to a Kettlebells class.

Credit to: Lucy Fry

A kettlebell is a cast iron/steel weight, shaped a bit like a cannon ball, that comes in a range of weights depending on how strong you are (I'm a weakling so could only manage a 4kg one), and can be used to perform a range of cardio, strength and flexibility exercises.

The class I signed up to was only 30 mins long, which I couldn't understand. All the other classes on the timetable are an hour long, why would this one only be 30 mins? Well, as I learnt on Friday, Kettlebells are an insane workout! There's no way I could have done more than 30 minutes. I'm actually surprised I managed that long.

Our instructor is ex-army and he pushed us through a range of different exercises. Some focused on legs, some backs, some arms and some abs. We did swing movements, push ups, squats, sit ups. 30 second reps of each, with a ten second break in between each rep. Then after 4 reps, we'd change to a different exercise.

I was really skeptical up until I got there. Having never used a kettlebell before, and not being a fan of weight lifting, I thought it was going to be a nightmare 30 minutes for me. But it wasn't I loved it.

I came out extremely sweaty (sorry, tmi!), tired, feeling like I wanted to throw up and aching all over. It was amazing! And even after rolling out my body, and stretching, I'm still feeling good aches two days later.

I think I may have found my new favourite form of exercise.

Sarah x