Anger as catalyst
Okay, I admit I resist change. Take last night for instance, I was PISSED when I walked in my gym to find they had done away with the Spinning room.
THAT room used to house a sauna, steam room and Jacuzzi - which was one of the reasons I joined MY gym to begin with. I have a congenital hip disease (Legg-Calve Perthes) which doesn’t require, but certainly benefits from, heat-therapy. I used that “wet room” nearly every time I visited my gym — 5 times per week at the very least.
It took me years to get over the loss of the wet room — I even contemplated switching gyms because if it. I’m sure most would agree that when you join something like a gym for certain amenities, people tend to be a bit miffed when said amenities are discontinued, no? I was!
As I said, years went by and I never even once tried the new Spinning classes that replaced the wet room, at least until about a month ago… A month ago a gym-mate of mine suggested I try SOMETHING NEW — ”Spinning class was beginning in a matter of minutes.” I was trapped. I had nowhere to run. No good excuse to come up with, and so I decided a change would do me good. That 45 minutes nearly killed me — but you know what, I haven’t missed a class since!
I was SHOCKED to discover that I loved it! I couldn’t believe how stubborn I’d been about losing my heat therapy — I had, in a sense, cheated myself.
If I was upset over losing the wet room all those years ago, you can imagine my attitude over the loss of the Spinning classes after I’d just discovered my love of them! —– Add the fact that my gym had over-charged me nearly a hundred dollars because they didn’t discontinue my daughter’s membership back in May, as I instructed them to do, or that they also accidently discontinued MY membership, then tried to charge me a ‘new member’ fee when the oversight was discovered — well, needless to say, I WAS growing more and more POed by the minute…
After ALL was said and done — they did have last night’s Spinning class, my 11th time. It was held in the aerobics room instead of the usual area …Bodyrock was canceled. The OLD area would be now housing a handful of shiny new tanning beds —– don’t they know tanning is bad for you!?! The actual fate of the Spinning class is still left hanging — To go or to stay??? We are at their mercy.
Only THIS TIME instead of just getting angry and stewing about it for years on end, I’m heading out to tour a NEW gym in the area, one that I hear has an AWESOME Spinning Class! Oh, and a jacuzzi….and a pool 
CHANGE can be a GOOD THING! Maybe.
September 22, 2009 at 12:27 pm
Sounds like a really frustrating series of events. I hope the change is a good one. Good luck!
September 22, 2009 at 12:33 pm
Boy was I goad to read the last paragraph TR. I was going to suggest that it’s time to move on to another gym.
I discovered the wonders of spin about 6-7 wks ago. Love it! Wish I’d been doing it all along. Major cardio w/o & Sweat City. Now I’m doing it at least once a wk as part of my cardio rotation. Tomorrow it’s up……..been doing it at least every Wed, as the Wed instructor is my fav.
In honor of spin (since you’re an oldie, like me
) :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-uHM7lOly00
September 22, 2009 at 1:02 pm
Change may mean the best of a both worlds for you…spinning and heat therapy. Worth looking into.
September 22, 2009 at 6:37 pm
Sounds like my gym, I am getting really frustrated with the poor management. I started at the gym because the crowd was not to bad, which is a good thing. However with the managers latestest decsion to put arcade games not to far from the tread mills, I am looking for another gym
September 22, 2009 at 7:05 pm
Sorry to hear of your troubles. I can however relate to a degree. I have been at the gym I am at for 2 years and am not impressed with the "changes" that have been made nor the way the palce is run. Good luck with your search.