6 Signs You Need to Cancel Your Gym Membership

‍When you first join a gym, it’s exciting to have access to all those machines and trainers. Gyms survive on customers who pay but don’t go. You might feel motivated for the first week or two, but how much do you actually go after that? If you’re like most people who sign up for a gym membership, probably not as much as you think. Even if your schedule is jam-packed with other activities and obligations, it doesn’t mean that you can’t make time for the gym. It just means that maybe it’s not the perfect place for you right now. Canceling your gym membership is not an easy decision to make. Most gyms offer monthly contracts that are hard to get out of. However, if you know this isn’t working for you right now, here are some signs that it may be time to cancel your membership and look into other options instead.

Don’t feel bad if you want to cancel your membership, most gyms in Edmonton (and other cities) are garbage. The sixth best rated Edmonton gym (fitness club) on Yelp has a 2.7 star rating. The 10th place gym doesn’t even have any ratings – what a joke! On Google, many Edmonton gyms have a rating of about 4.1 stars but that basically means for every 4 people that loved the gym – one person hated it – and that’s for a good gym.

Do you know what gym we’ve never hated? Our home gym. A $1200 treadmill from Costco, a $500 weight bench and weights from Fitness Depot, a yoga mat for $30 and you’re all set. The total cost – $1730. How much is a monthly membership, maybe $60 a month? If you somehow got suckered in to a three year gym membership you’d pay $2160… and have nothing to show for it. Our DIY method is much cheaper and you own the gear! What’s better, if you never use your new gym equipment you can sell it to get almost all your money back. Try getting out of one of those gym memberships – good luck.

You only go to the gym when you’re feeling guilt-ridden.

This one is a biggie – and it’s actually one of the biggest signs that gyms are designed to get you to spend money. Gyms know that people are a lot more likely to feel guilty about not going to the gym than they are about spending money on a membership that they may not use enough. That’s why you see all those “free” trial offers. Gyms know that once you feel obligated to go to the gym, you’re much more likely to keep paying for a membership long-term. This doesn’t mean that you’re a lazy person, or that you don’t want to work out. It just means that you haven’t found the right situation for you right now.

You dread going to the gym, or only go when you’re pressured.

When you absolutely dread going to the gym, it’s not a good sign. Imagine you’re dreading something that you know is good for you, like eating vegetables. Now imagine you’re dreading something that can help make your life better, like exercising more. If you’re only going to the gym when you’re pressured to go by a boss, a significant other, or even just your own bad mood, it’s not a good idea to keep going. You’re only going to feel resentful and annoyed. You’ll be less likely to get anything out of it, and it might even cause health issues down the road due to stress and lack of rest.

The equipment is constantly broken or there are too many people.

As a general rule of thumb, if you’re in a big city gym, it’s going to be harder to get what you want and need out of it. If you go to a smaller gym, on the other hand, it might be a better fit for you. If you go to a big gym that is either always has broken equipment or is too busy to get what you need done, there are other options. Gyms are a one-size-fits-all business, so it’s pretty likely that you can get what you need out of a smaller local gym. If you go during a time that’s less busy and/or a machine is broken, you have the right to ask to get it fixed – that’s why you pay.

You’ve actually lost weight without going to the gym.

This is a tricky one, but it’s totally possible. If you’re eating right, getting enough rest, and are living a healthy lifestyle, you’ll definitely lose weight. However, if you’re eating well but not going to the gym, you’re not building muscle. Weight loss is mostly water and fat loss, but muscle is lost too. Without building muscle, you can actually start looking weaker and less healthy as time goes on. That doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t go to the gym, but it does mean that you should be honest with yourself about your fitness routine.

You have no realistic fitness goals at this point in time.

This one is a little different than the others on this list. It’s important to have goals for your fitness routine, but it’s even more important to be realistic about them. If your goal is to have an 8-pack and you’re over 40 years old, you need to be realistic about how long that will take you. If your goal is to lose 50 pounds in 6 months, you need to be realistic about how you’ll do it. You don’t need a gym membership to accomplish these goals, either. You can do all sorts of activities at home, and you can even get a free trial of a gym membership to see how it fits in your schedule. Make sure your free trial doesn’t include a sales person following you around the whole time.

You Don’t Feel Safe

This one is a little more obvious as a sign that a gym just isn’t right for you right now, but it’s important to say. If you don’t feel safe at the gym, it’s absolutely not worth your time or money to keep going. It may be a good idea to try going at different times of the day to see if that makes a difference. It may also be a good idea to reach out to the company and let them know that you don’t feel safe and that something should be done about it.

Bottom line: It just doesn’t feel good for you right now.

If you’ve tried everything on this list and you’re still not feeling it, it may be time to cancel your gym membership. It might also be a good idea to step back from fitness for a bit, or try a new routine at home if that’s easier. Whether you stay with the same gym or you cancel and try something new, you want to make sure that you’re actually getting something out of it. If you’re not enjoying the process, you need to make some changes. If you’re not happy with your fitness routine, make a change. If you’re not finding any joy in being active, put down the weights and pick up a yoga mat instead.