really understand something before you make a decision!!

For a few months now, I have been meaning to sign up at Gold's Gym, but honestly have just been too lazy to get myself there. So yesterday, my roommate and I took a ride up there to finally sign up. They were very nice, and polite. I was very impressed. They got me excited and they were really interested in what my goals were.

I was very excited, and was ready to start working out. After deciding to with the current no-contract deal and pay month to month, they had us talk to a trainer that wanted to help us. It was like a pep talk before a softball game, getting me all fired up to lose my freshmen-15. We really liked what they had to offer, so we both signed up for help twice a month to make sure we are on track.

After leaving the gym, we realized what we just did. We had just signed ourselves up with a personal trainer on contract for 12 months, paying them $120 PER MONTH ($60 per person) for TWO VISITS with the trainer. Although I understand it could be a lot pricier, asking a poor college student $60 plus an additional month to month pay is asking too much. I'd be spending $720 a year for to meet with one only 24 times!!! I'm not going to lie, they were VERY good at talking you into a personal trainer when you sign up for a gym. I also realized that I should have asked more questions. The trainer that set us up with a contraction talked very fast, and was quite confusing.

We read our contract the next day--thankfully we caught ourselves to quick, because we only had 3 business days to cancel our contract. We went back to Gold's the next day, and they still tried to talk us out of it. They got out their calculator and tried to figure out how much we make, and what our bills cost, how much is left over, blah blah blah. After we told them that we were really not interested (and this took awhile to convince them), they understood our priorities and needs. We still planned to come to the gym to workout, just not with a personal trainer.

So my lesson learned for the day: really understand what you're getting into when you sign a gym contract, or any contract for that matter. I'm very thankful that my roommate said something about the price when we came home, otherwise I'd totally would have just went to the trainer and paid money that I didn't really have.