Fancy gyms have their perks, but budget gyms deserve a better rep.
Budget gyms are seen as the unwelcoming and dingy stain on an industry that has had a huge glow up over the past decade, with beautifully lit, decorated and designed spaces making fitness feel fancy. Gaudy interiors, basement locations and strip lighting makes the cheap places seem tacky, and you’d be hard-pressed to find an influencer posting a workout video against the backdrop of a community gym space.
But isn’t it time we rewrote the narrative that affordable fitness is gross? Given that 47% of people are put off of exercise due to the fact that gym memberships are too expensive, according to a survey by workout equipment brand Sweat Band, we need to celebrate these low-cost spaces, rather than turn our noses up at them.
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As a fitness writer who has never spent more than £35 on a membership (and I even thought that was pretty steep), I am here to defend the budget gym. In my experience, they are the most accessible spaces – and I’m not just talking about the price.
I confess to finding fancy gyms intimidating, often drenched in a sense of elitism that makes me feel as though I don’t belong there. Maybe that’s because the people have all the designer activewear that they can afford alongside expensive memberships. Or because everyone in there has perfect technique while performing their impressively heavy lifts thanks to expert training programmes that I could never afford. Sometimes, the classes are designed with big, noticeable results in mind (I mean, wouldn’t you want to look and feel fitter if you spent three figures on a membership?) so they’re really bloody hard.
That anxiety is very much a ‘me’ thing – I’m sure in reality all the members are perfectly lovely. But I’m not alone in this inferiority complex that comes with not being rich.
Meanwhile, budget gyms might not be places where you’re greeted by staff handing you a clean cotton towel or where you can grab a freshly blended smoothie (in fact you’re lucky if you get a vending machine), but in my experience, they tend to be the most friendly places to train. Atevery gym I’ve been a member of, I’ve got to know the trainers despite the fact that I have never hired a PT. The other members also tend to offer a smile and a nod – a benefit to the fact that the gyms are never grandiose buildings but instead a little smaller and quite cramped means you get to recognise the faces that train with you.
That’s not to say everyone is best friends – this isn’t a fairytale. But to me that’s another pro for a cheap gym: they aren’t somewhere you want to hang around for hours – there’s no sauna to dawdle in and we all have busy jobs – so everyone has a distinctive no bullshit attitude. It’s understood that you want to get in and out, that you’ll happily share equipment so as to not let others wait, that no one really gives a crap about what you do or if you messed up because they’re too busy getting their session done before they leg it to the Tube station.
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Sure, my interest is often piqued by the unique kit at some fancier gyms. I’d love a hip thrust machine instead of having to set up a bar and a bench, or the big foam rolling machines that make recovery look fun. But the truth is that I always end up going back to the same perfectly basic kit that you can find in any gym: I load up a barbell, put a pin in the lat pulldown machine, grab a dumbbell from the rack.
I get why those who have the money might pay the price for a more luxurious membership. I have friends who don’t love exercise but will be motivated if they get to try new quirky classes or dive into a swimming pool after doing their sets of squats. I understand why people would be willing to pay more to shower in a nice cubicle and use fancy hair straighteners and not lug a wet towel around in their bag for the rest of the day.
But these things aren’t necessary for exercise, and feeling as though a good workout has to come with a £300 monthly price tag is concerning. There are cheaper ways to join a gym, lift heavy weights or sweat it out in a class. Fitness doesn’t have to be exclusive, and accessible exercise doesn’t have to be seen as the gross sibling of the glamorous gyms. Budget gyms are just as great as any other space, and need to be celebrated.
Images: Chloe Gray
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