So this week, I made it a point to go to the Fitness First gym to lose all those unwanted pounds! My brother who have never joined any gym before asked if he could sign up as member. I said why not, but when I told him it costs RM175 a month, he thought it was way too expensive!
Seeing that the economy is not that good, I think most gyms are not doing that well either. Perhaps they don't mind slashing the normal price to something more affordable? So when I went to Fitness First at The Curve yesterday, I decided to stop by the front counter to enquire about their latest fee structure.
I was hoping that I could reduce my own monthly fee and even negotiate a good price for my brother.
Well, fat hopes! Not only did I not get a reduced fee, the front counter staff told me that the price is now increased to RM185 for passport members, and RM175 for non passport members. Previously, it was RM175 and RM145 for passport and non passport members respectively. By the way, passport members are allowed to use any Fitness First gyms, whereas non passport members are limited to use only their Fitness First home gym and one other Fitness First gym of their choice.
I was surprised and asked why were they increasing the fees. Guess what the counter staff told me? He said times are bad so they need to increase the price.
Now what kind of logic is that? Don't they know anything about marketing? When times are bad, people do not sign up for gym memberships. They have other more important priorities to take care of financially. So what do you do to entice people to sign up? You lower the fee, right? You don't raise the fee further!
Don't they understand that when they lower the fee, more people will sign up and that will more than make up for the revenues lost from lowering the fees?
Well, will I still stick with Fitness First? Yes, because they have not increased my fee so far. And they better not try! The last time I heard, True Fitness was offering new members a fee as low as RM97 per month! I don't know how true is that, so any True Fitness members out there care to confirm?
True Fitness at Jaya 33 photo courtesy of MunFitnessBlog
I brought my brother to a gym called EITP in Damansara Jaya (near Atria) to see if this cheaper looking gym would be able to offer cheaper monthly fees. As it turned out, their fees were indeed cheaper. You can choose to pay RM470 for 3 months, RM720 for 6 months or RM1,350 for 12 months. Paying for 12 months in one shot will save you as much as RM530 compared to paying by 3 monthly intervals. And if you break that down to one month, you are paying only RM112.50 per month compared to RM175 at Fitness First, but still more expensive than RM97 at True Fitness!
The advantage with EITP as claimed by the person in charge, is the fee includes the services of a personal trainer as well. In Fitness First, you would need to fork out an additional RM120 (if not mistaken) an hour for a personal trainer!
It may look really worth your money signing up with EITP, but I kept wondering if the personal trainer will always be there for you as he also have other clients to take care of. You see, they only have a limited number of personal trainers. In fact, the more people sign up, the less time he will have for you! Furthermore, looking at the facilities at EITP, I still prefer the facilities provided by Fitness First anytime! Well, I guess you pay more for quality!
I do not know if my brother will join EITP or not, perhaps he would end up joining True Fitness.
Now I wonder how much do other gyms charge? Famous gyms like Clark Hatch, Celebrity Fitness and California Fitness? If you are a member of any of these gyms, please share with us the monthly fees that you are paying.
California Fitness at Sunway Pyramid photo courtesy of MunFitnessBlog
Here's a comprehensive review of four famous gyms in Malaysia by blogger Mun. If you are interested, check out his reviews of California Fitness, Celebrity Fitness, Clark Hatch and True Fitness. I wonder why he did not review Fitness First.
Oh, by the way, if you don't plan to lift weight, or do yoga, don't bother to join a gym. If you are just thinking of doing aerobic exercises, no point in wasting money joining a gym. You can easily go jogging at the public parks for free! Unless of course, you like to join those group classes provided by the gyms.
So if you do go to the gym, which gym do you go to and how often?
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