You’ll get no argument from me on those points. Relaxation definitely has its place… but their “relaxation zones” promote laziness and low-effort rather than fitness. Heck, they don’t even bother promoting the use of their relaxation zones as a recover tool. Instead, it’s all about chillaxing, and that’s a poor way to make progress.
On a related note, you’re the kind of person that people should be when it comes to gym work, Green Bean. You acknowledge that you’re middle-aged and overweight, yet you have clearly educated yourself. You understand the importance of hard work, nutrition, and proper technique in ways that most people don’t. The PF defenders could stand to learn from your example.
Macca - Wow, that’s enough straw men to fill up the relaxation area and then some! Nobody said or insinuated most of that stuff. JThunder pointed out the key problem - they HINDER people from achieving their fitness goals.
I will say that you’re wrong about most people not needing more than the weights that Planet Fitness has to offer. Most healthy adults do need more weight than PF offers if they want to increase their functional strength, and they do need the equipment that PF has removed from their stores as a matter of corporate policy. Being fit requires more than being able to do a session on a cardio machine and a few dumbbell curls. Barbells are foundation of modern strength training, and they have been for the last hundred years or more.
JThunder - Ha, I totally agree with you about PF’s relaxation zones, and definitely with what you said up above - "Ultimately, that’s the core problem with Planet Fitness. They promote exercise as something that’s meant to be easy and relaxing – hence their demonization of bodybuilders. Their website states that they provide “an environment where you can relax, go at your own pace and just do your own thing.” You can go at your own pace and do your own thing at ANY gym. Even most classes allow you to adjust the intensity of your workout to your own needs. PF offers nothing unique in that regard, and they’re being misleading by implying that they do. To quote the Hodge Twins, “This is just advice. Get out there and do whatever the fuck you want!”
It’s clear you’ve never been in a Planet Fitness before or even listened to someone who has. The Planet Fitness I go to has no rules about heavy breathing or deadlifting. There are multiple pull-up bars, squat racks, and bench press stations. Everybody is carrying around water bottles, and I can’t even remember the last time I heard the lunk alarm go off, even when someone did drop a heavy weight stack.
Also, pizza and bagels are once a month deals and they’re far from unlimited. I rarely go on pizza night, but when I did they had ordered three sheets cut into the tiniest pieces I’ve ever seen. How far do you think 3 million pieces goes with 908 locations and 12 pizza nights a year?
Green Bean’s post # 37 is full of awesomeness. Even though it’s making me feel even worse about joining up there and giving them money!
That said, their stupid policies and utter hypocrisy aside, I don’t see myself (almost 57, female, fairly scrawny; I have been a painting contractor for decades so am plenty strong already and want to keep my strength up) ever needing to utilize more weights than they have on hand. Either free weights or the machines. I already do more weight than almost any other female, and some of the guys, there and really do try to push myself to muscle exhaustion (without grunting, heh) but honestly I can’t ever see myself getting to the upper limit on what they have to offer. Like I said earlier, I’m doing the same work outs at the same intensity as I was at two more “serious” gyms.
I do have two herniated discs and mild, yet chronic, pain, and find that regular work outs and my back exercises minimize the discomfort greatly, as well as minimize the number of times my back goes nuclear to where I cannot walk. Also doing a lot of core exercises helps keep the squishy middle thing at bay. My other reasons for working out are just to keep overall decent muscle tone and fitness, and more recently, I am focusing on improving cardiac and aerobic health because while I am (for my age, gender and size) very strong, I have a higher resting heart rate than I would like and I’m not so good cardio-vascular-wise.
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Green Bean**, feel free to share your newbie work out regimen for my friend - but she is actually extremely weak, unsteady, and in horrible overall health, I’m sorry to say. At her heaviest, her BMI was a jaw-dropping 69, so I am not kidding when I said she was super-morbidly-obese. That was at 5’1" and 365lbs. Due in part to her own dieting pre-surgery, and her weight loss post-surgery, she’s now in the 270 or 280 range and steadily losing. I’m really proud of her, actually - she’s a smart woman but addicted to food and she’s been really committed for months now and it is paying off.
So far she has “worked up” to 30-40 minutes on the treadmill at 1.5 miles an hour and no incline. Which is pretty pathetic but literally miles better than she was doing a month ago, so there is that. I’m going to give her a little more time, then start really pushing her - IMHO no reason she cannot do some, if not most, of the weight and resistance machines, starting with low reps and very little weight.
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JThunder’s** point is also worth a mention- and as a skinny person, I get very much irritated by comments from random people, even strangers, about my size - it’s apparently acceptable to say things like “Oh I hate people like you who can eat whatever and not gain weight!” Like it’s some backhanded compliment. But actually, no, I made a conscious, life-long effort, to not gain weight and to stay relatively fit. I had a few years as a pudgy teenager and never want to go back there again. So I changed the choices I made and stuck to them.
As discussed in this very thread, Planet Fitness runs off a franchise model, and there’s a lot of variation from location to location. You found one of the good ones, but that doesn’t mean that there aren’t bad ones as well.
Sure, but claiming they don’t have bench press stations is absurd. I’m sure you could count the number of Planet Fitness locations without them on one hand.
Really? Why do you think so?
In any gym I’ve belonged to I tend to keep to myself, but still occasionally end up in casual conversations, even so.
Why do you think this is a rule specific to Planet Fitness? How does your rule compare to other gyms? Have you ever belonged to other gyms besides PF?
Yeah, if you want to tear up your shoulders. Smith machines are dangerous, as I’m sure you know. Ironically, the only exercise that the smith machine is marginally suitable for is the deadlift, which Planet Fitness forbids. :rolleyes:
I’m curious about what you do for your lower back since you can’t deadlift. Extensions of some sort?
It’s not actually a newbie workout. It’s minimalist and old-school, and suitable for everybody without physical limitations (which unfortunately does not include your friend at the moment) I’m not a newbie. I just had, like a 20-year break from lifting.
It’s 5 exercises, one in each of the following categories:
Upper body push (I bench press)
Upper body pull (I do lat pull-downs. Rows are a good option)
Overhead press (I do a dumbbell press variant)
Squat (I do a classic squat)
Deadlift (I do a classic deadlift)
Okay, so in that case, I’m going to suggest she not go for all 5 of the exercises right now. How 'bout just two exercises and you guys focus on teaching her HOW to lift.
Overhead dumbbell press
Lat pulldown
Why these two? Because they don’t require getting into any weird positions.
I suggest 3 sets of 10. The last set should be hard. If the weight is right, she should have trouble pushing out those last reps - or even not be able to complete all 10. If she’s doing it easily, raise the weight of that last set, then when she can do that, do the second and third set at that heavier weight and so on. Capice? If 3 sets of 10 seems to be too much for her for whatever reason, try 2 sets of 12 or 3 sets of 8.
What’s going to happen is that as she gets used to the exercise and the feeling of approaching muscular failure, the weight she is lifting will increase rapidly. That’s an awesome feeling. She’ll soon be asking for more exercises to do. Do not let her fall into the trap of staying at a low weight she can easily do 3 sets of 10 of. This is one place where failure is awesome.
There’s not a lot of sense in her wasting her time on some circuit of miscellaneous weight machines. She’d be better off doing things like bodyweight squats, stretching, and ab work (which will be really hard for her - tell her it’s okay to hate it! Just do a little bit each time). The machine which supposedly replicates a bench press might be worthwhile for her because bench press is an important exercise and it’s not possible for her to bench at PF.
Yes, pretty much along the lines I was thinking - lat pulldowns, leg press (since you’re basically lying down for those), ab sit up benches, bicep curls…basically stuff that at low/no weights is surely stupidly easy and not stressful.
She has never in her life been physically active, and like many such people, views physical exertion or discomfort of any kind as inherently unpleasant and to be avoided at all costs. The notion that pushing oneself physically in any way can feel good is a completely alien concept. A few degrees too cold or too hot is potentially dangerous and to be avoided. As is sweating or heart thumping or breathlessness or any other normal signs of exertion - mind you, perhaps prudent for people who have had heart attacks.
But it’s a mental blockage, not a physical one, she has to overcome. I figure I’ll wait until she’s confident just being there and doing her 30-40 minutes of whatever but in my head I’m giving her another two weeks before I start nagging her. It is difficult for me to get inside the head of someone who has spent their entire lives avoiding and being afraid of physical activity, I figure she’s had almost 60 years of that, so it will take a while for her to change her head around.
No no…get her doing a weightlifting exercise NOW. Even just one. She’ll never be confident doing her 30-40 minutes until she’s pushing beyond that somehow. Having her do whatever it is at low or no weight will be de-motivating because a. it’s boring, and b. she’ll know on some level that it’s useless. I like the idea of the “stupidly easy” bicep curls. Start there with 5-pounders - no less. Even if it’s just a few reps. Maybe explain that when the muscle hurts a little, that means it’s getting stronger. Be goofy. Make it fun. Or at least try.
I’d have the same trouble understanding her mindset as you’re having. I admire you for trying. Maybe one day she’ll produce an endorphin or two and start to get it.
BTW - what does she do while she’s on the treadmill? Watch TV? I find that the right music makes my time on the elliptical fly by and I don’t want to get off! For me, it’s heavy-heavy metal, especially Rammstein. Maybe that would work for her - either she’d love it and work out harder, or she’d hate it and walk faster trying to get away from it. Win-win!
Former morbidly obese near 50 year old woman turned gym rat checking in. Is there a rower/erg? I loved rowing as I was defattening, it let me use my awesome leg muscles with much less pain than walking and I could take more and more load on my arms as I strengthened up. I still abhor the treadmill and elliptical but row, spin bike and stairmaster quite regularly.
I do all the big lifts with the big boys and find the concept of PF horrifying. The weights set off my head chemicals in the most lovely way, like where I used to try to get with pizza and chocolate but never quite could. I try to get the larger folks off the treadmills and into the iron before they shed all the leg muscle carrying their larger selves around has created. The upper body takes a while, hurts and can be frustrating but leg success can come early and be very rewarding.
Green Bean, thanks and OK, yes I will get pushy with her! We are going this morning before work…I will start my campaign of forcing her out of her comfort zone. I’ve definitely been telling her that muscle soreness is a GOOD thing.
She just watches TV, I guess. Since they have about eleventy thousand of them there it is hard not to. Rammstein? Me too! They’re on my playlist. I like aggressive/metal/punk/rock & roll for working out.
Thylacine, good for you. I don’t know if they have rowers, come to think of it.
What the heck? How does a rowing machine not fit in with “general fitness?” They are perfectly ordinary!
Rowing machines are also one of the few cardio machines that provide a significant upper-body benefit. It’s just one giant “upper body pull” exercise. (and they feel great to use!) I wonder if PF has hand cycles? They’re not popular, but they are for the upper-body and one of the few (only?) cardio machines usable by people who have lower-body mobility issues.
They also don’t provide stability balls or kettlebells. Huh? They’re not exotic. They sell them at Target, for pete’s sake! Kettlebells are only coming into common use now, but stability balls have been popular for more than a decade, and essential to many core strength exercises that won’t kill your back. Not having them is inexcusable.
Painting them with the same brush? Posters here have repeatedly emphasized that not all Planet Fitness franchises are the same. They’ve repeatedly acknowledged that some Planet Fitness locations are better than others.
This doesn’t change the fact that their overall philosophy is, as Green Bean said, repugnant. They don’t just promote mediocrity; they actively extol it. This wouldn’t be such a problem, except that they demonize people who are actively fit and hinder their own clients from making as much progress as they could.
I like aggressive/metal/punk/rock & roll for working out.