Ditch your gym membership; you do not need it to be fit!

I tried gym membership only twice, each lasted for a year over 24 years of my U.S. life.

The first time I joined a gym was when I graduated from my Ph.D. program but in a temporary visiting professor position teaching four courses in one semester in a state university where students are not as prepared academically as those in the university where I got my Ph.D. The pressure was monumental.  American classroom culture was an unexplored new world to me. In the meantime, I was on the job market looking for a real job. By that time, I had experienced the benefit of Kundalini yoga and meditation by joining the yoga group on campus.  Suggested by a friend, I joined a near-campus gym. 

The gym was not affiliated with the university, but it had a good reputation based on word of mouth from many fellow graduate students and faculty who went there.   In this gym, for the first time, I saw many different types of strength training equipment and all kinds of fitness classes. I dapped on a few machines but decided they were not for me.  Running on treadmills was too boring, the same went with elliptical and stair-climbing machines.   The musical strength training machines were two complicated and often smelly.  Besides, they intimidated me.  As a result, I looked for the fitness classes offered by the gym.

The pilate was overkill for me, way beyond my challenging zone. The Vinyasa flow yoga sounded good, and the packed fitness room spoke for its popularity, so Vinyasa flow yoga it is.   To my surprise, this type of yoga resembled little to the Kundalini yoga I experienced in the class earlier,  Vinyasa emphasizes physical movement, almost like pilates; but it is broader than pilate that mainly emphasizes core strength building. It is composed of chanting, meditation, and breathing, but they are marginal compared with physical exercises. It is fair to say that Vinyasa is in between Kundalini yoga and Pilates, with the former emphasizing breathing exercises and the latter on the core strength.  Vinyasa yoga (mid level)gives one a better workout physically than  Kundalini yoga and at the same some benefit of meditation, often at the end of the workout as in corpse pose.

Additionally,  the gym has a star yoga teacher who injects into her class with more breathing and meditation than other yoga teachers in the gym do.   She sometimes recited poems and spout some essential oils, and symbolic massages on some randomly selected lucky students at the end of the yoga session when everyone lied on the floor like a corpse.  Those decompressing rituals were obviously welcome by urban dwellers who most have to juggle a career and family life.   She has Yoga DVDs recorded of her classes and students.   

I managed to take this popular teacher’s yoga class twice a week. After two months, before I knew it,  I was able to keep up with the pace and intensity of the class. And, Surprisingly, I found my arm and abdomen muscles toned.   Occasionally,  our popular yoga teacher couldn’t teach, and a substitute would replace her position; then some fellow yoga practitioners would stand and leave in the middle of the exercises.   Thus, it is fair to conclude that it is really this great yoga teacher who attracted the crowds.

I finally succeeded to get a long-term post and moved to another university. The life of a professor in probationary was no easier than the previous one. I joined a gym near campus again because of the fond memory of my yoga experience. This time, it was a miss. This gym did not have a yoga teacher as stellar as the one I had. Gradually, making an extra trip to the gym becomes a chore that took away too much precious time; so I dropped out of the gym.     

To exercise, I bought a Giant bike and ride it to work when weather permitted, an eight-mile round trip.  It was certainly an effective and efficient way to get exercise.  The benefits are multi-folded. First, I drove less, saving on gas, wear, and tear on my car; second, it is time-efficient; commuting itself was a workout; it eliminates the need to go to the gym.

On a regular basis, I practiced yoga （Kundalini or Vinyasa) on my own at home as a Maintainance to keep the pressure and pressure from work at a manageable level.

To this day, 18 years later after moving several times （twice across continental), I am still gym-free, yet get enough exercise by walking, running, and cycling,  occasional yoga, and Taiji at home or nearby park for flexibility 24 form standardized Taiji.  More recently, I added a more rigorous workout by a Korean fitness trainer, Jungdayeon via youtube low-impact workout. Wherever I go, even in the most densely populated city, Hong Kong,  I can always find outdoor green space to enjoy and recreate.  

With vlog or vlog platforms like youtube in the U.S., Bliblibli in China, you can find great yoga/fitness teachers like the one I enjoyed mentioned above on demand if you have an internet connection. Anywhere can be your personal gym and you can go there whenever you like.