For Lauren Pradhan, finding time to train means waking up before the rest of her family and never having time to actually go to the gym.
Her Edina home was enough, so during the pandemic, Pradhan bought a Peloton Bike, a stationary bike with a touchscreen for streaming classes that currently costs $1,445 for a new model or $89 to rent monthly.
Pradhan’s new routine began with a 5 am training session.
“It’s really hard to get up and get out of bed in January when it’s pitch black outside,” she says. “There’s this voice in my head that says, ‘You don’t have to do that.’ [that] “‘Actually, it’s true’ was a big mental shift for mind to triumph over matter.”
It took him 60 days of consistent exercise to develop the habit, but he’s now been doing it for 77 weeks straight.
“I quickly realized that daily fitness made me a better leader, strategist, partner and parent,” said the CEO and founder of Tesser Advisory, a strategy consulting firm in the Twin Cities. “Fitness gave me a clearer mind, helped me process the complexities of everyday life with ease, and increased my patience. I also realized that if I wanted my children and those around me to be active, I needed to emulate that behavior.”
For many like Pradhan, finding 30 minutes to exercise in their daily or weekly routine is a challenge, and that’s before you even factor in the cost of gym membership and equipment. Experts say starting a routine and creating a roadmap is the biggest hurdle. Here are some tips from trainers, fitness experts, and people who have mastered the fitness journey on how to create an affordable training plan.
Pay for personal support
During or at the start of your fitness transformation, hiring a personal trainer or coach is worth the investment.
“From beginners who aren’t sure how to get started to those getting back into fitness and needing an updated routine, having an expert on hand makes the process less intimidating,” said Stacey Anderson, global brand president, Anytime Fitness.
“A coach not only teaches you how to use the equipment, but also how to move in a way that won’t cause injury,” she says.
John Sean, founder of the Minneapolis startup Trunk Drop, was previously a personal trainer in Los Angeles, where his clients included executives, lawyers and celebrities. At the start of a training program, Sean would ask lifestyle questions to determine how they would integrate fitness into their daily lives.
Whether it’s 5 a.m. or 5 p.m., each client blocks out the mandatory time for exercise. Having someone hold him accountable for scheduled training helps in the first few weeks, he says. It takes 21 consecutive days of intense training to develop a solid habit. After that, he says, the body becomes dependent on the beneficial neurochemicals released during training.
While there’s a never-ending flood of fitness tutorials on YouTube, Sean says having a trainer helps break down the barrier of education, and it’s not enough to just spend money on an education or training plan — an initial evaluation by a trainer is crucial, he says.
“You need to know where you’re starting from,” he said. “You need a roadmap. And you need to do it with capable people.”
Sean recommends asking for referrals when looking for a trainer — the best referrals are people who are successful (or who have the physique you aspire to have).
If you join a gym like Anytime Fitness, regular coaching sessions are an added cost, with in-person trainers’ rates ranging from $30 to $300 per hour, according to industry data.
“Many people either don’t know how to get started, or they start and don’t see the progress they hoped for,” Anderson says. “The most important piece of equipment you can have is a coach to help you, guide you and encourage you when you don’t feel motivated.”
Make it affordable
Besides lack of time and motivation, price is another barrier that stops people from getting healthier.
While not everyone can afford a Peloton, a personal trainer, or even a monthly gym membership, paying for basic exercise isn’t as expensive as you might think, especially when you analyze how you’d spend your extra money.
“When you think about how we spend our money, what could be more important than our health? Anderson says. “When you think about all the things we spend our days on – subscription services, $6 coffees, drinks, fast food, eating out – for less than $1.50 a day we could be getting support in and out of the club, mental and physical wellbeing, and more healthy years. It seems almost irrational that we would invest in sitting in front of a screen and not invest in our health.”
This is the theory that Pradhan took into consideration when purchasing an exercise bike.
“We honestly looked at it in terms of cost per day and realized we could truly do this on $5 a day for the first year,” she said.
Anderson said the average membership at Anytime Fitness is about $45 a month, and that the company operates on a franchise system, so prices vary by location. Membership at Planet Fitness starts at $15 a month. A basic membership at Crunch Fitness starts at $9.99 a month.
Some gyms and fitness studios offer a free one-day guest pass or a one-week trial to give potential customers time to decide. You can also purchase a day pass. If you already have an annual membership, you can ask to freeze or pause your membership.
For those looking for a cheaper hybrid option, most gym chains and fitness providers have apps where trainers offer live and on-demand classes that can be viewed from home or a hotel while traveling. Apple Fitness, for example, is free for the first three months and then costs $9.99 per month for Apple owners. It’s free for Anytime Fitness members, Anderson says.
Using your body
And not all exercises require equipment: Bodyweight exercises are great for strength training, says Shawn, and even short walks can be effective, says Anderson.
When Blaine resident Subadip Kumar got started in fitness, his employer reimbursed him for 50 per cent of his gym membership fees, up to $300, as part of an employee benefits program while he worked for Canadian Pacific Kansas City.
Kumar weighed 250 pounds when he decided to lose weight through exercise. Two years later, he had lost 100 pounds. A comment from his wife sparked his motivation to get healthy.
“She was worried that if I continued on this path, I wouldn’t live to see our child’s wedding,” he said.
Kumar enrolled in kickboxing and strength-training classes, and joined Crunch Fitness, which he attends at least five days a week. He also changed his diet. Eating more healthy foods was important to him, but doing so was expensive. Compared to his previous diet, Kumar says, “It costs more to prepare meals for a healthy, balanced diet than regular junk food.”
“Whenever people ask me what the secret is, I always say it wasn’t practice,” he says. “It was discipline.”
