Let's Be Healthy Latinas!

100. Q&A: How To Choose A Gym You’ll Actually Use and Pivot When Needed

• Naihomy Jerez • Episode 100

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We answer real questions about choosing a gym, leaving one that no longer fits, and how to build a training routine that sticks. From safety and budget to progression and recovery, we share what actually drives results and why strength supports long-term health.

• choosing a gym by distance, cost, safety, cleanliness, and culture
• using guest passes and trials before committing
• matching classes, equipment, and coaching to specific goals
• when to leave a gym and what trade-offs to expect
• switching to the YMCA for access, value, and proximity
• training solo with a simple plan and headphones
• what to pack: water, electrolytes, protein, creatine, wraps
• progressive overload as the driver of strength and results
• home vs gym: equipment limits and seasons of life
• strength for mood, bone density, insulin sensitivity, and aging well
• reframing weight loss toward body composition and recovery

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Thank you so much for listening!


Speaker:

Hello, friends. Welcome back to the podcast. I hope you have been working on adjusting your wellness to the winter season, like I spoke about in the previous episode. And in due fashion, as I tend to start new wellness things in November, this month I started at a new gym at my local YMCA. And on my very first day, I forgot my headphones, and I was so extremely sad about it. And I posted a story on Instagram on how I was starting a new gym and how I forgot my headphones, and I was really upset. And I went through a gazillion different options in my brain at the same time. Should I leave and go get my headphones? Should I leave and not do my workout? Should I stay and do my workout? Just a bunch of things. And because it was my first day, I just gave myself some grace, although we should have grace with ourselves all the time. And I decided that it was okay if my workout didn't look like how I was expecting it to look and how it was okay for me to work out without music. I really wanted it as a safety blanket. I really wanted my headphones and the music as a safety blanket. And I was also looking forward to listening to music while I worked out. Now, I got a DM from a community member on Instagram asking a ton of questions about the gym. And that is exactly what I'm going to be answering for you here today. And if you want your questions answered too, feel free to go ahead and email me, send me a DM if you have wellness questions. And I'm happy, happy, happy to do a QA right here on the podcast so that we can learn together. And it feels more like community interaction instead of me talking into a microphone while staring at my wall. Although I know you're listening. So thank you so much. And by the way, if you have gained anything from this episode or this podcast, please go ahead and share, rate, review, and really support us by doing those things, right? This is how we grow, how we get to share information with our community, and it lets me know that you're listening on top of that. So thank you so much. Now let's get into these questions, right? I've been consistently going to the gym or working out for the past nine years. This month is my nine-year anniversary or eight years. I need to count. Is it eight? Let me see. I think it's eight. Whoops. Um, eight-year anniversary going to the gym or working out. And I say either or because we also lived through a whole pandemic where we weren't allowed to go to the gym or be in workout groups, and I still continued to work out here in my home using the Peloton app. I ended up buying a spin bike. Um, I had small weights, like whatever I could, whatever resources I had, I used during that time. So, however, this episode is specifically about gym questions that a community member was interested in. So, one of the first questions that they asked was, How do you choose a gym? Okay, I know that gyms are very intimidating places, and they are for me too. I get really intimidated by seeing a bunch of equipment, by seeing a bunch of people in there working out, especially dudes who are hogging up all the machines or the weight racks and things like that. And I get very self-conscious when people look at me, especially in a new gym, or yeah, and a lot of times it's in our heads, and a lot of times it's not. So, how do you choose a gym? I would say do your research to what gyms are around you, do ask them for a guest pass. Usually, a lot of gyms and workout places have a guest pass or a trial period where you can use the gym without commitment. I like to personally choose a gym that's not too far away and takes up a lot of commuting time. I think the max for me is like a 20-minute drive, and even then it's pushing it. I like for it to be 10 to 15 minutes max. So, yes, it has to be a place where I can get to quickly because then it takes up time from your workout. You need to add that time in. So it's a whole 40 minutes of just commuting. So let's say you have to add an hour to your workout in order to commute to and from the gym. So sometimes it's cute. There are certain gyms and they're really far away, but the distance can really be a barrier to you showing up or not. So that's one thing. How far is it from your home? I wish I could walk to my gym, but I cannot. There is none walking distance. But thankfully, I have access to a car, I drive, and there are options nearby. Now, another thing I like to consider when choosing a gym is the environment. Do I feel safe in there? How are the people treating me? Not only the staff, but also the customers or the patrons that attend the gym. Uh, and it's not necessarily like we need to be best friends, but also I don't appreciate people being rude to me. I used to go to this gym near my house, and there was one time where I left because I just felt really unsafe, and that was after Trump won the election. A bunch of old dudes came in there wearing Trump's shirts, like they freaking coordinated this, and I was so insanely uncomfortable just by watching this that I kind of left early. I did not hang around. I was just like, I finished my workout class and then I left. Um, so yes, making sure that you feel safe, that you feel welcome, that your needs are listened to, that you're able to talk to people and get answers. Another thing that's important to the gym is cleanliness. This gym I was going to was not the cleanest, however, it had attributes that I was looking for. It had group classes that were really good, it had a sauna that I was looking for, and it was really big and had a lot of equipment. So I never felt like I had to wait for anything. And this is a really long list, by the way. We always have to kind of give and take or make sacrifices of some sort or continuously figure it out. As I said, I'm no longer at that gym and I had to figure it out. Um, another thing I like to keep in mind is what are you looking for? Do you want a gym that has group classes? Do you not want is that important to you? Is the equipment important to you? Is the wait times important to you? So those are things to get into consideration. At first, having group classes was something really important to me because they're fun, they build community, and so on and so forth. However, group classes are not necessarily what's going to get me to my specific goal. So that's another thing. I think group classes are great to start building the habit of going to the gym because you have a place to be by a specific time. You start to kind of make friends with the people that go to these classes. However, depending on what your goal is and if you've already built that habit of showing up and exercise as part of your world, then we start need to start going deeper down the rabbit hole of is this going to get you to the results that you're looking for? Okay. Which if you're in perimenopause or you're trying to lose fat and gain muscle and not get hurt and recover well, sometimes group classes, and depending on how often you're going to these classes, is not going to be the most effective. Okay. So that's something to keep in mind too. And also, is this within your budget? That's really important. There are gyms that are that have different price points, and that is something that you need to take into consideration because it's going to be an added investment to your monthly budget. So these are all things I look for. Um, in the particular gym I went to that I'm no longer at. I also wanted at that point in my life to hire a personal trainer. So they had personal trainers, some gyms don't. And I went and interviewed and talked to a few of them and told them specifically what I was looking for, and I got matched up with one. So if personal training is important to you, then that is something to look for. If you're going to use an app, if you have a personal trainer already and they give you a plan and you just have to execute on that plan, that's an option too. Like there's many, many, many different options. And again, I'm giving a lot of suggestions, and you can take an idea or leave it, right? So, yes, price point is definitely part of it. There are some gyms that are crazy expensive or like group fitness classes, and then there are some that are most cost effective. And I always recommend for my clients to do some research because there are always businesses or gyms around that you never knew existed, even if you've been living in that neighborhood forever, like I have been. Okay, the second question is what makes you leave one? So it just depends, right? Like maybe you can't afford that gym anymore. Maybe what you went for that gym, what you signed up for in the first place is not meeting your needs anymore. So the reason why I left my previous gym is for two reasons. One, my trainer was no longer gonna be there, and two, I would go to the group fitness classes that my trainer would teach. And since he wasn't gonna be there anymore, and the trainers that were there, I did not really enjoy how they taught the classes, and I didn't necessarily go to this gym outside of those times. I would go twice a week there, one day to to do personal training, and the other day to take my trainer's group fitness class. And I didn't go to the gym outside from that, then and it was a big expense for me. That gym was not cheap. So I decided that I was gonna leave because my trainer moved on to another gym, and I decided to continue training with them at their other location. So, again, as I mentioned, everything is a give and take because what did I lose out on by not staying at this previous gym? I losed out on the sauna, which is really important for my mental health, especially during the winter. I love to be in there and I love how it warms up my bones and is also a really good way to detox. It's also a really good way to help your body manage stress, all these things. And there's no current place for me to use a sauna that's included in a service, so I missed out on that, and also the community that I had already connected with there, I lose lost out on that, and group classes in the schedule and the days and the times where I was going there. Now I went to the other gym where my trainer works, and I get to do one-on-one training. I can continue to do that, but it's in a much smaller gym, so there is not as much equipment. Okay, so I was there for a while, and but I also got to expand my training. So, aside from weight training or only weight training, I incorporated kickboxing, and that was great for me. So I increased the day that I went to the gym, so now I went three days instead of two, and I did get community to a certain extent, not necessarily in group classes, but there's always other people there training. So I get to be around individuals, right? So this is this is the reason why I left one, and it's just like if it's just not meeting your needs anymore, if you found something else, if you're doing a different strategy, if you found something that's more within your budget, or maybe you're feeling unsafe there, right? You get to trust your intuition too. You get to decide to go whenever you need to, or maybe you're leveling up, right? That's another thing, and and whatever location is not meeting your needs anymore to a certain extent. So then I moved over. Um, and I decided to join then the Y, the YMCA gym, and that was because I transitioned from my trainer from two days a week, from three days a week to two days a week. And it's really important for me to train three days a week. I wanted to continue that, however, because the gym that my trainer's at is very small, and I was only doing personal training with them twice a week, one strength training and one boxing day, then I said, okay, I need to incorporate a third day. How am I gonna do that? Now, my partner, my kids, my hubs, and my kids are already part of the YMCA. So for me to join the YMCA under the family membership was over half the price of the other gym I left. So extremely cost effective. Again, going back to how much it costs is important, and it's really big, it has a bunch of equipment from squat racks to machines to cardio machines, it's just it's just well suited, like they have a vast amount of equipment in that gym, and it's also nice and clean, and it's a whole it's less than 10-minute drive from my house. That to me is amazing because it gives me even more time to work out when my round trip uh time is 14 minutes, which is one way barely to this other location. All right, so that's another thing that we spoke about, right? Like how long does it take you to get there and back? Because that time impacts how long you're working out. Because unless you're an athlete and this is all you're doing all day, you have a limited amount of time for your workout and you want to make the most of it. So, one, it was cost effective, my family already goes there. If I needed to walk there, I could because it's so close, and that was the other piece. It's so close. Then it's also really big. Now, they do have classes at the Y too that I get to take advantage of, but in looking at the schedule, nothing really aligns with my schedule aside from a Saturday spin class that I still haven't been to, but it's still an option, right? Things change all the time, so I look just in case there's really nothing that aligns that well. However, I'm gonna need to practice new skill, which is training on my own, and I can very well do that. I've been with my personal trainer enough to understand form, to understand how my workouts is set up, to understand how it should feel in my body, all these different things. And I was kind of excited to practice this habit on my own, to kind of zone like zen out with myself and listen to really good music. Because usually when I'm training with a trainer in a group class, you're listening to your trainer or having conversations or having conversations with other people and listening to their stuff. So I got to practice this whole new skill set. Now, the first day, yes, I was nervous. I'm like, oh my gosh, everybody's looking at me. What am I gonna do? I feel so awkward, where's the stuff that I need? Like all these questions, and then soon enough I realized that no one really cared, and no one was actually looking. I'm just in my head way too much. And yes, you get to know the regulars at the gym, so maybe they noticed, oh, there's a new person here, but at the same time, it was really, really, really not a huge deal. And I just knew that the first day it just feels different, and I have to just show up enough where I get used to it, so that's the reason why I transferred over. I had to find a solution to what my goals are to keep up with my goals and what I want for myself. So, again, problem solving, finding a way. And it actually, I'm saving money and I'm getting what I need, I'm getting to practice new skills, and and then that's that. So the next question is what do you always take to the gym? This is a really great question. I think a lot of people, like everybody's different, but what I take is the these are things I always take. Number one, a bottle of water, and it either has water inside or water with electrolytes. So I always take my water bottle and I always take my protein shake. Women, especially in perimenopause or after 30, whatever, if you are female, you should be taking advantage of this strategy because it's only going to help you, which is getting at least 30 grams of protein after immediately after your workout within 30 minutes, because that's when your muscles are most um able to have muscle protein synthesis where they're nice and open, receptive, able to take in all that protein for healing, recovery, and growth. So I always take my protein shake with me. I prepare it with my water bottle. Not only do I put my protein powder in there, I also put a scoop of creatine and a tablespoon of chia seeds for fiber. Do I blend this? No, I don't. I hate using the blender, I don't add anything else, and I mix it with water and I just shake it and drink it. I'll add ice to make it cold. But that is about it. It's just a little chewy. If you don't mind the texture, it's totally okay. It's better for your body, like the fiber is less broken down than if you were to go ahead and blend it. But if you want to blend it and that's your thing, hey, do you boo? But I always do recommend have I and I do have my protein shake. So those are two things I always take with me. If I'm training with my trainer, I don't take headphones because he plays music over there. Um, however, when I go to the gym at the Y, I do take my headphones, or if I forget them, then I forget them. But I take my headphones and if I it's a boxing day, I take my boxing gloves and my wraps, but that's about it. I don't take much else. Uh maybe I'll take a band if I need a stretch in a certain way, but that's about it. I think the most important thing for me is my water, my protein shake, and headphones, and that's that's pretty much it. Okay, how have you this is the next question. How have you made attending a gym part of your lifestyle? Great question. So when I first started my wellness journey back in 2016, I bought a group on for a local gym. I followed a girl on Instagram who I went to school with, and I saw that she went to a local gym and it was gym like group classes. And that's how it started. I decided one day that I was gonna go after I had my group on. It was like uh 30-day free for 30 days or something like that. And the way that I made it part of my lifestyle was really understanding how I felt and having that connection with my body. It wasn't about forcing myself, it wasn't about torturing myself, any of that. It was more out of love and it was more of my capacity, and yeah, I wasn't beating myself about up about it. So I started to go to the gym and I had two babies at that time. My kids were six months and two, recently turned two. Um and I started to realize that when I went to the gym, I just was a more patient mom. I was a lot happier, I started to feel strong, I started to feel accomplished, I started to feel energized. Now I wasn't used to going to the gym, and sometimes it was hard. So there were days, and I started in November, right? November 2016. There were days where it was dark outside, it was cold, it was snowing, or I was still recovering from postpartum, and I chose not to go. I remember actually the one day I chose not to go. I started the first week of November, the first weekend of November, and then and I also was in a corporate job, and then this particular trainer had a pop-up class, morning class on Black Friday or Thanksgiving, one or the two. It was either Thanksgiving or Black Friday, and I decided not to go because I was tired and I was like, I'm not going. Can you believe if I told you the FOMO that I had? I had the ultimate FOMO when I saw the class, when I saw everybody there. I assumed that people weren't gonna show up, and it's like, oh we tired, it's the weekend, it's cold. No, baby. That class was packed, everybody was there, and that was my first example of lifestyle and how people show up and are excited to show up and they're having fun. And everybody is probably tired, everybody has a job, a lot of people are parents, right? And I had the ultimate FOMO, and I was like, I did not show up, I missed out, and now I can't join this moment until next year. So that was one and two, when I would skip these days, I was not my best self, I was short-tempered, I was not my best self, I was not as patient and kind to my kids, and I started to notice that, and I did not like how that felt. And this is before I got any results, this is before I lost 50 pounds, this is before my clothing sizes changed, this is before the scale started to move. I just started to notice how big of an impact it made on my mood, on me as a parent. Um, and and just overall how I felt. Okay. So, in making those connections, I started to realize wow, getting up in the morning feels really hard. Showing up, like those first 10 minutes when the alarm goes off is really hard because I'm exhausted. And in the beginning, I used to pump and leave a bottle on the nightstand for my hums to feed my baby, and I would go. So a little bit even more prep time. And every time I would show up, everybody else was also there. And I remember I would text my trainer, I would be like, Is there a class today? It's snowing outside. Is there a class today is raining outside? And he would be like, WTF, like, why wouldn't there be class today? Like, I am so confused. And whenever I would show up, everybody else would be there, and that's how I started to realize oh, these people get results because they show up, these people get results because they are here, they don't have the excuse of the weather or I'm tired or this or that. They're really here every single weekend, every single Saturday, because that's when I went. They are here every single holiday when they have extra time to show up, they also show up. So I became this person that I just worked out once a week, and then I became this person that I work out twice a week or three times a week, and that was that. I realized how, and this was at the very beginning, where I didn't know the longevity benefits, I didn't know the chronic illness benefits. I just knew exercise as a path to weight loss. That was it. I knew nothing about muscle, I knew nothing about fats, I knew nothing about body composition, I knew nothing about how to fuel my body. All I knew was exercise is weight loss. That is it, and I started to realize so much more of how it allowed me to feel physically, right? So after I hit or like lost the weight, I was just I came to this realization that I couldn't stop going to the gym because if I stopped and it wasn't even about gaining the weight back, it was if I stopped, then I would no longer feel this good. Okay. And it was a a lot about that in the beginning, and now many years later, it's a tool to prevent illness, a tool to help my body, who's very insulin and sensitive. Like I am steps away from pre-diabetes, and it's just generic for me, genetic for me. Um, it is a tool for helping me age gracefully to prevent my to prevent my muscles or yeah, my muscles from disappearing and my bones from getting weak. It's literally my lifeline to be a strong old lady, to be an older woman who can prevent falls, who can prevent breaking my bones, who can better remain independent and autonomous, who can remain a uh valued, important, and productive uh uh part of my family, that's what it means to me now. And yes, it is great for you know preventing me from maybe gaining weight or not. And that's not even the case because I I have gained weight because I've had I've gained so much muscle mass, you know. I've gained a lot of muscle mass, and muscle weighs is is heavy. So instead of that, I would say it helps me maintain a good body composition. Good bone density, okay, which means better quality of life for me. It is no longer like exercise equals weight loss, is not even in the picture for me anymore because weight loss is so much more complicated than that. And why do and and how we lose weight is so important? Like, I don't want to see the number on the scale go down if it means that I'm losing muscle. I want it to actually be body fat, visceral body fat at that. So this is a very long-winded answer as to how I made attending the gym part of my lifestyle, but the reasons just kept expanding and expanding and expanding, starting from wow, I feel so much better, so much more energized, a better parent. Um, I feel so much more calm and grounded when I do this. And that honestly was what hooked me and and helped me continue to show up even after I lost 50 pounds and was ecstatic with whatever my gene sizes was and whatever I was seeing on the scale. It is so much more than that. And when we start to understand the bigger picture and the impact that appropriate and well-organized exercise has because it's not just move your body randomly, is not just show up to five group classes, is not that, okay. I just want to make that clear, it's a start, but it's not a long-term strategy. When you start to understand how to organize your workouts and how to show up and what the long-term implications of these things are, where really movement and strength equals freedom for the long term and good, you know, health, then it's like, oh yeah, I want to continue doing this, at least for me. Okay, last question: what makes a gym better than at-home workouts? This is a great question. So it depends how much equipment you have at home. The gym workouts are better just because of the access to equipment. That is it. If you're gonna show up at the gym, if you're gonna show up at home, great. You're still showing up, that's great. The difference between home and gym is the access to equipment. Because one of the best kinds of workouts that you can do for yourself is progressive strength overload. And I don't know how many people have access to that kind of super heavy equipment in their home, and some people do, so working out at home is just fine if you have access to equipment to progress. Okay, but that is not the case. Like at home, I have 20 pound kettlebells, not even 15 pound kettlebells. No, I do have 20 pound kettlebells, eight pounds. Oh no, sorry, not kettlebells, dumbbells. I have 20-pound dumbbells, 15 pound dumbbells, eight-pound dumbbells. I have a 25 pound plate that I actually stole from a loved one. I have a 25-pound kettlebell that my mom found in her home when she was moving. I have a mat and I have bands. That means that there is no progression at this moment. My those kinds of weight will do nothing for my body when I can squat 165 pounds. No problem. I don't have access to that equipment here. Okay, so that's one. Two, it's form and structure, okay, which is something you can get at home. There are trainers that will give you a plan or look at you over Zoom. I always, always, always encourage that. So no matter how great you are, this is why the best sports players still have a coach, and personal trainers have personal trainers, is because sometimes we tend to slip up on our form. Okay, so if you're at a gym and there's staff there that can help you with that, that's amazing. That's great. Even in group classes, right? If you tell I've always told the instructor, hey, can you look at how I'm doing this exercise exercise or another, then that's really helpful. I also have a spin bike at home. I rarely you I really use it now, right? And these my home limits me because I don't have the equipment. Now, some people do invest the equipment, you need a certain kind of access to that. You need space for to build a home gym, you need a lot of money, right? Like maybe you have the money to invest in a lot of gym equipment. Um, and then you need to go use it, right? So some people really benefit from changing locations. I got so tired of working out at home, y'all don't even know. So I was so excited when the gyms opened back up and I and I got to be outside. So for me, a physical change of location is very important for my mental health. Um, and that's a value to me of creating that space between home and and the gym or whatever else. But if you're the type of person who is totally okay doing everything at home, that's cool too. But you will be limited, and I can tell you that I have seen women who have I've known for a few years and have consistently worked out every single day or however at a cadence similar to mine, and I have seen very, very, very, very for the amount of time that they have spent working out, very little progress in their strength, in their stamina, in their endurance, in a lot of things, because they're limited by the equipment, and they're limited by someone progressing them at a faster rate than they can do for themselves. Okay, so I think that that's the difference between a gym and a home is not that one is better than the other, is that one gives you a different type of access if you don't have thousands and thousands of dollars to spend on gym equipment or the space as to where to build um where to build a gym. I know of someone who had access to a home gym and who had um equipment that could help them progress, but what happened? They had a big um life change, they had a big life change, and working out from their home was no longer working out because they really needed that separation, they really needed a sense of community, they really needed um guidance, and going to an outside gym worked better for them. So maybe there's a season of your life where if you have a home gym or some equipment there, it is useful, but always know that you need access to some sort of progression, okay, and some sort of equipment for sprinting or for doing hard cardio work, right? And some people don't have access to certain kinds of equipment unless you're going outside running, right? But sometimes that is a little inaccessible, depending on the weather or safety, right, of being outside, all of those things are also important. So it just depends if it has what you need for to meet your goals and to progress. That is it. But if you show up at some capacity, then you show up. It's just knowing what the limits are and what you would need to progress or to hit your goals. Okay, I think that's the difference. So I hope this episode has been helpful. I know the gym can be intimidating, it can be, you know, a lifestyle that is hard to get used to. I know I did not see any of this modeled for me. I thought the gym was only for athletes. That is it. Or for older people or whatever. Even though I have always been interested in physical activity, I just thought it was not really for me. There was a limit. I didn't really understand it. I was always in pain, especially in my early 20s. My knees were always hurting. I did not understand that my knees hurt because my legs were so weak. I just thought I was broken, right? And it wasn't for me. So I really want to encourage you and let you know that if you are in pain, is most likely this is generalizing because I clearly don't know you. Um, is generally because you're weak, right? There are ways to make you stronger so that you are not in pain anymore. And this has been the case for almost every single one of my clients, where they started off in pain, gotten strong, and boy, were they amazing and progressed at their workouts no matter what, okay? Because we built we started to work on that and build on the actual strength while you know realizing that it does hurt sometimes, and so many misconceptions about exercise and how our bodies work and what it looks like, and let's not even talk about learning how to recover from exercise appropriately. Like we can go on and on and on and on here, but all these things are important. None of it was taught to me as a kid, none of it was modeled to me as a kid, but boy, am I freaking glad that I have figured this out now. And I am wishing and hoping and celebrating the same for you. You can do the same. There is always a way. If you need support and help figuring that out, and you want to make this a lifestyle for yourself as well, and you want some support doing that, some community, hit me up, send me an email, send me a DM, and we can have a conversation as to what that can look like for you. I hope you took a lot away from this, and I'll see you next week. Bye.