UCD Fitness Centre

IrishKnight

I'm debating with myself whether or not to join the fitness centre when I go to UCD. I'm not a very fit person, but I wouldn't say I was a very unfit, so this might be a good time to get myself into better shape. I'm also intending to join a few of the club, mainly, archery, cycling, fencing and maybe one or two more if they get my interest. It's just I rather not spend the what..€185 full membership and not use it...I'm the sort of person who might and indeed does lose interest in may things after a few weeks...

Any thoughts?

abelard

IrishKnight wrote:

I'm debating with myself whether or not to join the fitness centre when I go to UCD. I'm not a very fit person, but I wouldn't say I was a very unfit, so this might be a good time to get myself into better shape. I'm also intending to join a few of the club, mainly, archery, cycling, fencing and maybe one or two more if they get my interest. It's just I rather not spend the what..€185 full membership and not use it...I'm the sort of person who might and indeed does lose interest in may things after a few weeks...

Any thoughts?

To be honest it's a kind of 'trap' that many students (expecially first years) seem to fall into. They join the gym, then never go, and waste their €200 (or howvere much). It's even more likely that you'll end up wasting your money if you are, as you say, the sort of person who loses interest easily.

Then there's the fact that you plan on joining sports clubs. Ask yourself, having fenced one night a week, gone to archery once (or maybe twice) a week, done your cycling, and whatever else you decide to do, whether you'll have the time, stamina and willpower to drag yourself to the gym at least twice a week on top of that. If you do, then fair play, but if not, you'll probabl regret joining.

I would even question the ability of the average student to maintain activity with 3 or more sports clubs. It can be too hard to maintain active involvement and still balance social life, society involvement, academic life and, indeed, rest. Now, obviously, I don't know you at all, so maybe you can maintain such activity, but just think about it a bit. I would say that it would be better to stick to one or two clubs and get heavily involved with them.

And if you do get very involved with a sports club, well you might find that you don't need the gym to get fit. If you are just interested in going to the gym to keep fit, rather than do some muscle building or whatever, you might find a sports club does the job for you, so maybe you should leave it a few weeks before deciding whether to join the gym and see how the sports clubs go? It's also much easier to maintain interest and motivation for a club rather than the gym. With a club, it's alot more fun, there's interaction with others, and the connected social life. A gym can get tedious and lonely very quickly.

Either way, don't feel too pressured by the scary Crunch Fitness ladies who will be hovering around campus the first few weeks with leaflets announcing their limited time special offers. I've not been round UCD all that long myself, but experience as shown that these offers are frequently extended. A further and final word of advice if you do join the gym, that many people will echo. Don't use the lockers in the Crunch Fitness changing room (the male one at least). Unless they've upgraded them recently, there's a good chance you'll be robbed.

Eh, sorry to have rambled on, hope that helped a bit.

aequinoctium

it's cheaper if you join during freshers week i think

stolenwine

I set up a "ucd gym benevolent fund" last year with crunch gym, I give them the money and then never go. Next year I'm just going to pay as I go as I don't trust myself.

nellybelly

I did the same when I was in first year. I think you would do better to pay as you go this year and then reconsider membership in subsequent years.

Red Alert

I now usually go about once or twice a week. It's a decent enough gym for the price.

Actually on the subject of the sports centre - someone said there's a sauna for the girls, but there isn't one in the lad's changing room. I heard there used to be one but it got taken away? Is that right?

nellybelly

Yeh, i definitely remember there being one as you walk in. It's been a while since I've been in the changing rooms...but it was there in 02/03 and probably 03/04?

cruiserweight

Red Alert wrote:

I now usually go about once or twice a week. It's a decent enough gym for the price.

Actually on the subject of the sports centre - someone said there's a sauna for the girls, but there isn't one in the lad's changing room. I heard there used to be one but it got taken away? Is that right?

Yeah there definitely used to be one