Exercise/Gym memberships and traveling

I start full time this fall at a consulting firm in Chicago and will be on the standard M-Th travel schedule. Anyone have any advice on gym memberships? I'm into weight lifting and I'd like to go to the gym even while at the client site, so I'm looking for a large chain. My first thought was 24 Hour Fitness but they don't have any Chicago locations. LA Fitness looks like a good bet. It would just suck to get a membership and then get staffed in a city that doesn't have any of that gym's locations.

Also the type of consulting I'll be doing is somewhat longer projects (lasting a few to several months, not weeks), does anyone ever get short term memberships with places in the client location that last just the length of longer projects? Seems like a hassle but also I guess the only real way to guarantee you'll have a gym there.

 
Best Response

During my time, I had LA Fitness (ATL based) and found locations in awesome places like Harrisburg or Virgina suburbs. If you have a car, you can always drive to the nearest one (most ended up being 15-20 minutes away). I didn't have a car in Pittsburgh, but the Renaissance there gave us vouchers to a Gold's and the Westin actually had a bench. At Charlotte, there was no LA Fitness, so just had to live with whatever Marriott/Westin had and used ATL locations more over the weekend. In New York, there is no convenient LA Fitness, but if you stay at the Sheraton and is Platinum, you'd get access to the full service gym downstairs.

Basically, if you go with LA Fitness and have a car in your project town that you can use as you wish (tougher if you are sharing) it will work out most times. Otherwise, you will just have to deal with whatever they have in the hotel (which may or may not be up to your expectation).

 

Xsport is pretty cheap, but their cancellation process is the worse thing in the world.

It'll be almost impossible to find a gym that will be at the cities you're in. Client site can be in awful locations. There's a very high chance for you to join a gym that wont exists in your client location, so I would not let that be your deciding factor. Plus, you never know where you'll end up.

Hugo
 
freeloader:
What's wrong with the hotel gym?

most hotel gyms don't have weights that go over 50 pounds, bench or even a squat rack.

A bowflex is not a gym for weight lifting

 
CBSWannabe:
freeloader:
What's wrong with the hotel gym?

most hotel gyms don't have weights that go over 50 pounds, bench or even a squat rack.

A bowflex is not a gym for weight lifting

Go to a better hotel

 

Good luck going to a gym outside of your hotel while traveling. You'll probably be at the client site fairly late, and unless there is something right next to the hotel will be extremely difficult to make it happen. Your best bet is staying at a hotel with a decent gym (yea maybe they don't have 50+ pound free weights but you can make it work) and joining a gym on the weekend

 

Bodyweight stuff or hotel gym is what I do. For all the bro's smirking about bodyweight stuff...do the Marine Corps 20 pull-up challenge...if you can do that...then can call me Penelope.

Please don't quote Patrick Bateman.
 
DBCooper:
Bodyweight stuff or hotel gym is what I do. For all the bro's smirking about bodyweight stuff...do the Marine Corps 20 pull-up challenge...if you can do that...then can call me Penelope.

What up penelope

in it 2 win it
 
Kassad:
DBCooper:
Bodyweight stuff or hotel gym is what I do. For all the bro's smirking about bodyweight stuff...do the Marine Corps 20 pull-up challenge...if you can do that...then can call me Penelope.

What up penelope

Fair enough. I've come pretty close. Can still hit a perfect score.

Please don't quote Patrick Bateman.
 

It'll be expensive but you could just do drop-ins at different crossfit boxes (see:gyms) in different areas. When I travel (granted not for work) I usually just do a quick google, shoot the owners of a local CF box an email and stop in. Granted I've been doing it for like 4 years so I most places don't charge me but most places don't charge much ($5-$20) for a couple hours of lifting and doing a WOD with them. Regardless if you want access to real equipment, do olyimpic lifting so you need bumper plates, etc it's a solid deal once or twice a week with no worries on the national membership restrictions etc.

I would say though since you most likely won't have time while working to just use the hotel gym and do something that actually taxes you. Here's an example of a simple burner. The beginning is all sarcastic but the couplet is one hell of a workout.

Let the flame-fest begin on the CF guy.

"Money was never a big motivation for me, except as a way to keep score. The real excitement is playing the game." - Donald Trump
 

They don't advertise it and YMMV depending on location, but the Gold's Gym near me will do a 10 visits for $50 pass so you don't have to run the risk of signing up for a year membership only to get a new project somewhere without a Gold's Gym.

You should also be able to leave your team at least twice a week for an hour or end early to go to the gym as long as you get your work done and perform well. If your manager won't let you break in time to go to the gym I would find a new project... sounds like a terrible/fat ass manager.

 

I am a banker in Chicago. XSport Fitness is where I go, it is open 27/7 365. It is a little messy, but for $28 a month it is great.

"Don't touch the watch." -Patrick Bateman U AWARE BRAH? bankers gonna bank \o/ Trance Crew \o/
 

When I was in consulting, my firm actually offered a traveling fitness allowance (capped at $10/day). You may want to check if your firm has that same option.

As for the gym you go to while on the client site, lots of gyms have both day passes and week passes; day passes usually around $10-$15 and week passes around $30 (which I would purchase).

 
23mich:
When I was in consulting, my firm actually offered a traveling fitness allowance (capped at $10/day). You may want to check if your firm has that same option.

As for the gym you go to while on the client site, lots of gyms have both day passes and week passes; day passes usually around $10-$15 and week passes around $30 (which I would purchase).

For my firm they have a fitness allowance too, I'm pretty sure a lot of firms do this so I would see what they give you first..

 
Conan Sobroen:
That hotel workout video looks brutal. Great way to sneak in a half hr workout with cardio on both sides.

Expection: No way I can finish 100 of those with 35s

It's not a heavy weight- that's not what crushes you... It's the mental game that sucks hard.

"Money was never a big motivation for me, except as a way to keep score. The real excitement is playing the game." - Donald Trump
 

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