She looked at the paper, shocked.
We just wrote up the math equation for the price of her current gym in comparison to this one.
She had just finished explaining how much money she would save by continuing her membership at a very nice, luxurious fitness center.
But now, she was realizing the truth: there was a huge cost if she stayed.
When she ran the numbers for joining our gym, she said:
“It’s $40 to work out here for one hour.
Just five training sessions would cost me the same as an entire month at my other gym.
And at that gym, I can go to unlimited classes.
There’s a pool. A sauna.
I love using the sauna.”
But something didn’t add up.
When we first spoke, she told me she needed to exercise more.
She wasn’t happy with her results.
She had recently gained 10–15 pounds.
So I asked her a simple question:
How often have you gone to your gym in the last three months?
She said:
“About two times.”
I asked:
Did you have great workouts on those two trips?
She said:
“One of them I just used the sauna. The other was a short 20-minute workout. I didn’t really know what else to do.”
That’s when I did the math.
She was paying $200/month.
Over three months, that’s $600.
She had spent a total of one hour at the gym.
Of that, only 20 minutes was spent exercising.
That means she paid $1,800 per hour to work out—
With no personal training. No guidance. No progress.
And with the best predictor of future behavior being past behavior, I had to point something out:
If nothing changes, nothing changes.
She could stay at her old gym—
But she’d have to make major changes to her habits.
She’d need to commit to at least three days per week.
She’d need to figure out what to do on her own.
She’d need to actually follow through—something that hadn’t happened in months.
On the other hand, she had just finished her 14-day trial with us.
She came in eight times.
Every workout felt great.
She felt herself improving.
But the price in isolation was hard to justify—until she looked at it differently.
Yes, she’d be paying more to train with us.
But when you divide cost by actual benefit—real training, real consistency, real results—
It was actually cheaper.
She’ll train two days per week—far more than 20 minutes every three months.
She’ll follow a customized program, built just for her.
She’ll have a personal trainer coaching her every session.
And if she ever wants to stop, she can cancel immediately.
No long-term contract.
Meanwhile, that other gym?
She was paying for the idea of going… not the reality.
We see this all the time in amenity-based gyms.
They sign people up with pools, saunas, and unlimited classes—none of which guarantee strength, fat loss, or habit change.
We see it in low-cost gyms too.
$10 to $30 per month.
And yet at the end of the year, some people have gone… three times.
Even at $20/month, that’s $240 per year.
Three visits = $80 per visit.
It’s not just what you pay.
It’s what you get in return.
– James Pratt