With the new year in full swing and people wanting to get in shape, I have had the question posed to me whether a gym membership is worth the money and since I have never been a member at a gym (because I thought they were too expensive) I had to so some research to see not only the cost but the appeal. After much research I have come to the scientific conclusion that it depends. There is a small group of people that a gym membership is great for. These are people that enjoy the classes and the comraderie or do not have room to store fitness equipment in their home.  The problem with gym memberships is that most of them sign you into long term contracts so if you are not disciplined enough to continue going then you have wasted tons of money.  I have friends who have gym memberships and go all the time and others who went for about a month and have never stepped in there again.  I will tell you to never give them a debit card and have it auto drafted.  These places are notorious for charging you even after you have canceled your membership.  With a credit card you can dispute the charges, but with a debit card they have your cash at the banks are not the best at helping you get it back.

My personal recommendation, if you are trying to get back in shape, is to do your exercises at home with two friends.  Exercising with only one person makes it too easy for life to get in the way.  If three people are involved it is much less likely that two of you will miss a session together.

If you are looking to purchase equipment for your home the most affordable and versatile equipment is free weights.  There are hundreds of exercises you can do with dumbbells and you can get them free online.  As far as treadmills, ellipticals, and other more expensive equipment I suggest getting it used on craigslist (an online free classifieds site).  I live in a pretty rural area and there were dozens of people, local to me, trying to get rid of their exercise equipment that had been sitting unused.  Half even joked about using it to hang their laundry.  You can get a machine that is only a couple of years old and has barely been used for half what you see in the stores.  I hope this helps everyone that is trying to get into shape.  I will give you an update of how my personal weight loss  is going later in the week.