Common price of joining a health club

[laterthanyou]

What's the average price of joining a health club in japan... I'll be in Nagoya.... Do prices go up or down depending on the distance from the city? I mght be in Handa...

[dtj1974]

When I lived in Tokyo, I paid 10,500 per month for Gold's Gym. I think the first month was 15000.

When I lived in a very small town, they had a community fitness center with a small weight room with treadmills, stairclimbers, and stationary bikes, (brand new equipment, but mostly machines and no barbells or free weights over 20 kg). They also had a really nice olympic size pool. It was 3000 yen per month. There might be something similar in your area.

There was a YMCA in Tokyo. There might be one in Nagoya.

For me, Gold's Gym was definetely better since I like to use free weights and lift heavy. I was always frustrated that there were no heavy weights at the small town gym. But if your goals are just general fitness and staying in shape the town/community fitness center's are a pretty good deal (for Japan).

As a side note, I used to order supplements from netrition.com.
(I live in the US now.)

Hope that helps.

[Bluedog]

There are community gyms (taikuukan) around, but they can be hard to find. The one I go to has machines, barbells (~80 kilos), and a few other things. It's only 200 yen per visit, but unfortunately, has no air conditioning. You have to sweat with the boys, and in this heat, it's a killer. But I still go because I got sick of paying 1 man yen per month just for membership at a private club when sometimes I couldn't go for a few weeks.

[Hyakushiki]

Yep, if you can find a good one, public gyms are the way to go. But, often, they either don't have free weights or they have very few plates or a limit to how heavy you can go. In any case, joining a private gym is very expensive... IIRC, just to start up at Gold's Gym is about 25000 for the first two months upfront and upwards of 10000 per month from there on out. The gym I am at now had a cheap startup deal, but costs me 10k every month, and, like Bluedog, is a big waste of money for me those times I can't make it to the gym due to work and other commitments.

I can't help you out in Nagoya, but for people in Tokyo, the best public gyms in my experience are the ones in Sendagaya at the big sports complex, and this little one in the middle of a homeless infested park in Takadanobaba. Only problem with the Takadanobaba one is that it's got a 130kg limit on any lift, which is limiting if you are a big deadlifter. However, it has a small and dedicated group of Japanese regulars who are very friendly if you get to know them. Very nice, at-home atmosphere.

But the Sendagaya gym is truly a dream - brand new equipment, very serious (if not always friendly) clientelle, and every machine and free weight you could ever need except hack squats, which I don't do anyway.

[nrc]

Agree totally with dtj1974. I used to train at Gold in Tokyo for six years until I moved. It was good as far as heavy weight was concerned, but I felt there were a lot of pretentious people in there who were really up themselves.
I have also trained at small ward gyms and they all seem to have dumbells only to 20kgs. I mean, if you were into side raises and concentration curls it might prove a bit of a challenge but that was about it. The pool seems to be the main attraction at these places. These places were dirt cheap though, I might add.
The gym I go to now is 9000 a month.
I also order supps from netrition.

[spacegrrrl2012]

wow i feel lucky. i signed up for a gym in my town about 45 min outside of tokyo.i'm not sure of the exact monthly rate, but it's somewhere between 5-6000 yen. they have different levels of membership and i got one of the cheaper ones cuz i knew it would fit best into my schedule (i can only go M-F during daytime hours). i'm not entirely sure what i paid for up front because it was less than i had calculated from their info packet. i thought i was supposed to pay 2 months membership, plus 3000 processing fee, plus 2000 for the membership card. but it came out to around 10,000. the good thing was that the 2 months of membership were actually two months of membership and not like 1st month plus one month deposit.
my gym has aerobics machines (treadmill, bicycle, elliptical), a pool, weight machines and free weights (though i'm not sure how high the free weights go up to cuz i don't use them), a large selection of aerobic and dance and yoga classes, as well as a sauna and bath.
it's a "central fitness" gym, which is a chain, but i don't know if it's in nagoya or not.

[buck naked]

Hi there.

Probably the best and cheapest gym in Nagoya is the Mizuho Undojo training room near Mizuho Undojo station on the Sakuradori line. A thousand yen for 5 times or two thousand a month. They have dumbells up to 50 or 60 kgs at least (Not sure exactly, I don't get much past 35kgs myself), 2 half decent squat racks, a good set of 15 or so Natuilus and other machines, 20 or so aerobic machines of various types, a pool and outdoor track. Compared to gyms back home, it ain't great but probably the best you'll find here. Here's some info in Japanese.

http://www.nespa.city.nagoya.jp/sise...ho/mizuho.html

Next best is the relatively new Showa Sports Center. Dumbells only up to 20kgs but better squat racks than Mizuho.

http://www.nespa.city.nagoya.jp/sise.../showa_sc.html

Biggest problem with these two is the hours. Only 10 to 8:30, 6:30 on Sunday.

Handa might have something similar but I don't know.

Buck

[von]

i used to go to the city gym where i live but like others have said they r crap.

i found a pretty good site and bought some dumbells, quite cheap now work out at home

could be an option????

[laterthanyou]

Why the lack of free weights? Dumbells are good enough for me, but why no bars?

[dtj1974]

I have heard that the primary reason for the lack of barbells and heavy weights has to do with insurance. There is a greater chance of people injuring themselves when using heavier weights and barbells. This increases the cost of insuring the business.

I think there is probably also less demand in Japan for heavier weights since most Japanese go to gyms for general fitness and to stay healthy and not necessarily to build bigger muscles. (Although there were some very buff Japanese guys at Gold's Gym in Tokyo.) That's just my own theory though.

[nipponbiki]

question for you bodybuilders.

where is the best place(cheapest) to buy protein powder considering i live in japan?

and i have been out of the game for a while, what is the best kind of protein now? is it still whey protein?

[Hyakushiki]

Protein expensive is expensive wherever you go here, nearly 3 to 4 times what it costs in the U.S., for example. Best bet is to try to import from Netrition.com or something. Only problem is that shipping prices are so high it ends up being almost the same price. I wonder if some kind of tarriff is being included in the cost to ship it over here. It is amazingly high.

Yes, whey protein will always be the best in terms of fast absorption and creating positive nitrogen balance quickly.