I’ve sporadically joined gyms in the past full of good intentions, but generally spend the the last month of my annual subscription reducing my average cost per visit by 50%, then 33%, 25%,20% of the annual fee… and running or cycling for hours isn’t really my thing either.
By chance Jeff at www.hillseekerfitness.com has just opened up a new Crossfit “box”. Crossfit is a rapidly growing functional fitness philosophy based around continuously varied, high intensity functional exercises. For me this works because varied means never doing the same workout twice (other than the occasional bench marking days), high intensity means you can get a very decent workout in 30 minutes if you are in a hurry, and functional because the exercises actually seem to develop “useful all-round fitness” for day to day modern existence (and my beloved golf!): core strength, power, mobility, balance and decent aerobic fitness.
It’s also great for business travel, because you can adapt your workout to whatever facilities and equipment you have to hand (if any), and you dont feel you are “missing” workouts, but on the contrary sticking to the plan by always varying your workouts.