Our gym exists to host our tribe. We all agree on our core fitness values: strength training, high intensity training, high protein. Those are the values of the Formosa Fitness tribe. If you want to join us, then you should agree with those. If not, we are not the place for you.
Having such a clear statement about what you stand for, and what you don’t, is rare these days. Most people don’t like such strong statements, another reason we aren’t for most people. It’s especially unpopular to draw lines between people and say we want this group, but not this other group. That’s “discrimination” and we all know that’s a dirty word these days.
Well we discriminate every single day. Do you eat food that fell on the sidewalk? Why not? Are you a bigot? The food didn’t ask to get dropped there, did it? How about eating at a restaurant where the cook doesn’t wash his hands? Who are we say that certain behaviors by people are more desirable than others? Isn’t that discrimination? Of course, it is. We discriminate everyday but we often don’t have the guts to call it that.
Formosa Fitness is a small gym. I’m okay with saying that. We don’t have the space to cater to everyone. Like what you see here? This is what we do:
We got one new guy a while back that complained on a local message board that we should give him 3 liters of free water every time he comes in. Why? Because he demanded it, that’s why. And if you demand something, you should always get it, correct? Well that’s what a lot of people think. He also complained that it was too hot — downstairs, where it is consistently cool. I just paid NT37,000 for the electricity bill in September BTW. We come to the gym to workout, not get comfortable. I told this gentlemen that we charge significantly less than the local 7-11 for bottled water and do this as a courtesy to gymgoers, but he persisted with his demands two more times. The last time, I told him we would not be giving him free water and if he didn’t like it, he could go work out somewhere else. As the chief, it’s my job to police the tribe. If we let people like that in, then those of us that want to train hard will find it impossible to do so.
This is the kind of thing most people don’t understand. Many of the local gyms give away water and towels because they RIP PEOPLE OFF so their profit margin is much higher. We don’t rip people off so our profits are much lower. Second, NOTHING IS FREE! Someone is paying for that! If my costs as the gym owner go up, then guess what? I’m passing that cost on to the gymgoer. No, I will NOT eat into our meager profit margins to cater to people too lazy to bring their own water from home or buy our reasonable priced water at the gym. Third, we don’t want the kind of people that demand “free stuff” in order to work out.
At the big local gorilla gym, men blow dry their testicles in the locker rooms.
People play on their cell phones on the equipment rather than train hard.
They join the gym just to play in the dirty jacuzzi. “Play” has many definitions, too.
There is a disco ball in the “weight room” at the fancy pants gym down the street.
And people get flashed in the showers.
THAT is the local gym culture that gives away “free stuff.” Is that what you want? Because that is the very opposite of what we do. We are against all that.
If I chose to go down that path for the business, we would go out of business! There would be nothing special about us in any way. We would have people laying all over the equipment picking their noses. We would have to have 20 treadmills for people to walk on while watching TV because that’s what “free stuff” people demand. We don’t have space for that and we are not that kind of gym.
We are a niche gym and our niche is strength, high intensity cardio training, and training with integrity.
The most important two minutes you’ll ever spend regarding fitness is right here. Watch this:
[youtube=http://youtu.be/j8JS3kqUTqM?t-A&start=105]
THAT is what we are about! BTW, Gym Jones are the folks that trained the cast of “300” and “Man of Steel,” etc.
We are not trying to be everything to everyone. We are not the Wal-Mart of fitness. So understand that we welcome everyone to join us, but if you do then you must agree to follow our culture and live by our fitness values. Hope to see you at the gym.