The gym is back. In the UK, about 11.5 million people aged 16 and over now belong to one. Even old habits are making a comeback: after a few years of exhorting people to socially distance and wipe down machines, gym chains are removing cleaning stations, while their clientele go back to sharing kit and sweating all over the benches. Nature, as they say, is healing.
But how many people are using their membership, and how much value are they getting out of the gym when they go? As a former editor of Men’s Fitness magazine, I have been going to gyms for more than a decade, and I still see half a dozen things I wish I could mention to people every time I go. So here are the tips I wish were in every gym’s welcome pack, alongside a bunch of the mistakes that it took me years to learn I was making. I am not going to tell you to wipe up your sweat, though. Hopefully, you are doing that already.
