Have you ever wondered why gyms aren’t state-funded and free like public libraries? 🤔
Benefits of state-funded gyms
– Accessible fitness for all
– Improved public health
– Cost-effective solution
– Social cohesion
Keywords: state-funded gyms, public health, fitness accessibility
Imagine a world where everyone had access to state-of-the-art gyms without breaking the bank. Not only would it promote a healthier society, but it could also bring communities together through fitness and wellness. So why hasn’t this become a reality yet? Share your thoughts and let’s explore this idea further! #statefundedgyms #publichealth #fitnessforall
There are many public gyms and rec centers
They are. Right down the street from me there’s a park with a bunch of athletic equipment.
There are some Open Gym-like parks in my city. They have exercise equipment in fairly good conditions.
My ex used to work at the local council. As a wellbeing initiative (trial), every employee was given the chance to take an hour per week to do exercise (out of their working time!) and were given access to the council gym near the office. Almost exclusively, the only people who took up the offer were those that already exercised and took advantage of the extra session. IIRC, from a staff of over 500 people, only 1 or 2 of the people taking the offer reported that they did little to no exercise before the trial.
You can lead a horse to water…
Conservatives would block libraries for being too socialist if they were proposed today
Free gyms with equipment that doesn’t require a lot of maintenance would save taxpayers heaps of money but conservatives only care about ideological purity, they don’t care about actual outcomes
Because investing in public wellbeing is EVIL COMMUNISM
Nature is free, walking is free, running is free, calisthenics are free, yoga is free, being fit doesn’t require a gym it requires effort
Because the government provides parks
I think that maybe healthcare should come before gym memberships..?
a lot of outdoor spaces in europe and in some places min the states have outdoor exercise machines similar to gym equipment! pretty cool
you can go for a walk in one of the many public parks or on a public road for free.
now what i think we COULD do is start paying people to get on stationary bicycles to generate electricity like in that one Black Mirror episode.
Super Chad question
We have “Sports Centres” in the UK, they are a lot cheaper than a commercial gym
My city does have public recreation centres with exercise equipment. I think lots of places do. Maybe your question should be about your specific municipality or region.
Have you ever been to a park or a Forrest? Great government owned and operated excercise locations.
Many, many municipalities have parks and rec departments that provide exercise facilities, classes and sports leagues for this very purpose, either for free or at a cost much lower than a private gym. If your area does not, maybe that’s something you should advocate for.
It’s called outdoors.
Lots of public parks in Australia are starting to put in free metal/plastic gym equipment like exercise bikes, weird treadmills, the thing you sit on and push with your arms to lift yourself up. Steps, pull up bars, weird ball weights attached to a pole and more
Most people in the U.S. need to lose weight more so than lifting and body building. This is where public and state parks are for.
Regardless you can build a small gym in your apartment or home for almost the same price as a 2 year membership somewhere. Facebook market place you can find cheap exercise bikes and dumbbells.
Public/municpal sport centre arent’uncommon and it’s how most people exercise. However, it’s not free but provide “under market rent” to clubs
Many places got free outdoor gyms. They usually ain’t as good but with some added fantasy they can work
Where I live, many park districts have fitness centers that cost under $30 a month for residents. They also have parks, and bike trails. Some places allow limited use of a high school pool if they have one.
There are plenty of ways for people to keep fit and healthy that don’t require a gym membership. From a health standpoint, the body doesn’t care if it is walking on a trail, around the neighborhood, in a mall, working in a garden, etc, etc. The biggest changes in health risk come from changing from being sedentary, to increasing movement at a moderate level of intensity.
The percentage of people who consistently follow a “traditional” exercise routine is modest—it’s around 25% of adults and it hardly has changed in 30 years. So subsidizing gym memberships would not be very effective use of public health dollars—you would be subsidizing the people who are already working out the most, and doing nothing to get the vast number of sedentary adults to move more.
My local authority has both gyms , pools and library’s, that are public funded. You still pay to use the pool and gym but it’s at a lower cost than private ones.
The problem is, a gym or pool is still far more expensive than a library. The cleaning alone is a lot more intensive (bodily fluids) and therefor more expensive, the equipment costs (safety equipment, gym machines) is higher and maintenance for them is constant compared to books, that are more a one and done thing.
>Why aren’t gyms state funded and free like public libraries?
i mean, this is an entirely reasonable request.
i suppose private gyms would rally to oppose a community gym.
some areas have community swimming pools and recreational programs. some libraries sometimes have unusual items for check out.
i suppose the real obstacle is just your municipality taking on the operational costs. there’s staffing and insurance, which privately operated gyms can sometimes cut corners on but less flexible in public sector.
This shouldn’t be downvoted, it’s a good question and honestly wouldn’t necessarily be a bad idea policy-wise: it hasn’t been tried for the reasons people mentioned.
But in a dense city where someone may not be able to get to a park and may not be able to afford a gym membership or home-gym equipment? A free gym-card to the municipal fitness center could be life changing for many. And a great investment into local productivity, as well as lowering the costs and stress on the healthcare system that a less-than-healthy population might bring.
You usually don’t go into nature and find a wildly roaming book grassing in the sunshine. You need to go to a library where it is kept. But you can go running or exercising in nature. So there’s a possibility to get it for free.
Because there are plenty of ways to get healthy exercise for free.