Pure Fitness

In Hong Kong, the selling of gyms are very intense. Their selling tactic is similarly aggressive. Last Saturday, I went to Pure Fitness in Soho. It’s the ultra fancy gym that all the expats go to. I went and a man named Steve showed me around. It’s a super luxury gym with 4 floors of facilities and locker rooms. Each machine has a personalized screen and the gym’s DVD library would put blockbusters to shame. The female locker room has a long hall of mirrors and stools for freshening up afterwards. On the first floor, there’s a RED bar which is a deck of open air with a bar next to it. Overall, the gym is the luxurious atmosphere that everyone said it would be.



With all the luxury, obviously there is intense selling involved. When we were finished with our tour, Steve asked if I wanted to get a free fitness test. Why not? I got on this scale looking thing, held onto some gadgets. After standing there for 10 minutes, the machine prints out your results. For me, personally, everything was normal. I’m not skinny but I am comfortable with myself. Here in Asia, I am definitely not slim but what I didn’t expect was the personal trainer started to tell me that I had too much fat, not good, I needed to lose fat. I would be better if I lost 2 kilos (which is like 5 lbs). Maybe it’s because in America, weight is such a sensitive issue. I don’t think I have ever heard anyone saying something without being prompt. Even to a fat person, I don’t think I would ever say anything about their weight (especially telling them to lose weight) unless they started the conversation first. I think I would be even uncomfortable agreeing with someone who said he/she needed to lose weight. Here, the guy is trying to sell me on the gym by making me feel insecure about myself. Their tactic is to try to scare all of its members to join the gym. However, I feel it’s a very cruel way. I currently don’t have weight issues but if I did, I would feel so terrible after my visits to the gym, which completely defeats the point since I tend to go to the gym for a positive uplift.



Either way, 2 things happened that probably was not what Steve intended. I did not become so obsessed with myself that I had to sign up for the gym on the spot. Also, I was rather turned off by the pressure tactics and will probably be joining a different gym simply on principle.