Money first, fitness later

It is amazing how working out has become such a hype here in Kuala Lumpur. Tons of people clad in fancy exercise clothes can be seen around my housing area as early as 6 am every morning - walking, running, chatting, flirting and so on. There I was driving by in the car, thinking that the clothing industry producing exercise outfits must be booming right about now. Lots of people are wearing yoga pants to do everything under the sun these days. They are comfortable, after all. I have no complaints.

Today I went with some friends to this gym called ‘Fitness First’ which sprouted out of nowhere in the last…recently. They have many outlets all over town. Although I am an advocate for the importance of exercise and all, couldn’t help but feel that ‘going to the gym’ at Fitness First is more of a social statement than anything else. People were obviously checking other people out – very much a social setting. Not to say that there is anything wrong with that.

This place does not come cheap. Right at the start, you’d have to fork out about RM 450 which includes the membership, processing, first and last month’s fees. After that, comes the RM 150 monthly fee (RM 3 is equivalent to about C$ 1). So if you joined this gym for a year, it would come to about RM 2,000 which is incidentally about how much a fresh graduate would be earning in a month. I suppose if you look at it that way, it doesn’t seem so bad. One month’s worth of work in exchange for the use of the facility for an entire year.

Hmm…although personally I would prefer to workout at a place that is maybe a little less about social status, must admit that ‘Fitness First’ does have state-of-the-art equipment and experienced trainers.

To the people who thought to bring this concept to Malaysia - well done.

You’re an inspiration that money can be made in many unconventional ways, if one is willing to take the risk.

In my opinion, it was quite the risk that they took.

Going to the gym was not THAT big a thing a few years ago here in Malaysia.

Therefore as much as the idea could have worked, it could also have failed.
As it turns out though, the idea caught on. Lucky buggers.