Back in The Gym – BionicOldGuy

I have a pretty good home gym setup for both cardio and strength so don’t normally need a gym. But gyms have special machines that are sometimes nice to use as well as classes. This wasn’t enough incentive for me to pay for a gym membership, but if it’s free that’s a different matter.

Some medicare supplemental insurance providers will cover a gym membership at participating gyms. The first program I heard of for this is “silver sneakers“. My provider offered this at my local gym “24-hour fitness”. Then they decided to drop it, and anyway 24-hour fitness went out of business during Covid. Then recently I got a message from my provider about an equivalent new program they offer called “renew active“. A different gym, “Fitness 19“, opened up where 24 hour used to be, and they accept renew active, so I joined back up. I’ve been going about once a week. I like using several of the strength stations. They are the same exercises I do at home, but at the gym, I can check my strength more closely to monitor my progress. I also like the elliptical machines with arms. I use them for a relatively easy and low-impact workout for the lower body, but a more challenging workout for my upper body.

This gym is under three miles away and takes just over 10 minutes by bike, so I like the convenience.

I recommend looking into this type of alternative for anyone in the US that has medicare. It is a cost-effective way to keep us Seniors active, which means more likely to stay healthy.