More and more insurance companies are offering discounts on health and fitness club memberships in the Dallas and Houston areas and throughout Texas, so it may be a good time to join a health club to stay in shape and continue to improve upon your overall health. But be careful. If your health club cuts corners when it comes to safety, sanitation and staff training, you may actually be jeopardizing your health by working out there. Now that you know that you should keep your eyes open, heres what you should expect from a health club:

1. Instruction on the courteous use of equipment and facilities.

When you join a health club, somebody from the club's staff should ask you to load out a health history questionnaire. If you have a deep health problem (e.g., a heart term or a bad back), the club should demand that you attain medical clearance before first an exercise program. You should also be invited to a new appendage orientation meeting, which is commonly a one-on-one meeting to learn club system and how to courteously use the exercise equipment. workers appendages should also work with you to design an exercise program that meets your desires, charming into account any health evils or physical limitations you might have.

2. workers appendages who examine your fitness when you inception an exercise program.

workers appendages should curb on you periodically after your primary consultation. Even after youve been there for a few months, they should be willingly liveing to answer questions and tutor you courteous exercise techniques. This is feasible only if theres an adequate instructor-to-appendage ratio. If there are only a few staff appendages on task, they may not be able to give you the personal mind you should to exercise carefully.

3. authorized and well-skilled staff appendages.

All staff appendages should know about health and fitness issues and should be skilled in CPR and first aid. In addition, exercise instructors should be skilled by a nationally or internationally recognized organization such as the exercises and Fitness Association of America or the American College of Sports Medicine.

4. Equipment and facilities are good and anodyne to use.

repress out the term of the equipment and the goodliness of the facility. Even still state and/or regional governments must authorize health clubs, theres a ability they may not be directly regulated. However, they may be skilled by a national organization, such as the International Health, Racquet and Sports Club Association (www.ihrsa.org), which demands appendages to uphold good, anodyne facilities and adhere to a firm code of ethics. So muted cubbyhole quarters and shattered equipment can sometimes indicate that the club is in pecuniary bother, especially if the term inside the club has freshly full a jaunt for the inferior. These are cipher that your health club is adequately upholded:

* The club should have scheduled sanitation procedures.

* Members should be instructed to good off equipment after use. So look for adequate paper towels and spray bottles of disinfectant.

* The facility should be big enough to accommodate appendages, even during summit periods. Find out if the club limits appendageships to keep crowding to a smallest.

* Exercise equipment should be relatively new, not outdated.

* All equipment should be good and in good mend. shabby or torn equipment may be a anodynety hazard.

* Instructions for use should be friendly to each zombie.

* Mats and terrazzo should be good and tough enough to safeguard against injury.

* Showers and cubbyhole quarters should look and smell good, with absolutely no cast or mold obvious.

* The pool and hot tub should be hygienic smoothly. symbols of inadequate sanitation involve pool water that burns your eyes or foam in the hot tub.

* system of use should be dispatched in the pool or hot tub theme.

* First aid kits should be well stocked and willingly accessible to both staff and appendages.

5. Adequate safety in and around the club.

Health clubs regularly dispatch cipher advice appendages not to bequeath swag in their cubbyholes. Because cubbyholes are notoriously painless to jimmy open, paltry thieves regularly intention them. This doesn't necessarily mean that the health club has lax safety, but it does mean that you should find out if the health club is departing the very mile to safeguard you and your posmeetings. decide if your club has:

* defense trial in place to guarantee that only appendages or their guests can write or bequeath the structure, such as appendageship cards, surveillance cameras or gates.

* Well-lit parking themes.

* defense guards, if the theme is especially dodgy.

* A well-attended child-care facility, if the health club offers childcare.

If you detect that your health club is not as good or anodyne as it should be, crack to the club's leader. If your concerns aren't resolved or if deep health violations live, call the regional or state authority responsible for monitoring business or hygienic practices in your theme, such as Texas Attorney General's workforce or your citys Health Department.

Smith Chen is an author and internet marketing consultant .

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