Hustle for Muscle: A Primer on Korean Gyms

By William Urbanski 

Bruce Lee once said, “if you’re over thirty and unwilling to spend this minimum time (30 minutes three days a week) for better fitness, you’d better be prepared to spend even more time being ill”¹. These words, along with a few select other quotes from The Art of Expressing the Human Body basically form the foundation of my fitness strategy. While not all people aspire to have a physique like Lee’s (his muscles were developed to the point that they apparently felt like “warm marble”), his attitude and insights towards exercise can serve as inspiration and guidance for us all.   

Gwangju is particularly blessed with an abundance of fitness centers that are more often than not clean, well-equipped, affordable, and offer a wide range of activities. If you have ever considered joining a gym and live in Gwangju, there is really no excuse not to sign up for a three-month, six-month, or year-long membership and to either begin or continue your fitness journey. While I am no Bruce Lee (yet), I definitely subscribe to his belief that partaking in a regular exercise program is not something you should be doing, but something you have to be doing. Hopefully this article will provide a bird’s eye view of what being a member at a Korean gym is actually like, while also providing some guidance on how to get the most out of your workouts after you set your foot through the door. Also, you have heard this before, but pretty please, check with a doctor before you start any sort of exercise program. 

Korea Gym Basics  

I have had memberships at a number of private fitness centers in Korea, each one with its own strengths and weaknesses (pun intended). Their similarities are great enough that I think it is appropriate to talk about Korean gyms in general terms. 

A basic yearly membership at any well-equipped gym should run no more than four-hundred thousand won. That being said, the price per month gets cheaper the longer you sign up. So, I would advise signing up for a longer term rather than renewing a three- or six-month membership whenever needed. There are a few things to watch out for when signing up. First of all, many gyms can provide workout clothes – usually just a basic T-shirt and shorts – but this is optional and you have to pay for it. I have used this service and actually really liked it a lot because of its convenience, but if you live close to the gym (more on that later), it is almost just as easy to bring your own gear, so I do not think this service is necessarily worth the cost. Also, before you sign up for anything, have a clear idea of what you would like to do or what equipment you would like to use. Most gyms have a sauna, “GX” classes (basically aerobic classes, but could also be Pilates or yoga), plus the standard weight room with treadmills, weight machines, and free weights. Signing up for all of these programs can be quite expensive, easily tripling the cost of membership, so really think hard about what you would like to do. While I suggest focusing on weight training (for reasons I will explain below), I have had very positive experiences with saunas and GX classes as well, especially yoga. 

One thing to really watch out for are personal training fees. Some gyms may encourage you to sign up for one-on-one lessons which can be extremely expensive. If you take one-on-one lessons, you are paying for someone to develop a personal fitness program for you as well as supervise your workouts. To be honest, unless your Korean is incredibly strong, I do not think you would get the full benefits of this nuanced, bespoke advice that would justify the price. 

After you have decided exactly how you would like to focus your workouts, the next part is to choose a gym to sign up for. I think it is absolutely crucial to sign up to a gym that is as close as possible. Especially at the starting phases of a fitness program, it is extremely easy to talk yourself out of going, so you want to streamline this process as much as possible. Make it easy to get there! Even if another gym may be a bit nicer, if it is an extra ten-minute walk away, you can be sure you will start missing workouts. 

Finally, depending on your workplace, you may have access to a free weight room or something like that. Even if you do, I would strongly recommend paying to join a dedicated fitness facility: The machines will be better maintained, it will be cleaner, and it will be supervised. As well, if you pay for it, you are not going to want to waste your money by not going. 

Aerobics, Calisthenics, Weight Training, and Isometrics 

Now let’s get into some of the nitty-gritty aspects of working out at the gym. Broadly speaking, there are four main ways to exercise, and they are aerobics, calisthenics, weight training, and isometrics. 

Aerobics involves any number of high-motion but low-resistance exercises such as running, cycling, rowing, and the Billy Blanks Tae Bo Workout™. The main characteristic of this kind of exercise is an elevated heart rate over a sustained period of time. Your gym will probably have a good selection of treadmills, exercise bikes, and elliptical machines that will help you develop your aerobic capacity.   

Calisthenics are a popular group of exercises that use body weight as resistance and employ minimal equipment. Pushups, pullups, burpees, and dips are popular ones. 

Weight training involves using the various weight machines, dumbbells, barbells, and kettle bells to tax your muscles in specific ways, leading to defined muscle growth. 

Isometrics are a special class of exercises where a specific muscle contracts but there is little or no visible movement. Think of standing beside a stationary railing and trying to lift it as hard as you can for ten seconds. The railing will not move at all, but believe me, your muscles will feel it. 

Each one of these techniques can yield tremendous benefits (when done properly), but in the gym, I would suggest focusing on weight training and making it the “bread and butter” of your exercise sessions. The main reason for this is efficiency. While it is common to see someone spending half an hour on the exercise bike while fiddling with their phone, when working with weights, you have no choice but to focus. As well, in a half hour of otherwise low-intensity jogging on a treadmill, a person can have a well-rounded weight session that will lead to definite and measurable results. 

The real advantage to weight lifting is the ability to target and develop specific parts of your body. Obviously, doing such classic exercises as the bicep curl and the bench press can lead to muscle development that running or a cycling program never can. Another often overlooked benefit of weight training is called the “afterburn effect,” which refers to the fact that even after lifting weights, the muscles will continue burning calories at a higher rate. So, if there is a single class of exercise that will make you look fitter faster, I would argue that weight training is it. 

It can be a bit intimidating to go into a gym and know where to start and what machines to use. One good approach is to pick five to seven different machines and do circuits. That is to say, do eight to twelve repetitions on one machine, then move onto the next one and do the same. Repeat this until you have used each machine at least three times. The same principle can be used for free weights (weights that are not part of a machine). Just remember to choose machines that target different sections of the body. 

When figuring out how much weight to use for each exercise, do not overdo it. If you are going to repeat an exercise ten times, the ninth and tenth repetitions should feel difficult without being overly strenuous. Another useful tactic is to do less weight but for higher repetitions. For example, instead of trying to lift a 10 kg dumbbell ten times, try doing a seven kg dumbbell 15 times. This really targets specific muscle groups and leads to greater development. 

Common Criticisms of Weight Training 

The biggest criticism of weight training is that people do not want to end up looking like a huge, gorilla-like body builder. This is fair enough and is a common sentiment, particularly among women. The truth is, attaining the large, muscly physique that we commonly associate with body builders is extremely difficult and requires a level of planning, training, coaching, nutrition, and dedication that is far, far beyond what the average person would reasonably engage in. Competitive body building in itself is a full-time lifestyle commitment requiring a tremendous personal sacrifice that places one’s fitness goals above all else. This is not to even mention the entire issue of supplements and other non-food-based methods to improve body size and appearance.   

So, the average person is not at risk of suddenly becoming a huge muscle-bound monster by hitting the gym a few times a week. Additionally, and with regards to women, since women generally have a higher percentage of body fat than men, it is actually quite hard for women to get that “ripped” bodybuilder appearance. The more likely outcome is that after sticking to a weight training schedule for three to six months, a person will become trimmer, look and feel healthier, and have greater muscle definition. Also, their clothes will fit better. Unless, you know exactly what you are doing and are ready to follow a strict fitness regime, you are not going to end up looking like a young Arnold Schwarzenegger any time soon. 

Speaking of competitive body building, my personal belief is that it is kind of stupid. While I think that improving your muscles by regularly working out is essential, competitive body building requires a selfish lifestyle and is even somewhat of a dangerous endeavor. Hitting the gym should not be a goal in and of itself, but something that is done to enhance your overall fitness so that you can improve your all-around performance in anything you do. 

Hygiene and Etiquette 

As mentioned earlier, I have been very impressed with the level of cleanliness in all the gyms I have joined in Korea. You can tell the owners really take pride in keeping their facilities clean. One aspect that really strikes me as odd, though, is that members are not required to wipe their sweat off of the machines after using them. In Canada (and other places such as Germany where I worked out at McFit for a year), forgetting or neglecting to wipe down a machine after using it is a huge no-no. Canadian gyms always, always, always have disinfectant spray bottles and paper towels all over the place, which creates a lot of paper waste but also ensures that you will not accidentally sit down on a sweat covered bench. In Korea, people not wiping down their machines is not a deal breaker for me, but I am also really careful to look where I sit and always place my towel on the machine when using it. 

Now of course I cannot speak for what goes on in the ladies’ change room, but it behooves me to mention that I think it is profoundly unwise to use the hairdryers in the men’s room. This is because no less than one hundred times, I have, shall we say, noticed men using the hairdryer on parts of their body where the sun don’t shine.   

Overall, when it comes to gym etiquette, Korea and Gwangju seem to be quite a bit better than gyms in the West. Of course, you have people who hog the machines while not using them and watching videos, but the gyms here also lack the aggressive meatheads who get all upset because you sat on a machine that they wanted to use. On top of this, I have found all gym staff to be extremely helpful and encouraging. 

You Only Get One Body 

At the end of the day, the benefits of going to the gym and lifting weights are obvious. While going to the gym may seem like a pain at times, not taking care of your body by engaging in regular and rigorous exercise is a massive mistake that you will pay for later in life. You only get one body, and if you do not take care of it, it will fail you when you need it most. Even though there are plenty of days when I would like nothing more than to be a complete slug and sit on my sofa eating ice cream, never have I once regretted actually completing a workout. While working out can be hard and can even hurt, remember that pain is just weakness leaving the body. 

The Author 

William Urbanski is the managing editor of the Gwangju News. He hits the gym at least three days a week whether he feels like it or not. Instagram @will_il_gatto