1800 nt 1 hour x 12 sessions
Being sport
2025 rates
For those services, it’s still cheaper than in the US.
I imagine the trainer is recording at least the first training session; ask for a copy of that video so you can go back for reference. You should find that useful for checking on your own form - if you can find a place to lift weights, that is.
For the past five years or so, the business model in Taiwan is to rent out a small space on the ground floor, outfit with some equipment, and then only open your gym on appointment. In my experience, finding a gym that takes in members instead of clients and not named World Gym is like finding hens’ teeth. At least in Hsinchu and in Taoyuan City.
When we lived in Hsinchu I was lucky to find a studio owner who agreed to let me in to lift on my own and without a trainer. He said it was because we lived in the neighborhood and he wanted to be a good neighbor. He gave me the good neighbor price of $NT3,600 per quarter. Gotta say he and his staff did a bang-up job training their clients in the fundamentals. Most people going to that gym were trained very well and had terrific form.
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I remember I went to ask to the nearest gym here in Taoyuan and the membership was about 12-14 000 NTD per year, but you have to pay it upfront, if you move, be it to another part of the city, other city or abroad, no refund.
No single entry option, no monthly or quarterly option.
I felt like a hostage, the receptionist girl and her trainer boyfriend kept pushing me their offer for like 30 minutes.
I wanted to get up and go like after 5 minutes, but because I was there with my girlfriend who was translating for me and she insisted it would be rude to just get up and go, I spent there really at least 30 minutes, listening to them repeating their stuff, hoping, that I am this kind of person, who cannot say no, while I was trying to not go nuts.
To me the atmosphere felt like these scams, where people would receive a postcard with invitation for a trip to see a castle or something, which includes lunch, all of it for very cheap price (like a very cheap lunch alone) and then when the people, almost always pensioners go there, they are manipulated and often even forced to buy 10 or 20 or even more times overpriced cookware or other stuff. Sometimes they could not even leave without buying.
The first lesson with the trainer would be free, but then he was offering some package of 20 lessons. I don’t remember how much was it, I just remember if would I pay just one extra lesson, would be 2500NTD.
I have been thinking if to try the free lesson and then just sign up for the membership without trainer, so after their insisting I agreed to the appointment for the first free lesson, which I had to let them know if I don’t want to go and want to cancel it - again, this tactics hoping, that people just cannot say no.
In the end, when I was thinking about it at home, it just put me off and I wrote the girl, who was responsible for appointments, that I am canceling it and I did not even sign up for their membership just for the sake of using some free weights, not interested in the machines.
The chains usually allow you to change membership to another one if you move.
This was not a chain.
The other advantage with joining a chain is they’re less likely to suddenly close. Although it does still happen.
For once I find myself in agreement with Brownbeard! Fitness centers in Taiwan are notorious for high pressure sales tactics and sharp business practices. Also, it is almost always a bad idea in Taiwan to pay for a service upfront. Even if the business doesn’t close, they will usually change things and cut corners as soon as they can/‘have to’. There is very little recourse because consumer protection laws lack teeth and these businesses are experts at resisting complaints. Caveat emptor!!!
This is not some universal moral defect in Taiwanese people or inherent in Taiwanese culture. It is because Taiwan’s business-friendly government and the Legislature in particular have chosen not to set up effective institutions and mechanisms to deal with these problems. It is also related to side effects of Taiwan’s extremely rapid development.
There are a few private gyms that do offer rates by session or minutes. There’s one called Cozy Fitness in Taoyuan that only charges 1NT per minute and they have squat racks, barbells and free weights.
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My friend goes to this one. Charges monthly.
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World Gym offered me $1,600/hr for a 24 session package.
But I noticed on the salesperson’s iPad they had different advertisement images in the gallery, presumably with different initial anchor prices and discounts
They probably showed me waiguoren.jpg
But also important to remember price does not imply quality (cheap nor expensive). And world gym trainers don’t have the best reputation.
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I think that’s expensive for Taiwan. By that I mean that is unaffordable for someone on an average wage here. I know some gyms that if you are already a member is about 700 for 40 minutes. The quality would be about the same as world gym.
Tell him to take a hike and walk out.
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This seems to be standard for gym memberships most places - after all, the basic business model relies on signing up a lot of people to contracts and them not actually showing up. I read that planet fitness has an average of 7500 members per gym.
True although peak hours can be busy in commercial gyms. Certainly not 7000 though which would be like a zombie apocalypse.
MY local fitness factory feels like it has all those 7000 at peak times…jeez.
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Had a new world gym opening close to my office a couple of years ago, always a pleasure walking by there when those spicy young ladies in gym clothes approached us in their recruitment drives 
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Did it work ? I don’t go near them as I’m afraid I might have a moment of weakness and sign the forever contract with world gym.
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I managed to avoid signing anything. A friend signed, but his wife canceled the membership for him
I guess they got people to sign up, as they were spending quite a lot of time outside the gym chasing people for a couple of months after opening
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Don’t know about World Gym, but one way to bring the price down is to pal up, or let them pal you up with somebody who has similar goals.
A personal trainer should cut the price if he’s training two people that hour, not just you. The trainer can stagger the both of you so that he’s one-on-one with each while the other rests.
This seemed to be a popular option in my old gym in Hsinchu. To my eye the trainer had to work harder, but it seemed doable.
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I won’t go to fitness centers (the kind that charge by the minute) because when I did the numbers it’s cheaper to join world gym or other chains. At least WG charge monthly and doesn’t make you pay a year up front, and that it’s less likely to just all suddenly close up. Plus WG allows you to go to their various locations (for the normal membership, there are cheaper membership that’s tied to a particular gym and there’s a fee to move in those case) giving me options if I need to shower out there (which is often in this never ending summer). They also provide towels.
I won’t touch non chain gyms… they’re known to sell membership where you must pay for a year at a time and then close up without warning.
I never tried personal trainers but it just looks like they don’t do much apart from telling you how to do some exercises. As for form you could just look at how others are doing it.