For the past couple of weeks I have been working out at Planet Fitness. I am no gym connoisseur, but Planet Fitness does not exactly work all to well for me. At least not this particular one. Here are some of the complaints I have:
- The atmosphere all feels a little too “gym class”.
- It’s always a little l hot and airflow never seems to be on point.
- The music tends to lean on the awful side as well, so consequently headphones are required not for the sake of my own workout but to drown out the awful neutral sounds.
- The purple and yellow coloration is too gaudy.
- The absence of free weights frustrates me.
So there are a handful of things that I don’t like about Planet Fitness. But here’s the thing: it is cheap and it does the job. Which is truly all I need. And furthermore, I don’t think I’m necessarily the target audience for Planet Fitness, or at least where they expect to get the majority of their members. These complaints are all opinions based on preferences so I do not fault Planet Fitness for these complaints. I could (and probably will sometime soon) go to another gym. Planet Fitness holds its purpose of being an accessible and cheap gym, and therefore it is an extremely valuable service. Ultimately, I am pro-Planet Fitness.
Despite this stance, however, there is one thing about the Planet Fitness aesthetic that is somewhat problematic which made me want to write this. Perhaps falls in the “over-thinking” category and is a bit of a ramble, but I think that is most of what I write about. Planet Fitness is a space that is designed the space to convey the core planet fitness values, values which include belonging, being judgment-free, and being body positive. There are words all throughout they gym that say “You belong” “You are entering a judgment-free zone”, etc. And again, not my personal cup of tea as it’s a bit kitschy, but overall valuable messaging However, there is one design feature in each Planet Fitness that rubs me the wrong way and that is the Lunk Alarm
In each Planet Fitness, located somewhere around the dumbbells, is something called a Lunk Alarm. It’s a big purple firehouse alarm and it dominates the aesthetics of the whole area. Underneath the Lunk Alarm is the definition of the Lunk:
Lunk (lunk) n. [slang] one who grunts, drops weights, or judges.
[Ricky is slamming his weights, wearing a body-building tank top, and drinking out of a gallon water jug... what a lunk!]
The definition and presence of the Lunk Alarm instill in the minds of all gym members this near mythological Lunk figure – a looming male figure that is bad, problematic, and judgmental. Ultimately, the Lunk is the typical media portrayal of a Gym rat. In the Planet Fitness setting, with the garish purple and yellow tones, the term Lunk suggests a Dr. Suess-esque antagonist. The alarm itself is meant to go off whenever someone drops weights in the gym, ultimately outing someone as a true Lunk. I don’t think the alarm actually works, but the message is clear: Lunks are not welcome here.
Basically, the Lunk is a character representing the other, someone that is not welcome in this community space. It is almost as if the Lunk is the alien invader trying to take over Planet Fitness and the alarm is some planetary defense system. And I get it - these types of characters do exist in some sense - people who like to go to the gym all the time, people who are extremely intense, muscular, and loud. To a non-lifter or new lifters (types of people that Planet Fitness advertises to) these individuals could definitely be seen as threatening
But here’s the issue with this - the definition of Lunk and the example are explicitly judgmental. It creates the imagined other gyms Lunks are welcome and flourishing. With the alarm (again purely symbolic because I don’t think they work) Planet Fitness is a lunk-free space. In my experience, Lunks, or the people that the lunk archetype is based on, typically don’t actually judge others. In fact, again from my experience, those people tend to be friendly, willing to help, and generally community-minded because the gym is their chosen community space. But what the Lunk alarm does is capitalize on insecurity and create a fictitious vision that instills negative thoughts of the mythological Lunk in the mind of Planet Fitness members. Inventing the Lunk in this way creates the following psychology: if Lunks exist then there are people who can judge you, and consequently, you deserve to be judged. By introducing the idea of the Lunk Planet Fitness becomes the only place where one is not judged, ergo the slogan “a judgment-free zone”.
Simply put - if someone is predisposed to thinking they are judged by their bodies, then Planet Fitness only confirms this within their imagination, because the aesthetic of the place is designed to suggest that the only gym where there are no Lunks, and therefore no judgment. The slogan is “You Belong”. Buy only if you don’t if you happen to wear a body-building T, drink from a gallon, drop weights, or god forbid, grunt while working out. The ideas of inclusion that Planet Fitness tries to be all about, exists on fear – “you belong” here, because elsewhere is scary. Lunks exist out there.
As said earlier, I am traditionally overthinking this topic a bit. But still, the Lunk stuff and the aesthetics that follow put a bitter taste in my mouth. Planet Fitness’s aesthetics paint a very mean picture of the world, and maybe it is, but it assumes it is and that unless you are here you will be judged. I like to think of the world as being a little better than that. And it’s sneaky little things like this that make me not love Planet Fitness, which, otherwise, I think is a very valuable space for fitness. So, in conclusion, I think it would be for the best if Planet Fitness drops the Lunk stuff. but not drop it too hard, because then that alarm could go off…
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