Gym vs no gym?

Van Living Forum

Help Support Van Living Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Bluedogz

Active member
Joined
Sep 17, 2024
Messages
34
Reaction score
25
Location
Dallas, TX
So it seems like a membership at a planet fitness or similar is a really popular option for getting access to showers on the road. What's the headcount of people who prefer that over just having some sort of shower rigged up in their van?

Also, planet fitness is very cagey about listing what their price is for that national plan… Anybody got any guidance?
 
Theres pros & cons on PF………

The big con is many of the clubs dont take credit card but want autopay from your checking account. I’m not giving anyone my checking account routing number.

If you go this route open a separate new checking account dedicated for PF only and only keep enuff $$ in it for a years worth of use. Then if PF gets hacked they can only get so much and it’s easier for you to quit if you want. When account gets low just add what you need for another year.

I gave serious thought to PF years back but hey I use my solar shower or the beach showers and never joined.
There’s YmCA too or whatever it’s called.
Then there’s Silver Sneakers too if you qualify and others.
PF ain’t the only shower in town.

research……
jonny
 
I visited a few of those “health clubs” and decided I was just as likely to get sick during the virus season as I was to get clean. Of course now virus season is pretty much all year for Covid 19 and a solid 6 months for the other types. So those places are definitely not for me, a higher risk senior. I do use some showers where I know they clean up between every customer. Cost extra of course but in between that luxury I can stay clean enough in my own camp.

The Quartzsite Main Street Laundry and Showers Business sanitizes the room after every shower before the next person uses the room. Not a gym but I can run my clothes in the washing machine or dryer while I take a shower and there is no gym membership location in that town.🙂
 
Last edited:
Bathing regularly is highly overrated. When on the road I bathe very little, going many days or even weeks.

I have this debate with people in car life forums every so often, even had someone respond to a 6 year old Reddit thread the other day. With the usual sass, showing their total ignorance of how human sweat glands actually work. I try to tell people, but much like global warming, you have to actually be interested in the science and go look up the stuff yourself.

We basically have 2 different kinds of sweat. Only 1 is the smelly kind. Has something to do with stress release. If you can avoid producing the stinky kind of sweat, you can go a very long time without any need to bathe. Like maybe douse your private parts in a sink in a one room bathroom somewhere, but that's about it.

Also, avoid manual labor. I mean if you're hauling dirt, doing construction work, or my bane sometimes is sawdust from woodworking, yes of course you're gonna get stinky from that stuff. If you're not doing that though, you're not.

Don't track a bunch of dirt into your car. Shoes "outside". I restrict my shoes to my driver's footwell, so that I'm lessening the amount of dirt and sand I'm taking in.

My worst hazard wasn't my own lack of bathing. It was really my dog, when he was alive. I miss him.

Over the years, I discovered that cardboard food packaging and grocery store paper bags, are extremely useful for cleaning dishes. They absorb grease and are a great "first go" at the dishes, to remove gunk and conserve scarce water supplies. Better not to keep paying for dish soap too, or avoid it entirely, depending on what kind of stuff you cook.

Well those paper products work on your body too! If I am going to bathe, that's my preferred method now. They're basically disposable washcloths. One room bathroom drill again somewhere. Doesn't take that long because again, you're not anywhere near as filthy as society tries to have you believe.

Just realize you've been brainwashed all your life by the petrochemical companies trying to sell you more stuff to put on your skin and hair. That's what it's been about. Money. Big budget marketing campaigns to make you feel like a lousy human being if you're not doing what the supermodels on TV are doing.

BTW the only soap and shampoo I like is Dawn. Yep, Dawn. Even if I'm in civilization and have a full shower available, I use Dawn. 'Cuz it's good enough to take even automotive grease off my hands and body, without making my skin feel like crap for doing it. Works for ducks in oil slicks (original formula at least), works for me (the actual stuff sold at retail nowadays).

Also note: changing clothes has some of the value of bathing. It removes oils and dirt from your skin. I wear clothes until they start feeling "icky". Lately I put the dirty clothes in plastic grocery bags, tied shut, until I'm ready to wash them. I often hand wash my clothes in a sink somewhere, something I had to learn how to do when surviving with my dog in his old age. 1 or 2 items for most things is not a big deal, and I hang them up to dry on paracords inside my car.

Hand washing jeans though is a PITA, because they hold so much water and take so long to dry. I try to avoid doing that by hand. All the thinner stuff though, it works fine.
 
Top