# Fitness Centers



## rocklinrunner (Nov 28, 2009)

I want to retire in a city in Mexico with close proximity to healthy outdoor activities such as fishing, bicycling and swimming. I also want to join a fitness center for resistance training with weights or weight machines. I'm primarily interested in retiring either in Manzanillo, Xalapa, Maxatlan, or Merida. But I can't find any information on gyms with resistance training in any of these cities. Can someone help me here?


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## RVGRINGO (May 16, 2007)

Welcome. Perhaps someone from one of those coastal locations will respond.
I suggest that you spend a summer in one of those places before making a serious commitment. The heat and humidity often drive folks to a summer home in the higher elevations and cooler climates until late fall or early winter, when the temperatures and humidity moderate.
There are towns with fishing in lakes or reservoirs, gyms of some sort are found in larger cities, Lake Chapala has bike paths on the north shore, Guadalajara has Sunday street closings just for bikers and many cities have parks with public pools.


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## rocklinrunner (Nov 28, 2009)

*Thnaks For the Advice*



RVGRINGO said:


> Welcome. Perhaps someone from one of those coastal locations will respond.
> I suggest that you spend a summer in one of those places before making a serious commitment. The heat and humidity often drive folks to a summer home in the higher elevations and cooler climates until late fall or early winter, when the temperatures and humidity moderate.
> There are towns with fishing in lakes or reservoirs, gyms of some sort are found in larger cities, Lake Chapala has bike paths on the north shore, Guadalajara has Sunday street closings just for bikers and many cities have parks with public pools.


Thanks for mentioning the heat. I was worried about that. I'd still like to hear from folks living in those locations that I mentioned. I know a lot of the hotels have gyms, but I'm looking for private heatlh clubs accessible to the public in general.


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## RVGRINGO (May 16, 2007)

You may not find such health clubs, as you would in the USA, although there is a small one in Ajijic, here at Lake Chapala. In Chapala proper, there is a gym but I don't know any details beyond that. Many Mexican ladies do have aerobic dance sessions, etc. and there are occasional Yoga groups, all depending upon where you locate. You are moving to a different culture; not a carbon copy of the USA. We met some new folks last week, who were expats from living a couple of years in Mazatlan and who had just re-located to Chapala. Their comment was that, even as far north as Mazatlan, "the summer was so oppressive that even getting in a pool didn't help". They had to run very expensive AC in the house, only a few blocks from the ocean, and they said that "the constant noise of the AC was driving them nuts."
We love Mazatlan, but a test visit in June made us realize that we would never survive August and September. As such, we'll stick to living at Lake Chapala and visiting the coastal towns only in the winter. Right now, it is nice there at 82F, but the humidity is 88%., while here in Chapala it is 68F and 70%; much more comfortable and we don't own a furnace or an air conditioner. It makes hiking the mountain trails, or other activity, much more enjoyable.


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## stanburn (Jan 19, 2009)

I live full-time in Manzanillo (without A/C). I haven't been to it, but they opened a Golds Gym about 6 months ago. There are a number of smaller gyms around, but I can't tell you how well-equipped they are.

Bicycling, there are a couple of active bicycle clubs here in Manzanillo as well.

Swimming, some of the best beaches in Mexico.

Stan


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