I'm sure I'm like many forum users here: I do most of my exercises at home under my own power. Biking, cardio, yoga, calisthenics. My routines require little more than my own body weight and either a set of dumbbells or a foot path to work. But I've recently moved to a larger city and, having tapped my home routine as far as I am comfortable pressing it on my own, I'm considering trying out some of the local gyms. But yoga I know and I don't want to pay $50 a month for little more than an in-door track and a set of fancy weights (both of which I have at home for almost nothing). So, I'm interested in the martial arts programs.
I've taken a very very little karate, and I'm too old now to even care about learning how to whoop butt. I don't care about the macho-ideal of becoming some force of nature. I just want to find a program that's got a good ROI in terms of mental and physical fitness, one that will give me a boost in workout intensity that I can't get at home. Plus, the social aspect will be nice.
Any mustachians got any good suggestions? Or is martial arts a mug's game all around? I'll admit I don't NEED it, physically, but I feel that, if I invest right, I can get my body up from "standard" to "in shape." Plus, there's the mental benefits of any good workout routine (plus the mental boost of being "part of" something fun and pop culturally interesting, so long as you avoid becoming an idiot), and the social boost of meeting new people outside my fairly milquetoast work place.
To give some idea of what I've got available, my city has an MMA gym that does things like Krav Maga, Judo, Karate, Jiu-Jistu. There's a Yoshukai Karate gym that also does Tai Chi (which I understand to be an utterly terrible "defensive" martial arts but excellent for your mental health: I'm tapped out on yoga and interested in trying it). Finally, there's a Tae kwon do gym as well. There's others, but a glance at them is enough to convince me their more fluff than stuff. The Tae kwon do gym and MMA gym are both in biking distance of my house. The Yoshukai gym is not but they offer courses at the rec center right next door to me.
Also, another question for experienced MA users:what's a good price range? I live in a fairly rural, low-cost area, but I'd like some idea of what a fair market price for something like MA is to those who have experience using it.