If there are two things that DCers do often, it’s eat and drink. And why not? DC is home to a plethora of great happy hour deals and tons of great restaurants. But after so many beers, chicken wings and French fries hitting the gym might not seem like a bad idea. And even you, starving intern and underpaid young professional, can afford to workout.

A couple of gyms around town offer good deals for students here during summer and most require a valid student ID.  Washington Sports Club offers a $199 deal for students that is good from May 1 to Sept 30.  They have lots of locations in the DC area, including a new location in Columbia Heights where Barack Obama was spotted working out last week.  Fitness First in downtown DC offers students one month for $75 and two for $140 (that's $10 off!).  Other options include Vida Fitness, where you can workout for the next two months for $200 and Gold’s Gym offers the cheapest deal, asking only $45 a month from students with a valid student ID.

Even $45 however is a little much for an interns salary of next to nothing, especially with all that money going to beer, and more beer, which got me thinking, there’s has got to be a way to work out for cheap.  Yes, running outside is always an option, but its way to hot after work, and I highly doubt that waking up early to go on a run is a real option for this audience.  A better option?  Free passes and 2 week trails.

Here's what I would do: stock up on trail memberships and free guest passes. Bally Total Fitness offers a 30 day trial for 20 bucks. The only catch is that the trial pass only gets you access to the gym 3 days a week, Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday or Wednesday, Friday, Sunday.  Even though you don't get access to the gym everyday, with the happy hours and softball games I’m sure you’re frequenting, 3 days is plenty.  At Washington sports club you can get a 2 week pass for $19 and this lets you workout everyday.  You can use it as a supplement to your Bally’s pass or just workout really hard for two weeks. And then there's my favorite option, guest passes.  Both Fitness First, and Vida Fitness and Results Gym (both of which are located next to everyone’s favorite and affordable hair salon, Bang) offer a free day guest pass.  You may have to sit though a consultation, but for the opportunity to work out for free, I say it's worth it.  Between these deals you should be able to stay in shape this summer for cheap.  If you Google, ‘gym, Washington, DC’ about a thousand other DC area gyms pop up and I'm sure you can systematically go to each, get a free pass, and never have to pay to work out.  Gyms are expensive, and while many gyms offer deals for interns, who says you can't make your own deals and save your hard earned pennies for beer.  You need a reason to go to the gym after all.