New year, new you — if you stick with it
QGym is so busy after work I can’t get near any equipment and I am wondering: how long until the New Year resolutions fade, giving me space to train?
A
Some gyms are uncomfortably busy during peak hours at any time of the year, making the New Year’s peak exceedingly uncomfortable. We agree
— there is nothing worse than going to a gym and feeling as though you are at a Black Friday rush and the prize is the squat rack.
No, let’s be honest. The squat rack usually has cobwebs. Every other station in the gym has longer queues than the Chip ’n Dip stand at Ellis Park just before kickoff.
There’s not much these popular gyms can do. A colleague told me last week that he was on the verge of cancelling his membership at a popular month-on-month membership gym because since the New Year’s resolution crowd joined, he felt he was wasting his time and money. I argued that he’s already paid for January and by February normality would return.
When I still worked for a newspaper, training was easy. Lifting weights, swimming or using a treadmill between 10am and midday is a breeze — even in marquee gyms. However, when I crossed to the dark side, adhering to normal office hours, I was thrust into an exercise world I didn’t enjoy. It’s why I have always preferred small, niche gyms, and why — over a long period of time — we built our own small gym. Here rush hour is tripping over a Yorkie who snuck in before being locked out.
Most of the New Year’s resolution crowd will have quit by Valentine’s Day, and by December, the mean attendance per month of new gym members will be negligible. We sign contracts to stay away from the gym. A silly species, we are.
The motivation of a “new beginning” may not be strong enough to overpower the inconvenience of training in the evening after a long day’s work, or a commute on SA roads, where every intersection during load-shedding is like playing a game of vehicular Russian roulette.
A study in the journal Psychology of Sport and Exercise, published in 2020, found that only one in five gym membership holders will still be training after a year. The study also found that older people were more likely to be disciplined, males more likely to stick it out (we have no idea why, other than maybe some kind of ritualised masculine dance, perhaps?), training earlier in the day resulted in more consistency (my thumbsuck is that long, hard work days beat the motivation out of anyone) and that those whose lives had “context stability” were less likely to quit.
Your question is cynical. The answer is short: stick it out and by next month things will be back to normal in the gym. But to other readers, those that have committed to some sort of exercise and diet resolution, the answer is more nuanced: you don’t have to quit in a few weeks, just change a few variables.
Don’t set unrealistic goals and unrealistic time frames to achieve them. Disappointment breeds apathy in the gym. Set small incremental goals and compete only with yourself. Forgive yourself if you have a bad day. Don’t commit to training at difficult times or venues — make sure it is as convenient as possible to fit into your daily schedule. Focus on building a routine. And then stick to it.
Develop mindfulness — become aware of how you feel during and after you train. Track your mood, because as a treasure trove of research attests, your mindset and mental wellbeing will benefit. Don’t go to the gym to please anyone but yourself.
Take the time to learn how to exercise and use equipment, and have someone help you build a tailored programme. Those who have something to do, with micro targets to achieve, will more likely achieve their goals and return tomorrow than those who aimlessly wander around climbing onto any piece of equipment just because it’s there and not being used.
If you’re part of the New Year’s crowd, you don’t have to become a dropout statistic while still generating contractual revenue for the gym. Let that thought drive you to train.