Gyms in January

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IronSmasher
IronSmasher Posts: 3,908 Member
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Suck. The plague of people trying to fix 5-30 years of abusing their bodies by standing around in a gym for a month decends soon.

Every year it seems to last a little longer.
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  • ninerbuff
    ninerbuff Posts: 48,692 Member
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    Suck. The plague of people trying to fix 5-30 years of abusing their bodies by standing around in a gym for a month decends soon.

    Every year it seems to last a little longer.
    It's tough, but an annual thing. Maybe change your workout time for a month? 11:00am-3pm seems like the biggest lull in just about every gym I instructed in.


    A.C.E. Certified Personal Trainer
    IDEA Fitness member
    Kickboxing Certified Instructor
    Been in fitness for 28+ years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
  • cramernh
    cramernh Posts: 3,335 Member
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    Suck. The plague of people trying to fix 5-30 years of abusing their bodies by standing around in a gym for a month decends soon.

    Every year it seems to last a little longer.

    Lets add to that one...

    When YOU grab the last available treadmill and the people standing around the gym FINALLY decide they want to jump on and get pissed off at you for grabbing the only one available - they think they can bully you off by saying "I was about to get on that treadmill you know!" - I just have this compulsiveness about me to blurt out right back "Im not waiting for you to shut your yap, first come, first serve now go bug someone else to talk with for another hour!"
  • kyrstensmom
    kyrstensmom Posts: 297 Member
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    Ugh. I hope this doesn't interfere with my 5am run....thankfully I don't do it on a treadmill very often since I run outside if at all possible, but it would suck to go to the gym that early and not find an open treadmill! That being said, if only a few of those people actually make a healthy change that lasts past New Years Resolutions, then I'll glady wait my turn for a treadmill.
  • wbgolden
    wbgolden Posts: 2,071 Member
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    Good thing none of us have EVER EVER EVER been on the short side of good intentions. Because all of us are here based on completely perfect decisions over the course of our lives.
  • IronSmasher
    IronSmasher Posts: 3,908 Member
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    Suck. The plague of people trying to fix 5-30 years of abusing their bodies by standing around in a gym for a month decends soon.

    Every year it seems to last a little longer.
    It's tough, but an annual thing. Maybe change your workout time for a month? 11:00am-3pm seems like the biggest lull in just about every gym I instructed in.


    A.C.E. Certified Personal Trainer
    IDEA Fitness member
    Kickboxing Certified Instructor
    Been in fitness for 28+ years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

    I don't have the luxury of choosing a time due to work. I used to have access to a 24hr, swipe card access gym where I could avoid them. There's none of those around here either though.
  • christine24t
    christine24t Posts: 6,063 Member
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    It's gonna be interesting. I started getting fit last January, but I waited until the second week of January and I was at the school gym. I'll be interested to see what's up at my gym.

    My gym is usually pretty busy but it is less so around 10 am when I go. Super busy after work, but it dies down around 7 or 8 PM.
  • RoanneRed
    RoanneRed Posts: 429 Member
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    Didn't happen in my business last year but I'm desperately hoping it does this time round - I need to get on top of some outstanding bills! Of course, people maintaining the effort would be extremely helpful as well.
  • gdr1976
    gdr1976 Posts: 460 Member
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    Yea it's going to be busy. I usually go before work and the gym is busy, so It's going to be interesting to say the least. Hopefully a few of the newbies will stick with it and make a difference in their life.
  • ninerbuff
    ninerbuff Posts: 48,692 Member
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    Good thing none of us have EVER EVER EVER been on the short side of good intentions. Because all of us are here based on completely perfect decisions over the course of our lives.
    While there are some that stick with it past 3 weeks, statistics show that 85%+ of newly signed gym members don't return after 3 weeks. And this has been going on for a couple of decades now, so it's a consistent trend.


    A.C.E. Certified Personal Trainer
    IDEA Fitness member
    Kickboxing Certified Instructor
    Been in fitness for 28+ years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
  • wbgolden
    wbgolden Posts: 2,071 Member
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    Good thing none of us have EVER EVER EVER been on the short side of good intentions. Because all of us are here based on completely perfect decisions over the course of our lives.
    While there are some that stick with it past 3 weeks, statistics show that 85%+ of newly signed gym members don't return after 3 weeks. And this has been going on for a couple of decades now, so it's a consistent trend.


    A.C.E. Certified Personal Trainer
    IDEA Fitness member
    Kickboxing Certified Instructor
    Been in fitness for 28+ years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
    please quote your sources. it's just good form.

    and if 15 out of 85 people choose to continue, how is that bad? but let's, please, continue to judge. that's just what good people do, right there.
  • IronSmasher
    IronSmasher Posts: 3,908 Member
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    It's gonna be interesting. I started getting fit last January, but I waited until the second week of January and I was at the school gym. I'll be interested to see what's up at my gym.

    My gym is usually pretty busy but it is less so around 10 am when I go. Super busy after work, but it dies down around 7 or 8 PM.

    I've nothing against people starting January, or people that are in a gym in January.

    But you will see them, this time around.

    Standing chatting, hogging machines, leaving weights out, on their phones
    It's just every conceivable gym crime, with double the normal population, and all squeezed into one month of frustration and annoyance.

    The fact that they all (nearly) disappear again is both a relief and salt in the wound
  • IronSmasher
    IronSmasher Posts: 3,908 Member
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    Didn't happen in my business last year but I'm desperately hoping it does this time round - I need to get on top of some outstanding bills! Of course, people maintaining the effort would be extremely helpful as well.

    Doesn't help you now, but DW Fitness ran a deal, 12 days for £12. It had to be bought in December, and redeemed in January. I think it will pack out the classes.
  • tsh0ck
    tsh0ck Posts: 1,970 Member
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    I'm second-shift. I prefer to go beforehand, from 1-2:30 or so. not many people usually, but figure that to jump. my alternative is to go after work, which is what I'm doing tonight. so guessing my midnight-1:30 a.m. slot will be fairly open. :)
  • IronSmasher
    IronSmasher Posts: 3,908 Member
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    I'm second-shift. I prefer to go beforehand, from 1-2:30 or so. not many people usually, but figure that to jump. my alternative is to go after work, which is what I'm doing tonight. so guessing my midnight-1:30 a.m. slot will be fairly open. :)

    Lucky
  • wbgolden
    wbgolden Posts: 2,071 Member
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    nevermind....
  • waskier
    waskier Posts: 254 Member
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    I hear you on the bad decisions thing, but that isn't what we're talking about. We're talking about the woman that showed up the other day wearing chainsaw ear protectors (how did I know they were for chainsaws, you ask? They were bright red and said STIHL), walked up to my bench (the one i was SITTING on, not the other 4 on either side), set her water bottle and assorted other items on it, and then proceeded to grab some weightts and do some sort of contorted movement directly in front of the rack, preventing anyone else from getting any weights from that section until she was done. Her ear protectors worked really well. She couldn't hear me asking her to move her stuff, or herself.

    Or the guy today using the only leg curl machine in the gym, who "only had a little more to go" before he was done. Could I wait? Yeah, for 30 minutes! I honestly never saw him actually using it. He just kept walking around it, but wouldn't remove his sweaty, smelly towel from it so someone else could use the machine.

    Or how about the OTHER guy today who loaded 20 plates (900 lbs) on the incline leg press and then proceeded to do "leg presses".......of 3 frickin' inches! (I'm not kidding. 3 inches) I guess he at least got a good workout loading it up. Too bad none else could work in.

    The problem is not that people choose to come in at this time of year to try to make a change. It is the idiots that think they own the place because they pay dues. So do the rest of us, yet we at least show consideration to others.
  • wbgolden
    wbgolden Posts: 2,071 Member
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    The problem is not that people choose to come in at this time of year to try to make a change. It is the idiots that think they own the place because they pay dues. So do the rest of us, yet we at least show consideration to others.
    This transcends the January crowd :)
  • IronSmasher
    IronSmasher Posts: 3,908 Member
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    I guess little consideration is all I'm after.
    There's very little to gym etiquette. Once you know about 'working in', the rest is 'don't be selfish'.
  • adjones5
    adjones5 Posts: 938 Member
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    IronSmasher I know what you mean...in the past the crowds have died down a bit by mid feb...I'll be excited to get back to my usual gym routine without tripping over a bunch of people.
  • Elzecat
    Elzecat Posts: 2,916 Member
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    Good thing none of us have EVER EVER EVER been on the short side of good intentions. Because all of us are here based on completely perfect decisions over the course of our lives.

    This.

    Wow...way to support all those folks who, frankly WERE/ARE us. I started my journey in mid-February...but I was still a new person, god forbid, taking up valuable space at the gym (with my rather large and inexperienced rear) from the "real" people who have the right to work out because of course, they've never started something and not finished it.

    GEEZ.:huh:

    Honestly, some of the "less polite" (read: people who chat on cellphones while sitting on my desired piece of equipment and NOT working out, etc.) people at my gym are LONGTIME members who are way more fit and have been there way longer than me...it's not anything to do with being "new" or just starting your fitness journey.

    I run outside alot so I don't use the gym that often...but this January/February when I do, and when it's a little more crowded with all the new folks trying to be healthy and fit...I will be patient with them and encourage them to come back. That's what people need.

    Head explodes from how mean people can be...oy vay...

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