Article: "Why 90% of You Will Quit the Gym in Early 2017"

Mega-preachy article (ugh), but not grossly wrong.

Finding something you enjoy doing (that's active, inside or outside the gym) is the magic, IMO. That exercise = gym is a common false equivalence.

The social part will vary more than he suggests (extreme introverts and people with social anxiety need exercise, too), but non-socially-motivated people may be happier with activity outside a gym.

If someone is social, I think he omitted an important factor. Most people are likely to respond to group norms, to some extent. In other words, we tend to think that "normal behavior" is what people around us commonly do, and we tend to default to behaving similarly. (Not a guarantee, just a tendency.) If our friends and family don't work out, making new gym friends can help create a new sense of what's normal, and keep us doing it.

As he says, all or nothing thinking (work out for hours or not at all) is a common trap that can lead to giving up, as is out-eating exercise burn with food rewards (if weight loss is a goal).

He also leaves out a dissatisfier that discourages quite a few people, IMO: Feeling clumsy and incapable. It's useful, IMO, to let people know it's nearly universal to feel that way when trying something new, and point out that things that are easy at first are likely to get boring fast, but that more difficult/challenging things stay interesting. I try to encourage new rowers or spin class participants by sharing how hard I found it at first, and reinforcing their effort and progress.

But mostly, to repeat myself, find something fun, for your personal definition of fun: That's the magic.

Hmmm would it be cynical to point out that the things he mentioned (personal trainers and group classes) are extras to the standard gym package that you need to pay more for...

"That’s it. You just need one thing and it is social connections."
Cobblers!
Guess that's why I'm one of the 10% not the (fictitious) 90% as I don't need social connections at all - my exercise is for me, I enjoy it and the results it gives me.
When I'm choosing a gym my criteria are location, facilities and price - the only people consideration is how busy they are which might prevent me using the facilities.

I nearly always train alone and have done for last 40 years, nearly always cycle alone and will probably do 300 hours of cycling this year. Once in a while I cycle with friends and that's fun but I also enjoy the solitude of solo rides.
Once in a while I train with my daughter but that's to help her overcome feeling uncomfortable in a gym and spoils my workout to a degree.

My motivation and commitment comes from me and I don't need encouragement or an audience. I actually dislike people trying to "motivate" me with platitudes or commands. When I did a maximal effort test in a sports science lab I actually told them not to say anything like "push, go for it, give me 110% (urgh - what an idiotic phrase!)" or they would most likely just distract and annoy me, just give me data and I'll do the rest.

Just like vast majority of articles that give absolute rules and a solution for everyone they are absolutely wrong for a good number of people.
20 minutes is laughable as a general rule, most people would spend far more time travelling and changing than doing anything useful. What a dreadful use of precious time.
I also reward myself with food as I like both exercise and food.
"Instead of doing 30 minutes of cardio on one machine, do 10 minutes on 3 different machines." - another waste of time and counter-productive to people with tangible performance goals. He seems to be aiming very low at people who just exercise as opposed to train towards a goal.

About the only parts I agree with are:

• Do both strength training and cardiovascular exercise. (But even that's not universal - there's people in great shape doing all strength training or all cardio training.)
• Don't overdo it when starting out, build up progressively.

All I know is that I'm not looking forward to the crowded gym in January.