By Dana Townsend
Business is booming at local gyms and health centres. The season of holiday eating is over and the season of spending big bucks to repent by exercising has begun.
“January is always the busiest month,” says Derek Nussey, general manager at GoodLife Fitness Clubs, which is located on the main level of the Rideau Centre. “One of the biggest resolutions people have is to get into shape.”
At Carleton University’s department of physical recreation and athletics, for example, associate director Greg Poole says attendance at the gym jumped from approximately 800 people on a Monday in early December to 1,136 on a Monday in January. Poole says attendance will probably drop off again in mid- to late-February.
Jennifer Rourke, program co-ordinator at the YMCA/YWCA in the Clarica Centre on Bank Street, says the surge in January memberships is an annual event. “This is the month when everyone comes by.”
And exercising at the gyms isn’t cheap. At the True Form Health and Fitness on Bank Street, memberships start at $50 for one month, $220 for six months and a whopping $360 for 12 months.
It’s a lot of money, especially when many of these would-be fitness buffs don’t last the year. At Body Alive, a fitness studio on Somerset Street West, only approximately a third of the new members last beyond the initial eight-week course, says owner Pam Forth.
“In January, it does have a lot to do with resolutions,” says Nussey. He says the hardest part in signing up new members is working out an exercise program that they can stick to.
“We don’t want to set people up for failure by advising too much they don’t have time for,” says Nussey. “That’s probably one of the biggest frustrations people have.”
People have to give up something to make the time, says Timothy Pychyl, an associate professor of psychology at Carleton. Pychyl has conducted a study of why people make New Year’s resolutions to get healthier and then don’t follow through.
Pychyl says New Year’s celebrations signals people to act on their intentions to get healthier, but doesn’t give them a clear action plan of how to go about it. He says the first step is to plan a series of small steps to achieve that goal.
And the most important thing, he says, is not to give up. “At the beginning it’s just painful. Not only are we not getting fit, we’re also losing a whole lot of money.”
Rourke advises people who intend to get fit to find something they like doing. “Choose something that you’re going to stick to, that you’re going to enjoy doing. Don’t be afraid to try something new.”
Besides, if this New Year’s resolution doesn’t succeed, there’s always next year.