Another Year, Another Gym

a message from a Personal Tailor Trainer

It is the silly season in gyms, January is when most large commercial gyms expect to make most of their money. Guilt is an amazing motivator, it is the reason why gyms are busiest at the beginning of the week and why gyms are busiest in the New Year.

I have ran personal training and functional exercise studios for many years and I have never been busy with new clients in January, the reason is simple, people are joining gyms...

Most gyms make their money from locking you into a contract and then assuming that you will never use the gym. When I started in the industry in Edinburgh, at the first super-gym, the membership people only expected 30% of those joining to actually use the facility more than twice a week and even then one of those visits was to watch sports on the big screen TVs. 

Gyms pay their staff very little, and the knowledge and experience of the staff is very low. I am not deriding the staff, I speak from experience because that was me a little over 10 years ago. Staff turn over can be 100% every 6months, it is amazing that the industry has not evolved. It is the same in the USA, Australia and the UK.

By joining another gym the client is motivated by a fresh start, new people, different equipment but the results are almost always the same, no results. Generally once the initial buzz of the new gym has worn off the same motivational problems resurface, results don’t come along, injuries occur and you lose interest. I have seen the sweat running down the walls of gyms, and I have seen all the hard work of the clients be for nothing as their hard work does not change their bodies or move them towards their goals.

More pain, less gain: this should be the slogan for the latest craze in ‘boot-camp’ workouts. Training once or twice a week with explosive exercise, at a high intensity is a recipe for injury, yes it can be fun but unfortunately just because it hurts doesn’t mean that it is good for you. The exercises that are done during these workouts are usually ok, the technique could be better, but the intensity and duration of the exercises is all wrong. The attendees of these workouts are not ready for this type of workout, or it does not benefit their chosen activity or sport. Because these workouts are so tough you can only train a couple of times per week, this is not enough to illicit a response from your body other than a stress response. Lets train so hard that you become injured and even if you don’t get injured your body will be pushed so hard it will preferentially hang onto fat... not the best tag line.

So what is the answer? We are not busy in January, but we are busy in February and in March when people figure out that just joining another gym isn’t the answer and they need something more tailored to their body.  The clothing analogy holds up quite well; for some people the ‘off the rack’ generic gyms are fine but if you want something a little more specialized, something that is designed around you, then you need to come and see us. Like a tailor we will measure you and figure out exactly what you need and want, then we will make your solution fit perfectly, making adjustments where necessary to give you exactly what you need. More expensive but better in  the long term, we are the custom designers of the exercise world, we take into account trends, but don’t blindly follow, we only provide the highest level of quality and don’t compromise.

If you want the real deal this year, something tailored around you, and real results in 2011, don’t wait until your next gym lets you down, give us a call and let us tell you how we can get you to where you deserve this year.

Alan