The new year is here, and many people have delved into a fitness regimen all over the world! Many people want to poke fun or tease these people, but I applaud them. Deciding to be more healthy and better your life through exercise is an excellent thing at any time of the year.

I searched around for some stats on what percent of people make resolutions to be healthier, fitness, or diet-wise. Through a couple of websites studies, to me, it looks like more than 60% of people that make resolutions in the fitness realm. I also found that less than 25% of people stick with their resolutions.

I think most of this is driven by the low-cost gyms pushing for sign-ups and not providing any help to their members. One of my good friends sold memberships at the two major globo gyms here in Baytown, and at the beginning of the year, their goal was to sign people up and lock them in and hope they do not show because their space and equipment could not hold that influx of people. After a few visits, most will get tired of waiting for racks or machines and quit but still be locked into their memberships.

Some other insight into their membership selling strategies is when it’s not a high sign up time of year; they offer personal training sessions that are included with your sign-up. I was told that they did a study and found that if they provided a set of private training sessions to someone’s membership, either for free or at a discounted rate, it almost tripled their term of membership. The reason being is if the new clients use the sessions, they feel more confident working out and will stick around longer. Most people don’t use them and would end up not coming to the gym at all but would renew their membership when it came around because they did not want to lose the training sessions that they got for free or at a discount.

Unfortunately, when you are just a number, your resolutions or goals do not matter to the staff or trainers. To keep your fitness resolutions, you need to be somewhere with a supportive community. Somewhere the trainers know your name and care for you and help you to get better daily as part of your membership, not just when you pay for it separately.

CrossFit is scary to some, but what I can tell you what’s scary is walking in a globo gym alone, not knowing what to do and hoping no one judges you. At our gym, this will never happen. You will be greeted at the door; your coach will address you by name and give you proper instructions on how to do the workout. Every person in the class will have been where you are right now and will help you along the way.

The misconception with CrossFit is that you need to be in shape before you start. This is the biggest fallacy of all time. 90% of the people who walk through our door have not exercised in years. We are well versed in getting people started with our exercise program, and I am confident we can get you in the best shape of your life.

To start your fitness resolution, the same way that has been proven to fail is just silly. Do something different.

Richard