So, it’s nearly that time of year again.
Once the Christmas festivities have finished, for many of us our thoughts will start to turn towards undoing the effects of those excesses.
In fact most of us will have ‘kinda’ been thinking about the new year plans for a while.
For the last few months, whenever thoughts of getting back in shape have arisen, we’ve pushed it into the ‘things to do after Christmas’ category.
It happens every year…….
Hundreds of thousands across the land joining (or rejoining) the gym……
Vowing that “It’ll be different this time.”
Gyms full for a few weeks……..
Quest to get on machines……….
Circling the car park for ages looking for a space.
Quiet again by February.
You know the score!
All the research shows that only 20% of gyms members go regularly.
And only 5% achieve lasting results from the gym.
So, if you’ve joined gyms before and not got in the shape you’d like……..
Don’t feel bad.
You’re in the overwhelming majority.
But, as Einstein said, insanity is doing the same thing again and expecting a different result.
Here’s five quick ways to see if joining the gym in January will be a waste for you:
1) No results to show
Gyms will get you to join based purely on their facilities.
How many machines they have, now nice the juice bar is, etc.
But you’re not really joining for that are you?
If you wanted somewhere to go for a nice drink, you’d go to the pub, wouldn’t you?
You’re joining for a result.
That slimmer, more toned body.
Looking better naked, no? 😉
Feeling better.
Less aches and pains and bloatedness.
If where you’re thinking of joining can’t show you a consistent track record of good results, like this sample of what our guys have got on our programmes in Macclesfield in 2015 alone;
Then you’re probably wasting your money!
2) Tie you in
When you join a gym, they want to get you on a 12 month contract.
Because, they know that, statistically speaking, you’re unlikely to keep coming.
And if you just paid for what you used, you’d stop paying, wouldn’t you?
And they’d go bust.
At our club, our guys in Macclesfield do an initial 8 week ’20lbs weight loss’ challenge.
Or a ‘Beach Body’ challenge if they have less than 20lbs to lose.
After that, the membership rolls until cancelled.
No tie in.
If someone isn’t able to continue when circumstances change, we don’t want to force them to.
And our programmes are always over applied for every month so those places get filled quickly.
3) No support
If you’ve joined a gym before, what will be different this time?
Joining a gym is just renting access to some equipment.
Everything else is up to you.
Works for some, of course.
5% of people.
If you speak to most who work in gyms, they say “It would work if they’d just do it.”
Which, of course, is kinda true.
But, to our mind, if something doesn’t work 95% of the time, there’s something not quite right.
How many other things do you do in life that is just renting access to something?
With no support, direction and accountability.
When you go to school or enroll on a course, they don’t just let you go into a room with a load of books in, do they?
Your driving instructor doesn’t just give you an initial ‘show round’ the car and then leave you with the keys, does he?
A sports coach doesn’t just show you how to do something once or twice and then blame you when you’re not in the Premier League a year later.
Our Group Transformation Programme, And Triple-R and Triple-S programmes are designed to give everyone on them the knowledge, support, direction and accountability to make sure people on them get the result they joined for.
Unless you’re one of the 5% who’ve already got results……..
Joining somewhere that doesn’t give you any of this……..
Will probably be wasting your money, no?
4) Same as everywhere else, but cheaper
How do gyms get you to join?
Offers.
Join now and get no joining fee.
Free for the rest of the year (you have to pay for all of next year, of course).
Less per month than the competition.
The only differential is saving a few pounds here and there.
But, ultimately, if you don’t get any results any amount of money is a waste.
No ‘saving’ is worthwhile.
Our programmes may cost a little more than some gyms do.
But less that others do.
Ultimately, it’s an investment.
After years of going backwards most of our guys get awesome results for the first time ever.
Worth every penny!
And they can even get it for free with the challenges we run in Macclesfield:)
5) Check reviews
Check most gyms online reviews and you’ll get a mixture.
Some happy members.
Some unhappy ones.
But, the overwhelming thing you notice?
A lack of reviews.
A 4 thousand member capacity gym gets 10 reviews over 5 years?
Doesn’t suggest anything particularly different is going on from the dozens of other gyms near by.
Nothing to suggest that going there will get you any different result from the last gym (or five) you went to.
We learned long ago that ‘satisfied customers’ weren’t enough.
We want raving fans!
We have hundreds and hundreds of great reviews on our Website, Facebook, Google, FreeIndex, Trust Pilot and elsewhere.
So, if you’re thinking of joining a gym in the New Year, there’s a few things to look at to see if you’ll be wasting your money.
Or, if you fancy doing something a little different that gets results time and time again, and live or work in or near Macclesfield, then check out our free challenges here – and we have a find-out-more meeting in a few weeks for the January applications 🙂
Much love,
Jon ‘Waste disposal unit’ Hall and Matt ‘Waste not, want not’ Nicholson
