I do the majority of my own workouts down at RISE around my work.
But some get done elsewhere.
There are a couple of somewhat similar facilities that are on my 51 mile round trip school run that I sometimes pop in to and greatly enjoy.
And for various reasons it sometimes make sense for me to do a quick workout in a conventional gym.
Pretty much every time I use a conventional gym, I’m reminded why many find them off putting and, potentially, intimidating.
They’re not the most enjoyable places to go, are they?
And what we might do in them isn’t the most thrilling part of our day is it?
The other day I was working out it a free weights area.
There was six young lads (14 years old I’d say) sharing a bench and two pairs of dumbbells nearby.
They were on it for about half an hour.
If they’d had taken a bench and pair of dumbbells each, I can guarantee they’d have spent more than 5 minutes on them with rests between sets, etc.
So their total amount of ‘equipment use hours’ was perfectly ok in my book.
The amount of ‘comments’ they got from other free weights users about “hogging equipment” and how they “shouldn’t be there” was ridiculous.
Plus muttering under the breath and little glances.
If those young lads come back (at least at that time of day) then fair play to them.
They’re braver than I was at that age.
Every day people will visit gyms for the last time ever.
Or, at least, that particular gym.
And then, probably, no gym for a while at least.
Approximately 10 million people in the UK hold a gym membership of some sort.
When I was General Manager of a Fitness First in Sheffield, there were 2,500 members and sales budgets and predicted leavers were normally around 180 to 220 a month.
Which meant that approximately the total number of members would leave each year.
You could get four 3 month joiners or one 12 month joiner for that average, but that’s what it would’ve worked out as.
Which, presuming things are similar now, equates to about 10 million people leaving a gym membership each year.
Probably more actually as some people will join (and leave) more than one place per year.
Which means every day 27,000 people will go for their last workout in that gym, never to come back.
Every hour of the “gym day” an average of two thousand people walk out and don’t come back.
Which makes me sad.
We don’t stop wanting the benefit that that facility can provide.
We don’t stop wanting to get in better shape, have more energy and feel better, do we?
We’re just often not finding the process sufficiently tolerable for the benefit it can bring.
And the progress can feel too slow.
“Not worth it”.
We get it.
We really do.
It’s not always easy.
Life gets in the way.
It can feel like “yet another thing to do”.
But…………….
One of the most powerful changes in the way we see things that we can ever have is…………….
It’s actually THE THING.
It’s looking after our health, fitness, energy levels, mood and mental health so we can do all those other things that are important to us and do them better.
It’s taking a bit of time and effort to mean that the remaining hundred plus waking hours in the week are added to, not taken away from.
Looking like a model on the beach is nice, in theory.
But we probably don’t care enough about that to go through what needs to be done to make it happen.
But we probably can make some relatively easy adjustments to what we’re doing that will give us that improved health, fitness, energy levels, mood and mental health.
And we can find somewhere where we enjoy (or, at least find tolerable) doing it).
Cough ** RISE ** cough –> www.myrise.co.uk/apply
Much love,
Jon ‘My eldest son trains every day now and I know my days are numbered for being able to out do him’ Hall
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RISE in Macclesfield was established in 2012 and specialise in Group Personal Training weight loss programmes for those that don’t like the gym and find diets boring and restrictive!
