Fitness experts recommend planning to stop new years resolution burnout

One of the most popular new years resolutions has always been losing weight and getting fit.

In the last three days, around 150 people have signed up to World Gym in Kitchener alone, with that number fairly steady throughout the rest of their locations.

Whatever the chain, memberships rise in the new year, with GoodLife Fitness saying their spike is around 20% for the month of January, and World Gym saying they see 400-500% more signups.

Joe Arko, the Director of Personal Training with World Gym says each location sees 500 to 600 new members every January, but it’s one thing to sign up, and another thing to stick with it.

“The people who either sign up for classes, training or one of our transformation programs, they tend to stick around a lot longer,” says Arko. “It’s those that come in, jump on the treadmill and try to get some results with no plan, usually 60-70% of those are tapering off by early February.”

Arko recommends having a workout buddy or getting a personal trainer to make sure you can stay accountable with your goals, and to learn the difference between goals and outcomes and set realistic goals to achieve outcomes.

“People need to set goals such as, ‘I want to get to the gym three times a week and follow my a plan,’ or ‘prepare my meals and eat healthy’, things like that. Daily little things that can help you achieve your outcomes are a lot more impactful than just saying, ‘I want to lose 10 pounds’.”

General Manager of GoodLife Fitness Kitchener-Williamsburg Leah Feledi agrees with the importance of setting a plan and finding a workout buddy to keep you going to the gym regularly.

“Make one resolution at a time and once you’ve completed that, set another,” says Feledi. “After 37 years in the fitness industry we’ve learned that 30 minutes a day, three times a week is all you need to see significant health benefits.”

She adds that as well as seeing a rise in new members throughout January, they also see a rise in regular members becoming newly motivated and coming back more often.

Other than planning and focusing on eating healthy as well as working out, she had one more suggestion to keep yourself on track.

“When you take a picture of yourself at the beginning of your resolution, then every couple of weeks take a picture again to see how your goals progress,” says Feledi. “Sometimes you don’t notice changes as often as other people to, so that picture can help you see that you actually are making progress.”

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