Why I joined a gym in December and why you might want to think about it too.
We all know that the best time to join the gym is in January. Offers abound, everyone is fuelled by New Year’s resolutions, and we all need to undo a little of the damage done around the festive season. Too much food, too much drink, too much sitting around watching Love Actually, or It’s a wonderful life.
Whether your goal is weight loss, strength, physique or general fitness, gyms have been providing us with a place to go to realise some of these goals, or at least target them, and interest in exercise, and sign-ups to Gyms always peak in January.
However, deep down we all know that other people always start the year off with a bang, only to tail off over the next few weeks. Any year-in-year-out gym goers will have experienced their normally quiet gym becoming a busy hub in January, as a sea of enthusiastic new faces appear, hitting the classes, the stair climbers and the treadmills. But some time later, towards the end of the month, things start to quieten down, and by mid-February everything has reverted to its pre–New Year normal. The faces you continue to recognize are the ones you have know for years, not weeks.
The truth is, when we join a gym in January, we’re not really making a personal decision, or a real commitment. We’re going with the flow, and once the flow changes, we may have little left to help us fight against the flow, and become the exception rather than the rule. And it’s definitely easier to feel less bad about giving up, if we know we are not alone. This probably helps explain why so many people ditch their plans despite starting with the best intentions.
Depending on what you want to achieve, and for some people swimming with the crowd may be the motivation itself, one way to counter-act this is making a difficult decision at the start. It feels more of a commitment. Join in December, and go now, and you can already have a bit of momentum, and be that much closer to forming a habit, by the time January starts. If you would potentially be flagging then, wondering if it is really for you, you can surf the January 1st boost, and then by February you have nearly two months of attendance, bringing you closer to the 66 days needed to form a habit. This year the decision is easier than ever. There is less sacrifice, as you won’t be missing out on lots of Christmas drinks and parties. Gyms are keen to attract new members at any time and will often give you their best available deals.
The other reason it makes sense to Join a Gym in December, is (at the time of writing) December is now, and as the great educator self-help coach Tony Robbins is always telling us, now is the best time to take any action. (If you are reading this later on, in February, May or August, now is still the best time to take action). To paraphrase Yoda, “Now or never, there is no later.” It was this mentality that helped me set a half marathon PB in my 49th year, (1:48:17 in case you are interested) and it doesn’t just work for exercise. It also helped me get writing in 2021, after putting it off for over 20 years .
I am hoping to set a marathon PB in 2022. I was lucky enough to get a ballot place in the London Marathon, and over the 4 Marathons I have run over the past 21 years, I have never beaten 4:20. Next year I am gunning for 3:45. It seems scary writing that number down, but I have already, at the gym in December, run a set of Yasso 800s at 3.45 and I have 10 months still to go.
So, if you are reading this and thinking about the better best you that you are always working towards, take action now, join a gym, and also remember to go. By Mid February you will be settled in and loving it, and on your way to reaching and exceeding those goals you have set yourself.
